Where the great vision of the guarded mount
Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold;
Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth:
And, O ye Dolphins, waft the hapless youth.

Weep no more, woful Shepherds, weep no more, 165
For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead,
Sunk though he be beneath the watry floor;
So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed,
And yet anon repairs his drooping head,

And

.

manner.

cular promontory was denominated, rather “ body on the shore at Corinth where he was than one who gave name to the county at

< deified.” Richardson. large. The fable of Bellerus and the vision of the guarded mount is plainly taken from some of den and beautiful transition from the gloomy

165. Weep no more, &c] Milton in this fudour old romances, but we may perceive what

and mournful strain into that of hope and complace is intended. 163. Look homeward Angel now, ] So the his 11th Eclogue, where bewailing the death

fort seems pretty plainly to imitate Spenser in Paftory Elegy on Sir Philip Sidney.

of some maiden of great blood, whom he Philisides is dead. O happy Sprite, calleth Dido, in terms of the utmost grief and That now in Heav'n with blessed souls doft dejection, he breaks out all at once in the same bide,

Thyer. Look down awhile from where thou sitst above &c. Thyer.

168. So finks the day.Star] The thought of a 163. - and melt with rutb:] Wity pity. star's being wash'd in the ocean, and thence Spenser, Faery Queen, B. 1. Cant. 6. St. 12. shining brighter, is frequent among the ancient

poets : and at the first reading I conceiv'd that

I Are won with pity and unwonted ruth.

Milton meant the morning star alluding to Fairfax, Cant. 2. St. 11.

Virgil, Æn. VIII. 589. All ruth, compassion, mercy he forgot.

Qualis ubi oceani perfufus Lucifer unda &c: 164. And, O ye Dolphins, waft the bapless

g'outb.) Alluding to what Paufanias says but upon farther consideration I rather think of Palæmon toward the end of his Attics, that he means the sun, whom in the fame man" that a dolphin took him up, and laid his ner he calls the diurnal star in the Paradise

Loft,

And tricks his beams, and with new spangled ore 170
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:
So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,
Through the dear might of him that walk'd the waves,
Where other groves and other streams along, ,
With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves,
And hears the unexpressive nuptial song,
In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.
There entertain him all the Saints above,

175

In

Loft, X. 1069: and Homer, if the hymn to unexpressive &c. This is the song in the ReApollo be his, compares Apollo to a star in velation, which no man could learn but they wks mid day. ver. 441.

were not defiled with women, and were virgins : Rev. XIV. 3, 4.

The author had used the Ασερι ειδομενος μεσω ηματι.

word unexpressive in the fame manner before in 174. Where other groves and other streams his Hymn on the Nativity, St. 11. along,] Virgil Æn. VI. 641.

Harping in loud and solemn quire solemque suum, sua fidera norunt. With unexpresive notes to Heav'n's new

born heir. And as Mr. Richardson adds, Ariosto when he brings Astolfo to the moon, to look for Or- Nor are parallel instances wanting in Shakelando's wit that was lost. Cant. St.

34: 72.

spear. As you like it, Act 3. Sc. 2. There other rivers stream, smile other fields The fair, the chafte, and unexpresive she. Than here with us, and other plains are

And in like manner infuppressive is used for not stretch'd,

to be suppress’d. Julius Cæsar, Act 2. Sc. 2. Sink other valleys, other mountains rise. &c.

Nor th' insuppressive mettle of our fpirits. 175. With neitar pure his oozy locks be laves,]

I have several times had the pleasure of making Like Apollo in Horace, Od. III. IV. 61.

the same remarks and observations as Mr. Qui rore puro Castaliæ lavit

Thyer, and here we had both mark'd these inCrines solutos.

stances from Shakespear. 176. And bears the unexpresive nuptial song,]. 177. In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and In the Manuscript it was at first Liftining the love.] That is in the blest kingdoms of

I80

In solemn troops, and sweet societies,
That sing, and singing in their glory inove,
And wipe the tears for ever from his

eyes.
Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more ;
Henceforth thou art the genius of the shore,
In thy large recompense, and shalt be good
To all that wander in that perilous flood.

Thus fang the uncouth swain to th’oaks and rills,
While the still morn went out with sandals gray,
He touch'd the tender stops of various quills,
With eager thought warbling his Doric lay:

And

185

184.

meek joy and love ; a transposition of the ad. And as Mr. Jortin observes, it is pleasant to jective, which we meet with also in the Para- see how the most anti-papistical poets are indise Lost, IX. 318.

clined to canonize and then to invoke their

friends as saints. See the poem on the fair So spake domestic Adam in his care,

Infant. St. 10.
in which verse domestic is without doubt to be
join'd to care, and not to Adam as the com-

and foalt be good &c] The same mon opinion is. So also in the same book, compliment that Virgil pays to his Daphnis. ver. 225.

Ecl, V. 64. --and th' hour of supper comes unearn'd.

Thyer.

Deus, deus ille, Menalca.

Sis bonus ô felixque tuis ! &c. Tbyer. 183. Henceforth thou art the genius of the foore,] This is said in allusion to the

189. With eager thought warbling his Doric ftory of Melicerta or Palæmon, who with his

lay:] He calls it Doric lay, because it mother Ino was drown'd, and became a sea- imitates Theocritus and other pastoral poets, deity propitious to mariners. Ovid, Met. IV. who wrote in the Doric dialect. * Tho’ Milton Faft. VI. Virgil Georg. I. 436.

calls himself as yet uncouth, he warbles with Votaque servati solvent in littore nautæ eager thought his Doric lay; earnest of the Glauco, et Panopæ, et Ingo Melicertæ. poet he was to be, at least; as he promises in

the

190

And now the sun had stretch'd out all the hills,
And now was dropt into the western bay;
At last he rose, and twitch'd his mantle blue:
To morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.

the motto to these juvenile poems of edit. smoke afcending from the village-chimnies, 1645.

which Milton has omitted, is very natural and baccare frontem

beautiful." Cingite, ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro. 193. To morrow to fresh woods, and pastures This looks very modest, but fee what he in

new.] Theocritus. Idyll. I. 145. sinuates. The first part of Virgil's verse is,

Χαιρετ" εγω δ' υμμιν και ες ύςερον αυιον ασω.

Jortin. Aut si ultra placitum laudarit, baccare fron- Mr. Richardson conceives that by this last tem &c. Richardson.

verse the poet, says (paftorally) that he is

haftening to, and eager on new work. : but 190. And now the sun had stretch'd out all the I rather believe that it was said in allusion to

bills,] He had no doubt Virgil in his his travels into Italy, which he was now medieye. Ecl. I. 83.

tating, and on which he set out the spring folEt jam summa procul villarum culmina fu- lowing. I will conclude my remarks upon mant,

this poem with the just observation of Mr. Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbre. Thyer. The particular beauties of this charmVirgil's is an admirable description of a rural ing pastoral are too striking to need much evening, but I know not whether Milton's is descanting upon; but what gives the greatest not better, as it represents the fun setting so grace to the whole is that natural and agreeable by degrees,

wildness and irregularity which runs quite

through it, than which nothing could be better And now the sun had stretch'd out all the suited to express the warm affection which hills,

Milton had for his friend, and the extreme And now was dropt into the western bay :

grief he was in for the loss of him. Griet though it must be said that the image of the is eloquent, but not formal,

The

5

XVIII.
The Fifth Ode of Horace, Lib. I.
Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa, rendred almost
word for word without rime, according to the Latin

measure, as near as the language will permit.
WHAT

HAT slender youth bedew'd with liquid odors

Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave,
Pyrrha? for whom bind'st thou

In wreaths thy golden hair,
Plain in thy neatness: O how oft shall he
On faith and changed Gods complain, and feas

Rough with black winds and storms

Unwonted shall admire!
Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold,
Who always vacant always amiable

Hopes thee, of flattering gales
Unmindful. Hapless they

.
To whom thou untry'd seein'st fair. Me in my vow'd
Picture the sacred wall declares t have hung

My dank and dropping weeds
To the stern God of sea.

And
This Ode was first added in the second edition of the author's poems in 1673.

1

IO

15