Thus fang the uncouth fwain to th' oaks and rills, While the ftill morn went out with fandals gray, He touch'd the tender ftops of various quills, With eager thought warbling his Doric lay: And now the fun had ftretch'd out all the hills, 19 And now was dropt into the western bay; At laft he rofe, and twitch'd his mantle blue: To morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new. 189. With eager thought warbling his Doric lay:] He calls it Doric lay, because it imitates Theocritus and other paftoral poets, who wrote in the Deric dialect. Majorefque cadunt aliis de m bus umbra. Virgil's is an admirable defe Tho' Milton calls himself as yet better, as it reprefents the fun le baccare frontem And now the fun had stretch out all the hills, And now was dropt into the western bay: Cingite, ne vati noceat mala lin- though it must be faid that the gua futuro. This looks very modeft, but fee what he infinuates. The first part of Virgil's verfe is, Aut fi ultra placitum laudarit, baccare frontem &c. Richardfon. 190. And now the fun had ftretch'd out all the bills, ] He had no doubt Virgil in his eye. Ecl. I. 83. Et jam fumma procul villarum culmina fumant, image of the fmoke afcending Milton has omitted, is very nafrom the village-chimnies, which tural and beautiful. 193. To morrow to fresh and and paftures new.] Theocritus. Idyll. I. 145. Χαιρετώ εγω δ' ύμμιν και τ ύτερον άδιον ασω. Jortin. dow. Mr. Richardfon conceives that by this laft verfe the poet fays (pa ftorally) that he is haftening to, and and eager on new works: but I rather believe that it was faid in allufion to his travels into Italy, which he was now meditating, and on which he fet out the fpring following. I will conclude my remarks upon this poem with the juft obfervation of Mr. Thyer. The particular beauties of this charming paftoral àre too ftriking to need much descanting upon; but what gives the greatest grace to the whole is that natural and agreeable wildness and irregularity which runs quite through it, than which nothing could be better fuited to exprefs the warm affection which Milton had for his friend, and the extreme grief he was in for the lofs of him. Grief is eloquent, but not formal. VOL. II. P The XVIII. The Fifth ODE of Horace, Lib. I, Quis multa gracilis te puer in rofa, rendred almo word for word without rime, according to the Lati measure, as near as the language will permit. WHAT HAT flender youth bedew'd with liquid odor Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave, Pyrrha? for whom bind'st thou In wreaths thy golden hair, Plain in thy neatnefs? O how oft shall he On faith and changed Gods complain, and feast Unwonted fhall admire! Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold, Who always vacant always amiable Hopes thee, of flattering gales Unmindful. Hapless they To whom thou untry'd feem'ft fair. Me in my vow'd Picture the facred wall declares t' have hung My dank and dropping weeds To the ftern God of fea. 15 Ad This Ode was firft added in the second edition of the author's poems in 1673. Ad PYRRHAM. ODE V. Horatius ex Pyrrhæ illecebris tanquam è naufragio enataverat, cujus amore irretitos, affirmat effe miferos. Q UIS multa gracilis te puer in tofa Cui flavam religas comam Simplex munditiis? heu quoties fidem. Emirabitur infolens! Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea, Qui femper vacuam femper amabilem Fallacis. Miferi quibus Intentata nites. Me tabula facer Votiva paries indicat uvida Sufpendiffe potenti Veftimenta maris Deo. બ 10 15 |
