Presenting Thebes, or Pelops line, 100 105 "fheweth forth the vlcers that are couered with tiffue." DEF. POES. p. 504. ARCAD. edit. 1598. I fear in this Note, I have been feebly, and perhaps unnecessa. rily, attempting to explain Horace's Art of Poetry, after Mr. Colman's masterly Commentary: in which, that valuable remain of antient dramatic criticism is placed in a new light, and recalled to its proper and primary point of view. 100.- Though rare.] Juft glancing at Shakespeare. H. 102. Drayton calls a fong on Sir Bevis," a BUSKIN'D straine," but not in Milton's literal sense of cothurnatus, POLYOL B. S. ii, vol. ii. p. 693. 104. Might raife Mufæus from his bower, Or bid the foul of Orpheus fing, &c.] Mufeus and Orpheus are mentioned together in Plato's REPUBLIC, as two of the genuine Greek poets. Edit. Serran. vol. ii. 364. E. To Orpheus or his harp our author has frequent allufions. The harp is mentioned twice in the two poems with which we are at present concerned. In the TRACTATE ON EDUCATION, p. 102. ut fupr. "Melodious "founds on every fide, that the HARP of Orpheus was not more charming." And, to omit other inftances, in PARADISE LOST, B. iii. 17. With other notes than to th' ORPHEAN LYRE I fung, of Chaos and eternal night. But I must not here pass over the Preface to Philips's THEATRUM POETARUM, aleady cited, in which are more manifest marks of Milton's hand, than in the book itself. “Education is that HARP "of ORPHEUS, &c." p. 3. a 105. Orpheus fing, &c.] See Note on AD PATR. V. 22. May, poet of more learning than genius, who wrote a few years before Milton, has described excellent mufic by an allufion to the fame particular circumstance in the story of Orpheus. EDW. THE SECOND, ft. 624. p. 156. edit. 1629. And melodie, fuch as at Pluto's gate VOL. I. L And Such notes, as warbled to the string, Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, And who had Canace to wife, That own'd the virtuous ring and glass; And alfo Browne, of Spenfer, BRIT. PAST. B. ii. S. i. p. 26. edit. 1613. He fung the heroicke knights of faiery land In lines fo eloquent, of fuch command; And Milton repeats the illustration, L'ALLEGR. v. 148. Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek.] When Handel's L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSO were exhibited at Birmingham a few years ago, this paffage, for obvious reafons, was more applauded than any in the whole performance. In Spenfer we find iron eyes," F. Q. v. x. 28. That any IRON EYES to fee it would agrize. 109. Or call up him that left half-told The ftory of Cambufcan bold, &c.] Hence it appears, that Milton, among Chaucer's pieces, was moft ftruck with his SQUIER'S Tale. It beft fuited our author's predilection for romantic poetry. Chaucer is here ranked with the fublime poets : his comic vein is forgotten and overlooked. See HIST. ENGL. POETR. i. 398. 113. And of the virtuous ring and glass.] So Boiardo, OR L. INAM. L. i. C. xiv. ft. 49. Of Angelica's magic ring. In bocca avea quell ANEL VIRTUOSO. And in the FAERIE QUEENE, a fword tempered by Merlin is called "the VERTUOUS fteele," B. ii. viii. 22. And the Palmer has 66 a VERTUOUS ftaffe," ii. xii. 86. 114. And of the wondrous horfe of brass.] Among the manu fcripts at Oriel college in Oxford, is an old Latin treatise entitled, FABULA DE NEO CABALLO. Here I imagined I had discovered the origin of Chaucer's SQUIERS Tale, fo replete with marvellous imagery, On which the Tartar king did ride : 115 imagery, and evidently an Arabian fiction of the middle ages. But I was disappointed; for on examination, it appeared to have not even a distant connection with Chaucer's ftory. I mention this, that others, on feeing fuch a title in the Catalogue, might not be flattered with the fame fpecious expectations of fo curious a difcovery, and misled like myself by a fruitless inquiry. 116. And if aught elfe great bards befide, &c.] From Chaucer, the father of English poetry, and who is here diftinguished by a ftory remarkable for the wildness of its invention, our author seems to make a very pertinent and natural tranfition to Spenfer; whofe FAERIE QUEENE, although it externally profeffes to treat of tournaments and the trophies of knightly valour, of fictitious forests, and terrific inchantments, is yet allegorical, and contains a remote meaning concealed under the veil of a fabulous action, and of a typical narrative, which is not immediately perceived. Spenfer fings in fage and folemn tunes, with refpect to his morality, and the dignity of his ftanza. In the mean time it is to be remembered, that there were other great hards, and of the romantic clafs, who fung in fuch tunes, and who mean more than meets the ear. Both Taffo and Ariofto pretend to an allegorical and myfterious meaning. And Taffo's inchanted foreft, the most confpicuous fiction of the kind, might have been here intended. Berni allows, that his incantations, giants, magic gardens, monfters, and other romantic imageries, may amuse the ignorant: but that the intelligent have more penetration. ORL. INAM. L. į, C. xxvi. Ma voi, ch' avete gl' intelletti fani, One is furprised, that Milton fhould have delighted in romances, The images of feudal and royal life which thofe books afford, agreed not at all with his fyftem. A paffage fhould here be cited from our author's APOLOGY for SMECTYMNUUS. "I may tell you whither "my younger feet wandered: I betook me among thofe lofty fa❝bles and romances, which recount in SOLEMN CANTOs the deeds "of knighthood, &c." PROSE WORKS, i. 11. 118. V. 1738. Of trophies hung.] So in SAMSON AGONISTES, With all his TROPHIES HUNG, and acts enroll'd Of forests, and inchantments drear, Where more is meant than meets the ear. Thus night oft fee me in thy pale career, Till civil-fuited morn appear, 120 119. Of forefts and inchantments drear.] Mr Bowle here cites the title of a chapter in Perceforeft, "Comment le rois d'Angle"terre entra en la forest, et des enchantements quil y trouua." vol. i. C. xxiv. f. 27. He adds other notices of inchanted forefts, from COMEDIAS de Cervantes, T. i. 121. And BATALLA DE RONCESVALLES, C. 31. ft. ult. There are fine ftrokes of imagination in Lucan's inchanted grove. In Boyardo's ORLANDO, the foreft of Arden is the scene of many of Merlin's inchantments. 120. Where more is meant than meets the ear.] Mr. Bowle refers to Seneca, EPIST. 114. "In quibus plus intelligendum eft quam "audiendum." 121. Thus night oft fee me in thy pale career.] Hitherto we have feen the NIGHT of the melancholy man. Here his DAY Commences. Accordingly, this fecond part or divifion of the poem is ushered in with a long verse. 122. Till civil-fuited morn appear.] Plainly from Shakespeare, as Doctor Newton and Mr. Bowle have feparately obferved. Rom. JUL. A. ii. S. iv. Come, CIVIL night, Thou fober-SUITED matron, all in black. Where CIVIL is grave, decent, folemn. As in TWELFTH NIGHT, A. iii. S. iv. Where is Malvolio ?-he is fad and CIVIL. And in As YOU LIKE IT, A. iii. S. ii. Tongues I'll hang on every tree, Runs his erring pilgrimage, &c. Where civil is not opposed to solitary. Again, in SECOND P. K. HENRY iv. Av. iv. S. i. You, lord archbishop, Whose fee is by a CIVIL peace maintain'd. And in other places of Shakespeare. An ufe of CIVIL in B. and Fletcher, where it is applied to the colour of drefs, is ftill more illuftrative of the text. WOMAN'S PRIZE, A. iii. S. iii. vol. viii. p. 221. That fourteen yard of fattin give my woman, Not 123. Not trickt and frounct as she was wont, &c.] The meaning of FROUNCED, which feems most commonly to fignify an exceffive or affected dreffing of the hair, may be perhaps more fully illuftrated from Drayton, Mus. ELYS. NYMPH. ii. vol. iv. p. 146. With dreffing, braiding, FROWNCING, flowring, All your jewels on me pouring, And from Spenfer, F. Q. i. iv. 14. Some FROUNCE their curled haire in courtly guife, It is from the French FRONCER, to curl. 126. While rocking winds are piping loud.] So Shakespeare, yet not not in fo abfolute a fenfe. MIDs. N. DR. A. i. S. i. Therefore the winds PIPING to us in vain. 127. Doctor Johnson, from this to the hundred and fifty fourth, verfe inclufively, thus abridges our author's ideas. "When the ἐσ morning comes, a morning gloomy with rain and wind, he "walks into the dark trackless woods, falls afleep by fome mur "muring water, and with melancholy enthufiafm, expects fome "dream of prognoftication, or some mufic played by aerial per"formers." Never were fine imagery and fine imagination fo marred, mutilated, and impoverished, by a cold, unfeeling, and imperfect representation! To fay nothing, that he confounds two defcriptions. 130. With minute drops.] A natural little circumstance calculated to imprefs a pleafing melancholy; and which reminds one of a fimilar image in a poet that abounds in natural little circumftances. Speaking of a gentle Spring-Shower, ""Tis fcarce to patter heard," fays Thomson, SEAS. SPRING, ver. 176. Dr. J. WARTON. He means, by MINUTE drops from off the eaves, not small drops, but MINUTE-drops, fuch as drop at intervals, by Minutes, for the fhower was now over: as we fay, Minute-guns, and Mi̟nute-bells. In L'ALLEGRO, the lark bade good-morrow at the poet's window, through fweet-briers, honeyfuckles, and vines, fpreading, |