Munere veris adest, iterumque vigescit ab illo, If answerable skill I can obtain From my celestial patroness, who deigns Her nightly visitations, unimplor'd: And dictates to me slumbering, or inspires Easy my unpremeditated verse. Again, to Urania, b. vii. 28. -Not alone, while thou morn Purples the east. Again, he says that "he visits "nightly the subjects of sacred "poetry," b. iii. 32. And adds, v. 37. Then feed on thoughts that voluntary move Harmonious numbers. In the sixth Elegy, he hints that he composed the Ode on the Nativity in the morning, v. 87. Dona quidem dedimus Christi natali. bus illa, Illa sub auroram lux mihi prima dedit. That is, as above, "when morn "purples the east." In a Letter to Alexander Gill, he says that he translated the hundred and fourteenth Psalm into Greek heroics, "subito nescio quo impetu "ante Lucis exortum." Prose Works, ii. 567. See also below, V. 9. Castalis ante oculos bifidumque cacumen oberrat, Et mihi Pyrenen somnia nocte fe runt. 10 upon ceipt in poesie was most rich, " and his sweetness and facilitie " in a verse inimitably excellent, as appeareth by that masterfarre peece his Psalms; as "beyond those of B. Rhenanus, "as the Stanzas of Petrarch the "Rimes of Skelton: but deserv"ing more applause if he had " faln another subject: for "I say with J. C. Scaliger, Illo"rum piget qui Davidis Psalmos "suis calamistris inustos spera"rant efficere plausibiliores.-His Tragedies are loftie, the style' pure; his Epigrams not to be "mended, save here and there, according to his genius, too "broad and bitter." Peacham's Compleat Gentleman, p. 91. ch. x. Of Poetry, edit. [2d.] 1634. 4to. Milton was now perhaps too young to be captivated by Buchanan's political speculations. Delius ipse venit, video Peneïde lauro Implicitos crines, Delius ipse venit. Jam mihi mens liquidi raptatur in ardua cœli, Perque umbras, perque antra feror penetralia vatum, Veris, et hoc subeat Musa perennis opus. 30.-hoc subeat Musa perennis opus.] Originally quotannis, edit. 1645. Salmasius pretends to have observed several faise quantities in our author's Latin poems. This was one, and perennis appeared in the second edition, 1673. See Salmas. Respons. edit. Lond. 1660. p. 5. Nicholas Heinsius, in an Epistle to Holstenius, complains of these false quantities: and, for elegance, prefers our author's DeBurman. Syllog. iii. 669. But fensio to his Latin poems. See Heinsius, like too many other great critics, had no taste. Flectit ad Arctoas aurea lora plagas. Est breve noctis iter, brevis est mora noctis opacæ, Jamque Lycaonius plaustrum cœleste Bootes Excubias agitant sidera rara polo: Nam dolus, et cædes, et vis cum nocte recessit, Phoebe, tua, celeres quæ retineret equos. Desere, Phoebus ait, thalamos, Aurora, seniles, Te manet Æolides viridi venator in herba, 35 40 45 50 Surge, tuos ignes altus Hymettus habet. Flava verecundo dea crimen in ore fatetur, Et matutinos ocius urget equos. Exuit invisam Tellus rediviva senectam, Et cupit amplexus, Phoebe, subire tuos ; Et cupit, et digna est. Quid enim formosius illa, Pandit ut omniferos luxuriosa sinus, Atque Arabum spirat messes, et ab ore venusto hunting on mount Hymettus. Flebam turbatos Cephaleia pellice have known the full extent of the Latin tongue. 58. Pandit ut omniferos luxuriosa sinus,] See Par. L. b. v. 338. Whatever Earth all-bearing mother yields. Milton here thought of Ovid's Tellus, who makes a speech, and who lifts her "omniferos vultus." Metam. ii. 275. 62. The head of his personified Earth crowned with a sacred wood, resembles Ops, or Cybele, crowned with towers. But in pinea turris, he seems to have confounded her crown of towers with the pines of Ida. Tibullus calls her Idaæa Ops. El. i. iv. 68. 66. Tænario placuit, &c.] See Parad. Lost, b. iv. 268. "Where Proserpine, &c." And Ovid, Metam. b. v. 391. There are touches of the great Aspice, Phoebe, tibi faciles hortantur amores, Munera, (muneribus sæpe coemptus amor) Ah quoties, cum tu clivoso fessus Olympo Cur te, inquit, cursu languentem, Phœbe, diurno 70 75 80 Quid tibi cum Tethy? Quid cum Tartesside lympha, Dia quid immundo perluis ora salo? Frigora, Phoebe, mea melius captabis in umbra, Huc ades, ardentes imbue rore comas. Mollior egelida veniet tibi somnus in herba, Huc ades, et gremio lumina pone meo. Quaque jaces, circum mulcebit lene susurrans poetry in this description or personification of Earth. 69. Cinnamea Zephyrus leve plaudit odorifer ala,] See El. iii. 47. Serpit odoriferas per opes levis aura And Comus, v. 989. And west winds with muskie wing And Par. Lost, b. viii. 515. Gentle airs 85 Whisper'd it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, flung odours, from the spicy shrub. 83. Quid tibi cum Tethy? &c.] In the manner of Ovid, Epist. Heroid. vi. 47. Quid mihi cum Minyis? Quid cum Quid tibi cum patrio, navita Tiphy, See above, El. iii. 33. 89. -mulcebit lene susurrans |