That wont'st to love the traveller's benizon, Muffle was not so low a word as at present. Drayton, Browne, and Sylvester, have it in several places, and with the same application to the moon, or the stars. T. Warton. 332. That wont'st to love the traveller's benizon,] An allusion to Spenser, Faery Queen, b. iii. cant. 1. st. 43. As when fair Cynthia, in darksome night, Is in a noyous cloud enveloped, Where she may find the substance thin and light, Breaks forth her silver beams, and her bright head Discovers to the world discomfited; Of the poor traveller that went astray, With thousand blessings she is heried. 333. Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud,] Popular or philosophical opinions have their use indifferently in poetry. And which soever it be, that affords the most beautiful image, whether that founded in the truth of things, or in the deceptions of sense, that is always to be preferred. But poets have neglected this obvious rule, and have run into two extremes. Those who affect to imitate the ancients only use the first, and those who affect to shew their superior knowledge, only the second. Warbur ton. Compare B. and Fletcher's 335. Of some clay habitation, visit us With thy long levell'd rule of streaming light, And thou shalt be our star of Arcady, Or Tyrian Cynosure. 2. BROTHER. Or if our eyes Be barr'd that happiness, might we but hear The folded flocks penn'd in their wattled cotes, Or sound of past'ral reed with oaten stops, 340. With thy long levell'd rule.] It was at first in the Manuscript, With a long levell'd rule 340. λαμπρα μεν ακτις, ήλιου κα vwv raons. Euripides, Suppl. Mul. 650, or 660. Milton's longlevelled rule of streaming light, is a fine and almost literal translation of ήλιου κανων σαφης of his favourite Greek poet. Hurd. The sun is said to "level his evening rays," P. L. iv. 543. T. Warton. 341. our star of Arcady, Or Tyrian Cynosure.] Our greater or lesser bear-star. Calisto the daughter of Lycaon king of Arcadia was changed into the greater bear called also Helice, and her son Arcas into the lesser, called also Cynosura, by observing of which the Tyrians and Sidonians steered their course, as the Grecian mariners did by the other. So Ovid. Fast. iii. 107. Esse duas Arctos; quarum Cynosura petatur Sidoniis, Helicen Graia carina notet. Valerius Flaccus, i. 17. -neque enim in Tyrias Cynosura carinas 340 345 Certior, aut Graiis Helice servanda magistris. The star of Arcady may be explained to signify the lesser bear, and so Mr. Peck understands it: but Milton would hardly make use of two such different names for the same thing, and distinguish them by the disjunctive or between them. The star of Arcady, like Arcadium sidus, may be a general name for the greater. and the lesser bear, as in Seneca, dip. 476. Quasque despectat vertice summo strum: but the following words or Tyrian the former is meant the greater Cynosure shew evidently, that by bear, as by the latter is plainly meant the lesser. 344. The folded flocks penn'd in their wattled cotes,] Folded flocks makes the other part of the line a mere expletive. Had Milton wrote bleating flocks, what followed had been fine, and it had agreed better with what went before. Warburton. 345.oaten stops,] See note on Lycidas 188. E. L Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock Count the night watches to his feathery dames, Where may she wander now, whither betake her 350 Leans her unpillow'd head fraught with sad fears. 335 Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp When the big wallowing flakes of pitchy clouds And darkness wound her in. 1 Bro. Peace, Brother, peace. I do not think my sister &c. These lines were altered, and the others added afterwards on a seof parate scrap paper. 358. Of savage hunger, or of savage heat?] The hunger of savage beasts, or the lust of men as savage as they. This appears evidently from the context to be the sense of the passage; and I should not have mentioned it, if two very ingenious persons had not mistaken it. The alliteration might help perhaps to determine Milton to the choice of this word; and lust would have been too strong an expression for the younger brother, who rather insinuates than openly declares his fears. 1 NO ELDER BROTHER. Peace, Brother, be not over-exquisite For grant they be so, while they rest unknown, And run to meet what he would most avoid? Or if they be but false alarms of fear, How bitter is such self-delusion? I do not think my Sister so to seek, Or so unprincipled in virtue's book, And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, 359. be not over-exquisite Rather from astrology, as "to Exquisite was not now un- 361. For grant they be so, while 362. his date of grief,] The Manuscript had at first -the date of grief. 365. 360 365 such self-delusion?] It was at first, this self-delusion. 367. Or so unprincipled in vir tue's book,] So in the Tractate on Education, p. 101, ed. 1673. "Souls so unprincipled in vir"tue." And "unprincipled, un“ edified, and laie rabble." Prose Works, i. 153. Compare also Sams. Agon. 760. T. Warton. 368. See the note P. L. v. 127. T. Warton. L (Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts, Virtue could see to do what virtue would By her own radiant light, though sun and moon speaker with a proper occasion to vary the tone of his "voice, which ought always to "be done in speaking a parenthesis, but is never more properly done than when some "passion is to be expressed. "And we may observe here, "that there ought to be two "variations of the voice in speak"ing this parenthesis. The first "is that tone which we use, "when we mean to qualify or "restrict any thing that we have "said before. With this tone "should be pronounced, not being in danger; and the se"cond member, as I trust she is 66 not, should be pronounced with "that pathetic tone in which we "earnestly hope or pray for any 66 thing." Origin and Progr. of Language, b. iv. p. ii. vol. iii. p. 76. Edinb. 1776. This is very specious and ingenious reasoning. But some perhaps may think this beauty quite accidental and undesigned. A parenthesis is often thrown in, for the sake of explanation, after a passage is writ ten. T. Warton. 370 375 371. Could stir the constant mood] The Manuscript had stable, but Milton corrected it to constant mood; for stable gives the idea of rest, when the poet was to give the idea of action or motion, which constant does give. Warburton. So "my constant thoughts," P. L. v. 552. T. Warton. 373. Virtue could see to do what virtue would By her own radiant light, &c.] This noble sentiment was inspired from Spenser, Faery Qu. b. i. cant. 1. st. 12. Virtue gives herself light through darkness for to wade. 375. And Wisdom's self &c.] } Mr. Pope has imitated this thought; Bear me some God! oh quickly bear me hence To wholesome Solitude, the nurse of sense: Where Contemplation prunes her ruffled wings, And the free soul looks down to pity kings. Warburton. 376. Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,] At first he had written the verse thus, Oft seeks to solitary sweet retire. 376. For the same uncommon use of seek, Mr. Bowle cites Bale's |