But he had the authority of Mantuan and Spenfer, now con fidered as models in this way of writing. Let me add, that our poetry was not yet purged from its Gothick combinations; nor had legitimate notions of difcrimination and propriety fo far prevailed, as fufficiently to influence the growing improvements of English compofition. Thefe irregularities and incongruities must not be tried by modern criticism. T. WARTON. I with indeed that the fictions of heathenifm had not here been mingled with what is faered; particularly that, after the sublime intimation from Scripture of Angels wiping the tears for ever from the eyes of Lycidas, Lycidas thus beatified, had not been converted into the claffical Genius of the shore. My with has been pronounced a "little rafh" by a lady, whofe taste and judgement are well known to the publick, and who has thus pleaded in defence of the poet. "Remember," fays Mrs. Anna Seward in her obliging letter to me, "how exquifitely the bard excufes the intermixture in the courfe of the compofition. Thus : O fountain Arethufe, and thou honour'd flood, And again : Return, Alpheus, the dread voice is paft That shrunk thy ftreams; return, Sicilian muse! In Mr. T. Warton's note on the first of these apologies, I wonder he was not aware that, by That strain I heard was of a higher mood,' Milton meant more than the fuperiority of Phabus to the paftoral Mufes, fince he and they held the fame doctrine; and fince judgement and retribution, alluded to in the lines which precede it, are of an higher school than that of his temple. Milton, after afferting the more ferious origin of that ftrain, proceeds to beguile his forrow for the lofs of his friend yet further, by dallying with falfe furmife;' and fweetly does he play with it, fmiling through his tears, while he interrogates the fea-nymphs, and replies for them. Then again, after having left the Heathen, once more, for the Chriftian allufions, he re-invokes the fabulous train, and calls it Alpheus; afferting that the dread voice is past that shrunk his ftreams, evidently meaning by the dread voice thofe Chriftian allufions. Invocations of fuch fpirited beauty had been loft but for the mixture of mythology; and had the with you exprefs prevailed, the claffic fables been banished from this monody, its moft poetical parts had alfo been loft. Fiction was invoked by the poet. She came in all her ingenuity, her graces, her charms; and it is entirely fufficient that her repeated introduction has been fo finely apologised by her introducer. If I could confider the Genius of the shore, into which Milton transforms his drowned friend, as an entirely Pagan idea, I should join you in condemning it,as a fuperfluous dereliction from the final and fublime refumption of fcriptural hopes and dependencies; but I cannot fee any thing repugnant to them in fuppofing the beatified fouls of men employed by their Creator as miniftrant fpirits, averting from fhores, countries, and their inhabitants, many an impending peril." It has been obferved, that, "as Dante has made Cato of Utica keeper of the gates of Purgatory, Milton has here, in return, placed St. Peter in company with Apollo, Triton, Æolus, &c. For the intrufion of what follows, refpecting the clergy of his time, the earliest Italians have, in pieces of every fort, fet plentiful example. Perhaps no better reafon can be given for Milton's conduct here, than what fome commentator gives for Dante's above mentioned: Per verità è un gran capriccio, ma in ciò fegue fuo ftile." See Curfory Remarks on fome of the ancient English poets, particularly Milton, 1789, p. 112. The first part of the Italian commentator's remark, fays Mr. Dunfter, I readily admit to be applicable in this instance to Milton; but though he fometimes gives into these capriccie, it certainly cannot be said of him that in ciò fegue fuo ftile. The rhymes and numbers, which doctor Johnfon condemns, appear to me as eminent proofs of the poet's judgement; exhibiting, in their varied and arbitrary difpofition, an ease and gracefulness, which infinitely exceed the formal couplets, or alternate rhymes, of modern Elegy. Lamenting alfo the prejudice which has pronounced Lycidas to be vulgar and disgusting, I shall never cease to confider this monody as the fweet effufion of a most poetick and tender mind; entitled, as well by its beautiful melody, as by the frequent grandeur of its fentiments and language, to the utmost enthusiasm of admiration. TODD. Original Various Readings of Lycidas, From Milton's MS, in his own hand. Examined by the editor of these volumes. Ver. 10. Who would not fing for Lycidas, he well knew. Ver. 26. Under the glimmering eye-lids &c. Ver. 30. Oft till the even-ftarre bright Towards heaven's defcent had floapt his* burnisht wheel. Ver. 47. Or froft to flowres that their gay † buttons wear. Here bear had been written, and erased, before wear. Ver. 58. What could the golden-hayr'd Calliope For her inchaunting fon, When he beheld (the gods far-fighted bee) His goarie Scalpe rowle downe the Thracian lee. Here, after inchaunting fon, occurs in the margin Whome univerfal Nature might lament, And heaven and hel deplore, When his divine head downe the ftreame was fent. The line And heaven &c. is erafed; divine head is also altered to divine vifage, and afterwards to goary visage. * Burnish'd is an epithet, in our elder poetry, often applied to the fun's equipage, or refidence. Thus, in The famous hiftory of Tho. Stukely, as it hath been acted, 4to. 1605, bl. 1. "the fonne of Phœbus, "Vpon his father's fiery BURNISH▶ Carr, "Nere fat fo glorious." TODD. ✦ See Beaumont and Fletcher, The Two Noble Kinfmen, A. iii. S. i. -“O queen Emilia, "Fresher than May, fweeter "Than her gold buttons on the boughs." And Shakspeare, Hamlet, A. i. S. iii. "The canker galls the infants of the spring "Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd" And Browne, Brit. Paft. B. ii. S. iii. p. 61. edit. 1616. "Flora's choife buttons of a ruffet dye." T. WARTON. Ver. 69. Hid in the tangles &c. Ver. 85. Oh fountain Arethufe, and, thou smooth flood, Smooth is then altered to fam'd, and next to honour'd: And foft fliding to fmooth-fliding. Ver. 105. Scraul'd ore with figures dim. Inwrought is in the margin. Ver. 129. Daily devours apace, and little fed. Nothing is erafed. Ver. 138. On whofe fresh lap the fwart ftar ftintly looks, At first Sparely, as at present. Ver. 139. Bring hither &c. Ver. 142. Bring the rathe primrose that unwedded dies, To write his own woes on the vermeil graine : The cowflip wan that hangs his penfive head, * In Sandy's Pfalms, published in the fame year with Lycidas, is the following phrase, Pf. xxiii. "He fofters me in fragrant meads, By Softly-fliding waters leads." And in Sylvefter's Du Bart. there is the other altered compound, "Smoothfliding waters," edit. 1621, p. 171. Compare alfo ibid, p. 1177. "You filver brooks, cleer rivers, cryftall fountains, "Whose smooth swift-sliding pase "Still, ftill roules down apace." So, in the second page of The Teares of Love, or Cupid's Progresse, by Thomas "For Nayis, Lady of that louely Lake, This remarkable expreffion, forrow's liverie, may allude perhaps to a paffage in an elegant poet, with which Milton might have been pleased. See Habington's Caftara, edit, 1635, p. 88. "Vpon the death of a Ladie :" Let daffadillies fill their cups with teares, Bid amaranthus all his beautie shed. Here alfo the well-attir'd woodbine appears, as at present, altered from garish columbine; and fad embroidery, an alteration of fad efcocheon, inftead of forrow's liverie. Ver. 153. Let our fad thoughts &c. Ver. 154. Ay mee, whilft thee the floods and founding feas. Ver. 160. Sleep'ft by the fable of Corineus old. But Bellerus is a correction. Ver. 176. Listening the unexpreffive nuptial fong. "fweet flowers "Which now adorne her hearfe. The violet there "On her pale cheeke doth the fad livery weare, "Which heaven's compaffion gave her.” See alfo Wither's Juvenilia, 1622, p. 351. my Mufe, as yet vnknowne, « Should first in forrowe's liussy be showne." TODD. |