And ever, against eating cares, Lap me in foft Lydian airs, Married to immortal verfe; Such as the meeting foul may pierce, 135 adds to the obvious parallel from Shakspeare, "This child of Fancy, that Armado hight," the following line from Jul. Caf. "Oh hateful Errour, Melancholy's child!" There is good reasons to fuppofe, that Milton threw many additions and corrections into the Theatrum Poetarum, a book published by his nephew Edward Phillips, in 1675. It contains criticisms far above the taste of that period: Among these is the following judgment on Shakspeare, which was not then, I be lieve, the general opinion, and which perfectly coincides both with the fentiment and words of the text. "In tragedy, never any expreffed a more lofty and tragic heighth, never any reprefented nature more purely to the life: and where the polishments of art are most wanting, as probably his learning was not extraordinary, he pleases with a certain wild and native elegance, &c." Mod. Poets, p. 194. T. WARTON. Milton fhows his judgement here, in celebrating Shakspeare's Comedies, rather than his Tragedies. But for models of the latter, he refers us rightly, in his Penferofo, to the Grecian scene, verfe 97. HURD. Ver. 134. his native wood-notes wild.] Taffo, Gier. Lib. C. vii. 6. "bofcarecce inculte avene." See Curfory Remarks on fome of the ancient English poets, p. 126. TODD. Ver. 137. Married to immortal verfe ;] So in Browne's Britannia's Paftorals, of a fhepherd, B. i. S. v. p. 93. "Marrying his sweet noates with their filuer found.” And in our author's Poem at a folemn Mufick, v. 1. "Bleft pair of Syrens, pledges of heaven's joy, And Sylvefter, of the birds in Paradife, Du Bart. p. 172. edit. fol. 1621. "Marrying their fweet notes to the angels layes.” In notes, with many a winding bout Again, of the birds, p. 105. ut fupr. "To marrie myne immortal layes to theirs." 140 Phillips, Milton's nephew, fays in the Preface to his Theatrum Poetarum, that "the Lydian mood is now most in request.” See Note on v. 134. T. WARTON. The fame Edward Phillips, in his encomiaftick verfes prefixed to the first Book of Henry Lawes's Ayres, 1653, notices the musician's skill both in "The Dorick fage, and the mild Lydian." ToDp, Ver. 139. bout] Bout is a fold or twist, and often used in this fenfe by Spenfer. See F. Q. i. xi. 3. "Whofe wreathed boughtes whenever he unfolds." F. Q. i. i. 15, and Virgil's Gnat, ft. 32. TODD. Ver. 141. With wanton heed and giddy cunning; See alfo The melting voice through mazes running;] The rhymes occur in P. Fletcher's Poetic. Mifcell. 1633, p. 80. "While the speedie woods came running, And in Sylvefter's Du Bart. 1621. p. 610. "Though it have such curious cunning, "Gentle touch, and nimble running.” Cunning is ufed in the fame fenfe, in our Tranflation of the Pfalms: "If I forget thee, O Jerufalem, let my right hand forget her cunning," Pf. cxxxvii. 5. Which Sandys rightly paraphrafes, "Let my fingers their melodious skill forget," Pf, ed. 1648, p. 210. TODD., Ver. 142. The melting voice through mazes running, The hidden foul of harmony;] Mr. Malone thinks that Milton has here copied Marfton's comedy, What you will 1607. Suppl. Shaksp. vol. i. 588, Untwisting all the chains that tie That Orpheus' felf may heave his head Of heap'd Elysian flowers, and hear His half-regain'd Eurydice. <6 Cannot your trembling wires throw a chain 145 150 But the poet is not displaying the effect of musick on the fenfes, but of a skilful musician on mufick. Milton's meaning, is not, that the fenfes are inchained or amazed by mufick, but that, as the voice of the finger runs through the manifold mazes or intricacies of found, all the chains are untwisted which imprison and entangle the hidden foul, the effence or perfection, of harmony. In common fenfe, let mufick be made to show all, even her most hidden powers. T. WARTON. The melting voice is noticed in P. Fletcher's Pifc. Eclogues, edit. 1633, Ecl. iii. ft. 14. "Who taught thy honied tongue the cunning flight, "To melt the ravish't eare with mufick's ftrains ?" TODD. Ver. 146. From golden flumber on a bed] Thus in a Song of Drummond's, ed. 1616. Edinb. "My fenfes, one by one, gaue place to Sleepe; "Who, follow'd with a troupe of golden flombers, "Thruft from my quiet braine all base encombers." Again, in a Song in the Comedy of Patient Griffil, 4to, 1603. "Golden flumbers kiffe your eyes." See alfo Milton's "Aurea quies," El. iii. 66. TODD. Ver. 147. Of heap'd Elyfian flowers,] See Par. Loft, B. iii. 359. Mr. Warton adds, that Milton's florid ftyle has this distinction from that of most other poets, that it is marked with These delights if thou canft give, Mirth, with thee I mean to live. a degree of dignity. Pope has borrowed Milton's Elyfan flowers in his Ode on St. Cecilia's day. TODD. IL PENSEROSO. HENCE, vain deluding Joys, The brood of Folly without father bred! Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys! And fancies fond with gaudy shapes poffefs, 5 Ver. 1. Hence, vain deluding Joys, &c.] The opening of this poem is formed from a distich in Sylvester, the translator of Dų Bartas, Workes, edit. fol. 1621, p. 1084. "Hence, hence, false pleasures, momentary joyes, "Mocke us no more with your illuding toyes!" BOWLE. Ver. 4. the fixed mind] See Par. L. B. i. 97. And Milton's favourite, Spenfer, Faer. Qu. iv. vii. 16. "Yet nothing could my fixed mind remove." TODD. Ver. 7. As thick &c.] This imagery is immediately from Sylvefter's Cave of Sleep in Du Bartas, p. 316. edit. fol. 1621. See Note on L' Allegr. v. 10. He there mentions Morpheus, and speaks of his "fantasticke fwarmes of Dreames that hovered,” and fwarms of dreams "Green, red, and yellow, tawney, black and blew:" And these resemble, “Th' unnumbred moats which in the fun do play." And these dreams, from their various colours, are afterwards called the "gawdy fwarme of dreames." Hence Milton's fancies fond, gaudy shapes, numberless gay motes in the fun-beams, and the hovering dreams of Morpheus. T. WARTON. |