Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head : QUEEN MAB.1 O THEN, I see Queen Mab hath been with you! (1) "Romeo and Juliet," Act i., scene 4. (2) Drawn with, &c.-Drawn by a team of little atoms. Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, THE quality of mercy is not strained! Wherein doth sit1 the dread and fear of kings; And earthly power doth then show likest God's, ONE FRIEND UPBRAIDING ANOTHER.7 INJURIOUS Hermia, most ungrateful maid! Have you conspired, have you with these contrived (1) Spanish blades-The Toledo blades were once very famous for their temper. (2) Elf-locks-locks of hair entangled and clotted ("baked") by wicked elves or fairies. Such was the superstition. (3) "Merchant of Venice," Act iv., scene 1. (4) Wherein doth sit-which inspire. (5) Jew-this is addressed to Shylock, the Jew. (6) We do pray, &c.-i. e. in the Lord's Prayer; "Forgive us our trespasses," &c. (7) "Midsummer Night's Dream," Act. iii., scene 2. To bait me with this foul derision? Is all the counsel that we two have shared, All school-day's friendship, childhood innocence? Have with our neelds1 created both one flower, Two lovely berries moulded on one stem : MUSIC.3 Lorenzo and Jessica speak. How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Sit, Jessica; look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold; There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st, But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims; (1) Neelds-needles. (2) Winds-breath. (3) "Merchant of Venice," Act v., scene 1. (4) Sleeps There is an exquisite propriety and beauty in the metaphorical use of the word "sleeps" in this passage. (5) Patines-from the Latin patina, a plate or dish—a bright round object. (6) There's not, &c.-This and the two following lines refer to the fanciful notion of the music of the spheres. (7) Still quiring-continually singing as in a choir. But whilst this muddy vesture1 of decay Jes. I'm never merry when I hear sweet music. If they perchance but hear a trumpet sound, any You shall perceive them make a mutual stand; By the sweet power of music. Therefore the poet Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Let no such man be trusted. IMAGINATION.4 LOVERS and madmen have such seething brains, More than cool reason ever comprehends. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, Are of imagination all compact: One sees more devils than vast hell can hold; That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic, (1) This muddy vesture, &c.—In allusion to the Platonic doctrine that the body is the earthly prison of the soul. (2) Come, ho, &c.—This is addressed to some musicians. (3) Attentive-i.e. to the music, entirely absorbed by its influence. (6) Are of imagination, &c.-Are altogether made up, or filled with imagination. This sense appears to be justified by another passage in which Shakspere writes "Love is a spirit all compact of fire." Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt: The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen MILTON. PRINCIPAL EVENTS OF HIS LIFE.-John Milton-emphatically the Sublime Poet-was born in Bread Street, London, on the 9th of December, 1608. He was early distinguished for his love of learning, so that in the beginning of his sixteenth year he left St. Paul's School, where his education had been carried on several years, and entered Christ's College, Cambridge. On leaving college, he returned to his father's house, at Horton, in Buckinghamshire, and here for five years he pursued a course of unremitting study, which comprehended, it is said, all the Greek and Roman classics. Here too he wrote "Comus," "Lycidas," L'Allegro," and "Il Penseroso." In the year 1638, he visited the continent, and was introduced at Paris to the famous Hugo Grotius, at that time ambassador from Christina, Queen of Sweden, to the French court; at Naples to Manso, Marquis of Villa, the friend and patron of Tasso; and at Florence, to the renowned Galileo, "a prisoner to the Inquisition," to use Milton's own words, "for thinking in astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought." On his return to England, after an absence of fifteen months, he settled in London, and devoted himself to the instruction of youth. He soon, however, became involved in the political agitation of the times, and was ultimately appointed Latin Secretary to the Council of State, which office he held for several years. It was during this period that he entirely lost his sight. On the restoration of Charles II., in 1660, he was included in the act of indemnity, and devoted the retirement now afforded him to composing-it cannot be called writing, since it was all dictated by the blind bard-the noblest epic poem of that or any other age-the "Paradise Lost," which was published in 1667, when he was in his sixtieth year. He died with great U |