網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

And backward:mutters of diffevering power,

We cannot free the Lady that fits here od um ex

[ocr errors]

815. O ye mistook, ye should have fnatcht his wand, did?? And bound him faft; without his rod revers'd,

And backward mutters of diffevering power,

We cannot free the Lady, &c.] They are directed before to feize Comus's wand, v.653. And this was from the FAERIE QUEENE, where fir Guyon breaks the Charming Staffe of Pleafure's porter, as he likewife overthrows his bowl, ii. xii. 49. But from what particular procefs of difinchantment, antient or modern, did Milton take the notion of reverfing Comus's wand or rod? It was from a passage of Ovid, the great ritualist of claffical forcery, before cited, where the companions of Ulyffes are restored to their human shapes. METAM. xiv. 300,

A

Percutimurque caput CONVERSE verbere VIRGE,
Verbaque dicuntur dictis contraria verbis.

This Sandys tranflates, "Her wand REVERST, &C." TRANSL. p. 462. edit. 1632. And in his very learned Notes he fays, " As Circe's rod, waved over their heads from the right fide to the " left, prefents thofe falfe and finifter perfwafions to pleasure, "which fo much deformes them: fo the REVERSION thereof, by difcipline and a view of their owne deformitie, reftores them to "their former beauties." p. 481. By BACKWARD MUTTERS, the "verba DICTIS CONTRARIA verbis," we are to understand, that the charming words, or verfes, at first used, were to be all repeated backwards, to deftroy what had been done.

[ocr errors]

The most striking representation of the reverfal of a charm that I remember, and Milton might here have partly had it in his eye, is in Spenfer's defcription of the deliverance of Amoret, by Britomart, from the inchantment of Busyrane, F. Q. iii. xii. 36.

And rifing vp, gan ftreight to ouerlooke

Those curfed leaues, his charmes backe to reuerfe;
Full dreadfull things out of that balefull booke
He read, and measur'd many a balefull verse,
That horror gan the virgins * heart to perse,
And her faire lockes vp. ftared ftiff on end,
Hearing him those fame bloudy lines rehearse:
And all the while he read, she did extend
Her fword high ouer him, if aught he did offend.

37.

Anon fhe gan perceiue the house to quake,
And all the dores to rattle round about;

* Britomart.

Yet

[ocr errors]

In ftony fetters fix'd, and motionless:

Yet stay, be not disturb'd; now I bethink me,
Some other means I have which may be us'd,
Which once of Melibæus old I learnt,
The footheft shepherd that e'er pip'd on plains.
There is a gentle nymph not far from hence,

819

That with moift curb fways the fmooth Severn ftream,

[ocr errors]

Yet all that did not her dismaied make,

Nor flacke her threatfull hand for danger dout: But ftill with ftedfaft eye, and courage ftout, ........Abode, to weet what end would come of all.

At last, that mighty chaine, which round about Her + tender waste was wound, adowne gan fall, And that great brazen pillour broke in pieces fmall, &c. The circumstance in the text, of the Brothers forgetting to seize and reverse the magician's rod, while by contraft it heightens the fuperiour intelligence of the attendant Spirit, affords the opportunity of introducing the fiction of raifing Sabrina; which, exclufive of its poetical ornaments, is recommended by a local propriety, and was peculiarly interefting to the audience, as the Severn is the famous river of the neighbourhood.

821. Doctor Johnson reprobates this long narration, as he styles it, about Sabrina; which, he says, "is of no use because it is "falfe, and therefore unfuitable to a good being." By the poetical reader, this fiction is confidered as true. In common fense, the relator is not true: and why may not an imaginary being, even of a good character, deliver an imaginary tale? Where is the moral impropriety of an innocent invention, especially when introduced for a virtuous purpose? In poetry false narrations are often more ufeful than true. Something, and fomething preternatural, and confequently falfe, but therefore more poetical, was neceffary for the present distress.

823. The footheft Shepherd that e'er pip'd on plains.] Spenfer thus characterises Hobbinol, as Mr. Bowle obferves, in C. CLOUTS

COME HOME AGAIN.

A iolly groome was hee,

As euer piped on an oaten reed.

And Amyntas, in the fame poem.

He, whilst he liued, was the nobleft swaine,

That euer piped on an oaten quill.

Amoret who was inchanted,

Sabrina is her name, a virgin puré ;
Whilome she was the daughter of Locrine,
That had the fceptre from his father Brute.
She, guiltless damfel, flying the mad pursuit
Of her enraged stepdame Guendolén,

826

830

824. There is a gentle Nymph not far from hence, &c.] Sabrina's fabulous hiftory may be feen in the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES under the Legend of the LADY SABRINE, in the fixth Song of Drayton's POLYOLBION, the tenth Canto and fecond Book of Spenfer's FAERIE QUEENE, the third Book of ALBION'S ENGLAND, the first Book of our author's Hiftory of England, in Hardyng's Chronicle, and in an old English Ballád on the fubject. See NOTE on EPITAPH. DAM. V. 176.

The part of the fable of CoмUs, which may be called the DISINCHANTMENT, is evidently founded on Fletcher's FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS. The moral of both dramas is the triumph of chastity. This in both is finally brought about by the fame fort of machinery. Sabrina, a virgin and a king's daughter, was converted into a river-nymph, that her honour might be preferved inviolate. Still fhe preferves her maiden-gentleness; and every evening vifits the cattle among her twilight meadows, to heal the mischiefs inflicted by elfish magic. For this fhe was praised by the fhepherds.

She can unlock

The clafping charm, and thaw the numming spell,
If the be right invok'd in warbled fong.

She protects virgins in diftrefs. She is now folemnly called, to deliver a virgin imprisoned in the spell of a deteftable forcerer. She rifes at the invocation, and leaving her car on an ofiered rushy bank, haftens to help infrared chastity. She fprinkles on the breaft of the captive maid, precious drops felected from her pure fountain. She touches thrice the tip of the lady's finger and thrice her ruby lip, with chafte palms moift and cold; as alfo the envenomed chair, fmeared with tenacious gums. The charm is diffolved: and the Nymph departs to the bower of Amphitrite. But I am anticipating, by a general exhibition, fuch particular paffages of Fletcher's play as will hereafter be cited in their proper places; and which, like others already cited, will appear to have been enriched by our author with a variety of new allufions, original fictions, and the beauties of unborrowed poetry.

829. She.-] So edit. 1645, and MSS. The, edit. 1673. Followed by Tonfon, 1695, &c.. Tickell has She. And Fenton. VOL. I. 829.-Fly

G g

Commended her fair innocence to the flood,
That stay'd her flight with his cross-flowing courfe
The water nymphs that in the bottom play'd,
Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in,
Bearing her strait to aged Nereus' hall,
Who piteous of her woes, rear'd her lank head,
And gave her to his daughters to imbathe

In nectar'd lavers ftrow'd with afphodil,

829.

835

Flying the mad purfuit.] Flying pronounced, as one fyllable, fly'ng; as at v. 831, inn'cence, in two fyllables. H. 833. The water-nymphs that in the bottom play'd,

Held up their pearled wrifts, and took her in.] Drayton gives the Severn pearls. He fays of Sabrina, POLYOLB. S. V vol. ii. p. 752.

-Where she meant to go

The path was ftrew'd with PEARL.————

He fpeaks alfo of "The PEARLY Conway's head," a neighbouring river. Ibid. S. ix. vol. iii. p. 827. And of the " "cious orient PEARL that breedeth in her fand."

pre

Ibid. S. x.

vol. iii. p. 842. We fhall fee, that Milton afterwards gives gems to the Severn of a far brighter hue.

See Peacham's Period of Mourning, before cited, edit. 1613. NUPT. HYMN. ii. To a WATER-NYMPH.

Doris, gather from thy fhore
Corall, cryftall, amber ftore;
Which thy queene in bracelets twists

For her alabafter WRISTS:

While ye filver-footed girls

Plait her treffes with your PEARLS.

See below.-R. Heyrick has the "filver-wrifted Naiades," HESPERID. ut fupr. p. 375. In Drayton, the Nereids adorn their wrists with bracelets of fhells. POLYOL B. S. xx. p. 1042.

835. Bearing her ftrait to aged Nereus' ball.] Drayton has Neptune's mighty hall." POLYOLB. S. XX. vol. iii. p. 1643. And Neptune's hall." S. xv. vol. iii. p. 943.

836. Piteous of her woes.— -] Under the fame form, " Retchleffe of their wrongs," that is unpiteous, as in Drayton, PoLYOLB. S. vii. See fupr. at v. 404.

837. And gave her to his daughters to imbathe

In nectar'd lavers

] This at least reminds us of Alcæus's Epigram or Epitaph on Homer, who died in the island of

And through the porch and inlet of each fenfe
Dropt in ambrofial oils, till fhe reviv'd,
And underwent a quick immortal change,
Made Goddess of the river: ftill fhe retains
Her maiden gentlenefs, and oft at eve
Vifits the herds along the twilight meadows,
Helping all urchin blafts, and ill-luck figns

840

845

Io. The Nereids of the circumambient sea bathed his dead body with nectar. ANTHOLOG. Lib. iii. p. 386. edit. Brod. Francof. 1600. fol.

ΝΕΚΤΑΡΙ δ ̓ εἰνάλιας Νηρηΐδες ἐχρίσαντο,

Καὶ νικὺν Ακταίη θήκαν υπο σπίλαδι

Nectare autem marine Nereides inungebant,
Et cadaver litorali pofuere fub faxo.

The procefs which follows, of dropping ambrofial oyls" into "the porch and inlet of each fenfe" of the drowned Sabrina, is originally from Homer, where Venus anoints the dead body of Patroclus with rofy ambrofial oyl. IL. B. xxiii. 186.

[blocks in formation]

See also Bion's HYACINTH. "Kg d'aμßpooin xai víxragi, &c.” Κρῖεν ἀμβροσίῃ νέκταρ, IDYLL. ix. 3.

The word IMBATHE Occurs in our author's REFORMATION, "Methinkes a fovereign and reviving joy muft needs rush into

the bofom of him that reads or hears; and the fweet odour of "the returning gofpel IMBATHE his foul with the fragrance of "heaven." PROSE-WORKS, vol. i. 2. What was enthusiasm in most of the puritanical writers, was poetry in Milton. 844. Vifits the herds along the twilight meadows, Helping all urchin blafts, and ill-luck figns

That the forewd medling elfe delights to make.

The virgin fhepherdefs Clorin, in Fletcher's paftoral play fo frequently quoted, poffeffes the skill of Sabrina, A. i. S. i. p. 104. Of all green wounds I knowe the remedies In men or cattle; be they ftung with fnakes, Or charm'd with powerful words of wicked art: Or be they lovefick, &c.

Thefe can I cure, fuch fecret virtue lies

In herbs applied by a virgin's hand.

Ggz

145. Help

« 上一頁繼續 »