Molli quiefcant cefpite, et ex tuo Sit mite de te judicium Æaci, Ver. 42. Molli quiefcant cefpite, &c.] Virgil, Ecl. x. 33. 45 O mihi tum quàm mollitèr offa quiefcant, &c." This claffical wish is more fully illuftrated by Juvenal, Sat. vii. 207. “Dii majorum umbris tenuem et fine pondere terram, Tabula See alfo Jac. Gutherii de Jure Manium. Lib. ii. p. 233. Precationem Manes ipfi à prætereuntibus exoptabant. marmorea apud Gentilem Delphinium Romæ : ROGO. VT. DISCEDENS. TERRAM MIHI. DICAS. LEVEM. TODD. In Quintum Novembris*. Anno Etatis 17. JAM pius extremâ veniens Iäcobus ab arcto Teucrigenas populos, latéque patentia regna * I have formerly remarked, that this little poem, as containing a council, confpiracy, and expedition of Satan, may be confidered as an early and promifing prolufion of Milton's genius to the Paradife Loft. T. WARTON. I have already obferved that P. Fletcher exhibits, in his Locufta, &c. a council and confpiracy of devils. See the Notes on Par. Loft, B. i. 795, B. ii. 285, aud Par. Reg. B. i. 42. But this poem was written in 1626, and Fletcher's was not published till 1627. Fletcher's fubject, however, is fimilar. There are certainly fome coincidences of thought and expreffion in the two poems. Marino and Crafhaw alfo afford, in their language and imagery, fome refemblances. But here Milton's poem is earlier than Marino's Strage de gli Innocenti also, which did not appear till 1633: And Crafhaw's translation not till many years afterwards. Milton feems to have been, in a slight degree, indebted perhaps to both, in his Paradife Loft. And with refpect to Fletcher's Locufta, it has been faid that Milton himself acknowledged the obligations which he derived from that poem to his Paradife Loft. But fee the Inquiry into the Origin of Paradife Loft, in this edition. I will now prefent the reader with fome interesting extracts from a very fcarce Latin poem, entitled PAREUS, and printed at Oxford by Jofeph Barnes in 1585; which defcribing, in more than four hundred hexameters, the treafons practifed by W. Parry against queen Elizabeth, sometimes introduces fentiments and imagery not diffimilar to what Milton has here exhibited. The poem thus opens: Qui Phrygio quondam certantes vertice divas, Nunc aliud canere adgredior, remóque paludem Albionum, tenuit; jámque inviolabile fœdus Sceptra Caledoniis conjunxerat Anglica Scotis: Pacificúfque novo, felix divéfque, fedebat Cocyti tranare meo; juvat alta videre Tartara, et hinc fævam Parei deducere fraudem Solam autem immunem fcelerum, cladífque jacere Tum verò invidia mentem fuffufus amara, Sic fecum: "Meáne hanc unam modò temnere gentem 66 Tótque ducum validæ per bella horrentia vires? Sic ait, atque imis excitam Acheruntis ab oris Hanc ergò alloquitur Pluton, ac talibus infit. 5 "Vade age; et hunc proprium patri fer, nata, laborem. In folio, occultique doli fecurus et hoftis: 15 Illic unanimes odium ftruit inter amicos, "Romuleas, i, fcande arces, atque atria nota Ver. 10. Dinumerans fceleris focios, &c.] As in Par. Loft, B. i. 606. "The fellows of his crime, &c. TODD. Ver. 13. Illic unanimes &c.] Virg. En. 385. "Tu potes unanimes armare in prælia fratres, &c." RICHARDSON. Ver. 15. Regnáque oliviferâ &c.] Olivifer is an Ovidian epithet, Faft. iii. 151. "Primus oliviferis Romam deductus ab arvis." A great fault of the verfification of this poem is, that it is too monotonous, and that there is no intermixture of a variety of paufes. But it fhould be remembered, that young writers are milled by fpecious beauties. T. WARTON. Ver. 17. -fraudumque magifter] He calls the devil, artificer of fraud, Par. Loft, B. iv. 121. In the beginning of Gregory Nazianzen's Chriftus Patiens, the old dragon is termed ayxuλourns, and in the Latin translation fraudis artifex, S. Greg. Naz, Opp. tom. ii. p. 254, edit. fol. Lut. Paris. 1611, TODD. Tentat inacceffum fceleri corrumpere pectus; Infidiáfque locat tacitas, cafséfque latentes Tendit, ut incautos rapiat; ceu Cafpia tigris 20 Infequitur trepidam deferta per avia prædam 25 Nocte fub illuni, et fomno nictantibus aftris: 30 pace beatam, Ver. 23. Summanus] Summanus is an obfolete and uncommon name for Pluto, or the god of ghofts and night, fummus manium, which Milton most probably had from Ovid, Faft. vi. 731. The name occurs in Plautus, Cicero, Pliny, and other ancient criticks. T. WARTON. Ver. 24. Cinctus cærulea fumanti turbine flammæ.] Satan is robed with a mantle of flames, in Marino's Strage de gli Innocenti, 1633, Lib. i. ft. vi. TODD. Ver. 27. Cui nomen dederat quondam Neptunia proles ;] "Albion a giant, fon of Neptune, who called the [this] ifland after his own name; and ruled it forty four years. Till at length paffing over into Gaul, in aid of his brother Leftrygon, againft whom Hercules was hafting out of Spain into Italy, he was there flain in fight, &c." Milton's Hift. Eng. B. i. Drayton has the fame fable, Polyolb. S. xviii. T. WARTON. Ver. 31. At fimul hanc, opibúfque et feftâ pace beatam, &c.] The whole context is from Ovid's Envy, Metam. ii. 794. "Tandem Tritonida confpicit arcem, Ingeniifque, opibúfque et feftá pace, virentem: "Vixque tenet lacrymas, &c." T. WARTON. |