In obitum Procancellarii, medici*. Anno ætatis 17. PARERE Fati discite legibus, Manúsque Parcæ jam date supplices, Vos si relicto mors vaga Tænaro Per tenebras Stygis ire certum est. Si destinatam pellere dextera 5 ** This Ode is on the death of doctor John Goslyn, Master of Caius College, and king's professor of medicine at Cambridge; who died while a second time Vice-chancellor of that university, in October, 1626. See Fuller's Hist. Cambr. p. 164. Milton But he is here called sixteen in the editions of 1645, and 1673. A fault which has been successively continued by Tonson, Tickell, and Fenton. was now seventeen. I am favoured in a letter from doctor Farmer with these informations. "I find in Baker's MSS. vol. xxviii. Charges of buryall and funeral of my brother doctor Goslin who departed this life the 21 of Oct. 1626, and his funerall solemnized the 16th of Nov. following. And so it stands in the College Gesta-Book. He was a Norwich-man, and matriculated Dec. 3, 1582. A benefactor to Caius, and Catharine-Hall; at which last you once dined at his expence, and saw his old wooden picture in the Combination For his considerable benefactions to Caius college, see Blomefield's Annals of that college, in Ives's Select Papers, Lond. 1773. p. 76. And Blomefield's Collectan. Cantabrig. p. 102. For those to Catherine-Hall, see Fuller, ubi supr. p. 83. And see Kennet, Reg. p. 870. T. WARTON. Mortem valeret, non ferus Hercules, Nessi venenatus cruore, Emathiâ jacuisset Oetâ. Nec fraude turpe Palladis invidæ Ense Locro, Jove lacrymante. Ver. 11. Nessi &c.] Horace, Epod. xvii. 31. "Atro delibutus Hercules "Nessi cruore." 10 15 20 On this fable of Hercules, our author grounds a comparison, Par. Lost, B. ii. 543. T. WARTON. Ver. 13. Nec fraude &c.] See Hom. Il. xxii. 247. Ὣς φαμένη, καὶ ΚΕΡΔΟΣΥΝΗ ἡγήσατ' ̓Αθήνη. TODD. Ver. 15. Quem larva Pelidis &c.] Sarpedon, who was slain by Patroclus, disguised in the armour of Achilles. At his death his father wept a shower of blood. See Iliad xvi. T. WARTON. "If enchantments could have Ver. 17. Si triste fatum &c.] stopped death, Circe, the mother of Telegonus by Ulysses, would have still lived; and Medea, the sister of Ægialus or Absyrtus, with her magical rod." Telegonus killed his father Ulysses, and is the same who is called parricida by Horace. Milton denominates Circe Telegoni parens, from Ovid, Epist. Pont. iii. i. 123. "Telegoníque parens" &c. And verba Hecatëia are from Ovid, Metam. xiv. 44. "Hecatëia carmina miscet." T. WARTON. Absyrtus is called Egialius by Justin, Hist. Lib. xlii. cap. iii. speaking of Jason and Æetes—“ Filiam ejus Medeam abduxerat, et filium Egialium interfecerat." TODD. Numénque trinum fallere si queant Læsisset et nec te, Philyreie, Nec tela te fulménque avitum, 25 Ver. 22. Artes medentum, ignotáque gramina,] Not so much the power, as the skill, of medicine. This appears from the names which follow. T. WARTON. Compare the Epitaph. Damon. v. 153. "Ah pereant herbæ, pereant artésque medentûm, Ver. 23. Machaon] Machaon, the son of Esculapius, one of the Grecian leaders at the siege of Troy, and a physician, was killed by Eurypylus. See the Iliad. But the death of Machaon, by the spear of Eurypylus, is not in the Iliad, but in Quintus Calaber, where it is circumstantially related, as Mr. Steevens remarks, Paralip. vi. 406. Ὁ δ ̓ ἐπεῖτα κραταιῷ χώσατο φωτὶ Ευρύπυλος,μέγα δ' ασχαλόων ἐνὶ θυμῷ Ευρύπυλος δὲ οἱ αἴφα πολύστονον εἰρύσατ' αἰχμὴν, κ. τ. λ. I must add, that Quintus Calaber is not an author at present very familiar to boys of seventeen. According to Phillips, he was one of the classicks whom Milton taught in his school. Ver. 25. T. WARTON. Philyreie, &c.] Chiron, the son of Philyra, a preceptor in medicine, was incurably wounded by Hercules, with a dart dipped in the poisonous blood of the serpent of Lerna. See before, El. iv. 27. T. Warton. Ver. 27. Nec tela te &c.] Esculapius, who was cut out of his mother's womb by his father Apollo. Jupiter struck him dead with lightning, for restoring Hippolytus to life. T. WARTON. Cæse puer genitricis alvo. Horribiles barathri recessus. At fila rupit Persephone tua, Faucibus eripuisse mortis. Colende Præses, membra, precor, tua Ver. 29. Tuque, O alumno major Apolline,] Certainly we should read Apollinis. But who was this pupil of Apollo in medicine? Had it been Æsculapius, the transition would have been more easy. But Esculapius was sent by Apollo to Chiron, to be educated in that art. I think therefore, although Milton's allusions in these pieces are chiefly to establish Grecian fable, we should here understand Virgil's Iapis, who was Phabo ante alios dilectus, and to whom he imparted suas artes, sua munera, Æn. xii. 391. seq. It should be remembered, that the word alumnus is, more extensively, favourite, votary, &c. In Milton's Latin poems, it is often difficult to ascertain the names of persons and places. To show his learning, he frequently clouds his meaning by obscure or obsolete patronymicks, and by the substitution of appellations formed from remote genealogical, historical, and even geographical, allusions. But this was one of Ovid's affectations. T. WARTON. Ver. 37. At fila rupit &c.] Compare the epigram of Lucillius on the physician Magnus, Anthol. Gr. lib. i. cap. xxxix. 7. Μάγνον, ὅτ ̓ εἰς αΐδην κατέβη, τρομέων ̓Αϊδωνεὺς Εἶπεν, ἀναστήσων ἤλυθε καὶ νέκυας. TODD. Molli quiescant cespite, et ex tuo Sit mite de te judicium aci, Subrideátque Ætnæa Proserpina; Elysio spatiere campo. 45 Ver. 42. Molli quiescant cespite, &c.] Virgil. Ecl. x. 33. "O mihi tum quàm mollitèr ossa quiescant," &c. This classical wish is more fully illustrated by Juvenal, Sat. vii. 207. "Dii majorum umbris tenuem et sine pondere terram, 66 Spirantésque crocos, et in urná perpetuum ver," &c. See also Jac. Gutherii de Jure Manium. Lib. ii. p. 233. Precationem Manes ipsi à prætereuntibus exoptabant. Tabula marmorea apud Gentilem Delphinium Romæ : ROGO. VT. DISCEDENS. TERRAM |