And woven clofe, both matter, form, and ftile; on. page 6 Cries the ftall-reader, Blefs us! what a word on- End Green. Why is it harder, Sirs, than Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galafp? 9 Mr. Bowle, who points out the following proof, in the Defenfio fecunda. "Vellem hoc tantum, fermone vernaculo me non fcripfiffe: non enim in vernas lectores incidiffem, quibus folenne eft fua bona ignorare, aliorum mala irridere," Profe-works, ii. 331. This was one of Milton's books published in confequence of his divorce from his firft wife. Tetrachordon fignifies Expofitions on the four chief places in Scripture which mention marriage or nullities in marriage. T. WARTON. Ver. 4. feldom por❜d on.] It is not improbable that Milton here intended to ridicule a quaint couplet in G. Wither's Obfequies on Prince Henry, 1613. The Prince, fays the poet, was himfelfe a book for kings to pore on, "And might have been a Bafilicon Doron !" TODD. Ver. 8. Why is it harder,] Tonfon, who might have been taught better by the Errata of the edition he followed, reads is better, in his edition of 1695. So alfo Colikkto, v. 9. T. WARTON. Ver. 9. Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galafp?] Milton is here collecting, from his hatred to the Scots, what he thinks Scottish names of an ill found. Colkitto and Macdonnel, are one and the fame perfon; a brave officer on the royal fide, an Irish man of the Antrim family, who ferved under Montrofe. The Macdonalds of that family are ftyled, by way of diftinction, Mac Collcittok Thofe rugged names to our like mouths fleek, grow That would have made Quintilian ftare and gafp. Thy age, like ours, O Soul of Sir John Cheek, Hated not learning worse than toad or asp, When thou taught'ft Cambridge, and king Edward, Greek. i. e. defcendants of lame Colin. Galafp is a Scottish writer against the Independents; for whom fee Milton's verfes On the forcers of Confcience, &c. He is George Gillespie, one of the Scotch members of the Affembly of Divines, as his name is fubfcribed to their Letter to the Belgick, French, and Helvetian churches, dated 1643. In which they pray, " that these three nations may be joined as one Stick in the hands of the Lord :that all Mountains may become Plains before them and us; that then all who now fee the Plummet in our hands, may alfo behold the Top-ftone fet upon the head of the Lord's houfe among us, and may help us with shouting to cry, Grace, Grace, to it." Rufhw. p.371. Such was the rhetorick of these reformers of reformation! T. WARTON. Ver. 12. - Sir John Cheek,] Or Cheke. He was the firft profeffor of the Greek tongue in the university of Cambridge, and was highly inftrumental in bringing that language into repute, and reftoring the original pronunciation of it; though with great oppofition from the patrons of ignorance and popery, and especially from Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and chancellor of the univerfity. He was afterwards made one of the tutors to Edward VI. See his Life by Strype, or in the Biographia Britannica. NEWTON. Thy age, like ours, &c. The fame reficction as in his Epift. Fam. Profe-Works, iii. 567." Qui Græcis componendis hoc fæculo ftudium atque operam impendit, periculum est ne plerumque furdo canat." Bowle. Ver. 13. Hated not learning worse than toad or afp,] Mr. Bowle quotes Halle, Rich. ii. f. 34. "Diverfe noble perfonages hated Kinge Richard worse than a toade or a serpent.” T. WARTON. So, in the translation of the first three books of Orlando Innamorato, by R. T. 1598. "He worse than toade Angelica doth hate." And in Harington's Orl. Fur. B. xxvi. ft. 17. "And for they hated them like Snake or toade." TODD. XII. On the SAME*. I DID but prompt the age to quit their clogs By the known rules of ancient liberty, When ftraight a barbarous noise environs me Of owls and cuckoos, affes, apes and dogs: As when thofe hinds that were transform'd to frogs 5 The preceding Sonnet is evidently of a ludicrous, the present of a more contemptuous caft.-There is a portrait of the celebrated Spanish poet, Lope de Vega, painted when he was young; furrounded by dogs, monkies, and other monsters, and writing in the midft of them, without attending to their noife. See Hayley's Effay on Epic Poet. Notes, p. 205. It is not improbable that Milton might have feen, or heard of, this curious picture of his contemporary; and be led, in confequence, to defcribe fo minutely, in this Sonnet, the "barbarous noife that environed him." ToDD. Ver. 3. When ftraight a barbarous noife &c.] Milton was violently cenfured by the prefbyterian clergy for his Tetrachordon, and other tracts of that tendency. T. WARTON. As when thofe hinds &c.] The fable of the Lycian clowns changed into frogs is related by Ovid, Met. vi. Fab. iv. Rail'd at Latona's twin-born progeny, Which after held the fun and moon in fee. But this is got by cafting pearl to hogs; That bawl for freedom in their fenfelefs mood, And ftill revolt when truth would fet them free. 10 Licence they mean when they cry Liberty ; For who loves that, must first be wife and good; But from that mark how far they rove we see, For all this waste of wealth, and lofs of blood. And the poet, in faying "Which after held the fun and moon in fee," intimates the good hopes which he had of himself, and his expectations of making a confiderable figure in the world. NEWTON. Ver. 11. Licence they mean when they cry Liberty;] "The hypocrify of fome fhames not to take offence at this doctrine [the liberty of Divorce] for Licence; whereas, indeed, they fear it would remove Licence, and leave them but few companions," Tetrachord, vol. 1. 4to. p. 319. He further explains himself at the bottom of the same page : "This one virtue incomparable it [the prohibition of divorce] hath, to fill all Chriftendom with whoredoms and adulteries, beyond the art of Balaams or of Devils." Again in his Tenure of Kings and Magiflrates, p. 341. "Indeed, none can love freedom heartily but good men: the reft love not Freedom, but Licence: which never hath more scope or indulgence than under tyrants." HURD. To Mr. H. LAWES on the publishing his Airs. HARRY, whofe tuneful and well measur'd fong our tongue. 5 Ver. 4. With Midas ears, committing fhort and long;] Committing is a Latinifm, as Mr. Warton obferves; and, as Mr. Richardfon had remarked, conveys with it the idea of offending against quantity and harmony.-The expreffion Midas ears, occurs in Nash's Pierce Pennileffe &c. edit. 1595. "Without red reffe complaines my careleffe verse, "And Midas eares relent not at my moane." TODD. Ver. 5. exempts thee from the throng,] Horace, Od. I. i. 32. "Secernunt populo." RICHARDson. Ver. 7. thou shalt be writ the man,] This alfo is in the ftyle of Horace, Od. I. vi. i. "Scriberis Vario fortis, et hoftium "Victor." NEWTON. Ver. 8. with smooth air] So he calls his friend's mufick "Smooth-dittied fong," Com. v. 85. And, in his Areopagitica, he fays that Thales was fent by Lycurgus to "mollifie the Spartan furlineffe with his finooth fongs and odes." TODD. |