But let my due feet never fail To walk the ftudious cloyfters pale, And love the high embowed roof, With antic pillars maffy proof, And storied windows richly dight, Cafting a dim religious light; 155 160 156. Perhaps, "The ftudious cloyfter's PALE." Pale, inclofure. Milton is fond of the fingular number. In the next line follows as in appofition," the high-embowed roof." 157. And love the high-embowed roof.] So the line fhould be printed, Highly-vaulted. EMBOWED is arcuatus, arched. It is the fame word in CoмUS, v. 1015. Where the BOW'D welkin flow doth bend. See Gascoigne's JOCASTA, A. i. S. 2. fol. 78. a. edit. 1587. of That is, "vaulted with curious work." See more inftances in OBSERV. F. Qu. ii. 134. And Sylvefter, edit. 1605. p. 70. 246. Old faint Paul's cathedral, from Hollar's valuable plates in Dugdale, appears to have been a most stately and venerable pattern the Gothic ftyle. Milton was educated at faint Paul's school, contiguous to the church; and thus became impreffed with an early reverence for the folemnities of the antient ecclefiaftical architecture, its vaults, fhrines, iles, pillars, and painted glass, rendered yet more aweful by the accompaniment of the choral fervice. Does the prefent modern church convey these feelings? Certainly not. We justly admire and approve fir Chriftopher Wren's Grecian proportions. Truth and propriety gratify the judgment, but they do not affect the imagination. 159. And ftoried windows richly dight.] Storied, or painted with Stories, that is, hiftories. That this is precifely the meaning of the word STORIED, we may learn from Harrison's DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, written about the year 1580, and prefixed to the first volume of Hollinfhead. As for our churches, all images, fhrines, "tabernacles, roodlofts, and monuments of idolatry, are removed, "taken downe, and defaced: onelie the STORIES in the glaff"windowes excepted, which for want of fufficient store of new ftuffe, and by reafon of extream charge that should grow by the "alteration of the fame into white panes throughout the realme, are not altogether abolished in most places at once, but by little "and little fuffered to decaie, that white glasse may be provided "and fet up in their roomes." B. ii. C. i. p. 138. col. 2. 30. Thefe STORIES, from whence came Milton's epithet STORIED, Harrison, M 2 who There let the pealing organ blow, To the full voic'd quire below, who appears to have been a puritan, ranks among the monuments of idolatry, as being representations or images. In CoмUS, we find the verb STORY, v. 516. What the fage poets, taught by th' heavenly Mufe, STORIED of old in high immortal verse. In Chaucer, STORIAL occurs for hiftorical. LEG. CLEOPATR. V. 123. p. 343. edit. Urr. And this is STORIAL fothe, it is no fable. Nathan. Chytraeus a German, not an inelegant Latin poet, in his ITER ANGLICUM, defcribing the coftly furniture of the houses in London, says that the walls of the rooms were hung with STORIÆ or hiftories, and painted tapestries. POEMATA, Roftoch. 1579. P. 171. a. 12mo. Totius aft urbis quam fit pretiofa fupellex; Parietibus quam fint STORIÆ, pictique tapetes, Inducti. [Unless the true reading be STOREE, i. e. mats, or carpets.] have mentioned elfewhere the antient historical mummery at Coventry, called "The old STORIALL fhew." In barbarous latinity, STORIA is fometimes used for HISTORIA. " Item volo et ordino, quod liber meus Chronicarum et STORIARUM Franciæ, fcriptarum in Gallico, &c." Prolog. ad Chron. Franc. tom. iii. COLLECT. HISTORIC. Franc. p. 152. Again, of a benefactor to a monaftery, "Fecit aliam veftem cum STORIIS "crucifixi Domini." S. Anaftaf. in S. Leon. iii. Apud Murator. p. 200. tom. iii. To this extract many others from monaftic records might be eafily added, which are particularly applicable to the text, as they prove the frequent ufe of the word STORIA for fcriptural hiftory. One of the arguments used by the puritans for breaking the painted glafs in church windows, was because by darkening the church, it obfcured the new light of the gofpel. 161. Of this fpecies of penfive pleasure, he speaks in a very different tone in the Answer to the EIKON BAS. §. xxiv. In his Prayer he "[the king] remembered what voices of joy and glad"nefs there were in his Chapel, God's house in his opinion, between "the finging men and the organs:-the vanity, fuperftition, and "misdevotion of which place, was a scandal far and near; wherein "fo many things were fung and prayed in those fongs which were "not understood, &c." Again, with fimilar contempt. §. xxv. "His glory in the gaudy copes, and painted windows, and chaunted "fervice-book, &c." Pr. W. i. 429. 531. In fervice high, and anthems clear, As may with sweetness, through mine ear, Diffolve me into extafies, And bring all heav'n before mine eyes. Of every star that heav'n doth fhew, 165 170 175 167. It should be remarked, that Milton wishes to die in the character of the MELANCHOLY man. 168. The peaceful hermitage, The hairy gown, and moffy cell.] In the manufcript of Milton's Mafque, the hermit's hairy gown is mentioned, v. 390. His bookes, or his HAIRE-GOWNE, or maple dish. 172. And every herb that fips the dew.] It feems probable that Milton was a student in botany. For he speaks with great pleasure of the hopes he had formed of being affifted in this study by his friend Charles Deodate, who was a phyfician. EPITAPH. DAMON. V. 150. Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gramina, fuccos, &c. *Of these two exquifite little poems, I think it clear that this laft is the most taking; which is owing to the fubject. The mind delights most in these folemn images, and a genius delights most to paint them. H. Hughes, after" prophetic. strain,” added "the following Sup"plement and Conclufion to Mr. Milton's incomparable Poem "entitled Il Penferofo, or the Penfive Man." See Hughes's POEMS, edit. 12mo. Lond. 1735. vol. i. Pref. p. Iviii.† "There let Time's creeping Winter shed This little introduction was written by Mr, W. Duncomb, Prebendary of Canterbury, Hughes's editor: who, in his Preface, has quoted Milton's LycIDAS with feeling and judgement, p. iii, "And "And while I feel by faft degrees, "My fluggard blood wax chill and freeze, "Till, life diffolving at the view, He But this addition was not made by Hughes, as I apprehend, from any peculiar predilection for Milton's Poem. Hughes was a frequent and profeffed writer of cantatas, mafks, operas, odes and fongs for mufic. In particular, before the introduction of Italian operas on the English stage, he wrote fix cantatas, composed by Pepusch, which were defigned as an effay or fpecimen, the first in its kind, for compofitions in English after the Italian manner. was alfo employed in fitting old pieces for mufic. In the year 1711, fir Richard Steele, and Mr. Clayton a composer, established concerts in York-Buildings; and there is a letter dated that year, written by Steele to Hughes, in which they defire him, to "alter "this poem [Dryden's Alexander's Feaft] for mufick, preferving as 66 many of Dryden's verfes as you can. It is to be performed by a "voice well skilled in Recitative: but you understand all these "matters much better than Yours, &c." [See ibid. p. xv. xvii. And. p. 127. And vol. ii. p. 71.] The two projectors, we may probably suppose, were bufy in examining collections of published poetry for words to be fet to mufic, for their concerts; and ftumbled in their fearch on one or both of Milton's two poems. These they requested Hughes, an old and skilful practitioner in that fort of business, to alter and adapt for mufical compofition. What he had done for Dryden, he might be defired to do for Milton. This feems to be the hiftory of Hughes's fupplemental lines. Hughes, however, has an expreffion from CoмUS, in his THOUGHT ON A GARDEN, written 1704. POEMS, vol. i. p. 171. v. 3. Here Contemplation prunes her wings. See Coм. V. 377. 378. And the Note. It will be no detraction from the powers of Milton's original genius and invention to remark, that he seems to have borrowed the fubject of L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSo, together with fome particular thoughts, expreffions, and rhymes, more especially the idea of a contrast between these two difpofitions, from a forgotten poem prefixed to the first edition of Burton's ANATOMIE OF MELANCHOLY, entitled "The Author's ABSTRACT of Melancholy, or a Dialogue between Pleasure and Pain." Here Pain is Melancholy. It was written, as I conjecture, about the year 1600. I will make no apology for abstracting and citing as much of this poem, as will be fufficient to prove to a difcerning reader, how far it had taken poffeffion of Milton's mind. The measure will appear to be the fame; and that our author was at least an attentive reader of Burton's book, may be already concluded from the traces of resemblance which I have incidentally noticed in paffing through the L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSO. When When I goe musing all alone, Noughte fo damnde as Melancholy! &c, &c. As to the very elaborate work to which thefe vifionary verfes are no unsuitable introduction, the writer's variety of learning, his quotations from fcarce and curious books, his pedantry sparkling with rude wit and fhapeless elegance, mifcellaneous matter, intermixture of agreeable tales and illuftrations, and perhaps, above all, the fingularities of his feelings cloathed in an uncommon quaintnefs of style, have contributed to render it, even to modern readers, a valuable repofitory of amusement and information. But I am here tempted to add a part of Burton's profe, not so much for the purpose of exhibiting a fpecimen of his manner, as for the fake of fhewing, at one view, how nearly Milton has fometimes pursued his train of thought, and selection of objects, in various paffages of L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSO. It is in the chapter entitled, Exercife rectified both of Body and Minde. "But the "most pleasing of all outward paftimes, is Deambulatio per amana loca, to make a pretty progresse, to fee citties, caftles, townes: as "Fracaftorius, 66 Vifere fæpe amnes nitidos, peramanaque Tempe, "Et placidas fummis fectari in montibus auras. "To walke amongst orchards, gardens, bowres, and artificiall wil"derneffes, green thickets, arches, groves, rillets, fountains, and "fuch like pleasant places, like that Antiochian Daphne, pooles, "betwixt |