The virgin quire for her request
The God that fits at marriage feast;
He at their invoking came,
But with a scarce well-lighted flame
And in his garland as he stood,
Ye might difcern a cypress bud.
Once had the early matrons run
Το greet her of a lovely fon,

And now with fecond hope fhe goes,
And calls Lucina to her throes;
But whether by mifchance or blame
Atropos for Lucina came;

And with remorseless cruelty

20

25

Spoil'd at once both fruit and tree:

30

Hamshire withstood an obftinate fiege of two years against the rebels, and when taken was levelled to the ground, because in every window was flourish'd AYMEZ LOYAUTE. He died in 1674, and was buried in the church of Englefield in Berkshire; where, on his monument, is an admirable epitaph in English verfe written by Dryden, which I have often seen. It is remarkable, that both hufband and wife fhould have feverally received the honour of an epitaph from two fuch poets as Milton and Dryden. Nor fhould it be forgotten, that Jonfon wrote a pathetic poem entitled An Elegie on the Lady ANNE PAWLETT Marchioness of Winton. UNDERW. vol. vii. 17. But Jane appears in the text of the poem, with the circumftance of her being the daughter of Lord Savage. See Note on v. 55. She therefore must have been our author's Marchioness. Compare Cartwright's POEMS, p. 193. There are two old portraits of this lady and her husband, in the dining-room at the Duke of Bolton's at Hackewood, Hants, both done at the fame time by the fame painter, as appears by the uniform pattern of a fingular lace on both their draperies.

19. He at their invoking came,

But with a fearce well-lighted flame.] Almoft literally from his favourite poet Ovid, METAM. x. 4. Of Hymen.

Adfuit ille quidem; fed nec folennia verba,

Nec lætos vultus, nec felix attulit omen ;

Fax quoque quam tenuit, lacrymofo ftridula fumo,
Ufque fuit, nullofque invenit motibus ignes.

I find I have been preoccupied by Dr. Jortin in noting this parallel.

The

The hapless babe before his birth
Had burial, yet not laid in earth,
And the languish'd mother's womb
Was not long a living tomb.

So have I seen some tender flip,
Sav'd with care from winter's nip,
The pride of her carnation train,
Pluck'd up by fome unheedy fwain,
Who only thought to crop the flow'r
New shot up from vernal show'r ;
But the fair bloffom hangs the head
Side-ways, as on a dying bed,
And those pearls of dew the wears,
Prove to be prefaging tears,
Which the fad morn had let fall
On her haftening funeral.

Gentle Lady, may thy grave

Peace and quiet ever have;

34. See SAMS. AGON. V. 102.

35

40

45

35. -Tender flip.] In our author's ANIMADY. REM. DEF. A gardener is to "cut his hedges, prune his trees, look to his TENDER SLIPS, and pluck the weeds that hinder their growth." PR. W.i. 95.

41. But the fair blossom hangs the head, &c.] Mr. Bowle comthis and the five following verfes, with what Antonio Bruni fays of the rofe, LE TRE GRATIE, p. 221.

pare

Ma nata apena, o filli,

Cade languifce e more:
Le tenere rugiade,

Ch' l'imperlano il feno,
Son ne fuo i funerali
Le lagrime dolenti.

47. Gentle Lady, may thy grave

Peace and quiet ever have.] So in the obfequies of Fidele, in CYMBELINE, A. iv. S. ii.

Quiet confummation have,

And renowned be thy grave!

After

50

After this thy travel fore
Sweet rest seise thee evermore,
That to give the world increase,
Shortned haft thy own life's lease.
Here, befides the forrowing
That thy noble houfe doth bring,
Here be tears of perfect moan
Wept for thee in Helicon,

And fome flowers, and fome bays,

55

For thy herfe, to ftrow the ways,

Sent thee from the banks of Came,

Devoted to thy virtuous name;

Whilst thou, bright Saint, high fitft in glory,

Next her, much like to thee in story,

That fair Syrian fhepherdess,

Who after years of barrenness,

60

59. Sent thee from the banks of Came.] Came is Milton's Camus regularly anglicifed. "Next CAMUS reverend fire." LYCID. V. 103. "CAMI remeare paludes." EL. i. 89. "Revisere CA"MUM." Ibid. 11. I have been told, that there was a Cambridge-collection of verfes on her death, among which Milton's elegiac ode firft appeared. But I have never feen it, and I rather think this was not the cafe. At least we are fure, that Milton was now a student at Cambridge. Our marchionefs was the daughter of Thomas lord viscount Savage, of Rock-Savage in Cheshire; and it is natural to fuppofe, that her family was well acquainted with the family of Lord Bridgewater, belonging to the fame county, for whom Milton wrote the Mask of CoмUS. It is therefore not improbable, that Milton wrote this elegy, another poetical favour, in confequence of his acquaintance with the Egerton family. And afterwards we find fome of that family intermarrying with this of the marquis of Winchefter. Dugd. BARON. ii. 377. 445. The accomplished lady, here celebrated, died in child-bed of a fecond fon in her twenty-third year, and was the mother of Charles the first Duke of Bolton.

Mr. Bowle remarks, that her death was celebrated by Sir John Beaumont, and fir W. Davenant. See Beaumont's POEMS, 1629. p. 159. Davenant's WORKS.

63. Rachel. See GEN. xxix. 9. xxv. 18.

The

65

The highly favour'd Jofeph bore

To him that ferv'd for her before,

And at her next birth much like thee,
Through pangs fled to felicity,
Far within the bosom bright
Of blazing Majefty and Light:
There' with thee, new welcome Saint,
Like fortunes may her foul acquaint,
With thee there clad in radiant fheen,
No Marchioness, but now a Queen.

SONG ON MAY MORNING.

NOW

70

TOW the bright morning ftar, day's harbinger, Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her The flow'ry May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowflip, and the pale primrose.

* There is a pleafing vein of lyric sweetness and ease in Milton's ufe of this metre, which is that of L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSO. He has used it with equal fuccefs in Comus's festive song, and the last speech of the Spirit, in COMUS, 93. 922. From these Specimens, we may justly wish that he had afed it more frequently. Perhaps in Comus's Song it has a peculiar propriety: it has certainly a happy effect.

1. Now the bright morning-ftar, day's harbinger.] So Shakefpeare, MIDS. N. DR. A. iii. S. ult.

And yonder shines AURORA'S HARBINGER.

2. Comes dancing from the eaft, and leads with her

The flow'ry May, &c.] So Spenfer, in ASTROPHEL, ft. iv.
As fommers lark that with her fong doth greet

The DANCING DAY, forth COMING from the east.

And in the FAERIE QUEENE, i. v. 2.

At length the golden ORIENTAL gate

Of greatest heaven gan to open

faire ;

And Phebus, fresh as bridegroome to his mate,

CAME DANCING FORTH, fhaking his deawy haire.

And

Hail bounteous May, that doft inspire
Mirth, and youth, and warm defire;

5

And Peele, DAVID AND BETHSABE, Signat. E. edit 1599. 4to
As when the fun, attir'd in gliftring robe,
COMES DANCING from his ORIENTAL gate,

And bridegroom-like hurls through the gloomy air
His radiant beams.-

And Niccols, a continuator of the MIRROUR of MAGISTRATES, in his poem called the Cuckow, 1607. Of the east.

From whence the daies bright king CAME DANCING OUT. And in the context he calls the cock, "Daies harbinger." And G. Fletcher, as Mr. Bowle obferves, in CHRIST'S VICTORY, C. i. 82.

3. The flow'ry May, who from her green lap throws

The yellow cowflip, &c.] So Niccols, in the description just cited, of May.

And from her FRUITFUL LAP eche day fhe THREW
The choiceft flowres.

Befide the inftance brought by Doctor Newton from K. RICHARD
THE SECOND, we have in the fame play, A. iii. S. iii.

The FRESH GREEN LAP of fair king Richard's land.

As in LYCIDAS, V. 138.

On whofe FRESH LAP the fwart-star sparely looks.

So alfo R. Greene, of Aurora, as cited in ENGLAND'S PARNASSUS, 1600. p. 415.

And fprinckling from the folding of her LAP

White lillies, roses, and fweet violets.

Mr. Bowle adds these illuftrations, Spenfer, F. Q. ii. vi. 15. Of flowers.

-Nature them forth THREW

Out of her FRUITFULL LAP.

Again, ibid. vii. vii. 34.

4.

Then came faire May, the fayreft mayde on ground,
Deckt all with dainties of her seasons pryde,
And THROWING flowres out of her LAP around.

A. iv. S. v.

VOL. I.

The pale primrofe.] In the WINTER'S TALE,