Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold? 115 Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold A sheep-hook, or have learn'd ought else the least 120 That to the faithful herdsman's art belongs! What recks it them! What need they? They are sped; And when they list, their lean and flashy songs During the usurpation, he published a pamphlet entitled "The "likeliest means to remove "Hirelings out of the church," against the revenues transferred from the old ecclesiastic establishment to the presbyterian ministers. See also his book of Reformation in England, Prose Works, vol. i. 28. T. Warton. 119. Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold A sheep-hook, &c.] See instances of the like construction in Paradise Lost, v.711. and the note there. I will here add another from Horace, Sat. ii. ii. 39. Porrectum magno magnum spectare catino 15. Wickliffe's pamphlets are full of this pastoral allusion. T. Warton. 191. That to the faithful herdman's art belongs!] Peck would read shepherd, because a herdman does not keep sheep. But herdman (not herdsman) has a general sense in our old writers; and often occurs in Sydney's Arcadia, a book well known to Milton. In our old Pastorals, heard-groome sometimes occurs for shepherd. for shepherd. T. Warton. 122. See note on Comus, 404. He might here use reck as a pastoral word occurring in Spenser's Kalendar, Decemb. "What "recked I of wintry age's waste." T. Warton. 123. And when they list, their lean and flashy songs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw ;] No sound of words can be more expressive of the sense: and how finely has he imitated, or rather improved, that passage in Virgil! Ecl. iii. 26. -on tu in triviis, indocte, solebas Stridenti miserum stipula disperdere carmen ? I remember not to have seen the word scrannel in any other au 125 Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw; thor, nor can I find it in any dictionary or glossary that I have consulted; but I presume it answers to the stridenti of Virgil. 124. Scrannel is thin, meagre. "A scrannel pipe of straw" is contemptuously for Virgil's "te"nuis avena.'" T. Warton. Scrannel is vile, worthless. Johnson. 128. Besides what the grim wolf &c.] We offered some explication of this difficult passage in the Life of Milton, that the poet meant to accuse Archbishop Laud of privily introducing popery, and therefore in his zeal threatened him with the loss of his head; which notion was suggested to me by Dr. Pearce, the Lord Bishop of Bangor. We exhibit too Mr. Warburton's explanation of this passage in the note on v. 130. But if neither of these accounts seem satisfactory to the reader, we will lay before him another, in which we have the concurrence of Mr. Thyer and Mr. Richardson. Besides what the grim wolf &c. Besides what the popish priests privately pervert to their religion: and Spenser, in his ninth Eclogue, describes them under the same image of wolves, and complains much in the same manner. Yes but they gang in more secret wise, And with sheep's clothing doen hem disguise. They talk not widely as they were woont, For fear of raungers and the great hoont: But privily prolling to and fro, And nothing said, this agrees very well with the popular clamours of that age against the supposed connivance of the court at the propagation of popery. In Milton's Manuscript nothing is blotted out, and it is corrected by his own hand-and little said, which is juster and better. But that two-handed engine &c. that is, the axe of reformation, is upon the point of smiting once for all. It is an allusion to Matt. iii. 10. Luke iii. 9. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. An axe is properly a two-handed engine. At the door, that is, this reformation is now ripe, and at Matt. xxiv. 33. Behold the judge hand; near, even at the doors, standeth before the door, James v. 9. And it was to be a thorough and effectual reformation, Stands ready to smite once, and smite no of Scripture, 1 Sam. xxvi. 8. Let more, in allusion to the language me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear, even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time. This explication is the more probable, as it agrees so well with Milton's sentiments and expressions in other parts of his works. His head was full of these thoughts, and he was in Daily devours apace, and nothing said, expectation of some mighty alteration in religion, as appears from the earliest of his prose works, which were published not four years after this poem. In the second book of his treatise of Reformation in England, he employs the same metaphor of the axe of God's reformation, hewing at the old and hollow trunk of papacy, and presages the time of the bishops to be but short, and compares them to a wen that is going to be cut off. Vol. i. p. 17, 18. edit. 1738. And in his Animadversions upon the Remonstrants' Defence, addressing himself to the Son of God, he says, but thy kingdom is now at hand, and thou standing at the door. Come forth out of thy royal chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth, for how the voice of thy bride calls thee, and all creatures sigh to be renewed, p. 91. The reading of these treatises of Milton will sufficiently make appear what his meaning must be, and how much about this time he thought of lopping off prelatical episcopacy. 128. It has been conjectured, that Milton in this passage has copied the sentiments of Piers, a protestant controversial shepherd, in Spenser's Eclogue, May. Of this there can be no doubt: for our author, in another of his puritanical tracts, written 1641, illustrates his arguments for purging the church of its rapacious hirelings and insidious wolves, by a quotation of almost the whole of Piers's speech; ob 130 serving, that Spenser puts these words into the mouth of his righteous shepherd, "not with"out some presage of these re"forming times." Animadv. on the Remonstr. Def. ubi supr. vol. i. p. 98. T. Warton. 130. But that two-handed en- These are the last words of Peter predicting God's vengeance on his church by his ministry. The making him the minister is in imitation of the Italian poets, who in their satiric pieces against the church, always make Peter the minister of vengeance. The two-handed engine is the twohanded Gothic sword with which the painters draw him. Compare P. L. vi. 251, where the sword of Michael is "with huge two"handed sway brandished aloft." Stands ready at the door was then a common phrase to signify any thing imminent. To smite once, and smite no more, signifies a final destruction, but alludes to Peter's single use of his sword in the case of the high priest's servant. Warburton. In these lines our author anticipates the execution of Archbishop Laud by a two-handed engine, that is, the axe; insinuating that his death would remove all grievances in religion, and complete the reformation of the church. Doctor Warburton's supposition only embarrasses the passage. Michael's sword "with 66 huge two-handed sway" is evi Return Alpheus, the dread voice is past, Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use dently the old Gothic sword of In the mean time, it coincides just as well with the tenour of Milton's doctrine, to suppose, that he alludes in a more general acceptation to our Saviour's metaphorical are in the Gospel, which was to be laid to the root of the tree, and whose stroke was to be quick and decisive. It is matter of surprise, that this violent invective against the Church of England and the hierarchy, couched indeed in terms a little mysterious yet sufficiently intelligible, and covered only by a transparent veil of allegory, should have been published under the sanction and from the press of one of our Universities; or that it should afterwards have escaped the severest animadversions, at a period when the proscriptions of the Star-chamber, and the power of Laud, 135 were at their height. Milton, under pretence of exposing the faults or abuses of the episcopal clergy, attacks their establishment, and strikes at their existence. T. Warton. 132. Return Alpheus, &c.] As he had before distinguished the voice of Apollo, so here he far more exalts that dread one of St. Peter, that quite shrinks up the stream of Alpheus. Now this is past, return Sicilian Muse, Sicelides Musæ. Virg. Ecl. iv. 1. Now comes pastoral poetry again, and calls the vales to cast their flowers on Lycidas's hearse, according to the custom of the ancients. Richardson. 136. —where the mild whispers use] The word use is employed in the same sense by Spenser, Faery Queen, b. vi. st. 2. Guide ye my footing, and conduct me well In these strange ways, where never foot did use, Ne none can find, but who was taught them by the Muse. 138. On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks,] The swart star is the dog-star, Sirius ardens, burning and drying up things, and making them look black and swarthy. But he sparely looks on these valleys, as he approaches not Horace's fountain of Blandusia, Od. iii. xii. 9. Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes, That on the green turf suck the honied showers, And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, 139. The term eyes is technical in the botany of flowers. T. Warton. 142. Bring the rathe primrose &c.] The primrose, being an early flower, is at first very acceptable, and being a lasting flower, it continues till it is put out of countenance by those which are more beautiful, and so dies forsaken and neglected. Jortin. The flowers here selected are either peculiar to mourning, or early flowers, suited to the age of Lycidas. The rathe primrose is the early primrose, as the word is used in Spenser, Faery Queen, b. iii. cant. 3. st. 28. Too rathe cut off by practice criminal: December Shepherd's Cal. Thus is my harvest hasten'd all too rathe. 140 The rather lambs in February are the earlier lambs. The rather lambs been starved with cold, And we still use rather for sooner. That forsaken dies, imitated from Shakespeare, Winter's Tale, act iv. s. 5. -pale primroses, That die unmarried, &c. Milton had at first written unwedded instead of forsaken. The whole was thus, -that unwedded dies Colouring the pale check of unenjoy'd love; which was a closer copy of his original in Shakespeare, -pale primroses That die unmarried, e'er they can behold Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady Most incident to maids. And then followed these lines in And that sad flow'r that strove Next add Narcissus that still weeps The woodbine, and the pansy freakt with jet, The glowing violet, The cowslip wan that hangs his pen. sive head, And every bud that sorrow's livery wears. Let daffadillies fill their cups with tears, Bid amarantus all his beauty shed, &c. But he altered them in the Ma |