Or what (though rare) of later age
Ennobled hath the buskin'd stage.
But, O sad Virgin, that thy power
Might raise Musæus from his bower,
Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing
Such notes as warbled to the string.
Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek,
And made Hell grant what love did seek.

These were the principal subjects of the ancient tragedies; and he seems to allude particularly to the Septem contra Thebas of Eschylus, and the Phoenissa of Euripides, and the Antigone of Sophocles, and the Thebais of Seneca, which present Thebes; and to the Thyestes of Seneca, and the Agamemnon of Eschylus, which present Pelops' line; and to the Troades of Euripides and of Seneca, and other tragedies which present the tale of Troy divine, therefore called divine because built by the gods; for I think with Mr. Thyer, that divine is not to be joined with tale, as many understand it: and as Mr. Jortin notes, it is called in Homer 1λιος ίρη.

100.-though rare] Just glancing at Shakespeare. Hurd.

104. Might raise Musaus from his bower,] The poet Musaus makes the most distinguished figure in Virgil's Elysium. En. vi. 667.

Musæum ante omnes, medium nam plurima turba

Hunc habet, atque humeris extantem suspicit altis.

105. Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing &c.] It is a property of music, that the same strains have

105

Or call up him that left half told

The story of Cambuscan bold,

Of Camball, and of Algarsife,

110

And who had Canace to wife,

That own'd the virtuous ring and glass,
And of the wondrous horse of brass,
On which the Tartar king did ride;
And if ought else great bards beside

suppose he had in view. Herc.
Fur. 578.

Deflent et lacrymis difficiles Dei. Thyer. 109. Or call up him that left half told The story of Cambuscan bold, &c.] He means Chaucer and his Squire's Tale, wherein Cambuscan is king of Sarra in Tartary, and has two sons Algarsife and Camball, and a daughter named Canace. This Tartar king receives a present from the king of Araby and Ind, of a wondrous horse of brass that could transport him through the air to any place, and a sword of rare qualities; and at the same time his daughter Canace is presented with a virtuous ring and glass, a glass by which she could discover secrets and future events, and a ring by which she could understand the language of birds. This tale was either never finished by Chaucer, or part of it is lost: but Spenser has endeavoured to supply the defect in his Faery Queen. See b. iv. cant. ii. s. 32. &c.

109. Hence it appears that Milton, among Chaucer's pieces, was most struck with his Squier's

115

Tale. It best suited our author's predilection for romantic poetry. Chaucer is here ranked with the sublime poets: his comic vein Hist. Eng. Poetr. i. 398. The is forgotten and overlooked. See virtuous ring and glass. So Boiardo, Orl. Inam. 1. i. c. xiv. st. 49. Of Angelica's magic ring,

In bocca avea quell anel virtuoso. And in the Faerie Queene, a sword tempered by Merlin is called "the vertuous steele." And the Palmer has "" a vertuous staffe." T. Warton.

116. And if ought else great bards beside &c.] Ariosto, and Spenser more particularly, of whose allegorical poetry it may be said with great truth and propriety, that more is meant than meets the ear. And thus in these two little poems Milton makes his compliments to our greatest English poets, Jonson and Shakespeare, Chaucer and Spen

ser.

116. Tasso also pretends to an allegorical and mysterious meaning. And his inchanted forest, the most conspicuous fiction of the kind, might have been here intended. Berni allows, that his incantations, giants, magic gardens, &c. may amuse the igno

In sage and solemn tunes have sung,

Of turneys and of trophies hung,
Of forests and inchantments drear,

Where more is meant than meets the ear.
Thus night oft see me in thy pale career,
Till civil-suited morn appear,

Not trick'd and frounc'd as she was wont

With the Attic boy to hunt,

But kerchef'd in a comely cloud,

While rocking winds are piping loud,

125

Or usher'd with a shower still,
When the gust hath blown his fill,
Ending on the rustling leaves,
With minute drops from off the eaves.

123. Not trick'd and frounc'd
as she was wont

With the Attic boy to hunt,] Shakespeare calls dress tricking. Mrs. Page, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, "Go get us proper"ties and tricking for our fairies." Frounc'd is another word to the same purpose, signifying much the same as frizzled, crisped, curled. The Attic boy is Cephalus, with whom Aurora fell in love as he was hunting. See Peck, and Ovid. Met. vii. 701.

125. But kerchef'd in a comely cloud,] Kerchef is a head dress from the French couvre chef; a word used by Chaucer and Shakespeare. Julius Cæsar, act

ii. sc. 3.

130

"gloomy with rain and wind, he "walks into the dark trackless "woods, falls asleep by some "murmuring water, and with "melancholy enthusiasm, ex

r

pects some dream of prognosti"cation, or some music played "by aerial performers." Never were fine imagery and fine imagination so marred, mutilated, and impoverished, by a cold, unfeeling, and imperfect representation! To say nothing, that he confounds two descriptions. T, Warton.

130. Wilh minute drops.] A natural little circumstance calculated to impress a pleasing melancholy; and which reminds one of a similar image in a poet that abounds in natural little circumstances. Speaking of a gentle Spring-Shower, scarce to patter heard," says Therefore the winds piping to us in Thomson, Seas. Spring, ver. 176. Dr. J. Warton.

126. While rocking winds are piping loud,] So Shakespeare, Mids. N. Dr. a. i. s. 1.

vain.

The still, that is, gentle shower, in the next line is opposed to the "winds piping loud." See note on The Passion, 28. T. Warton.

127. Doctor Johnson, from this to the hundred and fifty-fourth verse inclusively, thus abridges our author's ideas. "When the "morning comes, a morning

.

""Tis

He means, by minute drops from off the eaves, not small drops, but minute drops, such as drop at intervals, by minutes, for the shower was now over: as we say, minute-guns, and minute bells. In L'Allegro, the lark bade good-morrow at the poet's window, through sweet-briars, honeysuckles, and vines, spread

And when the sun begins to fling

His flaring beams, me Goddess bring
To arched walks of twilight groves,
And shadows brown that Sylvan loves
Of pine, or monumental oak,

Where the rude axe with heaved stroke
Was never heard the Nymphs to daunt,
Or fright them from their hallow'd haunt.
There in close covert by some brook,
Where no profaner eye may look,
Hide me from day's garish eye,
While the bee with honied thigh,

135

140

ing, as we have seen, over In Comus, in the manuscript, v.

the walls of the house. Now, their leaves are dropping wet with a morning-shower. T. War

ton.

131. And when the sun begins to fling

His flaring beams,]

181.

In the blind alleys of this arched wood.
See P. R. ii. 293. and P. L. i. 304.
Ibid. b. ix. 1107.

-A pillar'd shade,
High overarch'd.

Here, by the way, is accidentally

So Drayton, Nymphid. vol. i. p. Bishop Warburton's ingenious 1449.

"When Phoebus with a face of mirth Had flong abroad his beames. Our author, in his book Of Reformation, of gospel truth. "In "a flaring tire bespeckled her." Pr. W. vol. i. 9. T. Warton. 133. To arched walks of twi

light groves, And shadows brown that Sylvan

loves.]

but false idea of the Saracen architecture. Compare also b. iv. 705. T. Warton.

134. shadows brown] See the notes, P. L. iv. 246. and P. R. ii. 292. E.

141.-day'sgarish eye,] Garish, splendid, gaudy. A word in Shakespeare, Richard III. act iv.

Sc. 4.

-a garish flag.

Thus in Browne's Britannia's Romeo and Juliet, act iii. sc. 4.

Pastorals, now in high reputa-
tion, b. ii. s. iv.
p. 104.

Now wanders Pan the arched groves
and hills,

Where fayeries often danc'd.

Again, ibid. s. ii. p. 44.

Downe through the arched wood the shepherds wend.

-all the world shall be in love with night,

And pay no worship to the garish sun.

141. The eye of day for the sun, was a common image in Spenser, Sylvester, Drayton, Ph. Fletcher, Shakespeare, &c. T. Warton.

142. While the bee with honied