And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be sure

. Thou, when the bridegroom with his feastful friends

Passes to bliss at the mid hour of night,
Haft gain’d thy entrance, Virgin wise and

pure.
X.

To the Lady Margaret Ley.
Daughter to that good Earl, once President

Of England's Council, and her Treasury,
Who liv'd in both, unstain’d with gold or fee,

And left them both, more in himself content,
Till fad the breaking of that Parlament
Broke him, as that dishoneft victory

At

5 IO

At Chæronea, fatal to liberty,

Kill'd with report that old man eloquent. Though later born than to have known the days

Wherein your father florifh'd, yet by you,

Madam, methinks I see him living yet;
So well your words his noble virtues praise,

That all both judge you to relate them true,
And to possess them, honor'd Margaret.

XI. + On the detraction which followed upon my writing

certain treatises. A book was writ of late callid Tetrachordon,

And

&TeddTa Tov Brov &T1 Xoxpwvid's op zov?@, ohio nullities in marriage, in 1645; and soon after γαις ημεραις υστερον της εν Χαιρωνεια μαχης, δυσιν we may suppose he composed these two fonnets, Θεουλα βεβιωκως έκατον ετη, γνωμη χρησαμενΘ, which were firft printed in the edition of 1673, αμα τοις αγαθσις της πολεως συκαταλυσαν τον and to which we have prefixed the title that he SOUTOU Brov. Dionysius Halicarnaff. de Isocrate himself has in the Manuscript. Vol. 2. p. 150. Edit. Hudson. Plutarch says 1. A book was writ of late &c] In the Mze that he abstain'd from food for four days, and nuscript he had written at first, ko put a period to his life, having liv'd 98,

а.

And woven close, both matter, form and stile;
The subject new: it walk'd the town a while,

Numb’ring good intellects ; now seldom por'd on. Cries the stall-reader, Bless us! what a word on

A title page is this! and some in file
Stand spelling false, while one might walk to Mile-

End Green. Why is it harder Sirs than Gordon,
Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp?

Those rugged names to our like mouths grow sleek, 19

That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp. Thy age, like ours, O Soul of Sir John Cheek,

Hated not learning worse than toad or asp, [Greek. When thou taught'st Cambridge, and king Edward

XII.

On the same,
I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs

Ву

9. Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp?] We 12. Sir John Cheek] Or Cheke. He was the may suppose that these were persons of note first Professor of the Greek tongue in the uniand eminence amongst the Scotch ministers versity of Cambridge, and was highly inftruwho were for pressing and enforcing the Co- mental in bringing that language into repute, venant. Galasp we know was one of the Scotch and restoring the original pronunciation of it, ministers and commissioners from the Kirk to tho' with great opposition from the patrons of the Parlament. See the verses on the forcers of ignorance and popery, and especially from conscience.

Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, and chan10. Those rugged names] He had written at cellor of the university. He was afterwards first barbarous, and then rough bewn, and then made one of the tutors to Edward VI. See rugged.

his a

By the known rules of ancient liberty,
When strait a barbarous noise environs me

Of owls and cuccoos, asses, apes and dogs:
As when those hinds that were transform’d to frogs 5

Rail'd at Latona's twin-born progeny,
Which after held the sun and moon in fee.

But this is got by casting pearl to hogs;
That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood,

And still revolt when truth would set them free. 10

Licence they mean when they cry Liberty ;
For who loves that, must first be wise and good;

But from that mark how far they rove we see
For all this waste of wealth, and loss of blood.

XIII.
* To Mr. H. L A WE S on his Airs.
Harry, whose tuneful and well measur’d song

First his life by Strype, or in Biographia Bri- Which after held the sun and moon in fee,

intimates the good hopes which he had of him4. Of owls and cuccoos,] In Milton's Manu- self, and his expectations of making a consiscript it stands,

derable figure in the world.

by casting pearl to hogs ;] Mat. VII.

6. neither cast ye your pearl before swine 5. As when those binds &c] The fable of the

10. And still revolt &c] He had written at first, Lycian clowns changed into frogs is related

And bate the truth whereby they should be free, by Ovid, Met. VI. Fab. 4. and the poet in saying

* This sonnet was also first added in the edi

tannica.

Of owls and buzzards

8.

Xxx

First taught our English music how to span
Words with just note and accent, not to scan

With Midas ears, committing short and long;
Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng, 5

With praise enough for envy to look wan ;
To after age thou shalt be writ the man,

That with smooth air could'It humourbestourtongue. Thou honor'st verse, and verfe must lend her wing

To honor thee, the priest of Phoebus quire,
That tun'st their happiest lines in hymn, or story.

Dante

IO

tion of 1673, and in Milton's Manuscript it is With Midas ears, misjoining short and long. dated Febr. 9. 1645. and said to be wrote to

But committing, as Mr. Richardson remarks, Mr. Lawes on the publishing of bis airs. This Mr. Henry Lawes was a gentleman of his Ma- conveys with it the idea of offending against

quantity and harmony. jesty's chapel, and one of his band of music, and an intimate friend of Milton, as appears 5. exempts thee from the throng] Horace by his first publishing the Mask in 1637, the Od. I. I. 32. airs of which he set to music, and probably Secernunt populo Richardson. too those of his Arcades. He was educated under Signor Coperario, and introduced a 6. With praise enough &c ) Instead of this fofter mixture of Italian airs, than had been line was the following at first in the Manuscript, practic'd before in our nation; as Mr. Fenton And gives thee praise above the pipe of Pan. says in his notes upon Waller, who has also honor'd him with a copy of verses inscribid To

7. -thou shalt be writ the man, &c) This Mr. Henry Lawes who bad tben newly set a song too in the stile of Horace, Od. I. VI. 1. of mine in the year 1635.