Et faciam vero per tua damna fidem.

30 Ipse ego, si nescis, strato Pythone superbum

Edomui Phæbum, cessit et ille mihi; Et quoties meminit Peneidos, ipse fatetur

Certius et gravius tela nocere mea. Me nequit adductum curvare peritius arcum, 35

Qui post terga solet vincere, Parthus eques :
Cydoniusque mihi cedit venator, et ille

Inscius uxori qui necis author erat.
Est etiam nobis ingens quoque victus Orion,

Herculeæque manus, Herculeusque comes. 40 Jupiter ipse licet sua fulmina torqueat in me,

Hærebunt lateri spicula nostra Jovis.
Cætera quæ dubitas melius mea tela docebunt,

Et tua non leviter corda petenda mihi.
Nec te, stulte, tuæ poterunt defendere Muse, 45

Nec tibi Phæbeus porriget anguis opem. Dixit, et aurato quatiens mucrone sagittam,

37. Cydoniusque mihi, &c.] Per- Art. Amator. i. 731. See Parhaps indefinitely as the Parthus thenius, Erotic. cap. XX. eques, just before. The Cydo- 46. Nec tibi Phæbeus porriget nians were famous for hunting, anguis opem.] “No medicine which implies archery. See Ovid, “will avail you. Not even the

“ . Metam. viii. 22. If a person is serpent, which Phæbus sent to here intended, he is most pro- “ Rome to cure the city of a bably Hippolytus. Cydon was “pestilence." See Ovid, Metam. a city of Crete. See Euripides, xi. 742. Hippol. v. 18. But then he is

Huc se de Latia pinu Phabeius anguis mentioned here as an archer.

Contulit, &c. Virgil ranks the Cydonians with the Parthians, for their skill in Where see the fable at large. the bow, Æn. xi. 852.

47. —aurato quotiens mucrone Ibid. —et ille, &c.] Cephalus, sagittam,] So in Par. Lost, b. who unknowingly shot his wife iv. 763. Procris.

50

55

Evolat in tepidos Cypridos ille sinus.
At mihi risuro tonuit ferus ore minaci,

Et mihi de puero non metus ullus erat.
Et modo qua nostri spatiantur in urbe Quirites, ,

Et modo villarum proxima rura placent.
Turba frequens, facieque simillima turba dearum,

Splendida per medias itque reditque vias :
Auctaque luce dies gemino fulgore coruscat:

Fallor? An et radios hinc quoque Phæbus habet ? Hæc ego non fugi spectacula grata severus,

Impetus et quo me fert juvenilis, agor, Lumina luminibus male providus obvia misi, Neve oculos potui continuisse meos.

60 Unam forte aliis supereminuisse notabam,

Principium nostri lux erat illa mali. Sic Venus optaret mortalibus ipsa videri,

Sic regina Deum conspicienda fuit.
Hanc memor objecit nobis malus ille Cupido, 65

Solus et hos nobis texuit ante dolos.
Nec procul ipse vafer latuit, multæque sagittæ,

Et facis a tergo grande pependit onus :
Nec mora, nunc ciliis hæsit, nunc virginis ori,

Insilit hinc labiis, insidet inde genis:
Et quascunque agilis partes jaculator oberrat,

Hei mihi, mille locis pectus inerme ferit.
Protinus insoliti subierunt corda furores,

70

57. See note El. i. 50. In 12mo. Written much earlier. A Milton's youth the fashionable young lady, he says, p. 85. places of walking in London were Hyde Park, and Gray's .

Frequents the theaters, Hide Park, or

els talkes Inn walks. This appears from

Away her pretious time in Gray's Inn Sir A. Cokain, Milton's contem

walkes. porary. Poems, Lond. 1662.

Uror amans intus, flammaque totus eram. Interea misero quæ jam mihi sola placebat,

75 Ablata est oculis non reditura meis. Ast ego progredior tacite querebundus, et excors,

Et dubius volui sæpe referre pedem. . Findor, et hæc remanet: sequitur pars altera votum, Raptaque tam subito gaudia flere juvat.

80 Sic dolet amissum proles Junonia cælum,

Inter Lemniacos præcipitata focos:
Talis et abreptum solem respexit, ad Orcum

Vectus ab attonitis Amphiaraus equis.
Quid faciam infelix, et luctu victus? Amores

Nec licet inceptos ponere, neve sequi.
O utinam, spectare semel mihi detur amatos

Vultus, et coram tristia verba loqui!
Forsitan et duro non est adamante creata,
Forte nec ad nostras surdeat illa preces !

90 Crede mihi, nullus sic infeliciter arsit,

Ponar in exemplo primus et unus ego.
Parce precor, teneri cum sis Deus ales amoris,

Pugnent officio nec tua facta tuo.
Jam tuus O certe est mihi formidabilis arcus,

Nate dea, jaculis nec minus igne potens:

85

95

84. Vectus ab attonitis Amphia. The application is beautiful from raus equis.] An echo to a penta- a young mind teeming with meter in Ovid, Ep. Pont. iii. i. 52. classical history and imagery.

Notus humo mersis Amphiaraus equis. The allusion, in the last couplet, See Statius, Theb. vii. 821.

to Vulcan, is perhaps less hapIllum ingens haurit specus, et transire py, although the compliment is parantes

greater. In the example of AmMergit equos; non arma manu, non phiaraus, the sudden and striking frena remisit;

transition from light and the sun Sicut erat, rectos defert in Tartara to a subterraneous gloom, perRespexitque cadens cælum,campum

Et tua fumabunt nostris altaria donis,

Solus et in superis tu mihi summus eris.
Deme meos tandem, verum nec deme, furores,

Nescio cur, miser est suaviter omnis amans :
Tu modo da facilis, posthæc mea siqua futura est,

Cuspis amaturos figat ut una duos,

100

5

HÆC

ego, mente olim læva, studioque supino, Nequitiæ posui vana trophæa meæ. Scilicet abreptum sic me malus impulit error,

Indocilisque ætas prava magistra fuit. Donec Socraticos umbrosa Academia rivos

Præbuit, admissum dedocuitque jugum. Protinus extinctis ex illo tempore flammis,

Cincta rigent multo pectora nostra gelu. Unde suis frigus metuit puer ipse sagittis,

Et Diomedeam vim timet ipsa Venus.*

10

1. The elegiac poets were a

« olive
grove

of Academe, mong the favourite classical au- “ Plato's retirement.” Par. Reg. thor's of Milton's youth, Apol. iv. 243. Smectymn.” “Others were the 10. Et Diomedeam vim timet “ smooth Elegiac Poets, whereof ipsa Venus.] Ovid makes this “ the schools are not scarce: sort of allusion to Homer's inci“ whom, both for the pleasing dent of Venus wounded by Dio“ sound of their numerous writ- med. In the Remedy of Love,

ing, which in imitation I found 5. “ most easy, and most agreeable Non ego Tydides, a quo tua saucia “ to nature's part in me; and “ for their matter, which what it In liquidum rediit æthera, Martis “ is, there be few who know

equis. not, I was so allured to read, See also Metam. xiv. 491. And " that no recreation came to me Epist. Pont. ii. ii. 13. " better welcome." Prose W. These lines are an epilogistic vol. i. 100.

palinode to the last Elegy. The 5. -umbrosa Academia] The Socratic doctrines of the shady studious walks, and shades, “the Academe soon broke the bonds

mater

tuum;

meæ.

p. 77.

of beauty. In other words, his 'poet is bound; and thus entangled return to the University,

he is delivered a prisoner to They were probably written Næra. El. ix. p. 46. ut supr. when the Latin poems were pre- Fervida, tot telis non proficientibus, pared for the press in 1645.

ira * Milton here, at an early pe- :, Fugit ad auxilium, dia Neæra, riod of life, renounces the levities of love and gallantry. This was

Et capiti assistens, te dormitante,

capillum not the case with Buchanan,

Aureolum flavæ tollit ab orbe comæ : who unbecomingly prolonged his Et mihi ridenti (quis enim non talia amorous descant to graver years,

vincla and who is therefore obliquely

Rideat ?) arridens brachia vinxit censured by Milton in the follow

Amor;

Luctantemque diu, sed frustra, evaing passage of Lycidas, hitherto

dere, traxit not exactly understood, v. 67. Captivum, dominæ restituitque

Were it not better done, as others use,
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade This fiction is again pursued in

Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair ? - his Epigrams. Lib. i. xlv.
The Amaryllis, to whom Milton ibid.
alludes, is the Amaryllis of Liber eram, vacuo mihi cum sub
Buchanan, the subject of a poem

corde Neæra called Desiderium Lutetiæ. See

Ex oculis fixit spicula missa suis :

Deinde unam evellens ex auricomante Silvæ, iii. tom. ii. p. 50. Opp.

capillum Edinb. 1715. fol. It begins,

Vertice, captivis vincla dedit ma.

nibus: O formosa Amarylli, tuo jam septima

Risi equidem, fateor, vani ludibria bruma

netus, Me procul aspectu, &c.

Hoc laqueo facilem dum mihi spero The common poetical name,

fugam :

Ast ubi tentanti spes irrita cessit, Amaryllis, might indeed have

ahenis been accidentally adopted by Non secus ac manicis implicitus both poets ; nor does it at first genui. sight appear, that Milton used it Et modo membra pilo vinctus miser

abstraher uno. with any restrictive meaning. But Buchanan had another mistress And to this Neæra many copies whom he calls Necera, whose are addressed both in Buchanan's golden hair

makes

very Epigrams, and in his Hendesplendid figure in his verses, and casyllables. Milton's insinuation, which he has complimented more as others use, cannot therefore than once in the most hyperboli- be doubted. Why should I cal style. In his last Elegy, he “ strictly meditate the thunkless raises the following extravagant muse, and write sublime poetry fiction on the luxuriant tangles “ which is not regarded I had of this lady's hair. Cupid is “ better, like some other poets, puzzled how to subdue the icy" who might be more properly poet. His arrows can do nothing. "employed, write idle compli. At length, he hits upon the

“ments to Amaryllis and Neæra.” stratagem of cutting a golden Perhaps the old reading, “ Hid lock from Neæra's head, while “ in the tangles of Neæra's hair,“ she is asleep, with which the tends to confirm this sense. It VOL. IV.

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