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Graiúsque vates parciùs

Turpem Lycambis execratus est dolum,
Sponsámque Neobulen suam.

At ecce! diras ipse dum fundo graves,
Et imprecor neci necem,

Audîsse tales videor attonitus sonos
Leni, sub aurâ, flamine:

"Cæcos furores pone ; pone vitream
Bilémque, et irritas minas:

66

"Quid temerè violas non nocenda numina,

66

Subitóque ad iras percita?

"Non est, ut arbitraris elusus miser,

"Mors atra Noctis filia,

"Erebóve patre creta, sive Erinnye,

"Vastóve nata sub Chao:

"Ast illa, cœlo missa stellato, Dei "Messes ubique colligit;

"Animásque mole carneâ reconditas "In lucem et auras evocat :

"Ut cùm fugaces excitant Horæ diem, "Themidos Jovisque filiæ;

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Ver. 20. Archilochus, who killed Lycambes by the severity of his iambicks. Lycambes had espoused his daughter Neobule to Archilochus, and afterwards gave her to another. See Ovid's Ibis, v. 54. T. WARTON.

And see Hor. Epod. vi. 13. TODD.

Ver. 40. Themidos &c.] Orpheus, Hymn.

Ωραι θυγατέρες Θέμιδος καὶ Ζηνὸς ἀνάκτος.

See also Hesiod's Theogony. And Ovid, Metam. ii. 118, Fast. i. 125. T. WARTON.

"Et sempiterni ducit ad vultus Patris : At justa raptat impios

"Sub regna furvi luctuosa Tartari,

66

Sedésque subterraneas."

Hanc ut vocantem lætus audivi, citò

Foedum reliqui carcerem, Volatilésque faustus inter milites

Ad astra sublimis feror:

Vates ut olim raptus ad cœlum senex,

Auriga currûs ignei.

Non me Boötis terruere lucidi

Sarraca tarda frigore, aut Formidolosi Scorpionis brachia; Non ensis, Orion, tuus. Prætervolavi fulgidi solis globum, Longéque sub pedibus deam

Vidi triformem, dum coërcebat suos

Ver. 48.

Ad astra sublimis feror :·

45

50

55

Vates ut olim raptus ad cœlum senex,
Auriga currús ignei.

Non me Boötis terruere &c.] This somewhat resembles, but infinitely exceeds, the sentiment at the beginning of Du Bartas's fourth day of the first week, as translated by Sylvester, Du Bart. 1621, p. 72.

"Pure Spirit, that rapt'st aboue the firmest sphear, "In fiery coach, thy faithful messenger.

"O! take me vp; that, far from earth, I may,

"From sphear to sphear, see th' azure heav'ns to-day.

"Be thou my coachman, &c.

"Driue on my coach by Mars his flaming coach;

"Saturn and Luna let my wheels approach," &c. TODD.

Ver. 57.

VOL. VI.

dum coërcebat suos

Franis dracones aureis.] As in Il Pens. v. 59.

Y

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Ventum est Olympi, et regiam crystallinam, et
Stratum smaragdis atrium.

Sed hic tacebo; nam quis effari queat,

Oriundus humano patre,

Amonitates illius loci? Mihi

Sat est in æternum frui.

60

65

"While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke." See also Comus, v. 131. Shakspeare has "the dragons of the night," Mids. N. Dr. A. iii. S. 2. edit. Malone, vol. ii. p. 505, where it is observed, that "the image of dragons drawing the chariot of Night is derived from the watchfulness of that fabled animal.”—In Comus, we have "the dragon watch of unenchanted eye," v. 395; where the allusion may be to the enchantments of Erictho, who employs the eyes of dragons, Lucan, lib. vi. 675. "Oculique draconum." On which passage the annotator observes, "Quibus melle tritis inuncti, oculi redduntur impavidi adversùs nocturnas imagines." Edit. Amstel. Schrevelio, 1658. TODD.

Milton's natural disLost, and even in his

Ver. 62. Donec nitentes ad fores &c.] position, so conspicuous in the Paradise Prose-Works, for describing divine objects, such as the bliss of the saints, the splendour of heaven, and the musick of the angels, is perpetually breaking forth in some of the earliest of his juvenile poems. And here more particularly in displaying the glories of heaven, which he locally represents, and clothes with the brightest material decorations, his fancy, to say nothing of the apocalypse, was aided and enriched with descriptions in romances. By the way, this sort of imagery, so much admired in Milton, appears to me to be much more practicable than many readers seem to suppose. T. WARTON.

Naturam non pati senium*.

HEU, quàm perpetuis erroribus acta fatiscit
Avia mens hominum, tenebrisque immersa profundis
Oedipodioniam volvit sub pectore noctem!

Quæ vesana suis metiri facta deorum
Audet, et incisas leges adamante perenni

5

* This was an academical exercise, written in 1628, to oblige one of the fellows of Christ's college, who having laid aside the levities of poetry for the gravity and solidity of prose, imposed the boyish task on Milton, now about nineteen years old. “Quidam ædium nostrarum Socius, qui Comitiis hisce academicis in Disputatione philosophicâ responsurus erat, carmina super quæstionibus pro more annuo componenda, prætervectus ipse jam diu leviculas illiusmodi nugas, et rebus seriis intentior, fortè meæ puerilitati commisit." Milton's Letter to A. Gill, dat. Cambridge, Jul. 2. 1628. Epist. Fam. Prose-Works, ii. 566. They were printed, not for sale, and sent to his late schoolmaster at St. Paul's, Alexander Gill, aforesaid. For he adds, "Hæc quidem typis donata ad te misi, utpote quem nôrim rerum poeticarum judicem acerrimum, et mearum candidissimum," &c. It is still a custom at Cambridge, to print the comitial verses accompanying the publick disputations. What a curiosity would be the sheet with Milton's Copy! To be able to write a Latin Verse called Versificari, was looked upon as a high accomplishment in the dark ages. This art they sometimes applied to their barbarous philosophy and the practice gave rise to the Tripos Verses at Cambridge, and the Carmina Quadragesimalia at Oxford. From such rude beginnings is elegance derived. T. Warton.

See the observation on Hakewill's treatise upon the subject here poetically described, in the Life of Milton prefixed to this edition. TODD.

Ver. 5.

incisas leges adamante perenni] So, in

a Sonnet of Drummond's:

Assimilare suis, nullóque solubile sæclo
Consilium fati perituris alligat horis !

Ergóne marcescet sulcantibus obsita rugis
Naturæ facies, et rerum publica mater

15

Omniparum contracta uterum sterilescet ab ævo ? 10
Et, se fassa senem, malè certis passibus ibit
Sidereum tremebunda caput? Num tetra vetustas,
Annorúmque æterna fames, squalórque, sitúsque,
Sidera vexabunt? An et insatiabile Tempus
Esuriet Cœlum, rapiétque in viscera patrem ?
Heu, potuitne suas imprudens Jupiter arces
Hoc contra munîsse nefas, et Temporis isto
Exemisse malo, gyrósque dedisse perennes?
Ergo erit ut quandoque sono dilapsa tremendo
Convexi tabulata ruant, atque obvius ictu

Stridat uterque polus, superâque ut Olympius aulâ
Decidat, horribilisque retectâ Gorgone Pallas;
Qualis in Ægæam proles Junonia Lemnon

"Eternal lights! though adamantine laws
"Of Destinies to move still you ordain,
"Turn hither all your eyes," &c. TODD.

Ver. 9.

et rerum publica mater

20

Omniparum contracta uterum sterilescet ab avo?] Compare Shakspeare's Timon of Athens, A. iv. S. 3. of the earth:

"Common mother, thou

"Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast
"Teems, and feeds all." TODD.

Ver. 23. Qualis in Ægæam &c.] See before, El. vii. 81. "Sic dolet amissum proles Junonia cœlum," &c.

And Par. Lost, B. i. 740.

"Men call'd him Mulciber, and how he fell
"From heaven, they fabled," &c.-

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