Dum canit Assyrios divum prolixus amores; 11. Dum canit Assyrios divum prolixus amores;] The allusion is to Marino's poem Il Adone, prolix enough if we consider its subject; and in other respects spun out to an unwarrantable length. Marino's poem, called Strage de gli Innocenti, was published in 1633, about four years before Milton visited Italy. To this poem Milton is supposed to have been indebted in Paradise Lost. Mr. Hayley thinks it therefore very remarkable, that our author should not here have mentioned this poem of Marino, as well as his Adone. The observation at first sight is pertinent and just. But it should be remembered, that Milton did not begin his Paradise Lost till many years after this Epistle was written, and therefore such a poem could now be no object. Milton thought it sufficient to characterize Marino by his great and popular work only, omitting his other and less conspicuous performances. See Kippis's Biogr. Brit. iv. p. 341. From what is here said, however, it may be inferred, that Milton could be no stranger to the Strage, and must have seen it at an early period of his life. 16. Vidimus arridentem operoso ex are poetam.] Marino's monument at Naples, erected by Manso. But the Academy of 15 the Humoristi are said, in Marino's epitaph, to have been the chief contributors. Tasso was buried, in 1595, in the church of the monastery of Saint Onufrius at Rome; and his remains were covered, by his own desire, only with a plain stone. Cardinal Cynthio, whom he made his heir, soon afterwards proposed to build a splendid tomb to his memory; but the design never was carried into execution. Manso, to whom he bequeathed only his picture, and to whom he had committed some directions about his funeral, coming from Naples to Rome about 1605, and finding not so much as his name inscribed on the stone under which he was laid, offered to erect a suitable monument, but was not permitted. However, he procured this simple but expressive inscription to be engraved on the stone, Torquati Tassi ossa. At length the monument which now appears, was given by Cardinal Bevilaqua, of an illustrious family of Ferrara. L For a more particular account of the very singular attentions and honours which Marino received from Manso, the reader is referred to the Italian Life of Marino, by F. Ferrari, published at Venice in 1633, 4to. At the end of Marino's Strage de gli 20 Nec satis hoc visum est in utrumque, et nec pia cessant Innocenti, and other poems. See p. 68, 82, 89, 90. Marino died at Naples in 1625, aged fiftysix. 22.-Mycalen qui natus ad altam, &c.] Herodotus, who wrote the Life of Homer. He was a native of Caria, where Mycale is a mountain. It is among those famous hills that blazed in Phaeton's conflagration, Ovid, Metam. ii. 223. The allusion is happy, as it draws with it an implicit comparison between Tasso and Homer. 22. I have corrected the note on this verse after Bp. Mant in his Life of Warton. It is, however, doubtful whether the Ionic Life of Homer was written by Herodotus; it is often ascribed to Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Mycale, which is on the coast of 25 30 Oceani glaucos perfundit gurgite crines: Quin et in has quondam pervenit Tityrus oras. Sed neque nos genus incultum, nec inutile Phoebo, Qua plaga septeno mundi sulcata Trione Brumalem patitur longa sub nocte Boöten. 36 Halantemque crocum, perhibet nisi vana vetustas, 40 El. i. 9. And he is properly ranked with Chaucer. And the allusion may be to Spenser's Epithalamium of Thames, a long Episode in the Fairy Queen, iv. xi. 8. See also his Prothalamium. 34. Quin et in has quondam pervenit Tityrus oras.] Like me too, Chaucer travelled into Italy. In Spenser's Pastorals, Chaucer is constantly called Tityrus. 38. Nos etiam colimus Phoe bum, &c.] He avails himself of a notion supported by Selden on the Polyolbion, that Apollo was worshipped in Britain. See his notes on Songs, viii. ix. Selden supposes also, that the British Druids invoked Apollo. See the next note. And Spanheim on Callimachus, vol. ii. 492. seq. 41. Misimus, et lectas Druidum de gente choreas.] He insinuates, that our British Druids were poets. As in Lycidas, v. 53. Where your old Bards the famous 145 43. Heroum laudes, imitandaque gesta canebant ;] See almost the same verse Ad Patrem, v. 46. 45. Graia de more puellæ,] Ovid, Metam. ii. 711. Illa forte die castæ de more puellæ, &c. 46. Our author converts the three Hyperborean Nymphs who sent fruits to Apollo in Delos, limachus, Hymn. Del. v. 292. into British goddesses. See Cal Ουπις τε, Λόξωσι, και ευαίων Εκαεργη, Milton here calls Callimachus's Loxo, Corineis, from Corineus, a Cornish giant. Some writers hold, that Britain, or rather that part of it called Scotland, was the fertile region of the Hyperborei. Fatidicamque Upin, cum flavicoma Hecaërge, Fortunate senex, ergo quacunque per orbem 50 Tu quoque in ora frequens venies, plausumque vi rorum, Et parili carpes iter immortale volatu. Dicetur tum sponte tuos habitasse penates 52. Tu quoque in ora frequens venies, plausumque virorum,] So Propertius, as Mr. Bowle observes, iii. ix. 32. Venies tu quoque in ora virum. This association of immortality is happily inferred. 56. At non sponte domum tamen, &c.] Apollo, being driven from heaven, kept the cattle of king Admetus in Thessaly, who also entertained Hercules. This was in the neighbourhood of the river Peneus, and of mount Pelion, inhabited by Chiron. It has never been observed, that the whole context is a manifest imitation of a sublime Chorus in the Alcestis of Milton's fa Εν δόμοις γενεσθαι, Συν δ' εποιμαινοντο χαρα μελε Εχόρευσε δ' αμφι σαν κιθαραν 55 60 57. See Ovid, Fast. ii. 239. Cynthius Admeti vaccas pavisse Phereas, &c. And Epist. Heroid. Ep. v. 151. Pheretiades occurs more than once in Ovid. From Homer, Il. ii. 763. xxiii. 376. 60. Nobile mansueti cessit Chi vourite Greek dramatist, Euripi- ronis in antrum,] Chiron's cavern des, v. 581. seq. Σε τοι και ο Πύθιος Ευλυρας Απολλων Ετλη δε σοισι μήλονομας was ennobled by the visits and education of sages and heroes. Chiron is styled mansuetus, because, although one of the CenB b Irriguos inter saltus, frondosaque tecta, Tum neque ripa suo, barathro nec fixa sub imo Diis dilecte senex, te Jupiter æquus oportet 65 70 Apollo was unwillingly forced into the service of Admetus by Jupiter, for having killed the Cyclopes, Alcest. v. 6. Thus, v. 56. At non sponte domum tamen idem, The The bank of the river Peneus, 66. nutat Trachinia rupes,] Mount Eta, connected with the mountains, Pelion in which was Chiron's cave, and Othrys mentioned in the passage just cited from Euripides. See Ovid, Metam. vii. 353. But with no impropriety, Milton might here mean Pelion by the Trachinian rock; which, with the rest, had immania pondera silvas, and which Homer calls vooQuλλov, frondosum. Its Orni are also twice mentioned by V. Flaccus, Argon. b. i. 406. and b. ii. 6. 72. Allantisque nepos;] See |