And crop-full out of doors he flings,

Ere the first cock his matin rings.

Thus done the tales, to bed they creep,
By whifp'ring winds foon lull'd asleep.
Towred cities please us then,

And the bufy hum of men,

Where throngs of knights and barons bold
In weeds of peace high triumphs hold,
With ftore of ladies, whofe bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize
Of wit, or arms, while both contend

To win her grace, whom all commend.
There let Hymen oft appear

In faffron robe, with taper clear,

119. Where throngs of knights and barons bold &c] It may perhaps be objected that this is a little unnatural, fince tilts and torneaments were difus'd, when Milton wrote this poem: But when one confiders how fhort a time they had been laid afide, and what a confiderable figure these make in Milton's favorite authors, his introducing them here is eafily accounted for, and I think as eafily to be excus'd. Thyer.

132. If Johnson's &c] We fee

115

120

125

And

by this, that Milton's favorite dramatic entertainments were Johnfon's Comedies, and Shakefpear's Plays: and in a few words he touches the diftinguishing characteriftics of these two famous poets, the art of Johnson and nature of Shakespear, the learning of the one and the genius of the other: and there is this farther propriety in his praifing of Shakespear, that while he commends, he imitates him. Love's Labor's loft. A& 1. Sc. 1.

And pomp, and feaft, and revelry,
With mask, and antique pageantry,
Such fights as youthful poets dream

On fummer eves by haunted ftream.

130

Then to the well-trod ftage anon,

If Johnson's learned fock be on,
Or sweetest Shakespear, fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.

And ever against eating cares,
Lap me in foft Lydian airs,

Married to immortal verse,

Such as the meeting foul may pierce
In notes, with many a winding bout

135

Of linked sweetness long drawn out,

140

With

This child of fancy, that Armado charming paffage, but in every

hight.

135. And ever againft eating cares, Lap me in foft Lydian airs, &c.] So alfo in the Mask fpeaking of Circe and the Sirens,

It

other where he has occafion to describe the power of mufic, which fhows how fond he was of it, and finely exemplifies Horace's maxim, Verbaque provifam rem non invita fequentur. Thyer.

Who as they fung, would take The Lydian mufic was very foft

the prifon'd foul,

And lap it in Elyfium

may be obferv'd that Milton's imagination glows with a particular brightnes not only in this

and fweet, and according to Caffiodorus (Varior. lib. 2. ep. 40. ad Boethium) contra nimias curas,animæque tædia reperta, remiffione reparabat et oblectatione animos

corro

With wanton heed, and giddy cunning,

The melting voice through mazes running,
Untwisting all the chains that ty

The hidden foul of harmony;

That Orpheus felf may heave his head

145

From golden flumber on a bed

Of heapt Elysian flow'rs, and hear

Such strains as would have won the ear

Of Pluto, to have quite fet free

His half regain'd Eurydice.

156 Thefe

length in the notes upon the third Act of the Merry Wives of Windfor in Mr. Warburton's edition.

melancholy man; and Mr. Thyer * Il Penferofo is the thoughtful concurred with me in obferving that this poem both in its model and principal circumstances is taken from a fong in praise of melancholy in Fletcher's Comedy call'd The Nice Valor or Paffionate Madman. The reader will not be difpleas'd to fee it here, as it is well worth tranfcribing.

Hence all you vain delights,
As fhort as are the nights
Wherein you spend your
folly;
There's nought in this life
fweet,

If

1

inv.