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Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit ;
Seu ferus e tenebris iterat Styga criminis ultor,
Confcia funereo pectora torre movens :
Seu mæret Pelopeia domus, feu nobilis Ili,

Aut luit incestos aula Creontis avos.
Sed neque fub tecto femper nec in urbe latemus,
Irrita nec nobis tempora veris eunt.

Nos quoque lucus habet vicina confitus ulmo,

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with propriety from Prynne or Hugh Peters. Nor did he now perceive, that what was here spoken in contempt, conferred the higheft compliment on the elegance of Charles's private character. See Note on L'ALLEGR. V. 131. One Cooke, a reforming pamphleteer of those days, accufes the king of being much better acquainted with Shakespeare and Jonfon than the Bible. Mr. Steevens has King Charles's SHAKESPEARE, a fine copy of the fecond folio: with fome alterations of the titles of the plays, in his Majesty's own hand-writing. It was a prefent from the king to Sir Thomas Herbert, mafter of the Revels.

44. Confcia funereo pectora torre movens.] Mr. Steevens fuggefts, that the allufion is to Ate in the old play of LOCRINE, where the enters with a torch in her hand, and where the motto to the Scene is, In pœna fe&tatur et umbra.

48. Irrita nec nobis tompora veris eunt.] Ovid, FAST. ii. 150. Primi tempora veris eunt.

49.

Nos

quoque

lucus habet vicina confitus ulmo.] The gods had their favourite trees. So have the poets. Milton's is the elm. In L'ALLEGRO, V. 57.

Some time walking not unseen

By hedge-row ELMS on hillocks green.

In ARCADES, v. 89.

By branching ELM, ftar-proof.

In COMUS, V. 354.

Or 'gainst the rugged bark of fome broad ELM
Leans her unpillow'd head.-

In the EPITAPHIUM DAMONIS, V. 15.

Ibid. v. 49.

Simul affueta feditque fub ULMO.

Defuper intonat ULMO.

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Atque fuburbani nobilis umbra loci.
Sæpius hic, blandas Spirantia fidera flammas,
Virgineos videas præteriiffe choros.
Ah quoties dignæ ftupui miracula formæ,
Quæ poffit fenium vel reparare Jovis !
Ah quoties vidi fuperantia lumina gemmas,
Atque faces, quotquot volvit uterque polus;
Collaqué bis vivi Pelopis quæ brachia vincant,
Quæque fluit puro nectaré tinéta via;

In PARAD. L. B. v. 215.
-They led the vine

To wed her ELM.

50

55

The country about Colnebrook impreffed Milton with a predilection for this tree. See the next Note.

50. Atque fuburbani nobilis umbra loci.] Some country house of Milton's father very near London is here intended, of which we have now no notices. A letter to Alexander Gill is dated "E noftro Suburbano Decemb. 4, 1634." PROSE-WORKS, Vol, ii. 567. In the APOLOGY for SMECTYMNUUS, published 1642, he fays, to his opponent, "that fuburb wherein I dwell, shall be "in my account a more honourable place than his university." PROSE-WORKS, i. 109. His father had purchased the estate at Colnebrook, before 1632. In a letter to Deodate, from London, dated 1637, he fays, "Dicam jam nunc ferio quid cogitem, in Hofpitium Juridicorum aliquod immigrare, ficubi amæ na et umbrofa ambulatio eft, &c. Ubi nunc fum, ut nofti, obfeure et angufte fum." PROSE-WORKS, vol. ii. 569. In an academic Prolufion, written perhaps not far from the time of writing this Elegy, is the following paffage, "Teftor ipfe lucos, et flumina, et DILECTAS VILLARUM ULMOS," fub quibus aftate proxima præterita, fi deorum arcana eloqui liceat, fummam cum "Mufis gratiam habuiffe me, jucunda memoria recolo, &c." PROSE-WORKS, vol. ii. 6oz.

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55. Ab quoties, vidi, &c.] Ovid, EPIST, HEROID. ix. 79. AH QUOTIES digitis, &c.

Buchanan, EL. vi. p. 43. edit. ut fupr.

-Superantia lumine flamas.

58. Quæque fluit puro nectare tinēta via.] Here is a peculiar antique formula, as in the following inftances. Virgil, E. i. 573.

Urbem quam ftatuo veftra eft.

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Propertius,

1

Et decus eximium frontis, tremulofque capillos,

Aurea quæ fallax retia tendit Amor;
Pellacefque genas, ad quas hyacinthina fordet
Purpura, et ipfe tui floris, Adoni, rubor!
Cedite laudatæ toties Heroides olim,

Et quæcunque vagum cepit amica Jovem.
Cadite Achæmeniæ turrita fronte puellæ,

Et quot Sufa colunt, Memnoniamque Ninon,
Vos etiam Danaæ fafces fubmittite Nymphæ,

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Terence, EUNUCH. iv. iii. 11.

Eunuchum quam dedifti mihi quas turbas dedit.

60

65

&

See alfo PHORMIO, V. vii. 54. Many more might be given.
Compare the very learned bishop Newcome's PREFACE to the
MINOR PROPHETS, p. xxxiv. Lond. 1785. 4to.

63. Cedite laudata toties Heroides olim, &c.] Ovid, ART. AMATOR. i. 713:

Jupiter ad veteres fupplex HEROIDAS ibat,

Corripuit magnum nulla puella Jovem.

65. Cedite Achemæniæ turrita fronte puellæ.] Achemænia is a part of Perfia, fo called from Achemænes the fon of Ægeus. The women of this country wear a high head-drefs. See Sandys's TRAVELS. And the next Note.

66. Et quot Sufa colunt, Memnoniamque Ninon.] Sufa [Sufarum], antiently a capital city of Sufiana in Perfia, conquered by Cyrus. Xerxes marched from this city, to enslave Greece. PAR. L. x. 308. It is now called Soufter. Propert. ii. xiii. i.

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From Sufa, his MEMNONIAN palace high.

Both Sufa, and Sufiana, are mentioned in PAR. REG. iii. 288. 321.
Non tot Achæmeniis armantur Susa fagittis.

"And Lu

Claudian, BELL. GILD. V. 32. "Pharetrata SUSA."
can, B. ii. 49. Achæmeniis decurrant Medica Susis agmina."
Ninos, is a city of Affyria, built by Ninus: Memnon, a hero of
Iliad, had a palace there, and was the builder of Sufa. Milton is
alluding to oriental beauty. In the next couplet, he challenges the
ladies of antient Greece, Troy, and Rome.

Et

Et vos Iliacæ, Romuleæque nurus : Nec Pompeianas Tarpëia Mufa colummas.

Jactet, et Aufoniis plena theatra ftolis.. Gloria Virginibus debetur prima Britannis, Extera fat tibi fit fœmina, poffe fequi. Tuque urbs Dardaniis, Londinum, ftructa colonis, Turrigerum late confpicienda caput,

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69. Nec Pompeianas Tarpeia Mufa, &c.] The poet has a retro fpect to a long paffage in Ovid, who is here called Tarpeia Mufa, either because he had a houfe adjoining to the Capitol, or by way of diftinction, that he was the TARPEIAN, the genuine Roman nufe. It is in Ovid's ART OF LOVE, where he directs his votary Venus to frequent the portico of Pompey, or the Theatre, places at Rome, among others, where the most beautiful women were affembled. B. i. 67.

Tu modo POMPEII lentus fpatiare fub umbra, &c. And v. 89.

Sed tu præcipue curvis venare THEATRIS, &C.

See alfo, B. iii. 387. Propertius fays that Cynthia had deferted
this famous portico, or colonnade, of Pompey, ii. xxxii, 11.
Scilicet umbrofis fordet POMPEIA COLUMNIS
Porticus, aulæis nobilis Attalicis, &c.

Where fays the old fcholiaft, "Romæ erat PORTICUS Pompeia, "foli arcendo accommodata, fub qua æftivo potiffimum tempore "matronæ fpatiabantur." See alfo iv. viii. 75. Other proofs occur in Catullus, Martial, and Statius. Pompey's theatre and portico were contiguous.

The words Aufoniis ftolis imply literally the Theatre filled with the ladies of Rome." But STOLA properly points out a matron. See Note on IL PENS. V. 35. And Ovid, EPIST. EX PONT. iii. iii. 52.

Scripfimus hæc iftis, quarum nec vitta pudicos
Contingit crines, nec STOLA longa pedes.

And TRIST. ii. 252.

Quas STOLA contingi, vittaque fumpta vetat ?
At MATRONA poteft, &c.-

See Note on IL PENS. V. 35. And compare Heinfius on Ovid,
FAST. VI. 645.

74.

Turrigerum late confpicienda caput.] So in L'ALL. V. 117.
TOWRED cities please us then.

Tu

Tu nimium felix intra tua moenia claudis

Quicquid formofi pendulus orbis habet. Non tibi tot cœlo fcintillant aftra fereno

Endymioneæ turba miniftra deæ,

Quot tibi, confpicua formaque auroque, puellæ
Per medias radiant turba videnda vias.
Creditur huc geminis veniffe invecta columbis
Alma pharetrigero milite cincta Venus,
Huic Cnidon, et figuas Simoentis flumine valles,
Huic Paphon, et rofeam pofthabitura Cypron.
Aft ego, dum pueri finit indulgentia cæci,
Moenia quam fubito linquere faufta paro;
Et vitare procul malefidæ infamia Circes
Atria, divini Molyos ufus ope.

75

80

85

Stat quoque juncofas Cami remeare paludes,
Atque iterum raucæ murmur adire Scholæ.

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88. See Notes on Coмus, v. 626.

89.Funcofas Cami remeare paludes.] The epithet juncofas is picturefque and appropriated, and exactly defcribes this river: hence in LYCIDAS," his bonnet SEDGE," V. 104.

1 Add above, v. 11.

Dr. J. WARTON.

Jan nec ARUN DIFERUM mihi cura revifere Camum. But there is a contempt in describing Cambridge, and its river, by the expreffion the rushy marshes of Cam. See v. 13, 14 And Notes on LYCID. V. 105.

92. The ROXANA of Alabafter has been mentioned by Dr. Johníon as a Latin compofition, equal to the Latin poetry of Milton: whoever but flightly examines it, will find it written in the style and manner of the turgid and unnatural Seneca. It was printed by the author himself at London, 1632. Yet it was written forty years before, 1592, and there had been a furreptitious edition. It is remarkable, that Mors, DEATH, is one of the perfons of the Drama. Dr. J. WARTON.

I must add, that among the DRAMATICA POEMATA of Sir William Drury, one of the plays is called MoRs, and Mors is a chief fpeaker. Duaci, 1628. 12mo. edit. 2. Firft printed 1620. See below, EL. iii. 6.

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