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Ariofto was fomewhat more cautious in this particular. For though he supposes the use of fire arms, on a certain occafion, in the age of Charlemagne, yet he prudently fuggefts, that they were soon afterwards abolished, and that the ufe of them continued unknown for many years. He attributes the revival, no less than the invention, of these infernal engines, to the devil. c. 1. 22.

It has been before obferved, that Milton copied the invention of fire arms from Ariofto. We may further obferve, that Milton copies from himself in the speech of one of the fallen angels, on their new-invented

weapons.

They fhall fear we have difarm'd

The thunderer of his only dreaded bolt*.

This is from his latin epigram, In Inventorem Bomberda.

At mihi major erit, qui lurida creditur arma,

Et trifidum fulmen furripuiffe Jovi.

There are likewise other ftrokes, both of expreffion and fentiment, which Milton has transferred, from the fmaller poems, into his GREAT WORK. In Samfon

Agoniftes.

*Paradife Loft, ver. 490.

THRICE SHE ASSAYD with flattering pray'rs and fighs And amourous reproaches, &c.

THRICE I deluded her*.

This form he has exactly repeated in Paradife Loft.

THRICE HE ASSAY'D, and THRICE, in fpite of fcorn, Tears, fuch as angels weep, burst forth †. —

In Comus.

A perpetual feaft of nectar'd sweets

Where no CRUDE SURFEIT REIGNS.

In Paradife Loft.

Quaff immortality and joy, SECURE
OF SURFEIT.

In Comus.

A thoufand LIVERIED ANGELS LACKEY her.

The following, in Paradife Luft, is a kindred image,

About her as a GUARD ANGELICK plac'd §.

Among Milton's IMITATIONS OF HIMSELF, I think the following have been unobferved. In Il Penferofo,

* Ver. 392.

† 1. 619.

5. 638.

§8.559.

Sometimes

Sometimes let gorgeous TRAGEDY
In fcepter'd pall come fweeping by,
Presenting THEBES, or PELOPS' line,
Or the Tale of TROY divine.

It appears, that the greek tragedies, founded upon these stories, made an early and lafting impreffion on Milton. In his firft elegy to Deodatus, written before he was arrived at his twentieth year, he particularifes those dramas; where, as in the lines juft cited, he is fpeaking of tragedy in general.

Seu moret PELOPEA DOMUS, feu nobilis ILI,
Seu luit inceftos aula CREONTIS aves*.

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Plucking ripe clusters from the TENDER SHOOTS.

Of a vine, in the Translation of Psalm, 1xxx.

B. I. El. 1.

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Her grapes and TENDER SHOOTS.

In Paradife Regained,

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Tall stripling youths, rich clad, of fairer hue

Than GANYMED or HYLAS

He fingles out thefe, as two beautiful boys, in one of
his latin elegies.

Talis in æterno, JUVENIS SIGEIUSs, Olympe,
Mifcet amatori pocula plena Jovi:

Aut qui formofas pellexit ad ofcula nymphas,

Thiodomanteus Naiade raptus HYLAS †.

In the firft of which verfes he had an eye to this of
Tibullus,

TALIS IN ÆTERNO felix Vertumnus OLYMPO Į.

Milton takes all opportunities of illuftrating the power of mufic, and of expreffing his extreme fondness for it: These verses, in Comus, relating to that fubject,

SYLLA wept,

And chid her BARKING waves into ATTENTION,
And FELL CHARYBDIS murmur'd hoarfe applause,

1

*2.352. VOL. II.

† B. 1. El. 7.

+ B. 4. 2.

E

ftrongly

ftrongly resemble what Silius Italicus defcribes of a Sicilian fhepherd playing on his reed,

Scyllæi tacuere canes, ftetit atra Charybdis *.

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But shall we fufpect Milton of plagiarism because the Roman poet wrote FIRST? Was it not NATURAL for either poet, in expreffing the force of mufic in the ISLE OF SICILY, to mention it's influence on two moft IMPLACABLE objects, which the SITUATION of the musician, in both cafes, fuggefted?

The fable of the garden of the Hefperides feems to have affected the imagination of Milton in a very particular manner, as his allufions to it are remarkably frequent, viz.

And LADIES of th' HESPERIDES t.

But beauty, like the fair HESPERIAN TREE,
Laden with blooming gold .

All amidst the GARDENS FAIR

Of HESPERUS, and his daughters three,

That fing about the golden tree §.

Like thofe HESPERIAN GARDENS fam'd of old (*).

* Bel. Pun. 14. 476.
§ Ibid.

+ Par. Reg. 2. 357.

Comus,

(*) Par. Loft. 3. 56%,

HESPERIAN

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