And when the fun begins to fling Where the rude ax with heaved stroke 135 fpreading, as we have feen, over the walls of the houfe. Now, their leaves are dropping wet with a morning-fhower. 131. And when the fun begins to fling F. 1449. His flaring beams. So Drayton, NYMPHID. vol. i. When Phebus with a face of mirth Had FLONG abroad his BEAMES. Our author, in his book OF REFORMATION, of gofpel truth, "In a FLARING tire befpeckled her with all the gawdy allure"ments of a whore." PR. W. vol. i. 9. 133. To arched walks of twilight groves, And fhadows brown that Sylvan loves.] Thus in Browne's BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS, now in high reputation, B. i. S. iv. P. 104. Now wanders Pan the ARCHED groves and hills, Where fayeries often danc'd. Again, ibid. S. ii. p. 44. Downe through the ARCHED Wood the fhepherds wend. In Coмus, in the manufcript, v. 181. In the blind alleys of this ARCHED Wood. IN PARADISE REGAINED, B. ii. 293. Enter'd foon the shade HIGH-ROOFT, and walks beneath, and alleys BROWN In PARADISE LOST, B. i. 304. Where the Etrurian fhades High OVERARCH'p embowr. Ibid. B. ix. 1107. A pillar'd fhade, High OVERARCH'D. Here, by the way, is accidentally bishop Warburton's ingenious but falfe idea of the Saracen architecture. Compare also B. iv. 705: More facred and fequefter'd, though but feign'd, Pan or SYLVANUS never flept. Was Was never heard the Nymphs to daunt, While the bee with honied thie, 140 141. Hide me from day's garish eye.] So in PARAD. L. B. v. 171. Thou fun, of this great world both EYE and foul. And Spenfer, F. Q. i. iii. 4. As the great EYE of heaven shyned bright. . But to come more closely to the text. In SONN. i. 5. Thy liquid notes that close the EYE OF DAY. Again, Coмus, v. 978. Where DAY never fhuts his EYE. Mr. Bowle adds thefe inftances. Sylvefter, p. 84. edit. ut fupr. DAYE's glorious EYE. The old play of LINGUA, A. v. S. vi. -Heaven's bright fun, the DAYS moft glorious EYE. Browne, BRIT. PAST. B. i. S. i. p. 3. Whilst that the DAY ES fole EYE doth guild the seas. Ph. Fletcher, PURPL. ISL. C. vi. 18. Heavens bright-burning EYE lofes his blinded fight. Drayton, Mus. ELYS. N. vi. vol. iv. p. 1490. Vayl'd heaven's most glorious EYE. Shakespeare, K. JOHN, A. iv. S. ii. With taper light To feek the beauteous EYE of heaven to garnish, And in Rich. ii. A. iii. S. ii. When the searching EYE of HEAVEN is hid. To these, and others at hand from Sylvefter, I will only add one from Gray, Waves in the EYE of heaven her many-colour'd wings. Compare LYCIDAS, v. 26. And fee Malone's SUPPL. Sh. i. 595. That That at her flowery work doth fing, And the waters murmuring With fuch confort as they keep, 145 Entice the dewy-feather'd fleep; And let fome strange myfterious dream Wave at his wings in aery ftream 142. While the bee with honied thie, &c.] See Note on SAMS. AGON. V. 1066. So Virgil, EcL. i. 56. Hyblæis apibus florem depafta falicti, Sæpe levi SOMNUM fuadebit inire SUSURRO. On the hill Hymettus, the haunt of learning, the bee is made to invite to meditation, with great elegance and propriety, PARAD. REG. iv. 247. There flowery hill Hymettus, with the found Of bees industrious murmur, oft invites TO STUDIOUS MUSING. —— 142. 144. Compare Drayton's OwLE, vol. iv. p. 1292. ut fupr. See the fmall brookes as through the groves they travel, With the smooth cadence of their murmuring ; Each bee with honie on her laden thye. 147. And let fome strange myfterious dream Wave at his wings in airy ftream Of lively portraiture difplay'd, Softly on my eye-lids laid.] I do not exactly understand the whole of the context. Is the Dream to wave at Sleep's wings? Doctor Newton will have wave to be a verb neuter and very justly, as the paffage now ftands. But let us ftrike out at, and make wave active. Let fome ftrange myfterious dream "Let fome fantastic DREAM put the wings of SLEEP in motion, "which shall be displayed, or expanded, in an airy or foft ftream "of vifionary imagery, gently falling or fettling on my eye-lids." Or, his may refer to DREAM, and not to SLEEP, with much the fame fenfe. In the mean time, fuppofing lively adverbial, as was now common, difplayed will connect with pourtaiture, that is, "pourtraiture lively difplayed," with this fenfe, "Wave his wings, "in an airy ftream of rich pictures fo ftrongly displayed in vifion as "to resemble real Life." Or, if lively remain as an adjective, much in the fame fenfe, difplayed will fignify difplaying itself. On the whole, we must not here feek for precife meanings of parts, but acquiefce in a general idea refulting from the whole, which I think Of lively portraiture display'd, Softly on my eye-lids laid. 150 And as I wake, fweet music breathe Above, about, or underneath, is fufficiently feen. The expreffion on my eye-lids laid, is from Shakespeare, MIDS. N. DR. A. ii. S. i. The juice of it " on fleeping eye-lids laid." In the fame ftrain, Fletcher in the FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS A. ii. S.i. vol. iii. p. 126. Sweetest flumbers And foft filence, fall in numbers On your eye-lids. And in the TRAGEDY OF VALENTINIAN, in an address to sleep. A. v. S. ii. vol. iv. p. 353. On this afflicted prince fall like a cloud In gentle fhowers. Nor muft I forget an exquifite paffage in PARAD. L. B. iv. 614. The timely dew of fleep Now falling with soft slumbrous weight inclines Our eye-lids. Where the language would infenfibly lull us afleep, did not the imagery keep us awake. But for wildnefs, and perhaps force, of imagery, in expreffing the approach of fleep, Shakespeare exceeds all, MIDS. N. DR. A. iii. S. ii. Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting fleep With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep. 151. And as I wake, fweet mufic breathe Above, about, and underneath.] This wonderful mufic, particularly the fubterraneous, proceeding from an invisible cause, and whispered to the pious ear alone, by fome guardian spirit, or the genius of the wood, was probably fuggefted to Milton's imagination by fome of the machineries of the Masks under the contrivance of Inigo Jones. Hollinfhead, describing a very curious device or fpectacle prefented before queen Elizabeth, infifts particularly on the fecret or myfterious music of fome fictitious Nymphs, "which, he adds, furely had been a noble hearing, and the more "melodious for the varietie [novelty] thereof, because it should come secretlie and ftrangelie out of the earth." HIST. iii. f. 1297. Perhaps the poet's whole idea was from one of these repre fentations, in which the chief aim of the inventor was to furprise. Jonfon, in a Masque called a Particular Entertaynment of the Queene and Prince at Altrope, 1603, has this ftage-direction. "To the VOL. I. M " found Sent by fome Spirit to mortals good, Or th' unfeen Genius of the wood. "found of excellent foft mufique, that was there concealed in the thicket, there came tripping up the lawne a beauy of faeries," &c. p. 871. edit. 1616. And the Satyre hearing it says, Here, and there, and every where? Some folemnities are nere, That thefe CHANGES ftrike mine eare. The And Shakespeare drew from the fame fource, although the general idea is from Plutarch, ANTON. CLEOPATR. A. iv. S. iii. foldiers are watching before the palace. "Mufick of hautboys under "the ftage. -z Sold. Peace, what noise? 1 Sold. Lift, Lift! Mu"fick i'th'AIR. 3. Sold. Under the EARTH, &c." Sandys, in the Notes to his English Ovid, fays, that " In the garden of the Tuil"leries at Paris, by an artificial device UNDERGROUND invented "for muficke, I have known an echo repeat a Verfe." Edit. Oxon. 1632. p. 103. Pfyche in Apuleius, fleeping on a green and flowery bank near a romantic grove, is awakened by invifible fingers and unfeen harps. AUR. ASIN. L. p. 87. b. edit. Beroald. By the way, the whole of this fiction in Apuleius, where Pfyche wafted by the zephyrs into a delicious valley, fees a foreft of huge trees, containing a fuperb palace richly conftructed of ivory, gold and precious ftones, in which a fumptuous banquet accompanied with mufic is most luxuriously displayed, no perfon in the mean time appearing, has been adopted by the Gothic romance writers. Rinaldo, in Taffo's Inchanted Foreft, hears unseen harps and fingers. C. xvi. 67. V. 152. Above, about, or underneath.] This romantic paffage has been imitated by an author of a strong imagination, an admirer and follower of our poet, Thomson, in SUMMER, firft Edit. p. 39. The context is altered rather for the worse in the later editions. And, frequent, in the middle watch of night, Or, all day long, in defarts still, are heard, Now here, now there, now wheeling in mid sky, Around, or underneath, aerial founds, Sent from angelic harps, and voices join'd; A happiness beftow'd by us alone, On Contemplation, or the hallow'd ear Of poet, fwelling to feraphic ftrain. Dr. J. WARTON. Adam fpeaks, with tranfport, of the "aereal mufic of cherubic fongs, heard by night from the neighboring hills." PARAD. L. B. v. 547. See TEMPEST, A. i. S. ii. Where should this mufic be, i' th'air, or тH' EARTH? It founds no more! I hear it now above me. But |