Along the crisped shades and bowers Revels the spruce and jocund Spring, That there eternal Summer dwells, 985 And again as odos, Hippol. 740. where see Professor Monk's note, who cites also Hesiod. Theog. 274. and 516. as alluding to the songs of the Hesperides, and refers to Heynè, Observat. ad Apollodorum, p. 166. seq. for a full account of the ancient fictions concerning them. E. 984. Along the crisped shades &c.] These four lines were not at first in the Manuscript, but were added afterwards, I suppose when he scratched out those lines which we quoted at the beginning. 984. Compare Il Pens. 50. "That in trim gardens takes his pleasure." And Arcades, 46. -To curl the grove wanton And west-winds with musky wing About the cedarn alleys fling Nard and Cassia's balmy smells. 990 Iris there with humid bow Waters the odorous banks, that blow Pria sul Libano monte ei si ritenne, E si libro sù l' adeguate penne, T. Warton. 990. About the cedarn alleys fling Nard and Cassia's balmy smells.] In the manuscript, these two lines were thus at first, About the myrtle alleys fling 990.-alleys fling, &c.] In a poem by H. Peacham, the Period of Mourning, in Memorie of Prince Henry, &c. Lond. 1613. Nupt. Hymn. i. st. 3. Of the valleys, And every where your odours fling. So in Par. L. viii. 517. " Flung rose, flung odours." T. Warton. 991. Nard and Cassia's balmy smells.] Compare Par. L. b. v. 292. -Through groves of myrrh, And flow'ring odours, cassia, nard, and balm, A wilderness of sweets. Flowers of more mingled hue Than her purfled scarf can shew, Where young Adonis oft reposes, 995. Than her purfled scarf can shew, &c.] Purfled is flourished or wrought upon with a needle, from the old French pourfiler. The word occurs in Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. 2. st. 13. A goodly lady clad in scarlet red Purfled with gold and pearl of rich assay; and in other places. And in the Yellow, watchet, green, and blew, All that relating to Adonis and 997. If your ears be true.] Intimating that this Song, which follows, of Adonis, and Cupid, and Psyche, is not for the profane, but only for well purged ears. See Upton's Spenser, Notes on b. iii. c. 6. Hurd. See Note on Arcad. v. 72. So the Enchanter, above, has "neither ear nor soul to ap"prehend" sublime mysteries. His ear no less than his soul, was impure, unpurged, and unprepared. T. Warton. 999. Where young Adonis oft reposes, &c.] Here Milton has plainly copied and abridged Spenser in his description of the VOL. IV. 995 gardens of Adonis. Faery Queen, b. iii. cant. 6. st. 46–50. STANZA 46. There wont fair Venus often to enjoy There yet some say in secret he doth Lapped in flowers and precious spicery, &c. STANZA 48. There now he liveth in eternal bliss, Joying his Goddess, and of her enjoy'd ; Ne feareth he henceforth that foe of his, Which with his cruel tusk him deadly cloy'd: &c. STANZA 49. There now he lives in everlasting With many of the Gods in company, winged boy STANZA 50. And his true love, fair Psyche, with him plays, Fair Psyche to him lately reconcil'd, After long troubles and unmeet upbrays, With which his mother Venus her And eke himself her cruelly exil'd: state She with him lives, and hath him borne a child, Pleasure that doth both Gods and men aggrate, Pleasure, the daughter of Cupid and K 1005 Holds his dear Psyche sweet intranc'd, Make her his eternal bride, And from her fair unspotted side If the reader desires a larger account of the loves of Cupid and Psyche, he may find it in Apuleius. 1001. See Spenser's Astrophel, st. 48. T. Warton. 1002. -th' Assyrian queen ;] Venus is so called because she was first worshipped by the Assyrians.. Pausanias, Attic. lib. i. cap. 14. πλησιον δε ἱερον εστιν Αφροδίτης Ουρανίας. πρωτοις δε ανθρωπων Ασσυρίοις κατεστη σέβεσθαι την Ougaviar and from the Assyrians other nations derived the worship of her. μsta de Arougious, KUNGINY Παφίοις, και Φοινίκων τοις Ασκαλώνα έχουσιν εν τη Παλαιστινη, παρα δε Φοινίκων, Κυθηριοι μαθοντες σεβουσιν. Edit. Kuhnii, p. 36. 1003. —in spangled sheen] I think this word is commonly used as an adjective, as in Spenser, Faery Queen, b. ii. cant. i. st. 10. To spoil her dainty corse so fair and sheen: and again, cant. ii. st. 40. 1010 That with her sovereign power and scepter sheen All faery lond does peaceable susteen. But Milton uses it as a substantive both here and before in ver. 893. the azure sheen, and in several other places; and he makes sheeny the adjective, as in the verses On the death of a fair infant, st. 7. Or did of late earth's sons besiege the wall Of sheeny heav'n, &c. In using sheen for a substantive Milton has the authority of Shakespeare, Hamlet, a. iii. sc. 6. And thirty dozen moons with bor. row'd sheen &c. 1003. See Observat. on Spenser's F. Q. ii. 181. T. Warton. 1010. Two blissful twins &c.] Undoubtedly Milton's allusion at large is here to Spenser's garden of Adonis, above cited; but at the same time his mythology has a reference to Spenser's Hymne of Love. For the fable of Cupid and Psyche, see Fulgentius, iii. 6. and Apuleius for Psyche's wandering labours long. T. Warton. 1012. But now my task is smoothly done, &c.] He had written at first, Now my message [or business] well is done, I can fly, or I can run &c. The Satyr in the Faithful Shepherdess sustains much the same character and office as the attendant Spirit in the Mask, and he says to the same purpose, act i. I must go, and I must run Swifter than the fiery sun: and in the conclusion, his taking leave is somewhat in the same manner, 1020 And Drayton, Nymphid. vol. ii. p. 552. Whence lies a way up to the moon, And thence the faery can as soon, &c. Compare Macbeth, a. iii. s. 5. Upon the corner of the moon There hangs a vaporous drop profound. And Puck's Fairy, in Mids. N. Dr. a. ii. s. 1. I do wander every where Swifter than the moon's sphere. We plainly discern Milton's track of reading: T. Warton. 1018. Mortals that would follow me, &c.] The moral of this poem is very finely summed up in these concluding six verses; the thought contained in the two last might probably be suggested to our author by a passage in the table of Cebes, where Patience and Perseverance are represented stooping and stretching out their hands to help up those who are endeavouring to climb the craggy hill of Virtue, and yet are too feeble to ascend of themselves. Thyer. 1020. She can teach ye how to climb &c.] These four concluding verses furnished Mr. Pope |