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Infidiis loca ftructa filet; ftupuere relatis,
Et pariter juvenes, pariter tremuere puellæ,
Effatique fenes pariter, tantæque ruinæ
Senfus ad ætatem fubito penetraverat omnem.

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220

Attamen interea populi miserescit ab alto
Æthereus pater, et crudelibus obftitit aufis
Papicolum; capti pœnas raptantur ad acres :
At pia thura Deo, et grati folvuntur honores;
Compita læta focis genialibus omnia fumant;
Turba choros juvenilis agit: Quintoque Novembris
Nulla dies toto occurrit celebratior anno.

226

In obitum Præfulis Elienfis *. Anno Ætatis 17.

A

DHUC madentes rore fqualebant genæ,
Et ficca nondum lumina

Adhuc liquentis imbre turgebant falis,

Quem nuper effudi pius,

Dum mæsta charo jufta perfolvi rogo
Wintonienfis Præfulis.

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220. Attamen interea, &c.] We are difappointed at this abrupt ending, after curiofity and attention had been excited by the introduction of the goddefs Fame with fo much pomp. But young compofers are eager to dispatch their work. Fame is again exhibited in the next poem, written alfo at feventeen.

* Nicholas Felton, bishop of Ely, died Octob. 5, 1626, not many days after bishop Andrewes, before celebrated. Felton had been also. mafter of Pembroke Hall.

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Cum centilinguis Fama, proh! femper mali

Cladifque vera nuntia,

Spargit per urbes divitis Britanniæ,
Populofque Neptuno fatos,

Ceffiffe morti, et ferreis fororibus,
Te, generis humani decus,

Qui rex facrorum illa fuifti in infula
Quæ nomen Anguillæ tenet.
Tunc inquietum pectus ira protinus
Ebulliebat fervida,

Tumulis potentem fæpe devovens deam:

Nec vota Nafo in Ibida

Concepit alto diriora pectore;

Graiufque vates parcius

Turpem Lycambis execratus eft dolum,

Sponfamque Neobolen fuam.

At ecce diras ipfe dum fundo graves,

Et imprecor neci necem,

Audiffe tales videor attonitus fonos

Leni, fub aura, flamine:

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14. Quæ nomen Anguilla tenet.] Ely, fo called from its abundance of eels. Mr. Bowle cites Capgrave," Locus ille five cænobium a "copia anguillarum Hely modo nuncupatur." VIT. SANCT. f.141.b. Capgrave wrote about 1440.

20. Archilochus, who killed Lycambes by the feverity of his iambics. Lycambes had efpoufed his daughter Neobule to Archilochus, and afterwards gave her to another. See Ovid's IBIS, V. 54.

Cæcos

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Cæcos furores pone, pone vitream

Bilemque, et irritas minas :

Quid temere violas non nocenda numina,

Subitoque ad iras percita?

Non eft, ut arbitraris elufus mifer,

Mors atra Noctis filia,

Erebove patre creta, five Erinnye,

Vaftove nata fub Chao:

Aft illa cœlo miffa ftellato, Dei

Meffes ubique colligit;

Animafque mole carnea reconditas

66

In lucem et auras evocat;

37. Animafque mole carnea reconditas.] See below, v. 46.
Foedum reliqui carcerem.

30

35

"The foul prison of the body." And Note on IL PENS. v. 92. And
our author's APOL. SMECTYMN. §. iii. "This frail MANSION OF
"FLESH." PROSE-WORKS, i. 118. Plato fays, that philofophers con-
fider the foul, as " Ααδεδεμένην ἐν τῷ σώματι, να προσκεκολλημένην, ἀναγ
χαζομένην δὲ ὥστες
*
EPTMOY."" Animam ligatam in corpore atque
"implicitam, ac per ipfam, quafi per carcerem, res confiderare coaltam."
And just below he mentions the ftraitness of this Prison. PHED. Opp.
edit. 1590. p. 386. G. col. 2. Compare thefe fine lines from Coмuş,
v. 463.

Till all be made immortal: but when luft,

By unchafte looks, loose gesture, and foul talk,
But most by leud and lavish act of fin,
Lets in defilement to the inward parts;
The foul grows clotted by contagion,
Imbodies, and imbrutes, till fhe quite lofe
The divine property of her first being.
Such are thofe thick and gloomy fhadows damp
Oft leen in charnel vaults and fepulchers,
Ling'ring, and fitting by a new-made grave,
As loath to leave the body that it lov'd,

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Ut cum fugaces excitant Horæ diem

Themidos Jovifque filiæ ;

Et fempiterni ducit ad vultus patris :

At justa raptat impios

Sub regna furvi luctuofa Tartari,
Sedefque fubterraneas.

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Hanc ut vocantem lætus audivi, cito

Fœdum reliqui carcerem,

Volatilefque fauftus inter milites

And link'd itself by carnal fenfuality

To a degenerate and degraded state.

40

45

From the fame philofophy, as I have obferved. But although Milton was confeffedly a great reader of Plato, yet all this whole fyftem had lately been brought forward by May, in his CONTINUATION of LuCAN'S HISTORICALL POEM, Lond. 1630. 12°. The following lines. in May, bear a ftrong refemblance with what I have just cited from Milton. B. iv. Signat. F. 4.

Within the heavens they fhall for ever be,

Since here with heaven they made affinitie.

But those darke foules, which drowned in the flesh

Did never dreame of future happiness,

That while they lived here, believ'd, or lov'd
Nothing but what the bodies taste approv'd;
When they depart from hence, fhall feare the fight
Of heaven, nor dare t'approach that glorious light;
But wander ftill in difmall darkneffe, neare
Their bodies, whom alone they loued here.
Those fad and gaftlie vifions, which to fight
Of frighted people do appeare by night,

About the tombes and graves, where dead men lie,
Are fuch darke foules, condemn'd t' accompanie
Their bodies there; which foules, because they be
Grofs and corporeal, men do therefore fee.

In this Book, May has tranflated almost the whole of Plato's PHÆDON, which he puts into the mouth of Cato.

40. See Hefiod's THEOGONY. And Ovid, METAM, ii, 118.

Ad

Ad aftra fublimis feror:

Vates ut olim raptus ad cœlum senex

Auriga eurrus ignei.

Non me Bootis terruere lucidi

Sarraca tarda frigore, aut

Formidolofi Scorpionis brachia,

Non enfis Orion tuus.

Prætervolavi fulgidi folis globum,
Longeque fub pedibus deam

Vidi triformem, dum coërcebat fuos

Frænis dracones aureis.

Erraticorum fiderum per ordines,

Per lacteas vehor plagas,

Velocitatem fæpe miratus novam ;

Donec nitentes ad fores

Ventum eft Olympi, et regiam crystallinam, et
Stratum fmaragdis atrium.

58. Franis dracones aureis.] See IL PENS. V. 59.

50

55

60

63. Donec nitentes ad fores, &c.] Milton's natural difpofition, fo confpicuous in the PARADISE LOST, and even in his Profe works, for defcribing divine objects, fuch as the blifs of the faints, the fplendour of heaven, and the mufic of the angels, is perpetually breaking forth in fome of the earliest of his juvenile poems. And here, more particularly in displaying the glories of heaven, which he locally reprefents, and cloaths with the brightest material decorations, his fancy, to fay nothing of the apocalypse, was aided and enriched with defcriptions in romances. By the way, this fort of imagery, fo much admired in Milton, is much more practicable than many readers feem to fuppofe.

63.

Regiam chryftallinam.-] It is the fame idea in the ODE ON THE NATIV. ft. xiii. v. 125.

Ring out ye CRYSTAL fpheres.

See

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