Broke the fair musick that all creatures made 21 To their great Lord, whofe love their motion fway'd In perfect diapafon, whilft they stood In first obedience, and their state of good. 25 And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long To his celeftial confort us unite, To live with him, and fing in endless morn of light! "A fweet confent of muficks facred found "Doth raise our minds as rapt all vp on high; In the fame ftraine Sylvefter, Du Bart. 1621, p. 201. "Yet all again concent, to make him war." Milton's friend, Henry More, adopts the fame imagery, "the concent, the diapafon, the jar, &c." in his Song of the Soul, 1642, p. 15. Milton, who loved "the concord of fweet founds," defcribes the difagreement of married perfons as " continual grating in harsh tune together, which may breed fome jar and difcord," Profe-W. i. 296. TODD. a Ver. 21. Broke the fair mufick] To this original harmony Jonfon alludes, Sad Shepherd, A. iii. S. ii. 66 "giving to the world Again his first and tuneful planetting." See Ode on the Nativity, ft. xii, xiii. T. WARTON. Original Various Readings of the Ode at a Solemn Mufick. There are three draughts, or copies, of this Song: all in Milton's own hand-writing. There occur fome remarkable expreffions in these various readings which Doctor Newton and Mr. Warton have not noticed. TODD. Ver. 3. Mixe your choife words, and happiest sounds employ, Dead things with inbreath'd fense able to pierce; And as your equal raptures, temper'd sweet, In high mifterious Spoufall meet; Snatch us from earth awhile, Us of ourselves and native woes beguile: And to our high-rays'd phantafic prefent That undisturbed fong &c. Here, in the first draught, it is "And whilst your equal raptures:" in the fecond, whilst is erafed, and as written over it. In the fecond draught also, the next line was In high misterious holic spoufall meet ; but holie is expunged, and happie supplied in the margin: and, in the last of these original lines, "native woes" was originally "home-bred woes." Ver. 10. Where the bright Seraphim in tripled row. But, in the firft draught, princely row. Ver. 11. In the firft draught the line feems to have been written (for the manufcript here is torn and imperfect) Next, Their loud immortal trumpets blow. Loud fymphonie of filver trumpets blow. In the fecond draught he first wrote, High lifted, loud and angel trumpets blow. Which he afterwards altered to the prefent reading. Ver. 12. And Cherubim, fweet-winged Squires, Then called Heaven's henfhmen, which means the fame; henshman, or henchman, fignifying a page of honour. See Minfheu, and alfo Midf. N. Dr. A. ii. S. ii. "I do but beg a little changeling boy The Queen of Fairies is the fpeaker. Milton's curious expreffions are in the first draught. Ver. 14. With thofe juft Spirits that wear the blooming palms, Hymnes devout and facred pfalmes Singing everlastingly; While all the Starry rounds and arches blue That we on earth, &c. Ver. 18. May rightly answere that melodious noife, Of clamorous fin that all our musick marres : May keepe in tune with Heaven, &c. In the fecond draught he defcribes "the harsh difcords" of fin by a technical term in mufick: Ver. 19. By leaving out thofe harsh CHROMATICK jarres Offin that all our mufick marres. As once we could, &c. Ver. 28. To live and fing with him in even endleffe light. Then "ever endlesse" is changed into "ever-glorious," which is next converted into "uneclipfed." The latter part of the line is alfo varied in the following order: where day dwells without night. in endleffe morne of light. in cloudleffe birth of light, AN EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER. THIS rich marble doth inter The honour'd wife of Winchester, A Viscount's daughter, an Earl's heir, More than fhe could own from earth. To house with darkness, and with death. Been as complete as was her praise, 5 10 Ver. 4. Befides what her virtues fair &c.] In Howell's entertaining Letters, there is one to this lady, the Lady Jane Savage marchionefs of Winchester, dated Mar. 15, 1626. He fays, he affifted her in learning Spanish: and that Nature and the Graces exhaufted all their treasure and fkill, in " framing this exact model of female perfection." He adds, "I return you here the Sonnet your Grace pleafed to fend me lately, rendered into Spanish, and fitted from the fame ayre it had in English both for cadence and feete, &c." Howell's Letters, vol. i. §. 4. Let. xiv. p. 180, ut fupr. I make this citation to juftify and illuf trate our author's panegyrick. T. WARTON. Nature and Fate had had no ftrife In giving limit to her life. Her high birth, and her graces fweet, The virgin quire for her request But with a scarce well-lighted flame; Ver. 15. Her high birth, and her graces sweet, 15 20 Quickly found a lover meet;] She was the wife of John marquis of Winchester, a confpicuous loyalist in the reign of king Charles the firft, whofe magnificent house or caftle of Bafing in Hampshire withstood an obftinate fiege of two years against the rebels, and when taken was levelled to the ground, because in every window was flourished Aymez Loyaute. He died in 1674, and was buried in the church of Englefield in Berkshire; where, on his monument, is an admirable epitaph in English verfe written by Dryden, which I have often feen. It is remarkable, that both husband and wife should have feverally received the honour of an epitaph from two fuch poets as Milton and Dryden. Nor fhould it be forgotten, that Jonfon wrote a pathetick poem entitled An Elegie on the Lady ANNE PAWLETT Marchioness of Winton. UNDERW. vol. vii. 17. But Jane appears in the text of the poem, with the circumstance of her being the daughter of Lord Savage. See Note on v. 55. She therefore must have been our author's Marchionefs. Compare Cartwright's Poems, p. 193. T. WARTON. But with a fcarce well-lighted flame ;] Almoft literally from his favourite poet Ovid, Metam. x. 4. Of Hymen. "Adfuit ille quidem; fed nec folennia verba, "Nec lætos vultus, nec felix attulit omen: "Fax quoque quam tenuit, lacrymofo ftridula fumo, I find I have been preoccupied by Dr. Jortin in noting this parallel. T. Warton. |