How from that faphir fount the crifped brooks, Rolling on orient pearl and fands of gold, With mazy error under pendent fhades 240 Ran nectar, vifiting each plant, and fed Pour'd forth profuse on hill and dale and plain, the Fox Mofca afks Corvino, who had brought a rich pearl as a prefent to old Volpone; Is your pearl orient, Sir? A& I. 244. Both where the morning fun firft warmly fmote The open field,] This is a manner of expreffion unusual in our language, and plainly borrow'd from the Italian poets, with whom it is very common. Ariofto Orl. Fur. Cant. 8. St. 20, A Percote il fole ardente il vicin colle. To thefe inftances may be added Cant. 10. St. 35. Percote il fol nel colle, e fa ritorno. Thyer. 246. Imbrown'd the noontide bow'rs:] A perfon must be acquainted with the Italian language to difcern the force and exact propriety of this term. It is a word which their poets make ufe from Taffo Gier. Lib. Cant. 14. St. 70. Quinci ella in cima à una montagna afcende Dishabitata, e d'ombre ofcura, e bruna. In like manner to express the approach of the evening they fay fu l'imbrunir, or if they would fay it grows A happy rural feat of various view;, Groves whofe rich trees wept odorous gums and balm,' If true, here only', and of delicious taste : grows dufky or gloomy Il tempo comincia ad imbrunirfi. Thyer. 248. Groves whofe rich trees &c.] There were groves bearing aromatics, and there were others bearing fruit for fuftenance. The former are called rich trees, as odorous gums and balm carry ufually a higher price than fruit; and they are faid to weep gums and balm by a beautiful metaphor not unufual in poetry: as Ovid fays of the myrrhtree, Met. X. 500. 250 Or The firft and moft proper fenfe of the word fabula, as all the dictionaries inform us, is fomething commonly talked of, whether true or falfe: and if Milton us'd the word fable fo here, the fenfe is clear of the objection. But the Doctor would rather throw out the words Hefperian apples (or fables) trae, If true, here only, because (fays he) the Hefperian apples are reprefented by the poets as of folid gold, far from being of delicious afte. This objection is anfwer'd Flet tamen, et tepida manant ex by reading, as I think we ought to arbore gutta, Eft honor et lacrymis. 250.-Hefperian fables true, &c ] Dr. Bentley prefers apples to fables, and afks how fables can be true any where? If they cannot, I wonder how the Doctor in his edition of Phædrus, fuffer'd the following paffage to ftand without any cenfure, Hanc emendare, fi tamen poffum, volo Vera fabella. do, the whole paffage thus, Others, whofe fruit burnish'd with Hung amiable, (Hefperian fables golden rind true, Or palmy hilloc; or the flow'ry lap 255 Of fome irriguous valley fpread her ftore, delicious tafte, thofe there had none. Richardfon. 255. irriguous valley] Wellwater'd, full of fprings and rills: it is the epithet of a garden in Horace, Sat. II. IV. 16. Irriguo nihil eft elutius horto. Down thorns and thistles, Gen. III. 18. and from hence the general opinion has prevailed that there were no thorns before; which is enough to juftify a poet in saying the rofe was without thorns or prickles. 257. Another fide, umbrageous grets and caves] Another fide of 256. Flow'rs of all bue, and with the garden was umbrageous grots out thorn the rofe:] Dr. Bent- and caves &c. Or on another fide ley rejects this verfe, because he were fhady grots and caves, &c. thinks it a jejune identity in the poet the præpofition being omitted as is to fay The flow'ry lap - -Spread not unusual with our author. See flow'rs: but, as Dr.Pearce obferves, I. 282 and 723. On one fide were tho' the expreffion be not very groves of aromatics, others of fruit, exact, it is not fo bad as Dr. Bent- and betwixt them lawns or downs. ley represents it; för the conftruc- On another fide were fhady grotto's tion and fenfe is, The flowry lap of and caves of cool recefs. Our aufome valley spread her flore, which thor indeed has not mention'd one ftote was what? why flow'rs of fide before, but without that he often every color of hue. Dr. Bentley makes ufe of the expreflion, on objects too to the latter part of the th' other fide, as you may fee in II, verfe, and without thorn the rofe, 108, 706. IV. 985. IX. 888. as and calls it a puerile fancy. But Virgil frequently fays in parte alia, It should be remember'd, that it in another part, though he has not was part of the curfe denounced faid exprefly in one part before, Æn. upon the earth for Adam's tranf- I. VIII. 682. IX. 521. greffion, that it should bring forth 474. 261.- difpers'd, Down the flope hills, difpers'd, or in a lake, 261.- difpers'd, or in a lake,] The waters fall difperfed, or unite their ftreams in a lake, that prefents her clear looking-glafs, holds her crystal mirror to the fringed bank crown'd with myrtle. He makes the lake we may obferve a perfon, and a critic like Dr. Bentley may find fault with it; but it is ufual with the poets to perfonify lakes and rivers, as Homer does the river Scamander and Virgil the Tiber; and Milton himself makes a perfon of the river of blifs, and a female perfon too, III. 359. as he does here of the lake. This language is certainly more poetical; and I fuppofe he thought Her cryftal mirror founded smoother and better than Its cryftal mirror, or even His cryftal mirror. 266.while univerfal Pan &c.] While univerfal Nature link'd with the graceful feafons danc'd a perpetual round, and throughout the earth yet unpolluted led eternal fpring. All the poets favor the opinion of the world's creation in the fpring. Virg. Georg. II. 338. Ver illud erat, ver magnus agebat That the Graces were taken for the beautiful feafons in which all things feem to dance and smile in an univerfal joy is plain from Horace, Od. IV. VII. i. Diffugere nives, redeunt jam gra- Gratia cum nymphis geminifque And Homer joins both the Graces Hume. are the beautiful seasons, and thẹ Hours are the time requifite for the production and perfection of things, Milton only fays in a moft poetical manner Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance Of Enna, where Proférpin gathering flowers, 270 Was gather'd, which coft Ceres all that pain 268. Not that fair field &c.] Not that fair field of Enna in Sicily, celebrated fo much by Ovid and Claudian for its beauty, from whence Proferpin was carried away by the gloomy God of Hell Dis or Pluto, which occafion'd her mother Ceres to feek her all the world over; nor that fweet grove of Daphne near Antioch, the capital of Syria, feated on the banks of the river Orontes, together with the Caftalian fpring there, of the fame name with that in Greece, and extoll'd for its prophetic qualities; nor the iland Nysa, incompafs'd with the river Triton in Africa, where Cham or Ham the fon of Noah, therefore called old, (who first peopled Egypt and Lybia, and among the Gentiles goes by the name of Ammon or Lybian Jove) hid his miftrefs Amalthea and her beautiful fon Bacchus (therefore called Dionyfus) from his Of stepdame Rhea's eye, the stepdame And |