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The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,
The white pink, and the pansy freakt with jet,
The glowing violet,

The musk-rose, and the well-attir'd woodbine,
With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,
And every flower that sad embroidery wears:
Bid amarantus all his beauty shed,
And daffadillies fill their cups with tears,
To strow the laureate herse where Lycid lies.
For so to interpose a little ease,

Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise.

nuscript, as they now stand in the printed' copies; and for the garish columbine he substituted the well-attired woodbine; and for sad escutcheon wears, sad embroidery wears.

142. The particular combination of " Rathe primrose" is perhaps from a Pastoral called a Palinode by E. B. probably Edmond Bolton, in England's Helicon, edit. 1614.

And made the rathe and timely prim-
rose grow.
T. Warton.

143. The tufted crow-toe,] This is the hyacinth, that sanguine flower inscribed with woe, as above. Richardson.

An undoubted imitation of Spenser, in April.

Bring hither the pinke, and purple cullumbine,

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144. with jet] poses to which is

145

150

and the pansy freakt Mr. Meadowcourt proread streakt with jet, a more usual word: but freakt is the word in Milton's Manuscript as well as in all the editions, and I suppose he meant the same as freckled or spotted.

152. For so lo interpose a little

ease,

Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise.]

This is extremely tender and natural. He had said,

-the laureate herse where Lycid lies.

For so, says he, let us endeavour

for a moment to deceive our-
selves, and fancy that at least
his corpse is present.

Aye me! Whilst thee the shores,
and sounding seas
Wash far away &c.

-jacet ipse procul, qua mixta supre

mum

Ismenon primi mutant confinia ponti,

says Statius of young Crenæus killed fighting in the river Ismenos, ix. 358. Richardson.

153. Let our frail thoughts] Altered in the Manuscript from Let our sad thoughts.

Aye me! Whilst thee the shores, and sounding seas
Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurl'd,
Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides,
Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide
Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world;
O whether thou to our moist vows denied,
Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old,

153. -with false surmise.] The proper sense of the passage requires a semicolon after surmise; and it appears in the edition of 1638. The second edition, of 1645, evidently from an oversight, has a full point after surmise, which has been implicitly continued ever since. T. Warton.

154. Whilst thee the shores,] Altered in the Manuscript from floods. But Mr. Jortin says shores is improper, and fancies it should be shoals, the shallow waters, brevia. In the Mask 115, The sounds and seas—the sounds, freta. If Milton wrote shores, he perhaps had in his mind this passage of Virgil, Æn. vi. 362. where Palinurus, who, like Lycidas, had perished in the sea, says,

Nunc me fluctus habet, versantque in litore venti.

On which line Pierius observes, Litus non tam de sicco, quàm de asperginibus et extrema maris ora, intelligitur. But yet, though a dead body may be said to be washed on the shore by the returning tides, the shore can hardly be said to wash the body; and the expression is harsh and uncouth.

-whilst thee the sounding seas Wash far away, &c. Far away, that is, in some remote place, whatsoever it be. He

155

160

seems rather to mean in some place, than to some place.

156. Whether beyond &c.] Whether thy body is carried northwards or southwards.

Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides, the western islands of Scotland, Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide,

it is humming tide in Milton's Manuscript,

Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world.

Virgil, Æn. vi. 729.

Et quæ marmoreo fert monstra sub æquore pontus.

So classical is Milton in every part of this poem.

156. See On the death of a fair Infant, note, v. 38. E.

158. monstrous world.] The sea, the world of monsters, Horace, Od. i. iii. 18. Qui siccis oculis monstra natantia. Virgil, Æn. vi. 729. Quæ marmoreo fert monstra sub æquore pontus. T. Warton.

As if

159. —moist vows] Our vows accompanied with tears. he had said vota lachrymosa. T.

Warton.

160. Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old, &c.] Milton doubting which way the waves might carry the body of Lycidas, drowned in the Irish sea, imagines it was either driven north

Where the great vision of the guarded mount
Looks tow'ard Namancos and Bayona's hold;

ward beyond the Hebrides, or else so far southward as to lie sleeping near the fable, or fabulous mansions of old Bellerus, where the great vision of the guarded mount looks towards the coast of Spain. But where can we find the place which is thus obscurely described in the language of poetry and fiction? The place here meant is probably a promontory in Cornwall, known at present by the name of the Land's End, and called by Diodorus Siculus Belerium promontorium, perhaps from Bellerus one of the Cornish giants, with which that country and the poems of old British bards were once filled. A watch-tower and light-house formerly stood on this promontory, and looked, as Orosius says, towards another high tower at Brigantia in Gallicia, and consequently toward Bayona's hold. See Orosius and Camden, who concludes his account of this part of Cornwall with saying, that no other place in this island looks directly to Spain. Meadow

court.

It may be farther observed, that Milton in his Manuscript had written Corineus, and afterwards changed it for Bellerus. Corineus came into this island with Brute, and had that part of the country assigned for his share, which after him was named Cornwall. "To Corineus, says "Milton in the first book of his "History of England, Cornwall,

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as we now call it, fell by lot; "the rather by him liked, for "that the hugest giants in rocks caves were said to lurk

and

"still there; which kind of mon"sters to deal with was his old "exercise." Of this race of giants, we may suppose, was Bellerus: but whoever he was, the alteration in Milton's Manuscript was certainly for the better, to take a person from whom that particular promontory was denominated, rather than one who gave name to the county at large. The fable of Bellerus and the vision of the guarded mount is plainly taken from some of our old romances, but we may perceive what place is intended, the Land's End, and St. Michael's mount in Cornwall.

160. So Drayton, Polyolb. s. xxiii.

Then Cornwall creepeth out into the westerne maine,

As, lying in her eye, she pointed still at Spaine.

But what is the meaning of "The Great Vision of the Guard"ed Mount?" And of the line immediately following, "Look "homeward angel now, and melt "with ruth?" I flatter myself I have discovered Milton's original and leading idea.

Not far from the Land's End in Cornwall, is a most romantic projection of rock, called Saint Michael's Mount, into a harbour called Mounts-bay. It gradually rises from a broad basis into a very steep and narrow, but craggy, elevation. Towards the sea, the declivity is almost perpendicular. At low water it is accessible by land: and not many years ago, it was entirely joined with the present shore, between which and the Mount,

Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth:
And, O ye Dolphins, waft the hapless youth.

there is a rock called Chapel-rock.
On the summit of Saint Michael's
Mount a monastery was founded
before the time of Edward the
Confessor, now a seat of Sir
John Saint Aubyn. The church,
refectory, and many of the apart
ments, still remain. With this
monastery was incorporated a
strong fortress, regularly garri-
soned and in a Patent of Henry
the Fourth, dated 1403, the mo-
nastery itself, which was ordered
to be repaired, is styled Fortali-
tium. Rym. Fod. viii. 102, 340,
341. A stone-lantern, in one of
the angles of the Tower of the
church, is called Saint Michael's
Chair. But this is not the ori-
ginal Saint Michael's Chair. We
are told by Carew, in his Survey
of Cornwall, "A little without
"the Castle [this fortress] there
" is a bad [dangerous] seat in a
26 craggy place, called Saint Mi-
"chael's Chaire, somewhat daun-
gerous for accesse, and there-
"fore holy for the adventure."
Edit. 1602, p. 154. We learn
from Caxton's Golden Legende,
under the history of the angel
Michael, 'that Th' apparacy on
"of this angell is manyfold.
"The fyrst is when he appeared
"in mount of Gargan, &c."
Edit. 1493. fol. cclxxxii. a. Wil-
liam of Worcestre, who wrote
his travels over England about
1490, says in describing Saint
Michael's Mount, there was an
Apparicio Sancti Michaelis in
"monte Tumba antea vocato
"Le Hore Rok in the wodd."
Itinerar. edit. Cantab. 1778. p.
102. The Hoar Rock in the Wood
is this Mount or Rock of Saint

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Michael, anciently covered with
thick wood, as we learn from
Drayton and Carew. There is
still a tradition, that a vision of
Saint Michael seated on this Crag,
or Saint Michael's chair, appeared
to some hermits: and that this cir-
cumstance occasioned the found-
ation of the monastery dedicated
to Saint Michael. And hence
this place was long renowned for
its sanctity, and the object of
Carew
frequent pilgrimages.
quotes some old rhymes much to
our purpose, p. 154. ut supr.

Who knows not Mighel's Mount and
Chaire,

The pilgrim's holy vaunt?
Nor should it be forgot, that this
monastery was a cell to another
on a Saint Michael's Mount in
Normandy, where was also a
Vision of Saint Michael.

But to apply what has been said to Milton. This Great Vision is the famous Apparition of Saint Michael, whom he with much sublimity of imagination supposes to be still throned on this lofty crag of Saint Michael's Mount in Cornwall, looking towards the Spanish coast. The guarded mount on which this Great Vision appeared, is simply the fortified Mount, implying the fortress above mentioned. And let us observe, that Mount is the peculiar appropriated appellation of this promontory. So in Daniel's Panegyricke on the King, st. 19. "From Dover to the mount." With the sense and meaning of the line in question, is immediately connected that of the third line next following, which here I

Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more, 165 For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead,

now for the first time exhibit properly pointed.

Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth.

Here is an apostrophe to the Angel Michael, whom we have just seen seated on the Guarded Mount. "O Angel, look no "longer seaward to Namancos "and Bayona's hold: rather turn "your eyes to another object. "Look homeward, or landward, "look towards your own coast now, and view with pity the corpse of the shipwrecked Lycidas floating thither." But I will exhibit the three lines together which from the context. Lycidas was lost on the seas near the coast,

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Where the great vision of the guarded mount

Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold;

Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth.

The Great Vision and the Angel are the same thing: and the verb look in both the two last verses has the same reference. The poet could not mean to shift the application of look, within two lines. Moreover if in the words Look homeward angel now-the address is to Lycidas, as Mr. Thyer supposed, a violent, and too sudden, an apostrophe takes place; for in the very next line Lycidas is distinctly called the hapless youth. To say nothing, that this new angel is a hapless youth, and to be wafted by dolphins. T. Warton.

163. -and melt with ruth:] With pity. Spenser, Faery Queen, b i. cant. vi. st. 12.

VOL. IV.

Are won with pity and unwonted ruth.

Fairfax, cant. ii. st. 11.

All ruth, compassion, mercy he forgot.

164. And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth] Alluding to what Pausanias says.of Palæmon toward the end of his Attics, "that a dolphin took him up, " and laid his body on the shore "at Corinth where he was "deified." Richardson.

165. Weep no more, &c.] Milton in this sudden and beautiful transition from the gloomy and mournful strain into that of hope and comfort seems pretty plainly to imitate Spenser in his 11th Eclogue, where bewailing the death of some maiden of great blood, whom he calleth Dido, in terms of the utmost grief and dejection, he breaks out all at once in the same manner. Thyer. 165. Spenser's November, Ecl.

xi.

Cease now my Muse, now cease thy sorrowes sourse!

She raignes a goddess now amid the saints,

That whilom was the saint of shepheards light;

And is enstalled now in heavens hight.

No danger there the shepheard can astert,

Fayre fields and pleasant leas there beene,

The fields aye fresh, the groves aye greene.

There lives she with the blessed gods in blisse,

There drinks she nectar with ambrosia mixt, &c.

See the Epitaphium Damonis, v. 201-218. and Ode on the Death of a fair Infant, st. x. T. Warton.

M

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