Turba frequens, facieque simillima turba dearum,
Splendida per medias itque reditque vias;
Auctaque luce dies gemino fulgore coruscat :
Fallor? An et radios hinc quoque Phœbus habet ?
Hæc ego non fugi spectacula grata severus;
Impetus et quo me fert juvenilis, agor;
Lumina luminibus male providus obvia misi,
Neve oculos potui continuisse meos.
Unam forte aliis supereminuisse notabam :
Principium nostri lux erat illa mali.
Sic Venus optaret mortalibus ipsa videri,
Sic regina deum conspicienda fuit.
Hanc memor objecit nobis malus ille Cupido,
Solus et hos nobis texuit ante dolos :
Nec procul ipse vafer latuit, multæque sagittæ,
Et facis a tergo grande pependit onus:
Nec mora; nunc ciliis hæsit, nunc virginis ori ;
Insilit hinc labiis, insidet inde genis:
Et quascunque agilis partes jaculator oberrat,
Hei mihi! mille locis pectus inerme ferit.
Protinus insoliti subierunt corda furores;
Uror amans intus, flammaque totus eram.
Interea, misero quæ jam mihi sola placebat,
Ablata est oculis, non reditura, meis.
Ast ego progredior tacite querebundus, et excors,
Et dubius volui sæpe referre pedem.
Findor, et hæc remanet: sequitur pars altera votum,
Raptaque tam subito gaudia flere juvat.
Sic dolet amissum proles Junonia cœlum,
Inter Lemniacos præcipitata focos:
Talis et abreptum solem respexit, ad Orcum
Vectus ab attonitis Amphiaraus equis.
Quid faciam infelix, et luctu victus? Amores
Nec licet inceptos ponere, neve sequi.
O, utinam, spectare semel mihi detur amatos
Vultus, et coram tristia verba loqui!
Forsitan et duro non est adamante creata,
Forte nec ad nostras surdeat illa preces !
Crede mihi, nullus sic infeliciter arsit ;
Ponar in exemplo primus et unus ego.
Parce, precor, teneri cum sis deus ales amoris,
Pugnent officio nec tua facta tuo.
In Milton's youth, the fashionable places of walking in London were Hyde-Park, and Gray's-Inn Walks.-T. WARTON.
He saw the unknown lady, who had thus won his heart, but once. The fervor of his love is inimitably expressed in the following lines. ToDD.
Jam tuus, O! certe est mihi formidabilis arcus,
Nate dea, jaculis, nec minus igne, potens :
Et tua fumabunt nostris altaria donis,
Solus et in superis tu mihi summus eris.
Deme meos tandem, verum nec deme, furores ;
Nescio cur, miser est suaviter omnis amansd:
Tu modo da facilis, posthæc mea siqua futura est,
Cuspis amaturos figat ut una duos.
HÆC ego, mente olim læva, studioque supino,
Nequitiæ posui vana tropæa meæ.
Scilicet abreptum sic me malus impulit error,
Indocilisque ætas prava magistra fuit;
Donec Socraticos umbrosa Academia rivos
Præbuit, admissum dedocuitque jugum.
Protinus, extinctis ex illo tempore flammis,
Cincta rigent multo pectora nostra gelu;
Unde suis frigus metuit puer ipse sagittis,
Et Diomedeam vim timet ipsa Venus.
L-IN PRODITIONEM BOMBARDICAM.
Cum simul in regem nuper satrapasque Britannos
Ausus es infandum, perfide Fauxe, nefas,
Fallor? An et mitis voluisti ex parte videri,
Et pensare mala cum pietate scelus?
Scilicet hos alti missurus ad atria cæli,
Sulphureo curru, flammivolisque rotis:
Qualiter ille, feris caput inviolabile Parcis,
Liquit lördanios turbine raptus agros.
d Deme meos tandem, verum nec deme, furores;
Nescio cur, miser est suaviter omnis amans.
There never was a more beautiful description of the irresolution of love. He wishes to have his woe removed, but recals his wish; preferring the sweet misery of those who love. Thus Eloisa wavers, in Pope's fine poem :ï
Unequal task! a passion to resign
For hearts so touch'd, so pierced, so lost, as mine.-TODD.
These lines are an epilogistic palinode to the last Elegy. The Socratic doctrines of the shady Academe soon broke the bonds of beauty: in other words, his return to the university. They were probably written when the Latin poems were prepared for the press in 1645.T. WARTON.
SIVING tertasti celo donasse läcobum,
Que septemgemino, Bellua, monte lates?
Ners Tem poterit dare munera numen,
Pazve, precor, donis insidiosa tuis.
Laem sine te consortia serus adivit
Ascra, ner infermi pulveris usus ope.
Sur vcns fredas in cælum pelle cucullos,
Ez art habet brutos Roma profana deos:
Nam, or har sat alis nisi quemque adjuveris arte,
Corcali vix bene scandet iter.
P. PRATVIREN smise derisit läcobus ignem,
Ex sine que saperem non adeunda domus.
Frembin boe trina monstrum Latiale corona,
Kettes barriscum cornua dena minax.
Et nee inaltas," ait, temnes mea sacra, Britanne:
Suppikiem, spreta relligione, dabis :
s unquam penetraveris arces,
Not zisi per fiammas triste patebit iter."
Opuam famesto cecinisti proxima vero,
Verboque ponderibus vix caritura suis!
Nam prope Tartaree sublime rotatus ab igni,
Ibat ad æthereas, umbra perusta, plagas.
Quem modo Roma suis devoverat impia diris,
Et Styge damnarat, Tenarioque sinu;
Hune, vice mutata, jam tollere gestit ad astra,
Et cupit ad superos evehere usque deos.
V-IN INVENTOREM BOMBARD.E.
LAPETIONIDEM laudavit ceca vetustas,
Qui tulit ætheream solis ab axe facem;
At mihi major erit, qui lurida creditur arma,
Et trifidum fulmen, surripuisse Jovi.
VL-AD LEONORAM ROME CANENTEM b.
ANGELUS unicuique suus, sic credite gentes,
Obtigit æthereis ales ab ordinibus.
Quid mirum, Leonora, tibi si gloria major?
Nam tua præsentem vox sonat ipsa Deum.
• Quæ septemgemino, Bellua, &c.
The Pope, called, in the theological language of the times, "The Beast."-T. WARTON. Adriana of Mantua, for her beauty surnamed the Fair, and her daughter Leonora Baroni, the lady whom Milton celebrates in these three Latin Epigrams, were esteemed by their contemporaries the finest singers in the world. When Milton was at Rome, he was introduced to the concerts of Cardinal Barberini, where he heard Leonora sing and her mother play. It was the fashion for all the ingenious strangers, who visited Rome, to leave some verses on Leonora.-T. WARTON.
Aut Deus, aut vacui certe mens tertia cæli,
Per tua secreto guttura serpit agens;
Serpit agens, facilisque docet mortalia corda
Sensim immortali assuescere posse sono.
Quod si cuncta quidem Deus est, per cunctaque fusus,
In te una loquitur, cætera mutus habet.
ALTERA Torquatum cepit Leonora poetam,
Cujus ab insano cessit amore furens.
Ah! iniser ille tuo quanto felicius ævo
Perditus, et propter te, Leonora, foret!
Et te Pieria sensisset voce canentem
Aurea maternæ fila movere lyræ !
Quamvis Dircæo torsisset lumina Pentheo d
Sævior, aut totus desipuisset iners,
Tu tamen errantes cæca vertigine sensus
Voce eadem poteras composuisse tua;
Et poteras, ægro spirans sub corde, quietem
Flexanimo cantu restituisse sibi.
CREDULA quid liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas,
Claraque Parthenopese fana Achelöiados;
Littoreamque tua defunctam Naiada ripa,
Corpora Chalcidico sacra dedisse rogo?
Illa quidem vivitque, et amœna Tibridis unda
Mutavit rauci murmura Pausilipi.
Illic, Romulidum studiis ornata secundis,
Atque homines cantu detinet atque deos.
IX.-IN SALMASI HUNDREDAM &.
Quis expedivit Salmasio suam Hundredam,
Picamque docuit verba nostra conari?
• Altera Torquatum cepit Leonora.
This allusion to Tasso's Leonora, and the turn which it takes, are inimitably beautiful. -T. WARTON.
4 For the story of Pentheus, a king of Thebes, see Euripides's "Bacchæ," where he sees two suns, &c., v. 916. But Milton, in "torsisset lumina," alludes to the rage of Pentheus in Ovid, "Metam." iii. 557 :
Aspicit hunc oculis Pentheus, quos ira tremendos
Fecerat.-T. WARTON.
• Parthenope's tomb was at Naples: she was one of the sirens.-T. WARTON.
The grotto of Pausilipo, which Milton no doubt had visited with delight.-ToDD.
This Epigram is in Milton's " Defensio" against Salmasius; in the translation of which
by Richard Washington, published in 1692, the Epigram is thus anglicised, p. 187 :
Who taught Salmasius, that French chattering pye,
To aim at English, and Hundreda cry?
AS-TE Sumong the Romans for tishmongers.
Mong aerored nen who fed her vanity, had invered
She had resteren wb Lava
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