Irriguos inter faltus, frondafque tecta, Peneium prope rivum: ibi fæpe fub ilice nigra, Ad citharæ ftrepitum, blanda prece victus amici, Exilii duros lenibat voce labores. Tum neque ripa fuo, barathro nec fixa fub imo 65 Saxa ftetere loco; nutat Trachinia rupes, Ibid. iii. 631. Chironis in antrum.] The end of a verse in Ovid, METAM. 64. Exilii duros lenibat voce labores.] Ovid fays, that he foothed the anxieties of love, not of banishment, with his mufic: and it is related, or implied, by Tibullus, and others, that he was enamoured of Admetus when a boy, or the grandíon of an elder Admetus. Ovid, METAM. ii. 684. Dumque AMOR eft curæ, dum te tua fistula mulcet. See alfo EPIST. HEROID. Ep. V. 151. FAST. ii. 239. more expressly, HYMN. APOLL. V. ·49. · Επ ̓ ̓Αμφρυσῷ ζευγήτιδας ἔτρεφεν ἵππος, Ἠθία ὑπ ̓ ἔρωτι κεκαυμένος Αδμήτοιο. ·Juxta Amphryfum pavit jugales equos, Inflammatus amore impuberis Admeti. Callimachus But Milton uniformly follows Euripides, who fays that Apollo was unwillingly forced into the fervice of Admetus by Jupiter, for having killed the Cyclopes, ALCEST. v. 6. Thus, v. 56. At non SPONTE domum tamen idem, &c. The very circumftance which introduces this fine compliment and digreffion. 65. Tum neque ripa fuo, &c.] The bank of the river Peneus, just mentioned. 66. Nutat Trachinia rupes.] Mount Oeta, connected with the mountains, Pelion in which was Chiron's cave, and Othrys mentioned in the paffage juft cited from Euripides. See Ovid, METAM.vii. 353But with no impropriety, Milton might here mean Pelion by the Trachinian rock; which, with the reft, had immania pondera filvas, and which Homer calls evoquor, frondofum. Its Orni are alfo twice mentioned by V. Flaccus, ARGON. B. i. 406. “Quantum Peliacas in "vertice vicerat ORNOS." Again, B. ii. 6. "Jamque fretis fummas æquatum Pelion ORNOS." Nec Nec fentit folitas, immania pondera, filvas; 75 Diis dilecte fenex, te Jupiter æquus oportet 70 Nafcentem, et miti luftrarit lumine Phœbus, Atlantifque nepos; neque enim, nifi charus ab ortu Diis fuperis, poterit magno faviffe poetæ. Hinc longæva tibi lento fub flore senectus Vernat, et Æfonios lucratur vivida fufos ; Nondum deciduos fervans tibi frontis honores, Ingeniumque vigens, et adultum mentis acumen. O mihi fi mea fors talem concedat amicum, Phœbæos decoraffe viros qui tam bene norit, Siquando indigenas revocabo in carmina reges, Arturumque etiam fub terris bella moventem! 80 72. Atlantifque nepos.] See DE ID. PLATON. Note on v. 27. Mercury is the god of eloquence. 73. Magno faville poeta.] The great poet Taffo. Or a great like your friend Taffo. Either fenfe fhews Milton's high idea of the author of the GERUSALEMME. poet 74. Lento fub flore fenectus Vernat, &c.] There is much elegance in lento fub flore. Iob. ject to vernat fene&tus. 79. Phæbæos decoraffe viros, &c.] Phebeus is intirely an Ovidian epithet. As, "PHOEBAEA lyra." EPIST. HEROID.XVI. 180. "PHOE"BAEIS fortibus." METAM. iii. 130. And in numerous other places. See above, EL. vii. 46. 80. Si quando indigenas revocabo in carmina reges, Arturumque etiam fub terris bella moventem, &c.] The indigen reges are the antient kings of Britain. This was the fubject for an epic poem Aut dicam invictæ fociali fœdere menfæ Magnanimos heroas; et, O modo fpiritus adfit, 90 poem that first occupied the mind of Milton. See the fame idea re. peated in EPITAPH. DAMON. V. 162. King Arthur, after his death, was fuppofed to be carried into the fubterraneous land of Faerie or of Spirits, where he ftill reigned as a king, and whence he was to return into Britain, to renew the Round Table, conquer all his old enemies, and reestablish his throne. He was therefore, ETIAM movens bella jub terris, STILL meditating wars under the earth. The impulfe of his attachment to this fubject was not intirely fuppreffed: it produced his History of Britain. By the expreflion, revocato in carmina, the poet means, that thefe antient kings, which were once the themes of the British bards, fhould now again be celebrated in verse. Milton in his CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, written 1641, says, that after the example of Taffo," it haply would be no rashness, from an "equal diligence and inclination, to prefent the like offer in one of "our own ANCIENT STORIES." PROSE-WORKS, i. 60. It is poffible that the advice of Manfo, the friend of Taffo, might determine our poet to a defign of this kind. 82. Sociali fædere menfæ, &c.] The knights, or affociated champions, of king Arthur's Round Table. 84. The fabulous exploits of the British Arthur against the Saxons. 90. Parva componi molliter urna.] I take this opportunity of obferving, that Milton's biographers have given no clear or authentic account of the place of his interment. He died of the gout at his house in Bunhill-fields, about the tenth day of November, 1674, not quite fixty fix. His burial is thus entered in the Register of Saint Giles's Cripplegate. "John Melton, gentleman. Confumption, Chan"cel. 12 Nov. 1674." I learn from Aubrey's manufcript, "He was "buried Forfitan et noftros ducat de marmore vultus, Nectens aut Paphia myrti aut Parnaffide lauri 95 "buried at the upper end in S. Gyles Cripple-gate chancell, Mem. "His Stone is now, 1681, removed; for about two years fince, the "two fteppes to the Communion-table were rayfed. I gheffe Jo. "Speed and he lie together." Hearne has very fignificantly remarked, that Milton was buried in the fame church in which Oliver Cromwell was married. COLL. MSS. vol. 143. p. 155. He was interred near his father's grave, who died very old in 1647. Fenton, about the year 1725, fearching in this church for Milton's monument, found a small stone, traditionally fuppofed to have denoted the place of his interment: but the fexton faid, that no infcription had been legible for more than forty years. This fure, fays Fenton, could "never have happened in fo fhort a fpace of time, unlefs the epitaph "had been induftriously erafed: and that fuppofition carries with it "fo much inhumanity, that I think we ought to believe it was not "crected to his memory." Whether it was or not, no man's epitaph was more likely to be defaced, although no man's ought to have been more inviolably and refpectfully preferved. Toland, in Milton's Life, written in 1698, fays, that he was buried in the Chancel of this church, "where the piety of his admirers will fhortly erect a monu"ment becoming his worth, and the encouragement of letters in King William's reign." But this defign was never executed. In the Surveys of London, published about the beginning of the prefent century, and later, Milton is faid to be buried in the Chancel of this church, but without any monument. 92. Nettens aut Paphia myrti ant Parnafide lauri Fronde comas. -] So AD PATREM, V. 16. Et nemoris laureta facri PARNASSIDES umbra. Ovid, METAM. xi. 165. Ille caput flavum lauro PARNASSIDE vinctus. Virgil's epithet is PARNASSIUS. In the text, he joins the Myrtle and the Laurel, as in LYCIDAS, V. I. Yet once more, O ye LAURELS, and once more, Ye MYRTLES brown, &c. Secreti hæc aliqua mundi de parte videbo Quantum fata finunt: et tota mente ferenum Et fimul æthereo plaudam mihi lætus Olympo. 100 EPITAPHIUM DAMONIS. ARGUMENTU M. Thyrfis et Damon ejufdem vicinia paftores, eadem Studia fequuti, a pueritia amici erant, ut qui plurimum. Thyrfis animi caufa profectus peregre de obitu Damonis nuncium accepit. Demum poftea reverfus, et rem ita effe comperto, fe, fuamque folitudinem hoc carmine deplorat. Damonis autem fub perfona bic intelligitur Carolus Deodatus ex urbe Hetruria Luca paterno genere oriundus, catera Anglus; ingenio, doctrina, clarissimisque cateris virtutibus, dum viveret, juvenis egregius. H" Imerides nymphæ (nam vos et Daphṇin et Et plorata diu meminiftis fata Bionis) 1. Himerides Nympha. - Himera is the famous bucolic river of Theocritus, who fung the death of Daphnis, and the lofs of Hylas. Bion, in the next line, was lamented by Mofchus. In the Argument of this Paftoral, "Rem ita effe comperto," Tickell has ignorantly and ¦ arbitrarily altered comperto to comperiens. He is followed, as ufual, by Fenton. 1 |