H XII: Another on the fame. ERE lieth one, who did moft truly prove That he could never die while he could move;ī So hung his destiny, never to rot While he might still jog on and keep his trot, Time numbers motion, yet (without a crimes sadT 'Gainst old truth) motion number'd out his time: A And like an engin mov'd with wheel and weight, His principles being ceas'd, he ended ftrait. bod stö Reft that gives all men life, gave him his death, And too much breathing put him out of breath; I Nor were it contradiction to affirm Too long vacation haften'd on his term. Merely to drive the time away he sicken'd, 15 Fainted, and died, nor would with ale be quicken'd "in Bishopfgate-street, with an "hundred pound bag under his "arm, with this infcription upon "the faid bag, Nay, lifh Proverbs fays that he raised himself to a great estate, and did much good in the town, relieving the poor, and building a public conduit in the market place. The infcription on the conduit is as follows." Thomas Hobfon, late Mr. Ray in his Collection of Eng-carrier between London and this "The fruitful mother of an hundred more." "town, Nay, quoth he, on his fwooning bed out-ftretch'd, 20 That ev'n to his last breath (there be that say't) 25 He had been an immortal carrier. "town, in his life time was at the "fole charge of erecting this " ftructure A. D. 1614. He de"parted this life January 1, 1630, "and gave by will the rent of "feven Lays of pafture-ground " lying in St. Thomas's Lays to "wards the maintenance of this Ve L, II. gone, 30 H XIII. * L'ALLEGRO. ENCE loathed Melancholy, Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born, In Stygian cave forlorn 'Mongft horrid fhapes, and fhrieks, and fights This and the following poem are exquifitely beautiful in themfelves, but appear much more beautiful, when they are confidered, as they written, in contraft to Beaches There is a great variety of pleafing images in each of them; and it is remarkable, that the poet reprefents feveral of the fame objects as exciting both mirth and melancholy, and affecting us differently according to the different difpofitions and affections of the foul. This is nature and experience. He derives the title of both poems from the Italian, which language was then principally in vogue. L'Allegro is the chearful merry man; and in this poem he defcribes the course of mirth in the country and in the city from morning till noon, and from noon till night: and poffibly he might have this in his thoughts, when he faid afterwards in his Areopagitica "there be delights, there be recreations and Et Phoebus pater, & fevera Pallas, Et ridens jocus, et fales protervi night born,] The poet in making Melancholy the daughter of Cerberus might perhaps intend to infinuate, that he has fomething of the cynic, as well as fomething monftrous and unnatural, in her com Find out fome uncouth cell, 5 Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings, And the night-raven fings; There under ebon fhades, and low-brow'd rocks, As ragged as thy locks, › In dark Cimmerian defert ever dwell. But come thou Goddess fair and free, In Heav'n ycleap'd Euphrofyne, compofition: but if this poem had not undergone two impreffions in Milton's life time, and one of them before he loft his fight, I fhould have imagin'd that he had wrote Erebus inftead of Cerberus, as being more agreeable to Heathen mythology. Erebus and Night are often joined together, as in Hefiod, Theog. ver. 123. Ex Xdeo EpECT μea να το Νυξ εγένοντο. ·NUX ♪ OUT' Alomp te xal Hulph Eeyeror 70, "OUS TERE, nucdului Epace λοτητι μιγείσα. And feveral of their children, enumerated by Cicero, are much of the fame nature and complexion as Melancholy. De Nat. Deor. III. 17. eorumque fratres & forores, qui a genealogis antiquis fic nominantur, Metus, Labor, Invidentia, Tenebræ, Miferia, Querela, &c. quos omnes Erebo et Nocte natos ferunt. I find Mr. Upton in his let 12. In Heav'n ycleap'd EuphroSpenfer Faery Queen B. 3. Cant. fyne,] Cleaped is called, named; 12. St. 19. The frolic wind that breathes the fpring, novi a Zephyr with Aurora playing, As he met her once a Maying, There on beds of violets blue, The poet, in saying that he was called Euphrofne in Heaven, and Mirth by men, imitates Homer's manner of fpeaking, where the names in ufe among the learned They are the daughters of fkyruling Jove, By him begot of fair Eurynome. But Milton with great judgment and a very allowable liberty follows the account of their being fprung from Bacchus and Venus, because the mythology of it fuited the nature of his fubject better.. Thyer. |