But far above in spangled sheen Celestial Cupid her fam'd son advanc'd, Holds his dear Pfyche sweet intranc'd, I can fly, or I can run Quickly to the green earth's end, Where the bow'd welkin flow doth bend, 1005 ΙΟΙΟ 1015 To 1003. in Spangled sheen] I think this word is commonly used as an adjective, as in Spenfer, Faery Queen. B. 2. Cant. 1. St. 10. To fpoil her dainty corfe fo fair and fheen: and again Cant. 2. St. 40. That with her fovereign power and scepter fbeen All faery lond does peaceable fufteen. But Milton ufes it as a fubftantive both here and before in ver. 893. the azurn fheen, and in several other places; and he makes heeny the Or did of late earth's fons befiege the wall In ufing Sheen for a substantive Milton has the 1012. But now my task is smoothly done, &c] He had written at first, Νουν To the corners of the moon. Mortals that would follow me, Now my message [or business] well is done, much the fame character and office as the at tendent Spirit in the Mask, and he fays to the I must go, and I must run 1020 1018. Mortals that would follow me, &c] The moral of this poem is very finely fumm'd up in these concluding fix verfes; the thought contain'd in the two laft might probably be fuggefted to our author by a paffage in the Table of Cebes, where Patience and Perfeverance are represented stooping and ftretching out their hands to help up thofe who are endevoring to climb the craggy hill of Virtue, and yet and in the conclusion his taking leave is fome. are too feeble to afcend of themselves. what in the fame manner, Thyer. 480 XVII. LYCIDA S. This poem was made upon the unfortunate and untimely death of Mr. Edward King, fon of Sir John King Secretary for Ireland, a fellow-collegian and intimate friend of our author, who as he was going to vifit his relations in Ireland, was drown'd on the 10th of August 1637, and in the 25th year of his age. The year following 1638 a fmall volume of poems Greek, Latin, and English, was printed at Cambridge in honor of his memory, and before them was prefix'd the following account of the deceas'd. P. M. S. Edovardus King, f. Joannis (equitis aurati, qui SSS RRR Elifabethæ, Jacobo, Carolo, pro regno Hiberniæ a fecretis) col. Chrifti in Academia Cant. focius, pietatis atque eruditionis confcientia et fama felix, in quo nihil immaturum præter ætatem; dum Hiberniam cogitat, tractus defiderio fuorum, patriam, agnatos et amicos, præ cæteris fratrem, Dominum Robertum King (equitem auratum, virum ornatiffimum) forores (fœminas lectiffimas) Annam, Dom. G. Caulfield, Baronis de Charlemont; Margaretam, D. G. Loder, fummi Hiberniæ Juftitiarii, uxorem; venerandum Præfulem, Edovardum King, Epifcopum Elphinenfem (a quo facro fonte fufceptus) reverendiffimum et doctiffimum virum Gulielmum Chappel, Decanum ecclefiæ Caffelienfis, et collegii Sanctæ Trinitatis apud Dublinienfes præpofitum (cujus in Academia auditor et alumnus fuerat) invifens; haud procul a littore Britannico, navi in fcopulum allifa, et rimis et ictu fatifcente, dum alii vectores vitæ mortalis fruftra fatagerent, immortalitatem anhelans, in genua provolutus oranfque, the unfortunate una cum navigio ab aquis absorptus, animam Deo reddidit IIII. Eid. Sextileis, anno falutis M,DC,XXXVII. ætatis XXV. The laft poem in the collection was this of Milton, which by his own Manuscript appears to have been written in November 1637, when he was almoft 29 years old: and these words in the printed titles of this poem, and by occafion foretels the ruin of our corrupted clergy, then in their highth, are not in the Manufcript. This poem is with great judgment made of the pastoral kind, as both Mr. King and Milton had been defign'd for holy orders and the pastoral care, which gives a peculiar propriety to feveral paffages in it: and in compofing it the poet had an eye particularly to Virgil's 10th Eclogue lamenting the unhappy loves of Gallus, and to Spenfer's paftoral poems upon the death of the Mufes favorite, Sir Philip Sidney. The reader cannot but obferve, that there are more antiquated and obfolete words in this than in any other of Milton's poems; which I conceive to be owing partly to his judgment, for he might think them more ruftic, and better adapted to the nature of paftoral poetry; and partly to his imitating of Spenfer, for as Spenfer's ftile is most antiquated, where he imitates Chaucer moft, in his Shepherds Calendar, fo Milton's imitations of Spenfer might have the fame effect upon the language of this poem. It is called a monody, from a Greek word fignifying a mournful or funeral fong fung by a fingle perfon: and we have lately had two admirable poems publifh'd under this title, one occafion'd by the death of Mr. Pope by a very ingenious In this monody the author bewails a learned friend, unfortunately drown'd in his paffage from Chester on the Irish feas, 1637. and by occasion foretels the ruin of our corrupted clergy, then in their highth. ET once more, O ye Laurels, and once more YET Ye Myrtles brown, with Ivy never sere, I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. ingenious poet of Cambridge, and the other to the memory of his deceas'd lady by a gentleman, whose excellent poetry is the least of his many excellences. 5 Compels We have the being one of the ever-greens. 1. Yet once more] The poem begins fomewhat like Virgil's Gallus, 3. I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,] This beautiful allufion to the unripe age of his Extremum hunc, Arethufa, mihi concede friend, in which death shatter'd his leaves before laborem: and this yet once more is faid in allufion to his former poems upon the like occafions, On the death of a fair infant dying of a cough, Epitaph on the Marchionefs of Winchester, &c. Oye Laurels, and once more I. the mellowing year, is not antique, I think, but of thofe fecret graces of Spenfer. See his Eclogue of January in the Shepherd's Calendar. The poet there fays of himself under the name of Colin Clout, Alfo my luftful leaf is dry and fere, Ye Myrtles brown, with Ivy never fere,] The laurel, as he was a poet, for that was facred which explains too the old word in the second to Apollo; the myrtle, as he was of a proper age for love, for that was the plant of Venus; the ivy, as a reward of his learning. Hor. Od. line. Richardjon. 6. Bitter constraint, and fad occafion dear,] So in Spenfer, Faery Queen, B. 1. Cant. 1. St. 53. Love of yourself, the faid, and dear conftraint, Compels me to disturb your feafon due: Begin then, Sisters of the facred well, 14. Without the meed] Without the reward. Spenfer, Faery Queen, B. 2. Cant. 3. St. 1o. but honor, virtue's meed, IO 15 Hence 15. Begin then, Sifters of the facred well, That from beneath the feat of Jove doth spring,] He means Hippocrené, a fountain confecrated of which was an altar of Heliconian Jupiter, to the Mufes on mount Helicon, on the fide as Hefiod fays in the invocation for his poem on the generation of the Gods. Μεσάων Ελικωνιάδων αρχώμεθ' αείδειν, fpring, And altar of great Jove, with printless feet This altar Milton calls the feat of Jupiter in Doth bear the fairest flow'r in honorable feed. imitation of the Ancients. So Virgil calls the temple |