Ah quoties dignæ ftupui miracula formæ, 55 53. Ab, quoties digna ftupui miracula forma, &c.] Milton, with all his philofophical fedatenefs, appears to have been no stranger to strong perceptions of the paffion of love. Here he fpeaks feelingly of the power of beauty. In the feventh Elegy written at the age of nineteen, he mentions the first time of his falling in love. He met an unknown fair, on fome public walks in or near London: was fuddenly and violently captivated, but had no opportunity of declaring his affection, or gaining her acquaintance. He in vain wishes to fee her again, and flatters his imagination that her heart is not made of adamant. Five of his Italian Sonnets and his CANZONE are amatorial; and were perhaps inspired by Leonora, a young lady whom he had heard fing at Rome, and whom he celebrates in three Latin Epigrams. But these were among the vanities of his youth. Yet at a much later and cooler period, when he wrote the PARADISE REGAINED, we find him deeply impreffed with at least a remembrance of the various and irresistible allurements of beauty. The following exquifite lines were written by no stoic. B. ii. 155. Many are in each region paffing fair As the noon-sky: more like to goddeffes And sweet allay'd, yet terrible t' approach; It is certain, that no poet has given more graceful and attractive images of beauty than Milton, in his various portraits of Eve, each in a new fituation and attitude. 55. Ab quoties vidi, &c.] Ovid, EPIST. HEROID. ix. 79. AH QUOTIES, digitis, &c. Collaque Collaque bis vivi Pelopis quæ brachia vincant, Et decus eximium frontis, tremulofque capillos, fallax retia tendit Amor; Aurea quæ 60 65 Et quot Sufa colunt, Memnoniamque Ninon, Vos etiam Danaæ fafces fubmittite Nymphæ, Et vos Iliacæ, Romuleæque nurus: Nec Pompeianas Tarpëia Mufa columnas 63. Cedite, laudatæ toties Heroides olim, &c.] Ovid, ART, AMATOR, i. 713. Jupiter ad veteres fupplex HEROIDAS ibat, 65. Cedite Achemania turrita fronte puellæ.] Achemænia is a part of Perfia, fo called from Achemænes the fon of Egeus. The women of this country wear a high head-drefs. See Sandys's TRAVELS. And the next Note. 66. Et quot Sufa colunt, Memnoniamque Ninon.] Sufa [Sufarum], antiently a capital city of Afia, conquered by Cyrus. It is now called Soufter. Propert. ii. xiii. i. Non tot Achæmeniis armantur SUSA fagittis. Claudian, BELL. GILD. V.32. "Pharetrata SUSA." And Lucan, B.ii. 49. "Achæmeniis decurrant Medica Susis agmina." Ninos, is a city of Affyria, built by Ninus: Memnon, a hero of the Iliad, had a palace there. Milton is alluding to oriental beauty. In the next coup let, he challenges the ladies of antient Greece, Troy, and Rome. 69. Nec Pompeianas Tarpeia Musa, &c.] The poet has a retrospect to a long paffage in Ovid, who is here called Tarpeia Mufa, either because 70 Jactet, et Aufoniis plena theatra ftolis. Tu nimium felix intra tua moenia claudis Endymioneæ turba miniftra deæ, 75 because he had a houfe adjoining to the Capitol, or by way of dif tinction, that he was the TARPEIAN, the genuine Roman mufe. It is in Ovid's ART OF LOVE, where he directs his votary of Venus to frethe portico of Pompey, or the Theatre, places at Rome, among others, where the most beautiful women were affembled. B. i. 67. Tu modo POMPEII lentus fpatiare fub umbra, &c. And v. 89. Sed tu præcipue curvis venare THEATRIS, &C. See alfo, B. iii. 387. Propertius fays that Cynthia had deferted this famous portico, or colonnade, of Pompey, ii. xxxii. 1 1. Scilicet umbrofis fordet PoмPEIA COLUMNIS Where fays the old fcholiaft, "Romæ erat PORTICUS Pompeia, foli And TRIST. ii. 252. Quas STOLA contingi, vittaque fumpta vetat? See Note on IL PENS. V.35. And compare Heinfius on Ovid, FAST. vi. 654. Quot Quot tibi, confpicua formaque auroque, puellæ Per medias radiant turba videnda vias. Creditur huc geminis veniffe invecta columbis 80 Alma pharetrigero milite cincta Venus, Et vitare procul malefidæ infamia Circes 85 Stat quoque juncofas Cami remeare paludes, Atque iterum raucæ murmur adire Schola. 90 Interea fidi parvum cape munus amici, Paucaque in alternos verba coacta modos *. 88. See Notes on Coмus, v. 626. 89. Funcofas Cami remeare paludes.] The epithet juncofas is picturesque and appropriated, and exactly describes this river: hence in LYCIDAS, "his bonnet SEDGE," v. 104. Dr. J. WARTON. Add, above, v. 11. Jam nec ARUNDIFERUM mihi cura revisere Camum. But there is a contempt in defcribing Cambridge, and its river, by the expreffion the rushy marshes of Cam. See v. 13, 14. 92. The ROXANA of Alabafter has been mentioned as a Latin compofition, equal to the Latin poetry of Milton: whoever but flightly examines it, will find it written in the style and manner of the turgid and unnatural Seneca. It was printed by the author himself at London, 1632. Yet it was written forty years before, 1592, and there had been a furreptitious edition. It is remarkable, that Mors, Death, is one of the perfons of the Drama. Dr. J. WARTON. I must add, that among the DRAMATICA POEMATA of Sir William Drury, one of the plays is called MORS, and MORS is a chief fpeaker. Duaci, 1628. 12mo. edit. 2. First printed 1620. See below, EL.iii. 6. * Lord Monboddo pronounces this Elegy to be equal to any thing of the "elegiac kind, to be found in Ovid, or even in Tibullus." Ubi fupr. B. iv. p. ii. vol. iii. p. 69. Kkk ELEG. ELEG. II. Anno Ætatis 17. In obitum Præconis Academici Cantabrigienfis *. E, qui confpicuus baculo fulgente folebas gregem, Ultima præconum præconem te quoque fæva The perfon here commemorated, is Richard Ridding, one of the Univerfity-Beadles, and a Master of Arts of Saint John's college, Cambridge. He figned a teftamentary Codicil, Sept. 23, 1626, proved the eighth day of November following. From REGISTR. TESTAM. Cantabr. 2. It was a custom at Cambridge, lately disused, for one of the beadles to make proclamation of convocations in every college, This is still in ufe at Oxford. See ODE on Gollyn, v. 33. 5. Candidiora licet, &c.] Ovid, TRIST. iv. viii. 1. Jam mea cygneas imitantur tempora plumas. 6. Sub quibus accipimus delituiffe Jovem.] Ovid, EPIST. HEROID. viii. 68. Non ego fluminei referam mendacia cygni, Nec querar in PLUMIS DELITUISSE JOVEM. 7.- Hæmonio juvenescera fucco, &c.] See Ovid, METAM. VII. 264. Illic HÆMONIA radices valle refectas, Seminaque, florefque, et succos incoquit acres. And compare, below, Mans. v, 75. 10. Arte Coronides, Sæpe rogante dea.] Coronides is Æfculapius, the fon of Apollo by Coronis. See Ovid, METAM, xv. 624. But the par ticular |