85 « From others he shall stand in need of nothing, "Yet on his brothers fhall depend for clothing. "To find a foe it fhall not be his hap, "And Peace fhall lull him in her flowery lap; Yet fhall he live in ftrife, and at his door Devouring War fhall never ceafe to roar; Yea, it shall be his natural property "To harbour those that are at enmity. "What power, what force, what mighty spell, 66 "" if not "Your learned hands, can loofe this Gordian "knot?" 90 Ver. 83. Subftantia fubftantiæ novæ contrariatur, is a schoolmaxim. T. WARTON. Ver. 84. And Peace fhall lull him in her flowery lap ;] So in Harrington's Ariosto, c. xlv. 1. "Who long were lul'd on high in Fortune's lap.” And in William Smith's Chloris, 1596. "Whom Fortune never dandled in her lap.” And in Spenfer's Teares of the Mufes, Terpfich. ft. i. "Whofo hath in the lap of foft delight "Been long time lul'd." And we have the flowery lap of fome irriguous valley,” in Par, Loft, B. iv. 254. T. WARTON. Ver. 86. Devouring War fhall never cease to roar ;] So in Par. Loft, B. xi. "The brazen throat of War had ceas'd to roar." TODD. Ver. 88. To harbour thofe that are at enmity.] His Accidents. T. WARTON. The next Quantity and Quality Spake in profe; then Relation was called by his name. RIVERS, arife; whether thou be the fon Of utmoft Tweed, or Oofe, or gulphy Dun, Or Trent, who, like fome Earth-born giant, spreads His thirty arms along the indented meads; Ver. 91. Rivers, arife; &c.] Milton is fuppofed, in the in yocation and affemblage of these rivers, to have had an eye on Spenfer's Epifode of the Nuptials of Thames and Medway, Faer. Qu. iv. xi. I rather think he confulted Drayton's Polyolbion. It is hard to fay, in what fenfe, or in what manner, this introduction of the rivers was to be applied to the subject. T. WARTON. Ver. 93. Or Trent, who, like fome Earth-born giant, Spreads His thirty arms along the indented meads ;] It is faid that there were thirty forts of fish in this river, and thirty reli gious houfes on its banks. See Drayton, Polyolb. S. xii. vol. iii. p. 906. Drayton adds, that it was foretold by a wifard, "And thirty feveral ftreames, from many a fundry way, "Unto her greatnefs fhall their watry tribute pay.” Thefe traditions, on which Milton has raised a noble image, are a rebus on the name Trent. T. WARTON. Ver. 94. indented meads;] Indent, in this fenfe and context, is in Sylvefter's Du Bartas, D. iii. W. i, "Our filuer Medway, which doth deepe indent "The flowerie medowes of my native Kent." And Drayton fpeaks of "creeks indenting the land," Polyolb. S. i. T. WARTON. See alfo Du Bart. ed. fupr. p. 775. "There filver torrents rufh, "Indenting meads and paftures, as they pafs." TODD. Or fullen Mole, that runneth underneath; 95 Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee; [The reft was profe. ] Ver. 95. Or fullen Mole, that runneth underneath;] At Mickleham near Darking in Surrey, the river Mole during the fummer, except in heavy rains, finks through its fandy bed into a fubterraneous and invifible channel. In winter it conftantly keeps its current. This river is brought into one of our author's religious difputes. "To make the word Gift, like the river Mole in Surrey, to run under the bottom of a long line, and so to start up and to govern the word prefbytery, &c." Pr. W. vol. i. 92. T. WARTON. Ver. 96. Or Severn fwift, guilty of maiden's death;] The maiden is Sabrina. See Comus, v. 827. T. WARTON. Ver. 98. ancient hallow'd Dee;] In Apollonius Rhodius we have Φάσιδι συμφέρεται ΙΕΡΟΝ ῥέον. Argon. iv. 134. And in Theocritus, Ακιδος ΙΕΡΟΝ ύδως. Idyl. i. 69. See alfo "Divine Alpheus," in Arcades, v. 30. Other proofs might be added. But Milton is not claffical here. Dee's divinity was Druidical. From the fame fuperftition, fome rivers in Wales are still held to have the gift or virtue of prophecy. Gyraldus Cambrenfis, who writes in 1188, is the first who mentions Dee's fanctity, and from the popular traditions. See Note on Lycidas, ver. 55. T. Warton. Randolph, in his Poems, notices alfo "the holy Dee,” edit. 1640, p. 48. But fee Spenfer, Faer. Qu. iv. xi. 39, and the notes there, edit. 1805. TODD. Ver. 99. Or Humber loud, that keeps the Scythian's name;] Humber, a Scythian king, landed in Britain three hundred years before the Roman invafion, and was drowned in this river by Locrine, after conquering king Albanact. See Drayton, Polyolb. S. viii. vol. ii. p. 796. Drayton has made a most beautiful use of this tradition in his Elegy, "Upon three fons of the Lord Sheffield drowned in Humber," Elegies, vol. iv. p. 1244. "O cruell Humber, guiltie of their gore! "I now believe, more than I did before, "By thee deuoured: for 'tis likely thou "With bloud wert christen'd, bloud-thirsty, till now Ver. 100. Or Medway Smooth, or royal-tower'd Thame.] The fmoothness of the Medway is characterifed in Spenfer's [not Spenfer's but Lodowick Bryfkett's] Mourning Mufe of Theftylis. "The Medwaies filuer ftreames, "That wont fo ftill to glide, "Were troubled now and wroth." The royal towers of Thames imply Windfor caftle, familiar to Milton's view, and to which I have already remarked his allufions. T. WARTON. AN EPITAPH ON THE ADMIRABLE DRAMATICK POET W. SHAKSPEARE*. WHAT needs my Shakspeare, for his ho nour'd bones, The labour of an age in piled stones? * This is but an ordinary poem to come from Milton, on such a fubject. But he did not yet know his own strength, or was content to diffemble it, out of deference to the falfe taste of his time. The conceit, of Shakspeare's lying fepulcher'd in a tomb of his own making, is in Waller's manner, not his own. But he made Shakspeare amends in his L'Allegro, v. 133. HURD. Birch, and from him doctor Newton, afferts, that this copy of verfes was written in the twenty-fecond year of Milton's age, and printed with the Poems of Shakspeare at London in 1640. It first appeared among other recommendatory verses, prefixed to the folio edition of Shakspeare's plays in 1632. But without Milton's name or initials. This therefore is the firft of Milton's pieces that was published. It was with great difficulty and reluctance, that Milton firft appeared as an author. He could not be prevailed upon to put his name to Comus, his first performance of any length that was printed, notwithstanding the fingular approbation with which it had been previously received in a long and extenfive course of private circulation. Lycidas, in the Cambridge collection, is only fubfcribed with his initial. Most of the other contributors have left their names at full length. We have here reftored the title from the fecond folio of Shakfpeare, T. WARTON. This Epitaph is dated 1630, in Milton's own edition of his poems in 1673. TODD. |