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Where the great vifion 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 forrow is not dead,

Sunk though he be beneath the watry floor;
So finks the day-ftar in the ocean bed,
And yet anon repairs his drooping head,

cular promontory was denominated, rather than one who gave name to the county at large. The fable of Bellerus and the vifion of the guarded mount is plainly taken from fome of our old romances, but we may perceive what place is intended.

And

body on the fhore at Corinth where he was "deified." Richardfon.

den and beautiful tranfition from the gloomy 165. Weep no more, &c] Milton in this fudand mournful ftrain into that of hope and com163. Look homeward Angel now, ] So the his 11th Eclogue, where bewailing the death fort feems pretty plainly to imitate Spenser in Pastory Elegy on Sir Philip Sidney.

Philifides is dead. O happy Sprite,

of fome maiden of great blood, whom he calleth Dido, in terms of the utmost grief and

That now in Heav'n with bleffed fouls doft dejection, he breaks out all at once in the fame

bide, Look down awhile from where thou fitft

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And tricks his beams, and with new spangled ore 170 Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:

So Lycidas funk 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 unexpreffive nuptial song,
In the bleft kingdoms meek of joy and love.
There entertain him all the Saints above,

175

Loft, X. 1069 and Homer, if the hymn to Apollo be his, compares Apollo to a star in mid day. ver. 441.

Αζερι ειδόμενος μέσῳ ηματι.

In

unexpressive &c. This is the fong in the Revelation, which no man could learn but they who were not defiled with women, and were virgins: Rev. XIV. 3, 4. The author had used the word unexpreffive in the fame manner before in

174. Where other groves and other ftreams his Hymn on the Nativity, St. 11. along,] Virgil Æn. VI. 641.

folemque fuum, fua fidera norunt.

And as Mr. Richardfon adds, Ariofto when he brings Aftolfo to the moon, to look for Orlando's wit that was loft. Cant. 34. St. 72.

There other rivers ftream, fmile other fields Than here with us, and other plains are stretch'd,

Sink other valleys, other mountains rife. &c. 175. With nectar pure his oozy locks be laves,] Like Apollo in Horace, Od. III. IV. 61.

Qui rore puro Caftaliæ lavit

Crines folutos.

176. And bears the unexpreffive nuptial song,], In the Manuscript it was at firft Lift'ning the

Harping in loud and folemn quire

With unexpreffive notes to Heav'n's new

born heir.

Nor are parallel inftances wanting in Shakefpear. As you like it, Act 3. Sc. 2.

The fair, the chafte, and unexpreffive fhe. And in like manner infuppreffive is used for not to be fupprefs'd. Julius Cæfar, Act 2. Sc. 2.

Nor th' infuppreffive mettle of our fpirits.

I have several times had the pleasure of making the fame remarks and obfervations as Mr. Thyer, and here we had both mark'd thefe instances from Shakespear.

177. In the bleft kingdoms meek of joy and love.] That is in the bleft kingdoms of Sff2 meek

eyes.

In folemn troops, and sweet societies,
That fing, and finging in their glory move,
And wipe the tears for ever from his
Now, Lycidas, the fhepherds weep no more;
Henceforth thou art the genius of the shore,
In thy large recompenfe, and fhalt be good
To all that wander in that perilous flood.

180

185

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

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And as Mr. Jortin obferves, it is pleasant to fee how the most anti-papistical poets are in

clined to canonize and then to invoke their friends as faints. See the poem on the fair Infant. St. 10.

184.

and fhalt be good &c] The fame compliment that Virgil pays to his Daphnis. Ecl. V. 64.

Deus, deus ille, Menalca.
Sis bonus ô felixque tuis! &c. Thyer.

189. With eager thought warbling his Doric

lay] He calls it Doric lay, because it imitates Theocritus and other paftoral poets, who wrote in the Doric dialect. Tho' Milton calls himself as yet uncouth, he warbles with eager thought his Doric lay; earnest of the poet he was to be, at least; as he promises in

the

And now the fun 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.

199

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

baccare frontem

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which Milton has omitted, is very natural and beautiful.

193. To morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.] Theocritus. Idyll. I. 145.

Χαιρετώ εγω δ' ύμμιν και ες ύσερον άδιον ᾄσω. Jortin. Mr. Richardfon conceives that by this last verse the poet says (paftorally) that he is haftening to, and eager on new work. but I rather believe that it was faid in allufion to his travels into Italy, which he was now meditating, and on which he fet out the fpring following. I will conclude my remarks upon this poem with the juft obfervation of Mr. Thyer. The particular beauties of this charming paftoral are too striking to need much defcanting upon; but what gives the greatest grace to the whole is that natural and agreeable wildnefs and irregularity which runs quite through it, than which nothing could be better fuited to exprefs the warm affection which Milton had for his friend, and the extreme grief he was in for the lofs of him. Grief is eloquent, but not formal,

The

XVIII.

The Fifth O DE of Horace, Lib. I.

Quis multa gracilis te puer in rofa, rendred almost word for word without rime, according to the Latin measure, as near as the language will permit.

HAT flender youth bedew'd with liquid odors

WHAT

Courts thee on roses in fome 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 ftorms
Unwonted fhall admire!

Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold,

Who always vacant always amiable

Hopes thee, of flattering gales

Unmindful. Haplefs they

5

ΙΟ

To whom thou untry'd seem'st fair. Me in my vow'd

Picture the facred wall declares t' have hung

My dank and dropping weeds

To the stern God of fea.

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

15

And

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