Luciferi regis fingitur esse domus. Ipse racemiferis dum densas vitibus umbras, Dumque senex tali incedit venerandus amictu, Agmina gemmatis plaudunt cœlestia pennis, Quisque novum amplexu comitem cantuque salutat, Luciferi regis fingitur esse I know not where this fiction is Mr. Steevens gives another meaning to the text: "You sup66 pose the Palace of Lucifer, "that is Satan, to have been the "object intended. But I cannot help thinking, that the resi"dence of the sun was what "Milton meant to describe, as "situated in the extreme point "of the East. I shall counte66 nance my opinion, by an in"stance not taken from a more inglorious author than our poet "has sometimes deigned to copy. 66 Tu pennas gemma, gemma variante capillos, &c. In Paradise Lost, Milton has been more sparing in decorating the plumage of his angels. 61. Quisque novum amplexu comitem cantuque salutat,] So in Lycidas, v. 178. There entertain him all the saints above, &c. Hosque aliquis placido misit ab ore sonos; "Nate veni, et patrii felix cape gaudia regni, "Semper abhinc duro, nate, labore vaca." Dixit, et aligeræ tetigerunt nablia turmæ, At mihi cum tenebris aurea pulsa quies. Flebam turbatos Cephaleia pellice somnos, Talia contingant somnia sæpe mihi.* ELEG. IV. Anno Etatis 18. 65 Ad THOMAM JUNIUM præceptorem suum, apud mercatores Anglicos Hamburgo agentes Pastoris munere fungentem.† CURRE per immensum subito, mea litera, pontum, I, pete Teutonicos læve per æquor agros; 67. Cephaleia pellice] Aurora, see note El. v. 51. * Milton, as he grew old in puritanism, must have looked back with disgust and remorse on the panegyric of this performance, as on one of the sins of his youth, inexperience, and orthodoxy: for he had here celebrated, not only a bishop, but a bishop who supported the dignity and constitution of the Church of England in their most extensive latitude, the distinguished favourite of Elizabeth and James, and the defender of regal prerogative. Clarendon says, that if Andrewes," who loved and un"derstood the Church," had succeeded Bancroft in the see of Canterbury, "that infection would "easily have been kept out, "which could not afterwards be "so easily expelled." Hist. Rebell. b. i. p. 88. edit. 1721. + Thomas Young, now pastor of the church of English merchants at Hamburgh, was Milton's private preceptor, before he was sent to Saint Paul's School. Aubrey in his manuscript Life, calls him, a puritan in Essex "who cutt his haire short." [If Milton imbibed from T. Young any of the principles of the Puritans, his portraits shew that he never adopted from his tutor the outward symbol of the sect. He preserved his "clustering "locks" throughout the reign of the Round-heads. Todd.] Under such an instructor, Milton probably first imbibed the principles of puritanism: and as a puritan tutor was employed to educate the son, we may fairly guess at the persuasions or inclinations of the father. Besides, it is said that our author's grandfather, who lived at Holton, five miles Segnes rumpe moras, et nil, precor, obstet eunti, east of Oxford, and was one of the rangers of Shotover forest, disinherited his son for being a protestant: and, as converts are apt to go to excess, I suspect the son embraced the opposite extreme. The first and fourth of Milton's Familiar Epistles, both very respectful and affectionate, are to this Thomas Young. See Prose Works, ii. 565, 567. In the first, dated at London, inter urbana diverticula, Mar. 26, 1625, he says he had resolved to send Young an Epistle in verse: but thought proper at the same time to send one in prose. The Elegy now before us is this Epistle in In the second, dated from Cambridge, Jul. 21, 1628, he says, "Rus tuum accersitus, si"mul ac ver adoleverit, libenter "adveniam, ad capessendas anni, "tuique non minus colloquii, de"licias; et ab urbano strepitu "subducam me paulisper." Whatever were Young's religious instructions, our author professes to have received from this learned master his first introduction to the study of poetry, v. 29. verse. Primus ego Aonios, illo præeunte, recessus Lustrabam, et bifidi sacra vireta vines, where he was a constant 66 I have a Sermon by Young, intitled Hope's Incouragement, preached before the House of Commons, on a Fast-day, Feb. 28, 1644. Printed by order of the House, Lond. 1644. 4to. At the foot of the Dedication he styles himself, "Thomas Young, "Sancti Evangelii in comitatu "Suffolciensi minister." Another of his publications, as I apprehend, is a learned work in Latin called Dies dominica, on the observation of Sunday. Printed anno 1639. No place. 4to. Bishop Barlow says in the Bodleian copy of this book, in a Latin note, that it was written by Dom. Doctor Young, as he had been informed in 1658, by N. Bernard, Pieriosque hausi latices, Clioque fa- chaplain to Archbishop Usher. vente, Castalio sparsi læta ter ora mero. Yet these couplets may imply only, a first acquaintance with the classics. This Thomas Young, who appears to have returned to England in or before the year 1628, was Doctor Thomas Young, a Member of the Assembly of Di He adds, "Quis fuerit prædictus "D. Younge, mihi non certo con"stat." The Dedication to the Reformed Church, is subscribed, Theophilus Philo-Kurices, Loucardiensis. The last word I cannot decypher. But there is Loucardie in the shire of Perth. I learn the following particulars from a manuscript history of Ipse ego Sicanio frænantem carcere ventos Jesus College. He was a native of Scotland. He was admitted Master of the College by the Earl of Manchester in person, Apr. 12, 1644. He was ejected from the Mastership for refusing the Engagement. He died and was buried at Stow-market in Suffolk, where he had been Vicar thirty years. 1. Čurre per immensum subito, mea litera, pontum, &c.] One of Ovid's epistolary Elegies begins in this manner, where the poet's address is to his own epistle. Trist. iii. vii. 1. Vade salutatum subito perarata Per- And Milton, like Ovid, proceeds in telling his Epistle what to say. In this strain, among other circumstances, Milton informs his Epistle, v. 41. Invenies dulci cum conjuge forte sedentem, Mulcentem gremio pignora parva suo; Forsitan aut veterum prælarga volumina patrum Versantem, aut veri biblia sacra So Ovid, v. 3. Aut illam invenies dulci cum matre sedentem, 5 10 Our author's wishes of speed to his Epistle, are expressed and exhibited under a great and beautiful variety of poetical fictions and allusions. 10. "Take the swift car of "Medea, in which she fled from "her husband." 11. Aut queis Triptolemus, &c.] Triptolemus was carried from Eleusis in Greece, into Scythia, and the most uncultivated regions of the globe, on winged serpents, to teach mankind the use of wheat. Here is a manifest imitation of Ovid, who in the same manner wishes at once, both for the chariots of Medea and Triptolemus, that in an instant he may revisit his friends. Trist. iii. viii. 1. Nunc ego Triptolemi cuperem conscendere currus, Misit in ignotam qui rude semen humum; Aut ego Medea cuperem frenare dra. Atque ubi Germanas flavere videbis arenas, Præsul, Christicolas pascere doctus oves; Hei mihi quot pelagi, quot montes interjecti, Me faciunt alia parte carere mei! Charior ille mihi, quam tu doctissime Graium 15. Dicitur occiso quæ ducere nomen ab Huma,] Krantzius, a Gothic geographer, says, that the city of Hamburgh in Saxony took its name from Hama a puissant Saxon champion, who was killed on the spot where that city stands by Starchater a Danish giant. Saxonia, lib. i. c. xi. p. 12. edit. Wechel. 1575. fol. The Cimbrica clava is the club of the Dane. In describing Hamburgh, this romantic tale could not escape Milton. 21. Hei mihi quot pelagi, &c.] Homer, Il. i. 155. -Επειη μάλα πολλα μεταξὺ Ουρία τε σκιόεντα, θαλασσα τε ήχηεσσα. But I believe under a similar sentiment, he copied his favourite elegiac bard, Trist. iv. vii. 21. Innumeri montes inter me teque, viæque, 15 20 25 Fluminaque, at campi, nec freta pauca jacent. 23. Dearer than Socrates to Alcibiades, who was the son of Clinias, and has this appellation in Ovid's Ibis, "Cliniadæque " modo," &c. v. 635. Alcibiades, the son of Clinias, was anciently descended from Eurysaces, a son of the Telamonian Ajax. 25. Aristotle, preceptor to Alexander the Great. 27. Qualis Amyntorides, qualis Philyreïus heros, &c.] Phoenix the son of Amyntor, and Chiron, both instructors of Achilles. Amyntorides Phoenix," occurs in Ovid, Art. Amator. i. 837. And Amyntorides, simply, in the Ibis, v. 261. We find " Phily"reius heros" for Chiron, Metam. ii. 676. The instances are, of the love of scholars to their masters, in ancient story. |
