While the plowman near at hand 65 before, we have "The cock with lively din, &c."" At primus " omnium adventantem folem triumphat infomnis GALLUS." An ingenious critic obferves, that this morning-landfchape of L'ALLEGRO has ferved as a repofitory of imagery for all fucceeding poets on the same subject. But much the fame circumstances, among others, are affembled by a poet who wrote above thirty years before, the author of BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS, B. iv. S. iv. P. 75. edit. 1616. I give the passage at large, By this had chanticlere, the village-clocke, 67. And every fhepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale.] An image perhaps conveyed by Shakespeare, THIRD P. K. HENR. vi. A. ii. S. v. Gives not the HAWTHORN BUSH a fweeter fhade TO SHEPHERDS looking on their filly fheep, &c. It was fuggefted to me by the late ingenious Mr. Headley, that the word tale does not here imply ftories told by fhepherds, but that it is a technical term for numbering fheep, which is still used in Yorkshire and the diftant counties. This interpretation I am inclined to adopt, which I will therefore endeavour to illuftrate and inforce. Tale and tell, in this fenfe, were not unfamiliar in our poetry, in and about Milton's time, For instance, Dryden's Virgil, BucoL. iii. 33. And once he takes the TALE of all my lambs. Strait mine eye hath caught new pleasures Where the nibbling flocks do ftray, 70 And in W. Browne's SHEPHEARD'S PIPE, EGL. V. edit. 1614. 12mo. Signat. E. 4. v. 7. He is defcribing the dawn of day. When the fhepheards from the fold Of all the flock was hurt, or gone, &c. And in Lilly's GALLATHEA, Written 1592, Phillida, disguised like a boy, fays, "My mother faid, I could be no lad till I was "twentie, nor keepe Sheepe till I could TELL them." A. ii. S. i. But let us analyfe the context. The poet is defcribing a very early period of the morning; and this he describes, by selecting and affembling fuch picturesque objects as accompany that period, and, fuch as were familiar to an early rifer. He is waked by the lark, and goes into the fields. The fun is juft emerging, and the clouds are ftill hovering over the mountains. The cocks are crowing, and with their lively notes fcatter the lingering remains of darkness. Human labours and employments are renewed, with the dawn of the day. The hunter (formerly much earlier at his fport than at prefent) is beating the covert, and the lumbering morn is roused with the chearful echo of hounds and horns. The mower is whetting his fcythe to begin his work. The milk-maid, whose business is of courfe at day-break, comes abroad finging. The Shepherd opens his fold, and takes the tale of his fheep, to fee if any were loft in the night, as in the paffage juft quoted from Browne. Now, for fhepherds to tell tales, or to fing, is a circumstance, trite, common, and general, and belonging only to ideal fhepherds: nor do I know, that fuch fhepherds tell tales, or fing, more in the morning than at any other part of the day. A fhepherd taking the tale of his fheep which are juft unfolded, is a new image, correfpondent and appropriated, beautifully descriptive of a period of time, is founded in fact, and is more pleasing as more natural. 72. Where the nibbling flocks do fray.] Shakespeare in the TEMPEST, A. iv. S. i. The turfy mountains where live NIBBLING SHEEP, Doctor Newton remarks, that STRAY is not here in the sense of wander. But why should we wish to take away from the freedom and variety of Milton's landfchape? The learned commentator produces in proof, Virgil's. Ille meos errare boves, ECL. i. 9. But there Mountains, on whose barren breast, 75 there, I apprehend, the more the fheep are fuppofed to wander at large, the more is the fhepherd's happiness implied, who had recovered his old extent of country. 75. Meadows trim with daifies pide.] I need not mention Shakefpeare's Daifies PIED. In Sydney's ASTROPHEL AND STELLA, we have " Enamiling with PIDE floures." ft. 3. Doctor Newton has improperly printed pied for pide. Both the two first editions have PIDE, and Tonfon's, 1705. So have even Tickell and Fenton. This was so hackneyed an epithet among the paftoral writers for flowers, that Shakespeare has formed from it the substantive PIEDNESS. Perdita and Polixenes, in the WINTER'S TALE, are conversing about flowers. A. iv. S. iii. She fays, There is an art, which in their PIEDNESS fhares. With great creating nature. That is, "There is an art, which can produce flowers, with as great a variety of colours as nature herself." 77. Towers and battlements it fees Bofom'd high in tufted trees.] This was the great manfionhouse in Milton's early days, before the old-fashioned architecture had given way to modern arts and improvements. Turrets and battlements were confpicuous marks of the numerous new buildings of the reign of king Henry the eighth, and of some rather more antient, many of which yet remained in their original ftate, unchanged and undecayed: nor was that ftyle, in part at least, quite omitted in Inigo Jones's first manner. Browne, in BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS, has a fimilar image. B. i. S. v. p. 96. Yond pallace, whofe brave turret tops Browne is a poet now forgotten, but must have been well known to Where only a little is feen, more is left to the imagination. These symptoms of an old palace, especially when thus disposed, have a greater effect, than a discovery of larger parts, and even a full difplay of the whole edifice. The embofomed battlements, and the spreading top of the tall grove, on which they reflect a re ciprocal Where perhaps fome Beauty lies, To the tann'd haycock in the mead, . 80 85 90 The upland hamlets will invite, ciprocal charm, ftill further intereft the fancy from novelty of combination: while juft enough of the towering ftructure is fhewn, to make an accompaniment to the tufted expanfe of venerable verdure, and to compofe a picturefque affociation. With refpect to their rural refidence, their was a coyness in our Gothic ancestors. Modern feats are feldom fo deeply ambushed. They disclose all their glories at once and never excite expectation by concealment, by gradual approaches, and by interrupted appearances. But 79. Where perhaps fome Beauty lies, The Cynosure of neighb'ring eyes.] Moft probably from Burton's MELANCHOLY, as Peck obferves. But in Shakespeare we have " your eyes are LODE-STARRES. "MIDS. N. DR. A. i. S. i. We find the fame allufion in our author's REFORMATION. "fince he muft needs be the LOAD-STAR of Reformation, &c." PR. W. vol. i. 9. And this was no uncommon compliment in Chaucer, Skelton, Sydney, Spenfer, and other old English poets, as Mr. Steevens has abundantly proved. See alfo Grey's NOTES ON SHAKESPEARE, vol. i. p. 43. feq. Lond. 1754. And in the SPANISH TRAGEDY, 1603. Reed's OLD PL. iii. 186. Led by the LOAD-STAR of her heavenly looks. Milton enlivens his profpect by this unexpected circumftance, which gives it a moral charm. 88. If, in harveft-time, fhe goes out to bind the fheaves: or, if it is earlier in the year, in the time of hay-making, &c. The When the merry bells ring round, 93. When the merry bells ring round.] The first instance I remember in our poetry of the circumftance of a peal of bells, introduced as descriptive of feftivity, is in Morley's MADRIGALS. Harke, iolly fhepheards, Harke yon luftie ringing! How cheerfullie the bells do daunce, And all yond merrie wanton laffes playing. Here too, as in our author, they are introduced as an accompaniment of the mirth of a village-holiday. ENGLAND'S HELICON, Signat. Q. 4. edit. 1614. But fee Shakespeare, SECOND P. HEN. iv. A. iv. S. iv. And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear. And Spenfer's EPITHALAMION, ft. xv. Ring ye the bels, ye young men of the towne, &c. And the metrical romance of SIR TRYAMOURE. 94. And the jocund rebecks found.] The REBECK was a species of fiddle; and is, I believe, the fame that is called in Chaucer, Lydgate, and the old French writers, the REBIBLE. It appears from Sylvefter's DU BARTAS, that the Cymbal was furnished with wires, and the Rebeck with strings of cat-gut. edit. fol. 1621. p. 231. But wyerie cymbals, REBECKE's firewes twin'd. Du Cange quotes a middle-aged barbarous Latin poet, who mentions many mufical inftruments, by names now hardly intelligible. GLOSS. LAT. V. BAUDOSA. One of them is the REBECK. Quidam REBECCAM arcuabant. Where, by arcuabant, we are to understand that it was plaid upon by a bow, ARCUS. The word occurs in Drayton's ECLOGUES, vol. iv. p. 1391. He turn'd his REBECK to a mournfull note. Where Milton's fenfe, that it was properly an inftrument adapted to mirth, is implied. It feems to have been almost a common name for a Fiddle. See Fletcher's KN. BURN. PESTLE, A. i. S. i. vol. vi. p. 739. edit. 1751. "They fay 'tis prefent death, for these << Fidlers to tune their REBECKS before the Great Turks Grace." And, our author's LIBERTY of UNLICENSED PRINTING. "The villages alfo must have their vifitors to enquire, what lec"tures the bagpipe and the REBECK reads even to the gammuth " of |