IL PENSEROSO. HENCE, vain deluding joys, The brood of folly without father bred, How little you bestead, Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys! Dwell in some idle brain, And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As thick and numberless As the gay motes that people the sunbeams, Or likest hovering dreams 5 The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train. 10 But hail thou Goddess, sage and holy, Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of human sight, The Sea-Nymphs, and their pow'rs offended: 13 too bright] Hor. Od. i. xix. 5. ‹ Nimium lubricus aspici.' 19 Ethiop] 'Noctem Ethiopissam.' Miltoni Prolus. p. 73. Thee bright-hair'd Vesta, long of yore, His daughter she (in Saturn's reign, With a sad leaden downward cast Thou fix them on the earth as fast: And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet, 45 Spare Fast, that oft with Gods doth diet, And hears the Muses in a ring Aye round about Jove's altar sing: 35 cyprus] Winter's Tale, act iv. sc. 3. 'Cyprus black as e'er was crow.' Warton. 37 keep] State in wonted manner keep.' Jonson's Cynth. Rev. act And add to these retired Leisure, Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, among Thee, chauntress, oft the woods 58 Smoothing] Shakesp. Sonnets, 51. 59 checks] Todd's Milton, vol. vi. p. 323. 68 Riding] Eurip. Suppl. 992. iлnéovoi di' ¿oprácas. 50 355 60 65 70 Over some wide-water'd shore, Where glowing embers through the room Far from all resort of mirth, Save the cricket on the hearth, Or the bellman's drowsy charm, To bless the doors from nightly harm: What worlds, or what vast regions hold And of those Demons that are found In sceptred pall come sweeping by, 75 wide-water'd] Constable's Son. Ellis's Spec. ii. p. 305. 'Or like the echo of a passing bell, Which, sounding on the water, seems to howl.' 98 sceptred] Miltoni Eleg. i. 37. 'Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragedia sceptrum Warton. Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line, Or what (though rare) of later age Such notes as warbled to the string, And made Hell grant what love did seek. The story of Cambuscan bold, 100 105 110 That own'd the virtuous ring and glass, 115 Where more is meant than meets the ear. 120 Thus night oft see me in thy pale career, Till civil-suited morn appear, Not trick'd and frounc'd as she was wont With the Attic boy to hunt, 110 Cambuscan] In the Squier's Tale of Chaucer, see Tyrwhitt's notes, vol. ii. p. 466, ed. 1798. Todd. 122 civil] Rom. and Juliet, act iii. sc. 4. come, civil night, Thou sober-suited matron, all in black.' Warton. |