Or Trent, who like some earth-born giant spreads. His thirty arms along th' indented meads, And glisters wide, as als of wondrous Bath And Bristow fair, which on his waves he builded hath. Or sedgy Lee, this river divides Middlesex and Essex. Spenser thus describes it, st. 29. The wanton Lee that oft doth lose his way. Or coaly Tine, Spenser describes it by the Picts' Wall, st. 36. Or ancient hallowed Dee; so Spenser, st. 39. And following Dee, which Britons long ygone Did call divine, that doth by Chester tend. See Lycidas too, ver. 55. Or Humber loud &c. So Spenser speaks of this Scythian king, and of his being drowned in the river, st. 38. And nam'd the river of his wretched fate; Whose bad condition yet it doth retain, Oft tossed with his storms, which therein still remain. And the Medway and the Thame are joined together, as they are married in Spenser. I wonder that Milton has paid no particular compliment to the river flowing by Cambridge (this exercise being made and spoken there) as Spenser has done, st. 34. Thence doth by Huntingdon and My mother Cambridge, whom as He doth adorn, and is adorn'd of it With many a gentle Muse, and many a learned wit. 91. I rather think Milton consulted Drayton's Polyolbion. It is hard to say in what sense, or in what manner, this introduction of the rivers was to be applied to the subject. Trent, &c. See the Polyolb. s. xii. vol. iii. p. 906. -ΟΥ And thirty several streames, from many a sundry way Unto her greatness shall their wat❜ry tribute pay. Indented meads. Indent, in this sense and context, in Sylvester's Du Bartas, D. iii. W. 1. Our silver Medway, which doth The flowerie medowes of my native And Drayton speaks of" creeks indenting the land." Polyolb. s. i. or sullen Mole, &c. at Mickleham in Surrey the Mole during the summer appears to sink through its sandy bed into a subterraneous current. Milton alludes to it in one of his religious disputes. Or sullen mole that runneth underneath, Or Severn swift, guilty of maiden's death, Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee, Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythian's name, [The rest was prose.] III. On the Morning of Christ's Nativity. 1. THIS is the month, and this the happy morn, "To make the word Gift, like death; Sabrina, see Comus, 827. -Ancient hallowed Dee. We have igor idag &c. in Apollonius Rhodius and Theocritus; but Milton is not classical here. Dee's divinity was Druidical, and is first mentioned by Gyraldus Cambrensis, from the popular traditions, in 1188. -or Humber loud &c.; the Scythian king, Humber, landed in Britain 300 years before the Roman invasion, and was drowned in this river by Locrine, after conquering King Albanact. So Drayton, Polyolb. s. viii. vol. ii. p. 796. Drayton has made a most beautiful use of this tradition in his Elegy Upon "three Sons of the Lord Sheffield 95 100 "drowned in Humber." Elegies, vol. iv. p. 1244. Or Medway smooth; the smoothness of the Medway is characterised in Spenser's Mourning Muse of Thestylis. The Medwaies silver streames That wont so still to glide, The royal towers of Thames im- *To the title of this Ode we have added the date, which is prefixed in the edition of 1645, Composed 1629, so that Milton was then twenty-one years old. He speaks of this poem in the conclusion of his sixth Elegy to Charles Deodati: and it was probably made as an exercise at Cambridge; and there is not only great learning shown in it, but likewise a fine vein of poetry. Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born, That he our deadly forfeit should release, II. That glorious form, that light unsufferable, Wherewith he wont at heav'n's high council-table He laid aside; and here with us to be, Forsook the courts of everlasting day, And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay. III. Say heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, Now while the heav'n by the sun's team untrod, 1. This is the month, &c.] The sixth Elegy to his friend Deodate appears to have been sent about the close of the month December. Deodate had enquired how he was spending his time. Milton answers, v. 81. Paciferum canimus cœlesti semine regem, Et subito elisos ad sua fana Deos. See st. xix.-xxvi. 10 5 15 The oracles are dumb, &c. &c. The rest of the Ode chiefly consists of a string of affected conceits, which only his early youth, and the fashion of the times, can excuse. But there is a dignity Faustaque sacratis sæcula pacta li- and simplicity in st. iv. " No bris; Vagitumque Dei, et stabulantem paupere tecto Qui suprema suo cum patre regna Stelli parumque solum, modulantes- The concluding pentameter of the paragraph points out the best part of this ode. war, or battle's sound, &c." worthy the maturest years, and the best times. Nor is the poetry of st. v. "But peaceful was the "night, &c." an expression or two excepted, unworthy of Milton. T. Warton. 5. Sages] The prophets of the Old Testament. T. Warton. Hath took no print of the approaching light, 20 And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright? IV. See how from far upon the eastern road The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet: O run, prevent them with thy humble ode, Have thou the honour first, thy Lord to greet, While the heav'n-born child All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; 23. The star-led wizards] Wise men. So Spenser calls the ancient philosophers, the antique wizards, F. Q. iv. xii. 2. And he says that Lucifera's kingdom was upheld by the policy, And strong advizement of six wisards That is, six wise counsellors. Warton. 28. From out his secret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire.] Alluding to Isaiah vi. 6, 7. Then flew one of the Seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, 25 30 this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. In his Reason of Church Government our author has another beautiful allusion to the same passage, which we quoted in a note upon the Paradise Lost, i. 17.-" that eter"nal Spirit who can enrich with "all utterance and knowledge, "and sends out his Seraphim, "with the hallowed fire of his "altar, to touch and purify the "lips of whom he pleases." As Mr. Pope's Messiah is formed upon passages taken from the prophet Isaiah, he very properly invocates the same divine Spirit. Nature in awe to him Had dofft her gaudy trim, With her great Master so to sympathize: It was no season then for her To wanton with the sun her lusty paramour. Only with speeches fair She woos the gentle air II. To hide her guilty front with innocent snow, And on her naked shame, Pollute with sinful blame, The saintly veil of maiden white to throw, Confounded, that her Maker's eyes Should look so near upon her foul deformities. But he her fears to cease, III. Sent down the meek-ey'd Peace; She crown'd with olive green, came softly sliding Down through the turning sphere His ready harbinger, With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing, And waving wide her myrtle wand, She strikes an universal peace through sea and land. 32. Nature in awe to him, &c.] Here is an imitation of Petrarch's third Sonnet. Era 'l giorno, ch' al sol si scoloraro J. Warton. 52. She strikes an universal peace] The expression is a little inaccurate, Peace to strike a peace but otherwise it is classical, fœdus ferire. 35 40 45 50 52. Perhaps Dr. Newton's objection is too nice. Roman phraseology however, by which he would excuse the expression strike a peace, is here quite out of the question. It is not a league or agreement of peace between two parties that is intended. A quick and universal diffusion is the idea. It was done as with a stroke. T. War ton. |