And exquisitest name, for which was drain'd And exquisitest name. 350 This alludes to that species of Roman luxury, which gave exquisite names to fish of exquisite taste, such as that they called cerebrum Jovis: they extended this even to a very capacious dish, as that they called clypeum Minerva. The modern Italians fall into the same wantonness of luxurious impiety; as when they call their exquisite wines by the names of lacrymæ Christi and lac Virginis.—WARBURTON. h For which was drain'd Pontus, and Lucrine bay, and Africk coast. The fish are brought to furnish this banquet from all the different parts of the world then known: from Pontus, or the Euxine sea, in Asia; from the Lucrine bay, in Italy; and from the coast of Africa: all which places are celebrated for different kinds of fish by the authors of antiquity.-NEWTON. Milton had here in his mind the excessive luxury of the Romans in the article of fish; in regard to which it is said by Juvenal, that, having exhausted their own seas, they were obliged to be supplied from their distant provinces.-Dunster. Pliny observes how quickly all sorts of fish came to perfection in the Pontus Euxinus:-"Piscium genus omne præcipua celeritate adolescit, maxime in Ponto. Causa, multitudo amnium dulces inferentium aquas," 1. ix. 15. Horace notices the shell-fish of the Lucrine lake, Epod. ii. 49:-“ "Non me Lucrina juverint conchylia;" and particularly commends its muscles, Sat. II. iv. 32. Martial records the excellence of the Lucrine oysters, lib. iii. Ep. ix. 3. These were so much in request, that Lucrina alone is used by the last-mentioned poet to signify oysters, 1. vi. Ep. xi. 5, and 1. xii. Ep. xlviii. 4. Aulus Gellius, in his chapter on Roman luxury, notices the lamprey from the Straits of Gibraltar, Muræna Tartessia, 1. vii. 16. It is related by Athenæus (b. i. p. 7) that the celebrated Roman glutton Apicius, having been used to eat at Minturnæ a sort of cray-fish, which exceeded the lobsters of Alexandria in bigness, when he was told there were some of these fish still larger to be found on the coast of Africa, sailed thither immediately, in spite of a great many inconveniences. The fishermen, who were apprised of the object of his voyage, met him with the largest they had taken; but as soon as he found they had none which exceeded those he had been used to eat at Minturnæ, he sailed back instantly without going on shore.-Dunster. That diverted Eve! Diverted is here used in the Latin signification of diverto, "to turn aside."-NEWTON. And at a stately sideboard, &c. As the scene of this entertainment lay in the East, Milton has with great judgment thrown in this and the following particulars to give it an air of Eastern grandeur; as in that part of the world, it is well known, a great part of the pomp and splendour of their feasts consists in their having a great number of beautiful slaves of both sexes, to attend and divert the guests with music and singing.-THYER, k Wine, That fragrant smell diffused. The ancients prized their wines according to their fragrance. Oivos ȧvloopiaç was the term of supreme commendation among the Greeks.-DUNSTER. 1 Than Ganymed or Hylas. These were two most beautiful youths; the one beloved by Jupiter, to whom he was cup-bearer; the other, by Hercules, for whom he drew water: they are therefore both properly mentioned upon this occasion.-NEWTON. Milton had mentioned these two boys in his seventh Elegy, where he compares the Under the trees now tripp'd, now solemn stood TM, With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn, By knights of Logres, or of Lyones, 355 360 God of Love to them. In which he had most probably an eye to Spenser's description of Fancy in his Mask of Cupid, "Faer. Qu." 111. xii. 7 :— The first was Fancy, like a lovely boy, &c.-DUNSTER. Milton here alludes to the description of the costly tables of the Romans, their waiters, &c., given by an author, to whose opinions he was certainly partial: "Seneca describes the order and number of their waiters more particularly: they had waiting on them, saith he, puerorum infelicium greges, whole troopes of vnfortunate Ganymedes," &c. Hakewill's "Apol. of the Power and Providence of God," fol. ed. 1630, p. 376.-TODD. Now solemn stood. The same idea of graceful attitude is given in a line of 'Comus,' where the enchanter, speaking to the Lady of her brothers, whom he professes to have seen, says, Their port was more than human as they stood. Hamlet likewise, in the scene with his mother, thus exemplifies the gracefulness of his father's person : A station like the herald Mercury where "station" is attitude, or the act of standing.-DUNSTER. n Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiades With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn, The poet perhaps specifies these beautiful attendants, as more eminently possessing the power of beguiling the heart: the "nymphs of Diana's train," on account of their remarkable beauty; see Odyss. vi. 110: the "Naiades," as having been companions of the enchantress Circe; see 'Comus,' ver. 254; and the "ladies of the Hesperides," by their skill in singing. See notes on 'Comus,' v. 981. Compare also P. Fletcher's "Purp. Isl." 1613, c. x. st. 30:- Choice nymph, the crown of chaste Diana's train, Thou beautie's lilie, &c.--TODD. The story of Amalthea's horn, strictly so called, is given by Ovid, “Fast.” v. 115, &c. but in the beginning of the ninth book of the "Metamorphoses," a different history of a cornucopia is given, which seems to be more immediately referred to in this passage of the 'Paradise Regained' : Nec satis id fuerat; rigidum fera dextera cornu Naiades hoc, pomis et odoro flore repletum, Sacrarunt; divesque meo bona Copia cornu est.-DUNSTER. • Fairer than feign'd of old, or fabled since. Some readers may perhaps, in this passage, think our author a little too fond of showing his great reading; a fault of which he is indeed sometimes guilty: but those who are conversant in romance-writers, and know how lavish they are in the praises of their beauties, will, I doubt not, discover great propriety in this allusion.-THYER. Whenever Milton takes any images from his favourite romances, he immediately rises, as here, into the most exquisite poetry, and seems to finish his lines with peculiar pleasure and art.-Jos. WARTON. The reason of this seems to be, that here was more play for his imagination. The classical learning was not so imaginative as the gothic and romantic. Sir Lancelot, Pellcas, and Pellenore (the latter by the title of King Pellenore), are 66 And all the while harmonious airs were heard Of chiming strings, or charming pipes; and winds persons in the old romance of "Morte d' Arthur, or The Lyf of King Arthur, of his noble knyghtes of the round table, and in thende the dolorus deth of them all; written originally in French, and translated into English by Sir Thomas Malleory, Knt., printed by William Caxton, 1484."-From this old romance, Mr. Warton ("Observations on Spenser," sect. 2) shows that Spenser borrowed much. Sir Lancelot is there called of Logris;" and Sir Tristram is named of "Lyones," under which title he appears also in the "Faery Queen." "Logris" is the same with Loegria (according to the more fabulous historians, and amongst them Milton), an old name for England. Holinshed calls it both Loegria and Logiers. See his "History of England," b. ii. 4, 5. The same author, in his "Description of Britain," instead of Loegria, or Logiers, writes it Lhoegres. The title of his 22nd chapter is, "after what manner the sovereigntie of this isle doth remaine to the princes of Lhoegres or kings of England." Spenser, in his " Faery Queen," where he gives the "Chronicle of the early Briton kings from Brute to Uther's reign," calls it Logris, 11. x. 14 :— And Camber did possess the western quart, Which Severn now from Logris doth depart. Lyones was an old name for Cornwall, or at least for a part of that county. Camden, in his "Britannia," speaking of the Land's End, says, "The inhabitants are of opinion that this promontory did once reach farther to the west, which the seamen positively conclude from the rubbish they draw up. The neighbours will tell you too, from a certain old tradition, that the land there drowned by the incursions of the sea was called Lionesse." Sir Tristram of Lyones, or Lionesse, is well known to the readers of the old romances. In the French translation of the "Orlando Inamorato" of Boiardo, he is termed Tristan de Leonnois, although in the original he is only mentioned by the single name of Tristan. In the "Orlando Inamorato" also, among the knights, who defend Angelica in the fortress of Albracca against Agrican, is Sir Hubert of Lyones, Uberto dal Lione. Tristram, in his account of himself in the "Faery Queen," vi. ii. 28, says, And Tristram is my name, the only heire Of good king Meliogras, which did rayne He then relates how his uncle seized upon the crown; whereupon his mother, conceiving great fears for her son's personal safety, determined to send him into "some foreign land," Out of the countrie wherein I was bred, The which the fertile Lionesse is hight, These particulars, Mr. Warton shows, are drawn from the "Morte d'Arthur," where it is said "There was a knight Meliodas, and he was lord and king of the country of Lyones, and he wedded king Marke's sister of Cornewale." The issue of this marriage was Sir Tristram. These knights, he also observes, are there often represented as meeting beautiful damsels in desolate forests. Sir Pelleas, a very valorous knight of Arthur's round table," is one of those who pursue the blatant beast, when, after having been conquered and chained up by Sir Calidore, it "broke its iron chain" and again "ranged through the world." Faery Queen," vi. xii. 39. 66 Milton's later thoughts could not, we find, but rove at times, where, as he himself told us, "his younger feet wandered," when he "betook him among those lofty fables and romances, which recount in solemn cantos the deeds of knighthood founded by our victorious kings, and from hence had in renowne over all Christendome." "Apol. for Smectym.' p. 177, Prose Works,' ed. Amst. 1698.-DUNSTER. And all the while harmonious airs were heard Of chiming strings, or charming pipes. Thus in Paradse Lost,' b. xi. 558 : the sound Of instruments that made melodious chime. And again, ver. 594, "charming symphonies." Spenser, as Mr. Calton observes, thus likewise uses the verb to charm, "Faery Queen," v. ix. 13: - Like as the fouler, on his guileful pype, Charmes to the birds full inany a pleasant lay. Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fann'd From their soft wings', and Flora's earliest smells. What doubts the Son of God to sit and eat? But Spenser has to charm frequently in this sense. come home again," of his shepherd's boy, 365 370 Thus, in his "Colin Clout's Charming his oaten pipe unto his peers: And again, in the conclusion of his "October:" Here we our slender pipes may safely charme.-DUNSTER. And winds Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fann'd From their soft wings. Mr. Thyer, who supposes this circumstance introduced in compliance with the Fastern custom of using perfumes at their entertainments, has noticed the similarity of the following lines, Paradise Lost,' b. iv. 156:— Now gentle gales, Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Those balmy spoils. He might also have cited a beautiful line from our author's early Elegy, 'In Adventum Veris;' Cinnamea Zephyrus leve plaudit odorifer ala. Milton, in the same Elegy, refers to the "Arabian odours ;" and in the continuation of the passage from the Paradise Lost,' exhibited by Mr. Thyer, he speaks of the winds blowing Sabæan odours from the spicy shore Of Araby the blest-DUNSTER. See likewise Paradise Lost,' b. viii. 515, &c. And compare Apoll. Rhod. "Argon." i. 1142; and particularly the following passage from Drayton, "Muses Eliz.” 1630, p. 138: Where the soft windes did mutually embrace, Through the calm cincture of his amorous shade. -TODD. Such was the splendour. Virgil, describing the magnificent entertainment prepared by Dido for Æneas (En. i. 637), says,— At domus interior regali splendida luxu on which La Cerda observes:-"Apte et signate splendida; nam splendor de conviviis sæpe;” and he cites from Athenæus, b. iii. Λαμπροτάτην δειπνοῦ παρασκευήν.— DUNSTER. These are not fruits forbidden; no interdict This sarcastical allusion to the Fall of Man, and to that particular command, by the transgression of which, being seduced by Satan, he fell, is finely in character of the speaker. Milton, in his 'Paradise Lost,' terms the forbidden fruit "the tree of interdicted knowledge;" and, in the eighth book, where Adam, relating to the angel what he remembered since his own creation, particularly recites the "rigid interdiction," ver. 323-335.-DUNSTER. All these are spirits of air, and woods, and springs", Why shouldst thou then obtrude this diligence, And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles. What I might have bestow'd on whom I pleased, Why shouldst thou not accept it? but I see Of these things others quickly will dispose, 375 380 385 390 395 400 "All these are spirits of air, and woods, and springs. These "spirits of air, and woods, and springs," remind us of Shakspeare's "elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves," in the "Tempest."-Dunster. The whole of this passage is extraordinarily and exquisitely beautiful; the turn of the expression is in the highest degree persuasive and happy. Command a table in this wilderness. From Psalm 1xxviii. 19:-"They said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?"-RICHARDSON. "Flights of angels. An expression likewise in Shakspeare, "Hamlet," a. v. s. 6: "And flight of angels sing thee to thy rest."-NEWTON. Compare St. Matthew xxvi. 53. - DUNSTER. And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles. Not without a resemblance to Virgil, Æn. ii. 49. Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes; · and to a preceding part of the same speech of Laocoon : O miseri, quæ tanta insania, cives? Creditis avectos hostes, aut ulla putatis Dona carere dolis Danaum? Dr. Newton observes, that, "thy gifts no gifts," is from Sophocles, "Ajax,” v. 675. -DUNSTER. Compare our author, in his Apology for Smectymnuus,' sect. xi. :-" Shall we receive our prayers at the bounty of our more wicked enemies, whose gifts are no gifts but the instruments of our bane?"-TODD. |