Hæc mihi tum læto dictabat roscida luna, 140 145 "Heus bone! numquid agis? nisi te quid fortè retardat, "Imus? et argutâ paulùm recubamus in umbrâ, "Aut ad aquas Colni, aut ubi jugera Cassibelauni? "Non quia, Mæcenas, Lydorum quicquid Etruscos See also Propertius, III. ix. 1. T. WARTON. Ver. 140. Hæc mihi tum læto dictabat roscida luna, Dum solus teneros claudebam cratibus hædos.] As in Lycidas, v. 29. Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night." The crates are the wattled cotes in Comus, v. 345. T. WARTON. Milton's allusion is, in both places, to Horace, Epod. ii. 45. 66 Claudénsque textis cratibus lætum pecus." Wattled, it may be added, is a participle of Sylvester's Du Bart. 1621, p. 44. "Their wattled locks gusht all in riuers out." TODD. Ver. 142. cùm te cinis ater habebat,] Milton has adopted this expression from what many criticks have supposed to be not a genuine line of Virgil, as Mr. J. Warton remarks⚫ See En. iv. 633. Namque suam patria antiqua cinis ater habebat." Todd. Ver. 144. Vimina nunc texit, &c.] Virgil, Ecl. ii. 71. "Quin tu aliquid saltem potius, quorum indiget usus, "Viminibus mollique paras detexere junco ?" JOHN WARTON. Ver. 149. Aut ad aquas Colni, aut ubi jugera Cassibelauni ?] 66 Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gramina, succos, 150 Helleborúmque, humilésque crocos, foliúmque ❝ hyacinthi, 66 "Quasque habet ista palus herbas, artésque me"dentûm." Ah pereant herbæ, pereant artésque medentûm, Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. The river Colne flows through Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, in Milton's neighbourhood. His father's house and lands, at Horton, near Colnbrook, were held under the earl of Bridgewater, before whom Comus was acted. By jugera Cassibelauni, we are to understand Verulam or Saint Alban's, called the town of Cassibelan, an ancient British king. See Camd. Brit. i. 321. edit. Gibs. 1772. Milton's appellations are often conveyed by the poetry of ancient fable. T. WARTON. Ver. 150. Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gramina, succos,] Deodate is the shepherd-lad in Comus, ver. 619, &c. See also the note on El. vi. 90. T. WARTON. Ver. 154. Ovid, Met. i. 524. postquam ipsi nil profecere magistro !] "Nec prosunt domino, quæ prosunt omnibus, artes." TODD. Ver. 155. He hints his design of quitting pastoral, and the lighter kinds of poetry, to write an epick poem. This, it appears, by what follows, was to be on some part of the ancient British story. T. WARTON. Ipse ego Dardanias Rutupina per æquora puppes Dicam, et Pandrasidos regnum vetus Inogeniæ,. Brennúmque Arviragúmque duces, priscúmque Belinum, Et tandem Armoricos Britonum sub lege colonos; Tum gravidam Arturo, fatali fraude, Iögernen, 166 Ver. 162. Ipse ego Dardanias &c.] The landing of the Trojans in England under Brutus. Rhutupium is a part of the Kentish coast. Brutus married Inogen, the eldest daughter of Pandrasus a Grecian king; from whose bondage Brutus had delivered his countrymen the Trojans. Brennus and Belinus were the sons of Molmutius Dunwallo, by some writers called the first king of Britain. The two sons carried their victorious arms into Gaul and Italy. Arviragus, the son of Cunobelin, conquered the Roman general Claudius. He is said to have founded Dover-castle. T. WARTON. Ver. 165. Et tandem Armoricos &c.] Milton, in his Hist. of England, relates that the ancient chronicles of Armorica or Bretagne "attest the coming thither of the Britons to be then first when they fled from the Saxons; and indeed the name of Britain in France is not read till after that time." B. iii. fol. edit. p. 47. "Some think," he says, "Armorica to have been peopled with Britons long before." Ibid. p. 46. See also Leland's Comment. in Cygneam Cantionem, edit. 1658, p. 38. TODD. Ver. 166. Tum gravidam &c.] Iogerne was the wife of Gorlois prince of Cornwall. Merlin transformed Uther Pendragon into Gorlois; by which artifice Uther had access to the bed of logerne, and begat king Arthur. This was in Tintagelcastle in Cornwall. See Geffr. Monm. viii. 19. The story is told by Selden on the Polyolbion, S. i. vol. ii. 674. will be said, that I am retailing much idle history. But this is such idle history as Milton would have clothed in the richest poetry. T. WARTON. Perhaps it This transformation of Uther Pendragon is also related by Bale: "Utherium regem in Gorloidis transformabat specimen, ut Mendaces vultus, assumptáque Gorlöis arma, Multùm oblita mihi; aut patriis mutata Camœnis 170 175 Iogernæ uxoris potiretur amplexu, ex quo concubitu Arthurium et Annam progenuit." Balei Script. Brit. edit. Gippesvici, 1548, 4to. fol. 27. In the Mir. for Magistrates, Uther's passion is related in a poem of considerable length by Tho. Blenerhasset ; in which, however, Merlin's artifice is not noticed. The poet elegantly calls Iogerne " the bright-cheekt Igren." TODD. Ver. 168. O mihi &c.] I have corrected the pointing. "And O, if I should have long life to execute these designs, you, my rural pipe, shall be hung up forgotten on yonder ancient pine: you are now employed in Latin strains, but you shall soon be exchanged for English poetry. Will you then sound in rude British tones ?-Yes-We cannot excell in all things. I shall be sufficiently contented to be celebrated at home for English verse." Our author says in the Preface to Ch. Gov. B. ii. "Not caring to be once named abroad, though perhaps I could attain to that: but content with these British islands as my world,” Prose- Works, vol. i. 60. T. WARTON. Ver. 175. Si me flava comas legat Usa, et potor Alauni,] Usa is perhaps the Ouse in Buckinghamshire. But other rivers have that name, which signifies water in general. Alaunus is Alain in Dorsetshire, Alonde in Northumberland, and Camlan in Cornwall; and is also a Latin name for other rivers. T. WARTON. "The Use," says Harrison, in his Descript. of Britain, p. 49. b, 66 ryseth about West Wicham out of one of the Chiltern hills." I think, with Mr. Bowle, that Milton has noticed this rill on account of his residence in Buckinghamshire. TODD. Vorticibúsque frequens Abra, et nemus omne Treantæ, Et Thamesis meus ante omnes, et fusca metallis Tamara, et extremis me discant Orcades undis. Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. Ver. 176. Vorticibúsque frequens Abra,] So Ovid, of the river Evenus, Metam. ix. 106. "Vorticibúsque frequens erat, atque impervius amnis." And Tyber is "densus vorticibus, Fast. vi. 502. Abra has been used as a Latin name for the Tweed, the Humber, and the Severn, from the British Abren, or Aber, a river's mouth. Of the three, I think the Humber, vorticibus frequens, is intended. Leland proves from some old monkish lines, that the Severn was originally called Abren; a name, which afterwards the Welsh bards pretended to be derived from king Locrine's daughter Abrine, not Sabrine, drowned in that river. Comm. Cygn. Cant. vol, ix. p. 67. edit. 1744. In the Tragedy of Locrine, written about 1594, this lady is called Sabren, Suppl. Shaksp. vol. ii. p. 262. A. iv. S. 5. "Yes, damsels, yes, Sabren shall surely die," &c. And it is added, that the river [Severn] into which she is thrown, was thence called Sabren. Sabren, through Safren, easily comes to Severn. In the same play, Humber, the Scythian king exclaims, p. 246. A. iv. S. 4. "And gentle Aby take my troubled corse." That is, the river Aby, which just before is called Abis. Ptolemy, enumerating our rivers that fall into the eastern sea, mentions Abi; but probably the true reading is Abri, which came from Aber. Aber might soon be corrupted into Humber. The derivation of the Humber from Humber, king of the Huns, is as fabulous, as that the name Severn was from Abrine or Sabrine. But if Humber, a king of the Huns, has any concern in this name, the best way is to reconcile matters, and associate both etymologies in Hun-Aber, or Humber. T. WARTON. Ver. 176. nemus omne Treanta,] The river Trent. In the next line, he calls Thamesis, meus, because he was born in London; and the river Tamar in Cornwall, fusca metallis, tinctured with tin-mines. T. WARTON. |