E'l cantar che di mezzo l'hemifpero E degli occhi fuoi auventa fi gran fuoco V. Per certo i bei voftr'occhi, Donna mia 2. —— Non fian lo mio fole Si mi percuoton forte.] So Ariofto, ORL. FUR. C. viii. 20. Again, C. x. 35. PERCOTE il SOL nel colle e fa ritorno. Milton has the fame Italian idiom in PARAD. L. B. iv. 244. So alfo Shakespeare, LovE's LAB. LOST, A. iv. S. iii. As thy eyebeams when their fresh RAYS have 9MOTE Virgil fays of light, N. viii. 25. -Summique FERIT laquearia tecti.. And V. Flaccus, ARGON. i. 496. PERCUSSAQUE fole fequuntur Scuta virum. And Statius, THEB. vi. 666. Qualis Biftoniis clypeus Mavortis in agris Luce mala Pangæa FERIT. I will add a parallel from Prudentius, as it illuftrates another passage of Milton, HYMN. ii. 6. Caligo terræ fcinditur Solis PERCUSSA spiculo. So Mentre un caldo vapor (ne fentì pria) Da quel lato fi fpinge ove mi duole, Scoffo mi il petto, e poi n'ufcendo poco VI. Giovane piano, e femplicetto amante Poi che fuggir me fteffo in dubbio fono, Madonna a voi del mio cuor l'humil dono Faro divoto; io certo a prove tante L'hebbi fedele, intrepido, coftante, De penfieri leggiadro, accorto, e buono; Qando rugge il gran mondo, e fcocca il tuono, S'arma di fe, e d'intero diamante, Tanto del forfe, e d' invidia ficuro, Di timori, e fperanze al popol use Quanto d'ingegno, e d'alto valor vago, So in PARAD. L. B. vi. 15. Of morning. From before her vanifh'd NIGHT U u E di E di cetta fonora, e delle muse: Sol troverete in tal parte men duro VII. On his being arrived to the age of 23. How foon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stoln on his wing my three and twentieth year My hafting days fly on with full career, But my late spring no bud or bloffom shew'th. Milton had a natural feverity of mind. For love-verfes, his Italian Sonnets have a remarkable air of gravity and dignity. They are free from the metaphyfics of Petrarch, and are more in the manner of Dante. Yet he calls his feventh Sonnet, in a Letter printed from the Cambridge manufcript by Birch, a compofition in the PETRARCHIAN ftanza. In 1762, the late Mr. Thomas Hollis examined the Laurentian library at Florence, for fix Italian Sonnets of Milton, addreffed to his friend Chimentelli; and, for other Italian and Latin compofitions and various original letters, faid to be remaining in manufcript at Florence. He fearched alfo for an original but in marble of Milton, fuppofed to be fomewhere in that city. But he was unfuccefsful in his curious inquiries. 2. Stoln on bis wing my three and twentieth year.] Mr. Bowle here cites ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, A. v. S. iii. On our quick'ft decrees The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time But the application of STEAL is different. In Shakespeare, Time comes imperceptibly upon, fo as to prevent, our purposes. In Milton, Time, as imperceptibly and filently, brings on his wing, in his flight, the poet's twenty third year. Juvenal should not here be forgotten, in a paffage of confummate elegance. SAT. ix. 129. Dum ferta, unguenta, puellas, Pofcimus, OBREPIT NON INTELLECTA fenectus. Perhaps Perhaps my femblance might deceive the truth, 5 That I to manhood am arriv'd fo near, And inward ripeness doth much less appear, That some more timely-happy spirits indu'th. Yet be it lefs or more, or foon or flow, It fhall be ftill in ftricteft meafure even To that fame lot, however mean or high, ΤΟ Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven; All is, if I have grace to use it so, As ever in my great Task-Mafter's eye. VIII. When the affault was intended to the City. Captain or Colonel, or Knight in arms, Guard them, and him within protect from harms. He can requite thee, for he knows the charms S That call fame on fuch gentle acts as these, And he can spread thy name o'er lands and feas, Whatever clime the fun's bright circle warms. 1. Captain or Colonel, or Knight in arms.] So Shakespeare, K. RI CHARD ii. A. i. S. iii. Where Bolingbroke enters "appellant in ar"mour." K, Rich. Marfhal, afk yonder KNIGHT IN ARMS. Lift Lift not thy fpear against the Muses bow'r : Emathian conqueror bid spare The great The house of Pindarus, when temple' and tow'r Went to the ground: And the repeated air Of fad Electra's poet had the pow'r To fave th' Athenian walls from ruin bare. 10. The great Emathian conqueror did Spare The houfe of Pindarus.-] As a poet, Milton had as good right to expect this favour as Pindar. Nor was the English monarch less a protector of the arts, and a lover of poetry, than Alexander. As a fubject, Milton was too confcious that his fituation was precarious, and that his feditious tracts had forfeited all pretenfions to his fovereign's mercy. Mr. Bowle here refers us to Pliny, L. vii. c. 29. "Alexander Mag, nus Pindari vatis familiæ penatibufque juffit parci, cum Thebas caperet." And to the old commentator on Spenfer's Pastorals, who relates this incident more at large, and where it might have firit ftruck Milton as a great reader of Spenfer., II. - When temple and tow'r Went to the ground. ] TEMPLE and TOWER is a frequent combination in the old metrical romances. See SEGE of JERUSALEM, MSS. COTT. Cal. A. 2. f. 122. And Davie's ALEXANDER, Bibl. Bodl. f. 112. Our author has it again, PARAD. REG. B. iii. 268. · O'er hill and dale, Foreft, and field, and flood, TEMPLES AND TOWERS. And again, in the defcription of the buildings of Rome, ibid. B.iv. 34. An imperial city stood With TOWRES and TEMPLES proudly elevate. 13. Of fad Electra's poet, &c.] Plutarch relates, that when the Lacedemonian general Lyfander took Athens, it was propofed in a council of war intirely to rafe the city, and convert its fite into a defert. But during the debate, at a banquet of the chief officers, a certain Phocian fung fome fine anaftrophics from a chorus of the ELECTRA of Euripides; which fo affected the hearers, that they declared it an unworthy act, to reduce a place, fo celebrated for the production of illuftrious men, to total ruin and defolation. The lines of Euripides are at v. 168. |