While the ploughman near at hand And the milkmaid singeth blithe, And ere the sunne had clymb'd the easterne hills, To guild the muttring bournes and petty rills; Before the lab'ring bee had left the hive, And nimble fishes, which in rivers dive, Began to leape, and catch the drowned flie, I rose from rest. 67. And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale.] An image perhaps conveyed by Shakespeare, Third P. K. Henr. VI. a. ii. s. v. Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, &c. It was suggested to me by the late ingenious Mr. Headley, that the word tale does not here im ply stories told by shepherds, but that it is a technical term for numbering sheep, which is still used in Yorkshire and the distant counties. This interpretation I am inclined to adopt, 65 Pipe, Egl. v. edit. 1614. 12mo. Signat. E. 4. v. 7. he is describing the dawn of day. When the shepheards from the fold All their bleating charges told; And, full careful, search'd if one Of all the flock was hurt, or gone, &c. And in Lilly's Gallathea, written 1592, Phillida, disguised like a boy, says, My mother said, I "could be no lad till I was "twentie, nor keepe sheepe till "I could tell them." A. ii. s. i. But let us analyse the context. The poet is describing a very early period of the morning; and this he describes, by selecting and assembling such picturesque objects as accompany that period, and, such as were familiar to an early riser. He is waked by the lark, and goes into the fields. The sun is just emerging, and the clouds are still hovering over the mountains. The cocks are crowing, and with their lively notes scatter the lingering remains of darkness. Human labours and employments are renewed, with the dawn of the day. The hunter (formerly much earlier at his sports than at present) is beating the covert, and the slumbering morn is roused with the cheerful echo of hounds and horns. The mower is whetting his scythe to begin his work. The milk-maid, whose business And in W. Browne's Shepheard's is of course at day-break, comes which I will therefore endeavour to illustrate and enforce. Tale and tell, in this sense, were not unfamiliar in our poetry, in and about Milton's time. For instance, Dryden's Virgil, Bucol. iii. 33. And once she takes the tale of all my lambs. Strait mine eye hath caught new pleasures Whilst the landscape round it measures, Russet lawns, and fallows gray, 70 Where the nibbling flocks do stray, abroad singing. The shepherd opens his fold, and takes the tale of his sheep, to see if any were lost in the night, as in the passage just quoted from Browne. Now, for shepherds to tell tales, or to sing, is a circumstance, trite, common, and general, and belonging only to ideal shepherds: nor do I know, that such shepherds tell tales, or sing, more in the morning than at any other part of the day. A shepherd taking the tale of his sheep which are just unfolded, is a new image, correspondent and appropriated, beautifully descriptive of a period of time, is founded in fact, and is more pleasing as more natural. T. Warton. 67. Some perhaps will cite, in opposition to Warton's argument, Milton's description of the shepherds in his Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity, st. viii. The shepherds on the lawn Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep. But in fact they, "who kept "watch over their flocks by 75 "night," had no cause to tell the tale of their sheep in the morning. And this description is therefore as appropriate here, as it would be trite and general in the case of the English shepherd at the dawn of day. I have given Warton's note on the passage at full length, because I have sometimes found persons strangely reluctant to do Milton justice in this point. E. 69. Strait mine eye hath caught new pleasures] There is in my opinion great beauty in this abrupt and rapturous start of the poet's imagination, as it is extremely well adapted to the subject, and carries a very pretty allusion to those sudden gleams of vernal delight which break in upon the mind at the sight of a fine prospect. Thyer. 72. Where the nibbling flocks do stray,] Nibbling sheep is an expression in Shakespeare. Tempest, act iv. sc. 3. And stray is not in the sense of wander, go astray, but only signifies feed at large, as in Virgil, Ecl. i. 9. Ille meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum Ludere quæ vellem calamo permisit agresti. Towers and battlements it sees 77. Towers and battlements it sees Bosom'd high in tufted trees.] This was the great mansion-house in Milton's early days, before the old-fashioned architecture had given way to modern arts and improvements. Turrets and battlements were conspicuous marks of the numerous new buildings of the reign of King Henry VIII. and of some rather more ancient, many of which yet remained in their original state: nor was that style altogether omitted in Inigo Jones's first manner. Browne, in Britannia's Pastorals, has a similar image, b. i. s. 5. p. 96. -yond palace, whose brave turret tops Over the statelie wood survay the copse. Browne is a poet now forgotten, but must have been well known to Milton. Where only a little is seen, more is left to the imagination. These symptoms of an old palace, especially when thus disposed, have a greater effect than a discovery of larger parts, and even a full display of the whole edifice. With respect to their rural residence, there was a coyness in our Gothic ancestors. Modern seats are seldom so deeply ambushed. They disclose all their glories at once; and never ex 80 cite expectation by concealment, by gradual approaches, and by interrupted appearances. T. Warton. 80. The Cynosure of neighb'ring eyes.] As if he had said the pole-star of neighbouring eyes: an affected expression. Cynosura is the constellation of Ursa minor, or the little bear next to our pole, as in the Mask 342. I find the same expression in Democritus Junior, or Burton's treatise of Melancholy, as quoted by Mr. Peck. "It is the general hu mour of all lovers: she is his "stern, his pole-star, his guide, "his Cynosure, his Hesperus and Vesperus, &c." p. 512. And our author, 80. But Shakespeare has "your eyes are lode-starres." Mids. N. Dr. a. i. s. 1. "But since he must needs be "the load-star of reformation." P. W. vol. i. 9. And this was no uncommon compliment in Chaucer, Skelton, Sydney, Spenser, and other old English poets, as Mr. Steevens has abundantly proved. See also Grey's Notes on Shakespeare, vol. i. p. 43. seq. Lond. 1754. And in the Spanish Tragedy, 1603. Led by the load-star of her heavenly looks. Milton enlivens his prospect by this unexpected circumstance, which gives it a moral charm. T. Warton. Where Corydon and Thyrsis met, Of herbs, and other country messes, To the tann'd haycock in the mead. 85 90 84. Are at their savory dinner says Skinner, à Rebacchando, ubi And though Phillis is the cook here, Thestylis is introduced soon after. 92. The upland hamlets] Upland, in opposition to the haymaking scene in the lower lands. Thyer. 93. When the merry bells ring round.] The first instance I remember in our poetry of the circumstance of a peal of bells, introduced as descriptive of festivity, is in Morley's Madrigals. See England's Helicon, Signat. Q. 4. ed. 1614. T. Warton. 94. And the jocund rebecks sound] Rebeck is a three-stringed fiddle, derived from the French rebec or the Italian rebecca, and these, Re sensum auget, quia sc. hoc instrumento in conviviis, comessationibus et symposiis uti solebant; and therefore Milton properly bestows upon it the epithet jocund. He uses the word again in his Areopagitica, p. 149. vol. i. edit. 1738. "The villagers also "must have their visitors to en quire what lectures the bagpipe "and the rebeck reads, &c." 94. Probably the same instrument which is called in Chaucer, Lydgate, and the old French writers, the Rebible, the diminutive of Ribibe, used also by Chaucer, originally, as Sir John Hawkins thinks, from Rebeb, the name of a Moorish musical instrument with two strings played on by a bow. [See Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, n. on v. 6959.] Sir John adds, that the Moors brought it into Spain, whence it passed into Italy, and obtained the name of Ribeca. Hist. Mus. ii. 86. In the Percy Household book, 1512, are recited " Myn . To many a youth, and many a maid, Dancing in the chequer'd shade; And young and old come forth to play On a sunshine holy-day, In a barbarous Latin poet of the middle age, quoted by Du Cange, Gloss. Lat. V. Bandosa, we have, Quidam Rebeccam arcuabant. Where arcuabant shews that it was played upon by a bow, arcus. The rebeck seems to have been almost a common name for a fiddle. See Fletcher's Kn. Burn. Pestle. Milton's Liberty of unlicensed Printing. Shakespeare, Rom. and Jul. a. iv. s. 4. and Steevens's note. T. Warton. 96. Dancing in the chequer'd shade;] Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, act ii. sc. 4. The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind, And make a chequer'd shadow on the ground. Virgil, Ecl. v. 5. 95 100 Sive sub incertas Zephyris motantibus umbras. Richardson. 97. And young and old come forth to play On a sunshine holy-day.] Thus also in the Mask, 959. Back, shepherds, back, enough your play, Till next sunshine holy-day. Holiday-sports are still much encouraged in the counties to which Milton was used. See note on Sams. Agon. 1418. T. Warton. 100. Then to the spicy nutbrown ale.] See the old play of Henry V. In six Old Plays, &c. Lond. 1779. p. 336. Yet we will have in store a crab i' th' fire, With nut-brown ale, that is full stale. This was Shakespeare's "Gossip's bowl," Mids. N. Dr. a. i. s. 1. The composition was ale, nutmeg, sugar, toast, and roasted crabs or apples. It was called Lambs-wool. Our old drámas have frequent allusions to this delectable beverage. In Fletcher's Faithfull Shepherdess it is styled "the spiced wassel boul." T. Warton. 101. With stories, &c.] Shakespeare's Winter's Tale is supposed |