The glowing violet, The musk-rose, and the well-attir'd woodbine, With cowflips wan that hang the penfive head, every flower that fad embroidery wears : Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, And daffadillies fill their cups with tears, To ftrow the laureat herse where Lycid lies. 145 150 Again in T. Watson's SONNETS, cited in ENGLAND'S PARNASSUS, 1600. p. 503. The marigold fo likes the louely funne, That when he fets, the other hides his face; And when he gins his morning course to runne, Compare alfo Drummond, ubi fupr. Sign. F. And I remaine like Marigold of SUNNE DEPRIU'D, that dies by shadowe of fome mountaine. And our author, in a defcription of the morning. "Quinetiam et "mæfta Clytie, totam fere noctem converfo in orientem vultu, PHOE"BUM præftolata SUUM, jam arridet, et adblanditur APPROPINQUANTI AMATORI." PROSE-WORBS, ii. 586. edit. 1738. 66 I believe much the fame doctrine is held of the fun-flower. 142. The tufted crow-toe, &c.] Mr. Bowle obferves, that here is an undoubted imitation of Spenfer, in APRILL. Bring hither the pinke, and purple cullumbine, Bring coronations, and fops in wine, Worne of paramours: Strowe me the ground with daffadowndillies, The prettie pawnce, And the cheuifawnce, Shall match with the faire flowre delice. I must add, that instead of the well-attir'd woodbine, he at firft had written" the garish COLUMBINE," V. 146, Let Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise. 156 153. With falfe" furmife;"] The new fense which I mean to give to the remainder of the paragraph, requires this punctuation: and it appears in the first edition 1638. The fecond edition, of 1645, evidently from an overfight, has a full point after furmife, which has been implicitly continued ever fince. 157. Under the whelming tide.] In the manufcript, and the edition of 1638, it is "HUMMING tide." Perhaps with a more ftriking fenfe, and in reference to the distant found of the waters over his head, while he was exploring "the BOTTOм of the monstrous world." The alteration was made in the fecond edition, 1645. Dr. Warton adds, "The epithet bumming, which he had first used, "reminds us alfo of the ftrong image of Virgil, when Aristeus de"fcended to his mother's Cavern. GEORG. iv. 365. "Ingenti motu ftupefactus aquarum." 159. Or whether thou to our moift vows deny'd, Sleep' by the fable of Bellerus old, Where the great vifion of the guarded mount Looks toward Namanco's and Bayona's bold; Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth.] The whole of this paffage has never yet been explained or understood. That part of the coast of Cornwall called the LAND'S END, with its neighbourhood, is here intended, in which is the promontory of BELLERIUM fo named from Bellerus a Cornifh giant. And we are told by Camden, that this is the only part of our island that looks directly towards Spain. So also Drayton, PoL YOLB. S. Xxiii. vol. iii. p. 1107. Then Cornwall creepeth out into the westerne maine, And Orofius, "The fecond angle or point of Spain forms a cape, "where Brigantia, a city of Galicia, rears a moft lofty watch-tower, "of admirable conftruction, in full view of Britain." HIST. L.i. c.ii. fol. 5. a. edit. Parif. 1524. fol. But what is the meaning of "The D 2 Groat Sleep'ft by the fable of Bellerus old, Where the great vifion of the guarded mount : 160 "Great Vifion of the Guarded Mount?" And of the line immediately following, "Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth ?” 1 flatter myself I have difcovered Milton's original and leading idea. Juft by the Land's End in Cornwall, is a molt romantic projection of rock, called SAINT MICHAEL'S MOUNT, into a harbour called MOUNTSBAY. It gradually rifes from a broad bafis into a very steep and narrow, but craggy, elevation. Towards the fea the declivity is almoft perpendicular. At low water it is acceffible by land and not many years ago, it was entirely joined with the prefent fhore, between which and the MOUNT, there is a rock called CHAPEL-ROCK. Tradition, or rather fuperftition, reports, that it was antiently connected by a large tract of land, full of churches, with the ifles of Scilly. On the fummit of SAINT MICHAEL'S MOUNT a monaftery was founded before the time of Edward the Confeffor, now a feat of Sir John Saint Aubyn. The church, refectory, and many of the apartments, till remain. With this monaftery was incorporated a ftrong fortrefs, regularly garrifoned and in a Patent of Henry the fourth, dated 1403, the monastery itself, which was ordered to be repaired, is ftyled FOR. TALITIUM. Rym. FOED. viii. 102. 340. 341. A ftone-lantern, in one of the angles of the Tower of the Church, is called SAINT MICHAEL'S CHAIR. But this is not the original SAINT MICHAEL'S CHAIR. We are told by Carew, in his SURVAY OF CORNWALL, "A little without "the Caftle [this fortrefs], there is a bad [dangerous] Seat in a craggy "place, called Saint Michael's Chaire, fomewhat daungerous for ac"ceffe, and therefore holy for the adventure." Edit 1602. p.154. We learn from Caxton's GOLDEN LEGENDE, under the hiftory of the Angel MICHAEL, that "Th' apparacyon of this angell is many fold. The fyrft is when he appered in mount of Gargan, &c." Edit. 1493. f. cclxxxii. a. William of Worcestre, who wrote his travels over England about 1490, fays in defcribing.SAINT MICHAEL'S MOUNT, there Apparicio Sancti Michaelis in monte Tumba antea vocato "Le Hore Rok in the wodd." ITINERAR. edit. Cantab. 1778. p. 102. The Hoar Rock in the Wood is this Mount or Rock of Saint Michael, antiently covered with thick wood, as we learn from Drayton and Carew. There is ftill a tradition, that a vifion of faint Michael feated on this Crag, or faint Michael's CHAIR, appeared to fome hermits : and that this circumftance occafioned the foundation of the monastery dedicated to faint Michael. And hence this place was long renowned for its fanctity, and the object of frequent pilgrimages. Carew quotes fome old rhymes much to our purpofe, p. 154. ut fupr. was an Who knows not Mighel's Mount and Chaire, Nor Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold; Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth: Nor fhould it be forgot, that this monaftery was a cell to another on a Saint Michael's Mount in Normandy, where was also a Vision of faint Michael. But to apply what has been faid to Milton. This GREAT VISION is the famous Apparition of faint Michael, whom he with much fublimity of imagination fuppofes to be ftill throned on this lofty crag of SAINT MICHAEL'S MOUNT in Cornwall looking towards the Spanish coaft. The GUARDED MOUNT on which this Great Vision appeared, is fimply the fortified Mount, implying the fortrefs abovementioned. And let us obferve, that Mount is now the peculiar appropriated appellation of this promontory. With the fenfe and meaning of the line in queftion, is immediately connected that of the third line next following, which here I now for the first time exhibit properly pointed, Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth. Here is an apoftrophe to the Angel Michael, whom we have juft seen feated on the Guarded Mount. "O Angel, look no longer feaward "to Namanco's and Bayona's hold: rather turn your eyes backward "from the view of this calamitous fhipwreck, which the fea, over which you look, prefents. Look landward, Look homeward now, "and melt with pity at the melancholy spectacle to which you have "been a witness." But I will exhibit the three lines together which form the context. Lycidas was loft on the feas near the coaft, Where the great vifion of the guarded mount : The Great Vifion and the Angel are the fame thing and the verb look in both the two laft verfes has the fame reference. I had almoft omitted what Carew fays of this fituation, "Saint Michael's Mount "looketh fo aloft, as it brooketh no concurrent." p. 154. ubi fupr. Thyer feems to fuppofe, that the meaning of the last line is, "You, O Lycidas, now an angel, look down from heaven, &c." But how can this be faid to look homeward? And why is the fhipwrecked perfon to melt with ruth? That meaning is certainly much helped by placing a full point after furmife, v. 153. But a femicolon there, as we have seen, is the point of the first edition: and to fhew how greatly fuch a punctuation ascertains er illuftrates our prefent interpretation, I will take the paragraph a few lines higher, with a fhort analyfis. "Let every flower be ftrewed on the hearfe where Lycidas lies, "fo to flatter ourselves for a moment with the notion that his corpfe And, O ye Dolphins, waft the hapless youth. Weep no more, woful Shepherds, weep no more, For Lycidas your forrow is not dead, 166 "is prefent; and this, (Ah me!) while the feas have washed it far "away, whether beyond the Hebrides, or near the fhores of Corn"wall, &c." 160. Sleepft by the fable of Bellerus old.] No fuch name occurs among the Cornish giants. But the poet coined it from Bellerium abovementioned. Bellerus appears in the edition 1638. But at firft he had written Corineus, a giant who came into Britain with Brute, and was made lord of Cornwall. Hence Ptolomy, I fuppofe, calls a promontory near the Land's End, perhaps Saint Michael's Mount, OCR INIUM. From whom alfo came our author's "CORINEIDA Loxo," MANS. v. 46. And he is mentioned in Spenfer's M. M. OF THES TYLIS. Vp from his tombe The mightie Corineus rofe, &c. See Geoffr. Monm. L. xii. c. i. Milton, who took the pains to trace the old fabulous ftory of Brute, relates, that to Corineus Cornwall fell by lot," the rather by him liked, for that the hugeft giants in "rocks and caves were said to lurk there still; which kind of mon❝fters to deal with was his old exercise." HIST. ENGL. ubi fupr.i.6. On the south western fhores of Cornwall, I faw a moft ftupendous pile of rock-work, ftretching with immenfe ragged cliffs and shapeless precipices far into the fea: one of the topmost of thefe cliffs, hangover the reft, the people informed me was called the GIANT'S CHAIR. Near it is a cavern called in Cornish the CAVE WITH THE VOICE. 165. Weep no more, &c.] The fame change of circumstances and ftyle of imagery occur in Spenfer's NOVEMBER, which is a pastoral elegy. Ceafe now, my Mufe, now ceafe thy forrowes fourse! She raignes a goddeffe now amid the faints, That whilom was the faint of fhepheards light; And is enstalled now in heauens hight. The fields ayc fresh, the groves aye greene. There liues fhe with the bleffed gods in bliffe, There drinkes fhe nectar with ambrofia mixt, &c. See the EPITAPHIUM DAMONIS, v. 201-218. And, Ode on the DEATH of a FAIR INFANT, ft. x. Sunk |