VIII.

Or wert thou that just Maid, who once before
Forsook the hated earth, O tell me sooth,
And cam'st again to visit us once more?
Or wert thou that sweet-smiling youth?

Or that crown'd matron sage white-robed Truth?

"With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves."

NEWTON.

50

But the unusual participle, nectar'd, may be found in Davies's Scourge of Folly, 1611. p. 132.

"And nectar'd streames of Helicon do fleete."

And in Davies's Wittes Pilgrimage, 4to. s. d. Sign. C. 2. b. "Hence flow all nectar'd sweets," &c. TODD.

Ver. 53. Or wert thou that sweet-smiling youth?

Or that crown'd matron sage white-robed Truth?] In the first of these verses, a dissyllable word is wanting, which probably fell out at the press. The late Mr. John Heskin, of Christ-Church, Oxford, who published an elegant edition of Bion and Moschus, proposed, in a periodical Miscellany which appeared about the year 1750, and with the utmost probability, to insert Mercy.

"Or wert thou Mercy, that sweet-smiling youth?" For, as he observed, Mercy is not only most aptly represented as a sweet-smiling youth, that is, of the age most susceptible of the tender passions, but Mercy is joined with Justice and Truth in the Ode on the Nativity, st. xv. Doctor Newton has omitted the name of the author of this conjecture, and gives the reasons for it as his own. T. WARTON.

Mr. Heskin's conjecture is perhaps supported by a passage in P. Fletcher's Pisc. Eclogues, 1633, p. 17.

"To look more sweet

"Then Mercy self can look with Pities eyes."

In Sylvester we have "milde-ey'd Mercy," Du Bart. 1621, p. 302. And in Lisle's Du Bart. 1625, p. 179, we have “sweetey'd Mercy." TODD.

Ver. 54.

sage white-robed Truth ?] As

described in Ripa's Iconologia, ed. 1625, p. 712.

"Verita,

Or any other of that heavenly brood

55

Let down in cloudy throne to do the world some good?

IX.

Or wert thou of the golden-winged host,
Who, having clad thyself in human weed,
To earth from thy prefixed seat didst post,
And after short abode fly back with speed,
As if to show what creatures heaven doth breed

Thereby to set the hearts of men on fire

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To scorn the sordid world, and unto heaven aspire ?

X.

But oh! why didst thou not stay here below
To bless us with thy heaven-lov'd innocence,

To slake His wrath whom sin hath made our foe,
To turn swift-rushing black Perdition hence,
Or drive away the slaughtering Pestilence,

65

Donna risplendente, et di nobile aspetto, vestita di color bianco pomposamente," &c. TODD.

Ver. 57. Or wert thou of the golden-winged host,] Mr. Bowle here cites Spenser's Hymne of heavenlie Beautie.

"Bright Cherubins

"Which all with golden wings are over-dight."

And Spenser's Heavenly Love has "golden wings." Tasso thus describes Gabriel's wings, Gier. Lib. c. i. st. xiv.

"Ali bianche vesti, ch' han d'or le cime." An edging of gold. Fairfax translates the passage, "Of silver wings he took a shining payre, "Fringed with gold."

See Il. Pens. v. 52. T. WARTON.

Ver. 67. To turn swift-rushing black Perdition hence,

Or drive away the slaughtering Pestilence,] Among the blessings, which the heaven-lov'd innocence of this child might

To stand 'twixt us and our deserved smart?

But thou canst best perform that office where thou art.

XI.

71

Then thou, the Mother of so sweet a Child,
Her false-imagin❜d loss cease to lament,
And wisely learn to curb thy sorrows wild;
Think what a present thou to God hast sent,
And render Him with patience what He lent;
This if thou do, He will an offspring give,
That, till the world's last end, shall make thy name
to live.

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have imparted, by remaining upon earth, the application to present circumstances, the supposition that she might have averted the pestilence now raging in the kingdom, is happily and beautifully conceived. On the whole, from a boy of seventeen, this Ode is an extraordinary effort of fancy, expression, and versifica-tion. Even in the conceits, which are many, we perceive strong and peculiar marks of genius. I think Milton has here given a very remarkable specimen of his ability to succeed in the Spenserian stanza. He moves with great ease and address amidst the embarrassment of a frequent return of rhyme. T. WARTON.

It must be observed, that the Spenserian stanza consists of nine lines; the stanzas in this Ode, of only seven; in which particular, as Mr. Bowle also observes, Milton imitates Lord Buckhurst, Baldwin, and other writers in the Mirour for Magistrates. The stanzas of Harrington, Daniel, and Fairfax, are octaves.

TODD.

VOL. VI.

E

ON TIME*.

FLY, envious Time, till thou run out thy race;
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy plummet's pace;
And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more than what is false and vain,
And merely mortal dross;

So little is our loss,

So little is thy gain!

For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb'd,
And last of all thy greedy self consum'd,
Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss

With an individual kiss ;

And Joy shall overtake us as a flood,

When every thing that is sincerely good

5

10

* In Milton's manuscript, written with his own hand, fol. 8, the title is," On Time. To be set on a clock-case."

T. WARTON.

Ver. 2. Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours, &c.] Much in the manner of Shakspeare, Hen. V. A. iii. Chorus.

"the cripple tardy-gaited night, "Who, like a foul and ugly witch, does limp "So tediously." BowLE.

Ver. 12.

individual] Eternal, inseparable. As in

Par. Lost, B. iv. 485, B. v. 610. And see note on Ad Patr.

v. 66. T. WARTON.

So, in Holiday's Marriages of the Arts, 1618. A. ii. S. 6.

"Anacreon

"My individuall companion." TODD.

Ver. 14. When every thing that is sincerely good] Sincerely,

is purely, perfectly. As in Comus, v. 454.

And perfectly divine,

With Truth, and Peace, and Love, shall ever shine
About the supreme throne

Of Him, to whose happy-making sight alone

When once our heavenly-guided soul shall clime;
Then, all this earthy grossness quit,

15

20

Attir'd with stars, we shall for ever sit,
Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee,
O Time.

"So dear to heaven is saintly chastity,

“That when a soul is found sincerely so," &c.

Ver. 18.

of beatifick vision.

T. WARTON.,

happy-making sight] The plain English NEWTON.

Ver. 22. Milton could not help applying the most solemn and mysterious truths of religion on all subjects and occasions. He has here introduced the beatifick vision, and the investiture of the soul with a robe of stars, into an inscription on a clock-case. Perhaps something more moral, more plain and intelligible, would have been more proper. John Bunyan, if capable of rhyming, would have written such an inscription for a clock-case. The latter part of these lines may be thought wonderfully sublime : but it is in the cant of the times. The poet should be distinguished from the enthusiast. T. WARTON.

Compare Browne, Brit. Past. B. i. S. 4. ed. 1616.

"Her words, embalmed in so sweet a breath,

"That made them triumph both on Time and Death."

Yet still, I think, Milton is here no enthusiast: the triumph, which he mentions, will certainly be the triumph of every sincere Christian. TODD.

? He did.