The word dvoppena teems with error.-The Antepenult is long, so that a Spondæus occupies the fourth place, which even the advocates for the toleration of Anapasti in sedibus paribus would not readily allow. In the next place, this word dva does not occur, I believe, in any ancient writer; and if it did, it could not possibly be used in the signification, in which it has been employed by Mil ton. Ad Salsillum, Poetam Romanum, ægrotantem.* SCAZONTES. O MUSA gressum quæ volens trahis claudum, * Giovanni Salsilli had complimented Milton at Rome in a Latin tetrastich, for his Greek, Latin, and Italian poetry. Milton, in return, sent these elegant Scazontes to Salsilli when indisposed. 1. O Musa gressum quæ volens trahis claudum,] Mr. Bowle here cites Angelinus Gazæus, a Dutch poet, in Pia Hilaria. Antv. 1629. p. 79. Subclaudicante tibia redi, Scazon. It is an indispensable rule, which Milton has not here always observed, that the Scazon is to close with a spondee preceded by an iambus. 1. In their Scazons, the Greeks use a spondee in the fifth place, 5 10 15 but the Latins always an iambic. In the poem before us Milton has violated this rule of Latin prosody in no less than twentyone instances, by inserting either a spondee or an anapæst in the place in question. This is to be guilty not of false quantity, but of an erroneous fabric of verse. Symmons. 4. Quam cum decentes flava Deiope, &c.] As the Muses sing about the altar of Jupiter, in Il Pens. v. 47. This pagan theology is applied in Paradise Lost, of the angels, b. v. 161. And with songs, And choral symphonies, day without night, Circle his throne rejoicing. Virosque, doctæque indolem juventutis. O dulce divum munus, O Salus, Hebes Libenter audis, hic tuus sacerdos est. 20 25 Querceta Fauni, vosque rore vinoso 23. O dulce divum munus, &c.] I know not any finer modern Latin lyric poetry, than from this verse to the end. The close which is digressional, but naturally rises from the subject, is perfectly antique. 27. Querceta Fauni, &c.] Faunus was one of the deities brought by Evander into Latium, according to Ovid, Fast. b. v. 99. This is a poetical address to Rome. 28. mitis Evandri sedes,] The epithet mitis is finely characteristic of Evander. 35. Ipse inter atros emirabitur. lucos, &c.] Very near the city of Rome, in the middle of a gloomy grove, is a romantic cavern with 30 a spring, where Numa is fabled to have received the Roman laws from his wife Egeria, one of Diana's nymphs. The grove was called nemus Aricinum, and sometimes Lucus Egeria et Camanarum, and the spring Fons Egeria, See Ovid's Fast. iii. 275. And when Numa died, Egeria is said to have retired hither, to lament his death. Ovid, Metam. xv. 487. -Nam conjux, urbe relicta, Vallis Ariciniæ densis latet abdita sylvis, &c. On these grounds Milton builds the present beautiful fiction. See Montfauc. Diar. Ital. c. xi. P. 152. edit. 1702. Suam reclinis semper Egeriam spectans. Nec in sepulchris ibit obsessum reges, MANSUS.* 35 40 Joannes Baptista Mansus, Marchio Villensis, vir ingenii laude, tum literarum studio, nec non et bellica virtute, For the left side, being on a declivity, was soon overflowed. See ibid. v. 15. Ire dejectum monumenta Regis. * At Naples Milton was introduced to Giovanni Battista Manso, Marquis of Villa. See Prose Works, vol. ii. 332. Milton at leaving Naples sent this poem to Manso. He was a nobleman of distinguished rank and fortune, had supported a military character with high reputation, of unblemished morals, a polite scholar, a celebrated writer, and an universal patron. It was among his chief honours, that he had been the friend of Tasso: and this circumstance, above all others, must have made Milton ambitious of his acquaintance. He is not only complimented by name in the twentieth canto of the Gerusalemme, but Tasso addressed his Dialogue on Friendship to Manso, "Il Manso, ovéro "Dell' Amicitia. Dialogo del 66 Sig. Torquato Tasso. Al molte "illustre Sig. Giovanni Battista "Manso. In Napoli, 1596." In quarto. Beside a Dedication expressing the sincerest regard and attachment, five Sonnets from Tasso to Manso are prefixed, and Manso is one of the interlocutors. Manso in return wrote the Life of Tasso, published in 1621. And, as it here seems, of Marino. Hence our author, ver. 18. Nec satis hoc visum est in utrumque, et nec pia cessant Officia in tumulo; cupis integros rapere Orco, Qua potes, atque avidas Parcarum eludere leges: Amborum genus, et varia sub sorte Describis vitam, moresque, et dona Among Manso's other works, are, "Erocallia, in Ven. 1628." In twelve Dialogues. And "I "Paradossi, 1608." He died in apud Italos clarus in primis est. Ad quem Torquati Tassi Dialogus extat de Amicitia scriptus; erat enim Tassi amicissimus; ab quo etiam inter Campaniæ principes celebratur, in illo poemate cui titulus GERUSALEMME CONQUISTATA, lib. 20. Fra cavalier magnanimi, e cortesi, Is authorem Neapoli commorantem summa benevolentia prosecutus est, multaque ei detulit humanitatis officia. Ad hunc itaque hospes ille antequam ab ea urbe discederet, ut ne ingratum se ostenderet, hoc carmen misit.† HÆC quoque, Manse, tuæ meditantur carmina laudi Pierides, tibi, Manse, choro notissime Phoebi ; Quandoquidem ille alium haud æquo est dignatus honore, Post Galli cineres, et Mecænatis Hetrusci. Tu quoque, si nostræ tantum valet aura Camœnæ, Te pridem magno felix concordia Tasso 1645, aged 84. See supr. note on Epigr. vii. 1. + Wood calls this " an elegant "Latin poem," Ath. Oxon. i. F. 263. This judgment undoubtedly came from Edward Philips, Milton's nephew, through Aubrey the antiquary. 1. Hæc quoque, Manse, tuæ meditantur carmina, &c.] Because he had already been celebrated by many poets. Quadrio says, by more than fifty. 5 10 5. See the same verse Ad Patrem, 102. 10. -ille tuum dici se gaudet alumnum,] Marino cultivated poetry in the academy of the Otiosi, of which Manso was one of the founders. Hither he was sent by the Muse, who was non inscia, not ignorant of his poetical abilities and inclinations, &c. For at first, against his will, his father had put him to the law. |