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Fundat et ipsa modos querebunda Elegëia tristes, Personet et totis nænia mosta Scholis*.

pall, formerly perhaps more generally observed at Cambridge. "Lachrymis tuis" are the funeral poems, as tear is in Lycidas, v. 14. Where see the Note. TODD.

* This Elegy, with the next on the death of bishop Andrewes, the Odes on the death of Professor Goslyn and bishop Felton, and the Poem on the Fifth of November, are very correct and manly performances for a boy of seventeen. This was our author's first year at Cambridge. They discover a great fund and command of ancient literature. T. WARTON.

(

. ELEG. III. Anno Ætatis 17.

In obitum Præsulis Wintoniensis*.

MOESTUS eram, et tacitus, nullo comitante, sedebam;
Hærebántque animo tristia plura meo:

Protinus en! subiit funesta cladis imago,
Fecit in Angliaco quam Libitina solo ;

Dum procerum ingressa est splendentes marmore turres,

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Lancelot Andrewes, bishop of Winchester, had been originally Master of Pembroke-hall in Cambridge; but long before Milton's time. He died at Winchester-House in Southwark, Sept. 21, 1626. It is a great concession, that Milton compliments bishop Andrewes, in his Church Governm. B. i. iii. "But others better advised are content to receive their beginning [the bishops] from Aaron and his sons: among whom bishop Andrewes of late years, and in these times [Usher] the primate of Armagh, for their learning are reputed the best able to say what may be said in their opinion." This piece was written 1641. Prose-Works, vol. i. 45. But see their arguments answered, as he pretends, 47. seq. T. WARTON.

ibid. ch.

v.

P.

Ver. 4. Fecit in Angliaco quam Libitina solo;] A very severe plague now raged in London and the neighbourhood, of which 35417 persons are said to have died. See Whitelock's Mem. p. 2. and Rushworth, Coll. vol. i. p. 175. 201. Milton alludes to the same pestilence, in an Ode written in the same year, On the Death of a fair Infant, v. 68. T. WARTon.

Ver. 5. Dum procerum ingressa est splendentes marmore turres, &c.] These lines remind me of the following in Wilson's Collection of Verses, called Vita et Obitus Fratrum Suffolciensium, made and printed in the year 1552. 4to. Signat. F. i. They are in Reniger's Copy. I have still more pleasure in transcribing

Dira sepulchrali Mors metuenda face; Pulsavitque auro gravidos et jaspide muros, Nec metuit satrapum sternere falce greges. Tunc memini clarique ducis, fratrisque verendi,

them, as they show with a minuteness and particularity not elsewhere to be found, the style of the architecture of the great houses about that time. Death is the person.

Again :

"Illa lacunatis operosa palatia tectis

"Intrat.".

"Nunc tacito penetrat laqueata palatia gressu,
"Ac aulæatas marmoreasque domos.

"Nec metuit bifores portas, valvas bipatentes,
"Quin nec ferrisonæ pessula dura seræ.
"Sive supercilium quod tollant atria longum,
Altaque culminibus dissita tecta suis ;

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"Sive loricatam crustoso marmore frontem,
"Atque striaturis omnia sculpta suis;
"Non quæ truncosis surgunt pinnacula nodis,
"Non fastigatum turrigerumque caput:
"Ne se nobilitas cuneatis jactet in aulis," &c.

T. WARTON.

Ver. 7. Pulsavitque &c.] Hor. Od. I. IV. 13.

"Pallida Mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,
"Regumque turres." RICHARDSON.

Ver. 9. Tunc memini clarique ducis, &c.] I am kindly informed by sir David Dalrymple, "The two Generals here mentioned, who died in 1626, were the two champions of the queen of Bohemia, the duke of Brunswick, and Count Mansfelt: Frater. means a Sworn Brother in arms, according to the military cant of those days. The Queen's, or the Palatine, cause was supported by the German princes, who were heroes of Romance, and the last of that race in that country. The protestant religion, and chivalry, must have interested Milton in this cause. The next couplet respects the death of Henry Earl of Oxford, who died not long before." See Carte's Hist. Eng. iv. p. 93. seq. 172.

Intempestivis ossa cremata rogis :

Et memini Heroum, quos vidit ad æthera raptos,
Flevit et amissos Belgia tota duces.
At te præcipuè luxi, dignissime Præsul,
Wintoniæque olim gloria magna tuæ ;
Delicui fletu, et tristi sic ore querebar :

"Mors fera, Tartareo diva secunda Jovi,
"Nonne satis quòd sylva tuas persentiat iras,
"Et quòd in herbosos jus tibi detur agros?
"Quòdque afflata tuo marcescant lilia tabo,

"Et crocus, et pulchræ Cypridi sacra rosa? "Nec sinis, ut semper fluvio contermina quercus

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seq. Henry earl of Oxford, Shakspeare's patron, died at the siege of Breda in 1625. Dugd. Bar. ii. 200. See Howell's Letters, vol. i. §. 4. Lett. xv. And Note on El. iv. infr. 74. If this be the sense of Fratris, verendi is not a very suitable epithet. T. WARTON.

Ver. 18. Et quòd in herbosos jus tibi detur agros?] He seems to have had in mind the power given unto Death, Rev. vi. 8; and has here most poetically displayed it. TODD.

Ver. 21. fluvio contermina quercus] Ovid, Met. viii. 620. "Tiliæ contermina quercus." The epithet is a favourite with Ovid, Metam. xv. 315. "Nostris conterminus arvis." See also Met. i. 774, iv. 90, viii. 552, Epist. ex Pont. iv. vi. 45, and Fast. ii. 55. This word, so commodious for 'versification, is not once used by Virgil.

Here is a beautiful picturesque image, but where the justness of the poetry is marred by the admission of a licentious fiction, which yet I cannot blame in a young writer of fancy. When the ingrafted tree in Virgil wonders at its foreign leaves and fruits not its own, the preternatural novelty, producing the wonder, justifies the boldness of attributing this affection to a tree. In the present instance, it was not wonderful nor extraordinary, that a stream should flow, or flow perpetually. The conceit is, that an oak should wonder at this. T. WARTON.

"Miretur lapsus prætereuntis aquæ ? "Et tibi succumbit, liquido quæ plurima cœlo "Evehitur pennis, quamlibet augur, avis. "Et quæ mille nigris errant animalia sylvis;

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"Et.

Et quot alunt mutum Proteos antra pecus.
Invida, tanta tibi cùm sit concessa potestas,
"Quid juvat humanâ tingere cæde manus ?
Nobiléque in pectus certas acuisse sagittas,
"Semideámque animam sede fugâsse suâ!”
Talia dum lacrymans alto sub pectore volvo,
Roscidus occiduis Hesperus exit aquis,
Et Tartessiaco submerserat æquore currum

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Ver. 22. Miretur lapsus prætereuntis aquæ ?] Compare Buchanan, Eleg. ii. p. 34. ed. Ruddiman.

"Nunc strepitum captat prætereuntis aquæ." TODD.

Ver. 26.

Proteos antra pecus.] Hor. Od.

I. II. 7.

"Omne cum Proteus pecus egit altos

Ver. 30.

"Visere montes." RICHARDSON.

animam sede fugásse suâ?] So, in his Ode

on the Death of a fair Infant, st. iii."Unhous'd thy virgin soul from her fair biding place." TODD.

Ver. 32. Roscidus occiduis Hesperus exit aquis,] Ovid, Fast. ii. 314.

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"Qualis ab Eois Lucifer exit aquis."

See also Metam. xv. 189. T. WARTON.

Ver. 33. Et Tartessiaco &c.] Ovid, Metam. xiv. 416. "Presserat occiduus Tartessia littora Phoebus." Tartessiacus occurs in Martial, Epigr. ix. 46. We are to understand the straits of Hercules, or the Atlantick ocean. See also Buchanan De Sphær. L. i. p. 126. edit, ut supr. "Tartessiacis cum Taurus mergitur

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