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But now in ftedfaft love and happy ftate

She with him lives, and hath him borne a child,

Pleasure, that doth both Gods

and men aggrate,

Two

as an adjective, as in Spenser, Faery Queen. B. 2. Cant. 1. St.

10.

To spoil her dainty corse so fair
and been:

Pleasure, the daughter of Cupid and and again Cant. z. St. 49.
Pfyche late.

If the reader defires a larger ac-
count of the loves of Cupid and
Pfyche, he may find it in Apuleius.

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That with her fovereign power

and scepter been

All faery lond does peaceable fufteen.

But Milton ufes it as a fubftantive both here and before in ver. 893. the azurn fheen, and in feveral other places; and he makes heeny the adjeftive, as in the verfes On the death of a fair infant. St. 7.

Or did of late earth's fons befiege the wall

Of heeny Heav'n, &c.

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Now my message [or business] well is done,

I can fly, or I can run &c. The Satyr in the Faithful Shepherdefs fuftains much the fame character and office as the attendent Spirit in the Mafk, and he fays to the fame purpose, A&t 1.

I must go, and I muft run Swifter than the fiery fun: and in the conclufion his taking leave is fomewhat in the fame manner,

fhall I ftray

In the middle air, and stay
The failing rack, or nimbly take
Hold by the moon, and gently
make

She

Suit to the pale queen of night For a beam to give thee light? &c.

But what follows in Milton is of a ftrain fuperior to Fletcher.

1014.

the green earth's end,] Cape de Verd Iles. Sympfon. 1018. Mortals that would follow

me, &c] The moral of this poem is very finely fumm'd up in thefe concluding fix verses; the thought contain'd in the two laft might probably be fuggefted to our Cebes, where Patience and Perfe author by a paffage in the table of verance are represented stooping and ftretching out their hands to help up those who are endevoring to climb the craggy hill of Virtue, and yet are too feeble to afcend of themselves, Tbyer.

1020. She

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184

LY CID A S.

In this monody the author bewails a learned friend, unfortunately drown'd in his paffage from Chefter

This poem was made upon the unfortunate and untimely death of Mr. Edward King, fon of Sir John King Secretary for Ireland, a fellow-collegian and intimate friend of our author, who as he was going to vifit his relations in Ireland, was drown'd on the 10th of Auguft 1637, and in the 25th year of his age. The year following 1638 a mall volume of poems Greek, Latin, and English, was printed at Cambridge in honor of his memory, and before them was prefix'd the following account of the deceas'd. P. M. S. Edovardus King, f. Joannis (equitis aurati, qui SSS RRR Elifabethæ, Jacobo, Carolo, pro regno Hiberniæ a fecretis) col. Christi in Academia Cant. focius, pietatis atque eruditionis confcientia et fama felix, in quo nihil immaturum præter ætatem; dum Hiberniam cogitat, tractus defiderio fuorum, patriam, agnatos et amicos, præ cæteris fratrem, Dominum Robertum King (equitem auratum, virum ornatiffimum) forores (fœminas lectiffimas) Annam, Dom. G. Caulfield, Baronis de Charlemont; Margaretam, D. G. Loder, fummi Hiber

on

niæ Juftitiarii, uxorem ; venerandum Præfulem, Edovardum King, Epifcopum Elphinenfem (a quo facro fonte fufceptus) reverendiffimum et doctiffimum virum Gulielmum Chappel, Decanum ecclefiæ Caffelienfis, et collegii Sanctæ Trinitatis apud Dublinienfes præpofitum (cujus in Academia auditor et alumnus fuerat) invifens; haud procul a littore Britannico, navi in fcopulum allifa, et rimis et ictu fatifcente, dum alii vectores vitæ mortalis fruftra fatagerent, immortali tatem anhelans, in genua provolutus oranfque, una cum navigio ab aquis abforptus, animam Deo reddidit IIII. Eid. Sextileis, anno falutis M,DC,XXXVII. ætatis XXV. The laft poem in the collection was this of Milton, which by his own Manufcript appears to have been written in November 1637, when he was almoft 29 years old: and these words in the printed titles of this poem, and by occafion foretels the ruin of our corrupted clergy, then in their highth, are not in the Manufcript. This poem is with great judgment made of the paftoral kind, as both Mr. King and Milton had been defign'd for holy

orders

on the Irish feas, 1637. and by occafion foretels the ruin of our corrupted clergy, then in their highth.

ET once more, O ye Laurels, and once more

YE

Ye Myrtles brown, with Ivy never sere,

orders and the paftoral care, which gives a peculiar propriety to feve. ral paffages in it and in compofing it the poet had an eye particularly to Virgil's 10th Eclogue lamenting the unhappy loves of Gallus, and to Spenfer's paftoral poems upon the death of the Mufes favorite, Sir Philip Sidney. The reader cannot but obferve, that there are more antiquated and obsolete words in this than in any other of Milton's poems; which I conceive to be owing partly to his judgment, for he might think them more ruftic, and better adapted to the nature of paftoral poetry; and partly to his imitating of Spenfer, for as Spenfer's ftile is most antiquated, where he imitates Chaucer moft, in his Shepherds Calendar, fo Milton's imitations of Spenfer might have the fame effect upon the language of this poem. It is called monody, from a Greek word fignifying a mournful or funeral fong fung by a single perfon: and we have lately had two admirable poems publish'd under this title, one occafion'd by the death of Mr. Pope by a very ingenious poet of Cambridge, and the other

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