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Quot tibi, confpicua formaque auroque, puellæ

Per medias radiant turba videnda vias. Creditur huc geminis veniffe invecta columbis

Alma pharetrigero milite cincta Venus,

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Huic Cnidon, et riguas Simoentis flumine valles,
Huic Paphon, et roseam pofthabitura Cypron.
Aft ego, dum pueri finit indulgentia cæci,
Monia quam fubito linquere fausta paro;

Et vitare procul malefidæ infamia Circes
Atria, divini Molyos ufus ope.

85

Stat quoque juncofas Cami remeare paludes,
Atque iterum raucæ murmur adire Schola. 90
Interea fidi parvum cape munus amici,

Paucaque in alternos verba coacta modos *.

88. See Notes on CoмUS, v. 626.

89. Juncofas Cami remeare paludes.] The epithet juncofas is picturefque and appropriated, and exactly defcribes this river: hence in LYCIDAS," his bonnet SEDGE," v. 104. Dr. J. WARTON. Add, above, V. II.

Jam nec ARUNDIFERUM mihi cura revifere Camum. But there is a contempt in defcribing Cambridge, and its river, by the expreffion the ruby marshes of Cam. See v. 13, 14.

92. The ROXANA of Alabafter has been mentioned as a Latin compofition, equal to the Latin poetry of Milton: whoever but lightly 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 furreptitious edition. It is remarkable, that Mors, DEATH, is one of the perfons of the Drama. Dr. J. WARTON.

I must add, that among the DRAMATICA POEMATA of Sir William Drury, one of the plays is called MORS, and MORS is a chief speaker. Duaci, 1628. 12mo. edit. 2. First printed 1620. See below, EL.iii. 6. * Lord Monboddo pronounces this Elegy to be equal to any thing of the "elegiac kind, to be found in Ovid, or even in Tibullus.”: Ubi fupr. B. iv. p. ii. vol. iii. p. 69.

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ELEG. II. Anno Ætatis 17.

In obitum Præconis Academici Cantabrigienfis

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E, qui confpicuus baculo fulgente folebas
Palladium toties ore ciere gregem,

Ultima præconum præconem te quoque fæva
Mors rapit, officio nec favet ipfa fuo.
Candidiora licet fuerint tibi tempora plumis
Sub quibus accipimus delituiffe Jovem ;
O dignus tamen Hæmonio juvenefcere fucco,
Dignus in Æfonios vivere poffe dies,
Dignus quem Stygiis medica revocaret ab undis
Arte Coronides, fæpe rogante dea.

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*The perfon here commemorated, is Richard Ridding, one of the Univerfity-Beadles, and a Master of Arts of Saint John's college, Cambridge. He figned a teftamentary Codicil, Sept. 23, 1626, proved the eighth day of November following. From REGISTR, TESTAM. Cantabr.

2. It was a cuftom at Cambridge, lately difused, for one of the beadles to make proclamation of convocations in every college. This is ftill in ufe at Oxford, See ODE on Gollyn, v. 33.

5. Candidiora licet, &c.] Ovid, TRIST. iv. viii. 1.

Jam mea cygneas imitantur tempora plumas.

6. Sub quibus accipimus delituisse Jovem,] Ovid, EPIST. HEROID. viii. 68.

Non ego fluminei referam mendacia cygni,

Nec querar in PLUMIS DELITUISSE JOVEM,

7. Hæmonio juvenefcere fucco, &c.] See Ovid, METAM. Vij, 264. Illic HÆMONIA radices valle refectas,

Seminaque, florefque, et succos incoquit acres.

And compare, below, Mans. v, 75.

10. Arte Coronides, fæpe rogante dea.] Coronides is Efculapius, the fon of Apollo by Coronis. See Ovid, MATAM. xv. 624. But the par

ticular

Tu fi juffus eras acies accire togatas,

Et celer a Phœbo nuntius ire tuo, Talis in Iliaca ftabat Cyllenius aula

Alipes, ætherea miffus ab arce Patris.

Talis et Eurybates ante ora furentis Achillei
Rettulit Atridæ juffa fevera ducis.
Magna fepulchrorum regina, fatelles Averni,
Sæva nimis Mufis, Palladi fæva nimis,
Quin illos rapias qui pondus inutile terræ,
Turba quidem eft telis ista petenda tuis.
Vestibus hunc igitur pullis Academia luge,

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Et madeant lachrymis nigra feretra tuis. Fundat et ipfa modos querebunda Elegëia tristes, Perfonet et totis nænia mæsta fcholis

ticular allufion is here to Æfculapius reftoring Hippolytus to life, at the request of Diana. FAST. vi. 745. feq. Where he is called Coronides. The name alfo occurs in Ovid's IBIS, V. 407.

12. These allusions are proofs of our author's early familiarity with Homer.

17. Magna fepulchrorum regina.-] A fublime poetical appellation for Death and much in the manner of his English poetry.

* This Elegy, with the next on the death of bishop Andrews, the Odes on the death of Profeffor Goflyn and bifhop Felton, and, the Poem on the Fifth of November, are very correct and manly performances for a boy of seventeen. This was our author's first year at Cambridge. They discover a great fund and command of antient li

terature.

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ELEG.

ELEG. III. Anno ætatis 17.

In obitum Præfulis Wintonienfis*.

Oeftus eram, et tacitus nullo comitante fedebam,

Hærebantque animo triftia plura meo, Protinus en fubiit funeftæ cladis imago

Fecit in Angliaco quam Libitina solo;

Dum procerum ingreffa eft fplendentes marmore

turres,

Dira fepulchrali mors metuenda face;

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*Lancelot Andrewes, bishop of Winchester, had been originally Mafter of Pembroke - Hall in Cambridge. He died at Winchester. House in Southwark, Sept. 26, 1626. See the last Note.

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It is a great conceffion, that he compliments bishop Andrewes, in his CHURCH-GOVERNM. B. i. iii. "But others better advised are " content to receive their beginning [the bishops] from Aaron and "his fons among whom bishop ANDREWES of late years, and in thefe times [Ufher] the primate of Armagh, for their LEARNING are reputed the BEST ABLE to fay what may be faid in their Opi"nion." This piece was written 1641. PROSE-WORKS, vol. i. 45. But fee their arguments answered, as he pretends, ibid. ch.v. p.47. feq.

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4. Fecit in Angliaco quam Libitina folo.] A very fevere plague now raged in London and the neighbourhood, of which 35417 perfons are faid to have died. See Whitelock's MEм. p.2. and Rufhworth, COLL. vol. 1. p. 175. 201. Milton alludes to the fame peftilence, in an Ode written in the fame year, ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT, V.67. To turn fwift-rufhing black Perdition hence,

Or drive away the flaughtering PESTILENCE,

5. Dum procerum ingreffa eft fplendentes marmore turres, &c.] Thefe lines remind me of the following in Wilfon's Collection of Verses, called VITA ET OBITUS FRATRUM SUFFOLCIENSIUM, made and printed in the year 1552. 4to. Signat. F. i. They are in Reniger's Copy. I have ftill more pleasure in tranfcribing them, as they shew,

Pulfavitque auro gravidos et jafpide muros,

Nec metuit fatrapum fternere falce greges. Tunc memini clarique ducis, fratrifque verendi Intempeftivis offa cremata rogis :

Et memini Heroum quos vidit ad æthera raptos,

Flevit et amiffos Belgia tota duces:
At te præcipue luxi, digniffime Præful,
Wintoniæque olim gloria magna tuæ;
Delicui fletu, et trifti fic ore querebar,
Mors fera, Tartareo diva fecunda Jovi,
Nonne fatis quod fylva tuas perfentiat iras,
Et quod in herbofos jus tibi detur agros,

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with a minutenefs and particularity not elfewhere to be found, the ftyle of the architecture of our great houfes about that time. Death is the perfon.

Again,

Illa lacunatis operofa palatia tectis

Intrat.

Nunc tacito penetrat laqueata palatia greffu,
Ac aulæatas marmoreafque domos.
Nec metuit bifores portas, valvas bipatentes,
Quin nec ferrifonæ peffula dura feræ.
Sive fupercilium quod tollant atria longum,
Altaque culminibus diffita tecta fuis;
Sive loricatam cruftofo marmore frontem,
Atque ftriaturis omnia fculpta fuis;
Non quæ truncofis furgunt pinnacula nodis,
Non faftigiatum turrigerumque caput:

Ne fe nobilitas cuneatis jactet in aulis, &c.

11. Et memini Heroum, &c.] At this time England was confederated with Holland and the United Provinces in a war against Spain. The allufion feems to be to a fhip blown up, or mine fprung, in which fome Dutch captains loft their lives. The preceding couplet has perhaps fome relation to the same war.

Quodque

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