Seu catus auditur senior, seu prodigus hæres, Detonat inculto barbara verba foro; Quid sit amor nescit, dum quoque nescit, amat. Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragoedia sceptrum Quassat, et effusis crinibus ora rotat; Et dolet, et specto, juvat et spectasse dolendo, Interdum et lacrymis dulcis amaror inest: puer infelix indelibata reliquit Seu Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit ; 30 35 40 31. Sive decennali fœcundus lite See Note on Il Pens. v. 98. Ovid calls his Medea " Scriptum regale." Trist. ii. 553. Seu ferus e tenebris iterat Styga criminis ultor, Conscia funereo pectora torre movens ; Seu moret Pelopeia domus, seu nobilis Ili, Aut luit incestos aula Creontis avos. Sed neque sub tecto semper nec in urbe latemus, Ibid. v. 49. -Desuper intonat ulmo. the first instance, Romeo was 44. Conscia funereo pectora torre movens ;] Mr. Steevens suggests, that the allusion is to Ate in the old play of Locrine, where she enters with a torch in her hand, and where the motto to the Scene is, In pœna sectatur et umbra. 48. Irrita nec nobis tempora veris eunt.] Ovid, Fast. ii. 150. -Primi tempora veris eunt. 49. Nos quoque lucus habet vicina consitus ulmo,] The gods had their favourite trees. So have the poets. Milton's is the elm. In L'Allegro, v. 57. Some time walking not unseen 215. -They led the vine To wed her elm. 45 50 The country about Colnebrook impressed Milton with a predilection for this tree. See the next note. 50. Atque suburbani nobilis umbra loci.] Some country house of Milton's father very near London is here intended, of which we have now no notices. A letter to Alexander Gill is dated "E nostro Suburbano "Decem. 4, 1634." Prose Works, vol. ii. 567. In the Apology for he says to his opponent, Smectymnuus, published 1642, "that "suburb wherein I dwell shall "be in my account a more "honourable place than his University." Prose Works, i. By hedge-row elms on hillocks green. 109. His father had purchased In Arcades, v. 89. the estate at Colnebrook before 1632. In a letter to Deodate, from London, dated 1637, he says, "Dicam jam nunc serio quid cogitem, in Hospitium "Juridicorum aliquod immigrare, sicubi amœna et umbrosa "ambulatio est, &c. Ubi nunc sum, ut nosti, obscure et angustè "sum." Prose Works, vol. ii. rr Sæpius hic, blandas spirantia sidera flammas, Atque faces, quotquot volvit uterque polus; Aurea quæ Et quæcunque vagum cepit amica Jovem : 55 60 65 Indue qua primum cepisti veste Pro- Terence, Eunuch. iv. iii. 11. Eunuchum quem dedisti mihi quas See also Phormio, v. vii. 54. Prophets, p. xxxiv. Lond. 1785. 4to. 63. Cedite laudatæ toties Heroides olim, &c.] Ovid, Art. Buchanan, El. vi. p. 43. edit. ut Amator. i. 713. supr. -Superantia lumine flammas. 58. Quæque fluit puro nectare tincta via;] Here is a peculiar antique formula, as in the following instances. Virgil, Æn. i. 573. Urbem quam statuo vestra est. Jupiter ad veteres supplex Heroïdas ibat, Corripuit magnum nulla puella Jovem. 65. Cedite Achæmeniæ turrita fronte puellæ,] Achæmenia is a part of Persia, so called from Achæmenes the son of Egeus. Et quot Susa colunt, Memnoniamque Ninon ; Jactet, et Ausoniis plena theatra stolis. The women of this country wear 66. Et quot Susa colunt, Memnoniamque Ninon ;] Susa [Susarum], anciently a capital city of Susiana in Persia, conquered by Cyrus. Xerxes marched from this city, to enslave Greece, "From Susa, his Memnonian palace high." Par. L. x. 308. It is now called Souster. Propert. ii. xiii. i. Non tot Achæmeniis armantur Susa sagittis. Ninos is a city of Assyria, built by Ninus: Memnon, a hero of the Iliad, had a palace there, and was the builder of Susa. Milton is alluding to oriental beauty. In the next couplet, he challenges the ladies of ancient Greece, Troy, and Rome. 69. Nec Pompeianas Tarpeia Musa, &c.] The poet has a retrospect to a long passage in Ovid, who is here called Tarpeia Musa, either because he had a house adjoining to the Capitol, or by way of distinction, that he was the Tarpeian, the genuine Roman muse. It is in Ovid's Art of Love, where he directs his votary Venus to frequent the portico of Pompey, or the Theatre, places at Rome, among 70 others, where the most beautiful women were assembled. B. i. 67. Tu modo Pompeii lentus spatiare sub umbra, &c. And v. 89. Sed tu præcipue curvis venare theatris, &c. See also, b. iii. 387. Propertius says that Cynthia had deserted this famous portico, or colonnade, of Pompey, ii. xxxii. 11. Scilicet umbrosis sordet Pompeia columnis Porticus, aulæis nobilis Attalicis, &c. Where says the old scholiast, "Romæ erat Porticus Pompeia, "soli arcendo accommodata, sub 66 qua æstivo potissimum tem"pore matronæ spatiabantur." See also iv. viii. 75. Other proofs occur in Catullus, Martial, and Statius. Pompey's theatre and portico were contiguous. The words Ausoniis stolis imply literally the theatre filled "with "the ladies of Rome." But Stola properly points out a matron. See Note on Il Pens. v. 35. And Ovid, Epist. ex Pont. iii. iii. 52. Scripsimus hæc istis, quarum nec Contingit crines, nec stola longa Turrigerum late conspicienda caput, Quot tibi, conspicuæ formaque auroque, puellæ Stat quoque juncosas Cami remeare paludes, 74. Turrigerum late conspicienda caput,] So in L'All. v. 117. Tow'red cities please us then. 88. See notes on Comus, v. 636. 89.juncosas Cami remeare paludes,] The epithet juncosas is picturesque and appropriated, and exactly describes this river: hence in Lycidas, "his bonnet sedge," v. 104. Dr. J. Warton. And above, v. 11. rushy marshes of Cam. See v. 13, 14. And notes on Lycid. v. 105. 92. The Roxana of Alabaster has been mentioned by Dr. Johnson as a Latin composition, equal to the Latin poetry of Milton: whoever but slightly examines it, will find it written in the style and manner of the turgid and unnatural Seneca. It was printed by the author himself at London, 1632. Yet it was written forty years before, 1592, and there had been a surreptitious edition. It is remarkable, that Mors, Death, is one of the persons of the Drama. Dr. J. Warton. |