Quodque afflata tuo marcefcant lilia tabo, Et tibi fuccumbit, liquido quæ plurima cœlo Et quæ mille nigris errant animalia fylvis, 20 23 30 21. Fluvio contermina quercus, &c.] Ovid, METAм. viii. 620. Tiliæ CONTERMINA QUERCUS. The epithet is a favourite with Ovid. METAM. XV. 315. “Noftris 46 CONTERMINUS årvis." Ibid. i. 774. "Terræ CONTERMINA Dof"træ." Ibid. iv. 9o. "Ardua morus erat gelido CONTERMINA fonti.” Ibid. viii. 552. CONTERMINA ripe." EPIST. EX PONT. iv. vi. 45. "Heu nobis nimium CONTERMINUS." FAST. ii.55. "Phrygiæ cON"TERMINA matri fofpita." This word, fo commodious for verfification, is not once used by Virgil. Here is a beautiful picturefque image, but where the juftness of the poetry is marred by the admiffion of a licentious fiction, which yet I cannot blame in a young writer of fancy. When the ingrafted tree in Virgil wonders at its foreign leaves and fruits not its own, the preternatural novelty, producing the wonder, juftifies the boldness of attributing this affection to a tree. In the prefent inftance, it was not wonderful nor extraordinary, that a ftream should flow, or flow perpetually. The conceit is, that an oak fhould wonder at this. 32. Rofcidus occiduis Hefperus exit aquis.] Ovid, FAST. ii. 314. HESPERUS et fufco ROSCIDUS ibat equo. Et Tarteffiaco fubmerferat æquore currum Phœbus, ab Eqo littore menfus iter, Nec mora, membra cavo pofui refovenda cubili, Condiderant oculos. noxque foporque meos: 36 Cum mihi vifus eram lato fpatiarier agro, Heu nequit ingenium vifa referre meum. Illic punicea radiabant omnia luce, Ut matutino cum juga fole rubent. 40 Ac veluti cum pandit opes Thaumantia proles, Vestitu nituit multicolore folum. Non dea tam variis ornavit floribus hortos Again, EPIST. ex Pont. ii. v. 50. Qualis ab Eois Lucifer EXIT AQUIS. See alfo METAM, XV. 189. 33. Et Tarteffiaco, &c.] Ovid, METAM, xiv. 416. Prefferat occiduus TARTESSIA littora Phoebus. Tarteffiacus occurs in Martial, EPIGR. ix. 46. See below, EL. v. 83. Quid cum TARTESSIDE lympha? We are to understand the straits of Hercules, or the Atlantic ocean. 41. "The ground glittered, as when it reflects the manifold hues. "of a rainbow in all its glory." We have THAUMANTIAS Iris, in Ovid, METAM. iv. 479. See alfo Virgil, ix. 6. 43. Non dea tam variis ornavit floribus hortos Alcinoi, Zephyro Chloris amata levi.] Eden is compared to the Homeric garden of Alcinous, PARAD. L. B. ix. 439. B. v. 341. Chloris is Flora, who according to antient fable was beloved by Zephyr. Hence our author is to be explained, PARAD. L. B. v. 16. Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes. See Ovid, FAST. L. v. 195. feq. She is again called Chloris by our author, EL. iv. 35. Bifque novo terram fparfifti, CHLORI, fenilem Yet Flumina vernantes lambunt argentea campos, 45 Ditior Hefperio flavet arena Tago. Serpit odoriferas per opes levis aura Favoni, Aura fub innumeris humida nata rofis, Yet there, and according to the true etymology of the word, he is more properly the power of vegetation. mond's Sonnets, Signat. E. 2. ut fupr. Chloris is Flora in Drum Faire CHLORIS is, when the doth paint Aprile. In Ariofto, Mercury fteals Vulcan's net made for Mars and Venus to captivate Chloris. ORL. FUR. C. xv. 57. 68 CHLORIDA bella, che per aria vola, &c. 45. In the garden of Eden," the crifped brooks roll on orient pearl and SANDS OF GOLD." PARAD. L. B. iv. 237. 47. Serpit odoriferas per opes levis aura Favoni, Aura fub innumeris humida nata rofis.] So in the fame garden, v. 156. But with a conceit. GENTLE GALES Fanning their odoriferous wings, difpenfe NATIVE perfumes, and whisper whence they ftole In the text, the AURA, or breath of Favonius, is born, or becomes humid, under innumerable rofes. Simply, it contracts its fragrance from flowers. Compare CYMBELINE, A. iv. S. ii. They are as gentle As zephyrs BLOWING BELOW the violet, Not wagging his fweet head. Perhaps, by the way, from Cutwoode's CALTHA POETARUM, 1599. ft. 22. Of the primrofe. [And fee ft. 23.] WAGGING the wanton with each wind and blaft. Jonfon fhould not here be forgot, MASQUES, vol. vi. 39. As gentle as the ftroking wind. Runs o'er the gentler flowers. We have Favonius for Zephyr, Lucretius's genitabilis aura Faveni, in SONN, XX. Till Favonius reinspire The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire The lily and rofe. Where fee the Note. Talis in extremis terræ Gangetidis oris Ipfe racemiferis dum denfas vitibus umbras, Dumque fenex tali incedit venerandus amictu, 49. Talis in extremis terræ Gangetidis oris 50 55 Luciferi regis fingitur effe domus.] I know not where this fiction is to be found. But our author has given a glorious defcription of a palace of Lucifer, in the PARADISE LOST, B. v. 757. At length into the limits of the north They came, and Satan to his ROYAL SEAT The Mountain of the Congregation call'd, &c. Here is a mixture of Ariofto and Ifaiah. Because Lucifer is fimply faid by the prophet, "to fit upon the mount of the Congregation on "the fides of the north," Milton builds him a palace on this mountain, equal in magnificence and brilliancy to the moft fuperb romantic cattle. In the text, by the utmost parts of the Gangetic land, we are to understand the north; the river Ganges, which feparates India from Scythia, rifing from the mountain Taurus. Agmina gemmatis plaudunt cœleftia pennis, 60 Quifque novum amplexu comitem cantuque falutat, Semper abhinc duro, nate, labore vaca. At mihi cum tenebris aurea pulfa quies. Flebam turbatos Cephaleia pellice fomnos, Talia contingant fomnia fæpe mihi*. 65 59. Agmina gemmatis plaudunt cæleftia pennis.] Not from the Italian poets, but from Ovid's Cupid, REMED. AMOR. v. 39. Movit Amor GEMMATAS aureus ALAS. Again, AMOR. i. ii. 41. Of the fame. TU PENNAS GEMMA, gemma variante capillos, &c. IN PARADISE LOST, Milton has been more fparing in decorating the plumage of his angels. 61. Quilque novum amplexu comitem cantuque falutat.] So in Lyci DAS, V. 178. There entertain him all the faints above, &c. 68. Talia contingant somnia fæpe mihi.] Ovid concludes one of his moft exceptionable Elegies in the AMORES, which I will not point out, with fuch a pentameter. *Milton, as he grew old in puritanifm, muft have looked back with difguft and remorfe on the panegyric of this performance, as on one of the fins of his youth, inexperience, and orthodoxy: for he had here celebrated, not only a bishop, but a bishop who fupported the dignity and conftitution of the Church of England, in their moft extenfive latitude, the diftinguished favourite of Elizabeth and James, and the defender of regal prerogative. Clarendon fays, that if Andrewes," who loved and understood the Church," had fucceeded Bancroft in the fee of Canterbury, "that infection would eafily have "been kept out, which could not afterwards be fo easily expelled." HIST. REBELL. B. i. p. 88. edit. 1721. ELEG. |