And add to these retired Leisure, 50 55 60 Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, Most musical, most melancholy! Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among I woo, to hear thy even-song; And missing thee, I walk unseen 58 Smoothing] Shakesp. Sonnets, 51. 59 checks] Todd's Milton, vol. vi. p. 323. 68 Riding] Eurip. Suppl. 992. iлnéovσi di' bográcias. 65 70 Over some wide-water'd shore, Where glowing embers through the room Far from all resort of mirth, Save the cricket on the hearth, Or the bellman's drowsy charm, To bless the doors from nightly harm: 85 Be seen in some high lonely tow'r, What worlds, or what vast regions hold In sceptred pall come sweeping by, 75 wide-water'd] Constable's Son. Ellis's Spec. ii. p. 305. 'Or like the echo of a passing bell, Which, sounding on the water, seems to howl.' 98 sceptred] Miltoni Eleg. i. 37. 'Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragoedia sceptrum Warton. Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line, Or what (though rare) of later age Such notes as warbled to the string, And made Hell grant what love did seek. The story of Cambuscan bold, That own'd the virtuous ring and glass, On which the Tartar king did ride; And if aught else great bards beside In and solemn tunes have sung, sage Of turneys and of trophies hung, 100 105 110 115 Of forests, and inchantments drear, Where more is meant than meets the ear. 120 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, 110 Cambuscan] In the Squier's Tale of Chaucer, see Tyrwhitt's notes, vol. ii. p. 466, ed. 1798. Todd. 122 civil] Rom. and Juliet, act iii. sc. 4. Thou sober-suited matron, all in black.' Warton. But kerchef'd in a comely cloud, Where the rude axe with heaved stroke 125 130 135 140 While the bee with honied thigh, Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day. Warton. 150 146 dewy] Liquidique potentia somni.' Val. Flac. iv. 18. 'Irriguus somnus.' Plaut. Ep. i. ii. 18. Dewy sleep.' Henry More's Poems, p. 263. 148 Wave] Consult Warton's note on the structure of these lines. And as I wake, sweet music breathe In service high, and anthems clear, As may with sweetness, through mine ear, And bring all heav'n before mine eyes. And may at last my weary age Find out the peaceful hermitage, And every herb that sips the dew; Till old experience do attain To something like prophetic strain. And I with thee will choose to live. 155 160 165 170 175 156 pale] Warton conjectures that the right reading may be 'the studious cloister's pale,' i. e. enclosure. |