"betwixt wood and water, in a faire meadow by a riuer fide, to "difport in fome pleasant plaine, to run vp a steepe hill, or fit in a "fhadie feat, muft needes be a delectable recreation.-To fee fome "pageant or fight go by, as at coronations, weddings and fuch like "folemnities; to fee an ambaffadour, or prince, met, receiued, en"tertained with Mafkes, fhewes, &c.-The country has its recrea"tions, may-games, feafts, wakes, and merry meetings. "All feafons, almost all places, haue their feuerall paftimes, fome "in fommer, fome in winter, some abroad, fome within. "The ordinary recreations which we haue in winter, and in most folitary times bufy our mindes with, are cardes, tables,—musicke, "Mafkes, vlegames, catches, purposes, queftions*, merry tales of "errant knights, kings, queenes, louers, lordes, ladies, dwarfes, "theeues, fayries, &c.-Dancing, finging, masking, mumming, ftage-playes, howfoeuer they bee heauily cenfured by fome fe"uere Ĉatos, yet if opportunely and foberly vfed, may iuftly be approved. To read, walke, and fee mappes and pictures, statues, "old coynes of feuerall fortes, in a fayre gallerie, artificiall workes, "&c. Whofoeuer he is therefore, that is overrunne with Solitari"neffe, or carried away with a PLEASING MELANCHOLY and "vaine conceits, I can prefcribe him no better remedie than this "of ftudy." He winds up his fyftem of studious recreation, with a recommendation of the fciences of morality, aftronomy, botany, &c. "To fee a well-cut herball, all hearbs, trees, flowers, plants, "expreffed in their proper colours to the life, &c." P. ii. §. 2. p. 224-234. edit. 1624. In Beaumont and Fletcher's NICE VALOUR or PASSIONATE MADMAN, there is a beautiful Song on Melancholy, fome of the fentiments of which, as Sympfon long fince obferved, appear to have been dilated and heightened in the IL PENSEROSO. See A. iii. S. i. vol. x. p. 336. Milton has more frequently and openly copied the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, than of Shakespeare. One is therefore furprifed, that in his panegyric on the ftage, he did not mention the twin-bards, when he celebrates the learned fock of Jonfon, and the wood-notes wild of Shakespeare. But he concealed his love. L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSO may be called the two first defcriptive poems in the English language. It is perhaps true, that the characters are not fufficiently kept apart. But this circumftance has been productive of greater excellencies. It has been remarked, "No mirth indeed can be found in his melancholy, but I am afraid "I always meet fome melancholy in his mirth." Milton's is the dignity of mirth. His chearfulnefs is the chearfulness of gravity. The objects he felects in his L'ALLEGRO are fo far gay, as they do not naturally excite fadnefs. Laughter and jollity are named only as perfonifications, and never exemplified. Quips and Cranks, *Cross-purposes, Questions and commands, fuch as Milton calls "Quips, and "Cranks, and wanton Wiles." L'ALLEGR. V. 27. and and wanton wiles, are enumerated only in general terms. There is fpecifically no mirth in contemplating a fine landschape. And even his landfchape, although it has flowery meads and flocks, wears a fhade of penfiveness; and contains ruffet lawns, fallows gray, and barren mountains, overhung with labouring clouds. Its old turretted manfion peeping from the trees, awakens only a train of folemn and romantic, perhaps melancholy, reflection. Many a penfive man liftens with delight to the milk-maid finging blithe, to the mower whetting his feythe, and to a distant peal of village-bells. He chose such illuftrations as minifter matter for true poetry, and genuine description. Even his moft brilliant imagery is mellowed with the fober hues of philofophic meditation. It was impoffible for the Author of IL PENSEROSO to be more chearful, or to paint mirth with levity; that is, otherwise than in the colours of the higher poetry. Both poems are the refult of the fame feelings, and the fame habits of thought. See Note on L'ALL. v. 146. Doctor Johnson has remarked, that in L'ALLEGRO, "no part "of the gaiety is made to arise from the pleasures of the bottle." The truth is, that Milton means to defcribe the chearfulness of the philofopher or the ftudent, the amusements of a contemplative mind. And on this principle, he seems unwilling to allow, that MIRTH is the offspring of BACCHUS and VENUS, deities who prefide over fenfual gratifications; but rather adopts the fiction of those more ferious and fapient fablers, who fuppofe, that her proper parents are Zephyr and Aurora: intimating, that his chearful enjoyments are thofe of the temperate and innocent kind, of early hours and rural pleafures. That critic does not appear to have entered into the fpirit, or to have comprehended the meaning, of our author's ALLEGRO. No man was ever fo difqualified to turn puritan as Milton. In both these poems, he profeffes himself to be highly pleased with the choral church-mufic, with Gothic cloyiters, the painted windows and vaulted iles of a venerable cathedral, with tilts and tournaments, and wth mafques and pageantries. What very repugnant and unpoetical principles did he afterwards adopt! He helped to fubvert monarchy, to destroy fubordination, and to level all diftinctions of rank. But this fcheme was totally inconfiftent with the splendours of fociety, with throngs of knights and barons bold, with ftore of ladies, and high triumphs, which belonged to a court. Pomp, and feaft, and revelry, the fhow of Hymen, with mask and antique pageantry, were among the state and trappings of nobility, which he detefted as an advocate for republicanifm. His fyftem of worthip, which renounced all outward folemnity, all that had ever any connection with popery, tended to overthrow the ftudious cloifters pale, and the high embowed roof; to remove the ftoried windows richly dight, and to filence the pealing organ and the full-voiced quire. The delights arifing from thefe objects were to be facrificed to the cold and philofophical spirit of calvinism, which furnished no pleasures to the imagination. VOL. I. N ARCADES. ARCADE S. *Part of an Entertainment presented to the Countess Dowager of Derby at Harefield, by fome noble perfons of her family; who appear on the scene in paftoral habit, moving toward the feat of ftate, with this Song. L 1. SONG. OOK Nymphs, and Shepherds look, Is that which we from hence defcry, • Part of an entertainment prefented to the countess of Derby at HAREFIELD, &c.] We are told by Norden, an accurate topegrapher who wrote about the year 1590, in his SPECULUM BRITANNIÆ, under HAREFIELD in Middlefex, "There fir Edmond "Anderfon knight, lord chief Iuftice of the common pleas, hath a "faire house standing on the edge of the hill. The riuer Colne paffing neere the fame, through the pleasant meddowes and sweet "pastures, yealding both delight and profit." SPEC. BRIT. P. i. pag. 21. I viewed this house a few years ago, when it was for the moft part remaining in its original fate. It has fince been pulled down: the Porter's lodges on each fide the gateway, are converted into a commodious dwelling-houfe. It is near Uxbridge: and Milton, when he wrote ARCADES, was ftill living with his father at Horton near Colnebrooke in the fame neighbourhood. He mentions the fingular felicity he had in vain anticipated, in the society of Too divine to be mistook: This, this is fhe 5 of his friend Deodate, on the fhady banks of the river Colne, EPITAPH. DAMON. V. 149. Imus, et arguta paulum recubamus in umbra, Aut ad aquas COLNI, &c.—— Amidst the fruitful and delightful fcenes of this river, the Nymphs and Shepherds had no reason to regret, as in the THIRD SONG, the Arcadian " Ladon's lillied banks." Unquestionably this Mask was a much longer performance. Milton feems only to have written the poetical part, confifting of these three Songs and the recitative Soliloquy of the Genius. The reft was probably profe and machinery. In many of Jonson's MASQUES, the poet but rarely appears, amidst a cumbersome exhibition of heathen gods and mythology. ARCADES was acted by perfons of Lady Derby's own family, The Genius fays, v. 26. Stay, gentle fwains, for though in this disguise, I fee bright honour sparkle through your eyes. That is," Although ye are disguised like ruftics, and wear the habit of fhepherds, I perceive that ye are of honourable birth, your nobility cannot be concealed." See PRELIM. Notes on COMUS. V. 1. Look Nymphs, and Shepherds look, &c.] See the ninth divi fion of Spenfer's EPITHALAMION. And Spenfer's APRILL, in praise of queen Elizabeth. See, where she fits upon the graffie greene, &c. See alfo Fletcher's FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS, A. i. S. i. vol. iii, p. 150. Where the Satyre ftops at feeing the fhepherdess Clorin. -The Syrinx bright: But behold a fairer fight.- Shines more aweful majefty, &c. 5. This, this is fhe.] Our curiofity is gratified in difcovering, even from flight and almost imperceptible traites, that Milton had here been looking back to Jonfon, the most eminent mask-writer that had yet appeared, and that he had fallen upon fome of his formularies and modes of addrefs. For thus Jonfon, in an Entertaynment at Altrope, 1603. WORKS, 1616. p. 874. To whom our vows and wishes bend; Fame, that her high worth to raise, Mark what radiant state she spreads, Sitting like a Goddess bright, In the center of her light. Might fhe the wife Latona be, Or the towred Cybele We shall find other petty imitations from Jonfon. Milton fays, V. 106. Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were, Yet Syrinx well might wait on her. So Jonfon, ibid. p. 871. Of the queen and young prince. And the dame has Syrinx' grace; O, that Pan were now in place, &c. Again, Milton fays, v. 46. And curl the grove In ringlets quaint. So Jonfon, in a Mafque at Welbeck, 1633. v. 15. When was old Sherwood's head more QUAINTLY CURL'D? But fee below, at v. 46. And OBSERVAT. on Spenser's F. Q vol. ii. 256. Mother |