Till old experience do attain He puts the Penseroso last, as a climax; because he prefers he pensive mood to the mirthful. I do not know why he spells he word in this manner. I have never seen it without the i,— Pensieroso. In Florio's Dictionary the ie varies into an o,— Pensoroso; whence apparently the abbreviated form,-Pensoso. 8" As thick as motes in the sunne beams."-Chaucer.-But see how by one word, people, a great poet improves what he borrows. 6" Prince Memnon's sister."—It does not appear, by the ancient authors, that Memnon had a sister; but Milton wished him to have one; so here she is. It has been idly objected to Spenser, who dealt much in this kind of creation, that he had no right to add to persons and circumstances in old mythology. As if the same poetry which saw what it did might not see more! 10" The cherub Contemplation.”—Learnedly called cherub, not seraph; because the cherubs were the angels of knowledge, the seraphs of love. In the celestial hierarchy, by a noble sentiment, the seraphs rank higher than the cherubs. 11 "Most musical, most melancholy."-A question has been started of late years, whether the song of the nightingale is really melancholy; whether it ought not rather to be called merry, as, in fact, Chaucer does call it. But merry, in Chaucer's time, did not mean solely what it does now; but any kind of hasty or strenuous prevalence, as "merry men," meaning men in their heartiest and manliest condition. He speaks even of the "merry organ," meaning the church organ-the "merry organ of the mass." Coleridge, in some beautiful lines, though; fit to take the merry side, out of a notion, real or supposed, of the necessity of vindicating nature from sadness. But the question is surely very simple, one of pure association of ideas. The nightingale's song is not in itself melancholy, that is, no result of sadness on the part of the bird; but coming, as it does, in the night-time, and making us reflect, and reminding us by its very beauty of the mystery and fleetingness of all sweet things, it becomes melancholy in the finer sense of the word, by the combined overshadowing of the hour and of thought. 12" Like one that hath been led astray."-This calls to mind a beautiful passage about the moon, in Spenser's Epithalamium :— Who is the same that at my window peeps? Or who is that fair face that shines so bright? But walks about high heaven all the night? 13" Where glowing embers.”—Here, also, the reader is reminded of Spenser. See p. 88: A little glooming light much like a shade. 14" And may my lamp at midnight hour Be seen." The picturesque of the "be seen" has been much admired. Its good-nature seems to deserve no less approbation. The light is seen afar by the traveller, giving him a sense of home comfort, and, perhaps, helping to guide his way. 15" Call up him that left half told The story of Cambuscan bold." Chaucer, with his Squire's Tale. But why did Milton turn Cambuscàn, that is, Cambus the Khan, into Cambùscan. The accent in Chaucer is never thrown on the middle syllable. LYCIDAS. The poet bewails the death of his young friend and fellowstudent, Edward King, of Christ's College, Cambridge, who was drowned at sea, on his way to visit his friends in Ireland. The vessel, which was in bad condition, went suddenly to the bottom, in calm weather, not far from the English coast; and all on board perished. Milton was then in his twenty-ninth year, and his friend in his twenty-fifth. The poem, with good reason, is supposed to have been written, like the preceding ones, at Hor ton, in Buckinghamshire. Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more, I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring, So may some gentle Muse With lucky words favor my destin'd urn, And bid fair peace to be my sable shroud: For we were nurst upon the self-same hill, Tow'rds heav'n's descent had slop'd his west'ring wheel Temper'd to the oaten flute; Rough Satyrs danc'd; and Fauns with cloven heel And old Damætas lov'd to hear our song. But, O the heavy change, now thou art gone, Now thou art gone, and never must return! The willows, and the hazel copses green, Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. Or taint worm to the weanling herds that graze, Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear, Where were ye, Nymphs,when the remorseless deep Clos'd o'er the head of your lov'd Lycidas? 18 For neither were ye playing on the steep, Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream .19 Had ye been there-for what could that have done i When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise Nor in the glist' ring foil Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor lies, But lives, and spreads aloft by those pure eyes, As he pronounces lastly on each deed, Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed." O fountain Arethuse, and thou honor'd-flood, Smooth-sliding Mincius, crown'd with vocal reeds, That strain I heard was of a higher mood: But now my oat proceeds, And listens to the herald of the sea That came in Neptune's plea ; He ask'd the waves, and ask'd the felon winds, And question'd every gust of rugged wings They knew not of his story; And sage Hippotades their answer brings, Built in the eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark, Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge Like to that sanguine flower inscrib'd with woe.20 "Ah! who hath reft," quoth he, "my dearest pledge?" Last came and last did go.21 The pilot of the Galilean lake; Two massy keys he bore of metals twain (The golden opes, and iron shuts amain), He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake: "How well could I have spar'd for thee, young swa, "Enow of such, as for their bellies' sake Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold? "Of other cares they little reckoning make, "Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw Daily devours apace, and nothing said: "But that two-handed engine at the door "Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." Lol |