72. "Atlantisque nepos": i.e. the god Mercury, who was the grandson of the Titan Atlas, being the son of Jupiter by Maia, one of the daughters of Atlas. 73. magno favisse poeta." Tasso must be especially meant. 75. "Esonios lucratur vivida fusos." See Elegia Secunda, line 8, and note there. Mr. Keightley notes that the phrase "lucratur Esonios fusos," "has the benefit of Æsonian spindles," is an odd one, and not classic. 66 76. Nondum deciduos servans tibi frontis honores." This compliment to Manso, on his keeping his hair even in his old age, is irreconcilable with a most precise statement in the sketch given of Manso in the Pinacotheca of Janus Nicius Erythræus. In the Third Part of that interesting collection of biographic portraits of eminent men who had died within the lifetime of the author (this Third Part dated 1648, while the two preceding parts had appeared in 1645), Manso forms the subject of Article XIII. (pp. 56-58); and there, after much in commendation of Manso, this passage occurs in illustration of his affability and pleasant manners in private society: “As "he excelled in all the Christian virtues, so he was found most of "all remarkable in what we call humility; that is, in lowliness of "mind and modesty. Wherefore he would not willingly listen to any praises of himself, would detract from his own merits, and "attribute all good to others; and, as is the fashion in the club"meetings of the Blessed Virgin, in which he was ranked as one of "the members (ut mos est in sodalitiis B. Virginis, in quibus ille "numerabatur), he would good-humouredly bear to have his defects "publicly exposed. If bid lick the ground with his mouth, or kiss "the feet of his club-fellows, he would not refuse, or escape the authority of the master of the revels; nor was he less obedient if " he were ordered to snatch from his head the periwig with which "he concealed his baldness (caliendrum e capite quo calvitiem occultabat), but immediately did as he was ordered, and made no "scruple about exhibiting, amid the great laughter of the beholders, "his bald head (neque dubitabat, magno intuentium cum risu, caput "pilis nudum ostendere)." Either, therefore, Erythræus is wrong in this part of his sketch of Manso (which is not likely), or the old nobleman's wig was a good one, and he had worn it carefully when Milton and he were together. 66 80-84. "Siquando indigenas revocabo in carmina reges, Arturumque," etc. On the autobiographical significance of this passage, as the first announcement of Milton's intention to write a poem on the subject of Arthur and the British Legends, see Introd. to Par. Lost, II. pp. 41, 42. Compare also Epitaph. Dam. 162—171. He had probably talked of this scheme to Manso; and, from his way of mentioning it here, it does not appear to have yet taken exact shape in his mind. Was Arthur but to come in as one of the legendary British kings; or was he to be the central figure, and was the time of the story to be that of his wars with the Saxons ?"Etiam sub terris" has reference to Arthur's mysterious retreat to Faery-land, and concealment there; the "invicta mensa" is, of course, the Round Table. Todd, however, quotes the phrase "sociæque ad fœdera mensæ " from Statius, Theb. VIII. 240. 85-93. "Tandem, ubi," etc. A beautiful passage, written, I should say, with tears. Note the sudden and yet lingering "at ego securâ pace quiescam." Something of the same mournful cadence recurs in Sams. Agonistes, 598. 94-100. "Tum quoque which Milton ends a poem with has been already remarked on. Olympo." The frequency with this dream of Heaven and its joys See note, Eleg. Tertia, 63, 64. EPITAPHIUM DAMONIS. I-3. "Himerides Nymphæ,” etc. The Himerides Nymphæ are the nymphs of the Sicilian river Himera, mentioned more than once by Theocritus, and once (V. 124) thus, ‘Iμépa åvė' vdatos peíto yáλa : "May Himera for water flow milk." There were, in reality, two rivers of this name in Sicily, one flowing to the south coast, and the other to the north. The northern Himera, which had the city of Himera at its mouth, is supposed to be the river of Theocritus. Milton's intention, however, is simply to invoke the Sicilian muses generally, the muses of Pastoral Poetry proper, who had inspired Theocritus, and his fellow Sicilian and pastoralist, Moschus. The First Idyll of Theocritus contains the lamentation of the shepherd Thyrsis for his dying fellow-shepherd Daphnis; the Thirteenth Idyll of the same poet relates the abduction of the beautiful youth Hylas by the water-nymphs, and the grief of Hercules for his loss; and the Third Idyll of Moschus has for its subject the untimely death of the pastoral poet Bion, whom Moschus acknowledges as his master, and who, though born in Asia Minor, near Smyrna, had come to reside in Sicily. This last Idyll is entitled Ἐπιτάφιος Βίωνος, oι Epitaphium Bionis, in imitation of Bion's own First Idyll, which is a lament for the death of Adonis, and is entitled Ἐπιτάφιος ̓Αδώνιδος, or Epitaphium Adonidis. In short, Milton desires, in the opening, as all through the poem, to remind his readers that the poem is on the model of the old Greek Pastoral. Hence he calls it a Sicelicum carmen," or "Sicilian song," attempted on the banks of the Thames. See Introd. to the poem, I. pp. 325, 326; also Introd. to Lycidas, I. pp. 193-200, and notes to Lycidas, lines 85, 86, and 132-134. 4. "Thyrsis." Milton, in lamenting Diodati under the name of Damon, represents himself as Damon's surviving fellow-shepherd Thyrsis. The name, as has been said, is that of the chief speaker in the First Idyll of Theocritus; and thence it descended as a standing name in subsequent Pastoral poetry. Virgil has it for one of the speakers in his Seventh Eclogue; the English Pastoralists had not forgotten it; and Milton had already used it in his Comus as the name of the Guardian Spirit in his guise of a shepherd. In that character it had been worn by the musician Henry Lawes, the performer of the part, who indeed claimed a kind of property in it in consequence (see Lawes's Dedication of the original edition of Comus, I. p. 385); but Milton now reclaims it for himself. 7. "Damona." Damon is also a name in the classic Pastoral. Virgil has a Damon as one of the speakers in his Eighth Eclogue. 9-II. "Et jam bis," etc. This passage by itself would have fixed for us the date of Diodati's death. Milton had gone abroad in the April of 1638, and he returned to England in the autumn of 1639. Computing from this last date, or from a few weeks later, when Milton wrote his poem, two harvests, with their precedent summers of green crop, would take us back to the summer or early autumn of 1638. Diodati, therefore, had died shortly after Milton left England, though Milton, as the sequel of the poem shows, remained ignorant of the fact till he was on his return.-Till lately we had no other record on this interesting subject than Milton's own lines afford; but the date and circumstances of Diodati's death, and the place of his burial, are now known exactly. See Introd. I. pp. 318, 319. 12, 13. "Nec dum aderat Thyrsis," etc.: i.e. Diodati's death in England had happened while Milton was at Florence, on the first of his two visits to that city: viz. in August 1638. 15. "assuetâ seditque sub ulmo.” Warton properly refers to the phrase "the accustomed oak” in Pens. 60 (see note there); but Todd quotes also Ovid, Met. X. 533, "assuetâ semper in umbrâ." 18. "Ite domum impasti; domino jam non vacat, agni." This line is the burden, or recurring line, of the poem, beginning every paragraph after this point, and repeated in all seventeen times. The exquisite device of such a burden, or recurring line, breaking a long pastoral monologue into musical parts, is found in the First Idyll of Theocritus; where the line *Αρχετε βωκολικᾶς, Μῶσαι φίλαι, ἄρχετ' αοιδᾶς occurs, with only a verbal variation, nineteen times, breaking the lament of Thyrsis for the dying Daphnis. Again, in the Second VOL. III 2 A So in the Idyll of Theocritus, we have two such refrains breaking a monologue, one repeated ten times, and the other twelve times. Epitaphium Bionis of Moschus, where the line ̓́Αρχετε Σικελικαὶ τῶ πένθεος, ἄρχετε Μοῖσαι occurs fourteen times; and so in Bion's Epitaphium Adonidis, where similar, but slighter, use is made of the line Αν αἴ τὰν Κυθέρειαν· ἀπώλετο καλὸς ̓́Αδωνις. Virgil also, in his Eighth Eclogue, makes one of the speakers repeat nine times the line 23. "Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin." "aurea": used as a dissyllable. 27. "nisi me lupus antè videbit." For this superstition compare Virgil, Ecl. IX. 54. 31. "post Daphnin." See note, ante, lines 1—3. 32. "Pales," the Roman god, or goddess, of sheepfolds; "Faunus" (see note, Ad Sals. 27), the Roman god of fields and cattle. In this whole passage (29—32) there is a recollection of Virgil, Ecl. V. 76-80: "Dum juga montis aper, fluvios dum piscis amabit, Agricolæ facient." 40. "rapido sub sole." Virgil has the phrase, "solem ad rapidum," Georg. I. 424. 46. "Mordaces curas." From Horace. See L'Allegro, 135, and note there. 47. "Dulcibus alloquiis." Also from Horace (Epod. XIII. 17). 51, 52. "Aut æstate, dies medio dum vertitur axe, Cum Pan æsculeâ somnum capit abditus umbrâ.” The idea is taken, as Warton noted, from Theocritus, I. 15-17:— 56. "Cecropiosque sales referet, cultosque lepores ?" Cecropios (from Cecrops, the mythical founder of the Athenian state) may be translated "Attic"; in " Cecropios sales" there is a recollection of the phrase "Attic salt," as a name for genuine wit; and in the whole line there is an allusion to Diodati's sprightly humour. See Introd. to Eleg. Prima, I. pp. 255—257, and Introd. to Eleg. Sexta, I. pp. 266-268. See also note to Comus, 619-628. 65. “Innuba,” etc. Compare Par. Lost, V. 215-219. 67. "Mærent, inque suum convertunt ora magistrum." Warton compares Lycidas, 125:— "The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed." 69, 70. “Tityrus . . . Alphesibæus . . . Ægon... Amyntas.” These fancy-names are all from the classic Pastoral, and more especially from Virgil's Eclogues, where shepherds so named are either speakers or are mentioned. Milton may, or may not, have had real persons in view under these designations. 71. "Hic gelidi fontes, hic illita gramina musco." So, as Richardson noted, Virgil, Ecl. X. 42, 43: “Hic gelidi fontes, hic mollia prata, Lycori : Hic nemus. 73. "Ista canunt surdo." So, as Mr. Keightley notes, Virgil, Ecl. X. 8, "Non canimus surdis.” 66 75. Mopsus." Another name from the classic Pastoral. In Virgil's Ecl. V. Mopsus is one of the speakers. 76. "avium": here to be taken, by synæresis, as a dissyllable (av-yum); but, as Mr. Keightley remarks, the first syllable of the word ought then to be long by position, whereas Milton keeps it short. 79, 80. "Saturni grave sæpe fuit pastoribus astrum," etc. See note, Il Pens. 43. Warton refers to Propertius, IV. i. 85, 86. 66 82. "Quid te, Thyrsi, futurum est?" A Ciceronian idiom for Quid tibi," etc. In scanning this line the a of nymphæ must remain unelided. 88, 89. "Hyas, Dryopeque, et filia Baucidis Egle," etc. These female names are from the classic mythology, and here turned to Pastoral use. Real persons may, or may not, have been in Milton's mind. The Ægle, so specially characterised, might be some real person; but the character, after all, as Warton noted, is taken from Horace (Od. III. ix. 9, 10): "Me nunc Thressa Chloe regit, Dulces docta modos, et citharæ sciens." 90. "Venit Idumanii Chloris vicina fluenti." If any one of the four shepherdesses mentioned was a real person of Milton's acquaintance, this Chloris might be she; for, as Warton explained, the Idumanium fluentum, from which she is said to have come, is the river Chelmer in Essex, near its influx into Blackwater Bay, called by Ptolemy Portus Idumanius. It is hardly possible to suppose so |