That wont'st to love the traveller's benizon,
Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud,
And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here
In double night of darkness and of shades;
Or if your influence be quite damm'd up
With black usurping mists, some gentle taper,
Though a rush-candle from the wicker hole

335

Muffle was not so low a word Maid's Tragedy, in the Masque, as at present. Drayton, Browne, act i. s. 1. and Sylvester, have it in several

Bright Cinthia, hear my voice ! places, and with the same appli- Appear, no longer thy pale visage cation to the moon, or the stars. shroud, T. Warton.

But strike thy silver horns quite 332. That wont'st to love the tra

through a cloud.

Bowle. veller's benizon,} An allusion to Spenser, Faery Queen, b. iii. 334. disinherit Chaos.] This cant. 1. st. 43.

expression should be animadAs when fair Cynthia, in darksome verted upon, as hyperbolical and night,

bombast. Dr. J. Warton. Is in a noyous cloud enveloped, 335. In double night, of darkWhere she may find the substance thin and light,

ness and of shades ;] See v. 580. Breaks forth her silver beams, and and compare P. R. i. 500. her bright head

-now began Discovers to the world discomfited;

Night with her sullen wings to douOf the poor travellir that went astray,

ble shade With thousand blessings she is heried. The desert.

333. Stoop thy pule visage Mr. Bowle cites a line of Pacuthrough an amber cloud.] Popular vius, quoted by Cicero De Dior philosophical opinions have vinat. 1. i. xiv. their use indifferently in poetry. And which soever it be, that af,

Tenebræ conduplicantur, noctisque et fords the most beautiful image,

nimborum occæcat nigror.

T. Warton. whether that founded in the truth of things, or in the deceptions of We may also compare Ovid, sense, that is always to be pre-. Met. xi. 548. ferred. But poets have neglected

-taniâ vertigine pontus this obvious rule, and have run Fervet, et inductâ piceis a nubibus into two extremes. Those who

umbrâ affect to imitate the ancients only Omne latet cælum, duplicataque noc. use the first, and those who af- tis imago est. fect to shew their superior know. And ibid. 521. ledge, only the second. Warbur

Cæcaque nox premitur tenebrisque

hyemisque suisque. Compare B. and Fletcher's

Dunster.

ton.

340

Of some clay habitation, visit us
With thy ļong levell d rule of streaming light,
And thou shalt be our star of Arcady,
Or Tyrian Cynosure.

2. BROTHER.

Or if our eyes

Be barr’d that happiness, might we but hear
The folded flocks penn'd in their wattled cotes,
Or sound of past’ral reed with oaten stops,

345

340. With thy long levelld rule.) Certior, aut Graiis Helice servanda It was at first in the Manuscript,

magistris. With a long levellid rule

The star of Arcady may be ex

plained to signify the lesser bear, 340. λαμπρα μεν ακτις, ήλιου κα- and so Mr. Peck understands it: yov raons. Euripides, Suppl. Mul. but Milton would hardly make 650, or 660. Milton's long- use of two such different names lecelled rule of streaming light, is for the same thing, and distina fine and almost literal trans- guish them by the disjunctive or lation of sacou xaywy odons of his between them. The star of Arfavourite Greek poet. Hurd. cady, like Arcadium sidus, may

The sun is said to “ levei his be a general name for the greater, evening rays,” P. L. iv. 543. T. and the lesser bear, as in Seneca, Warton.

@dip. 476,
341. -our star of Arcady,

Quasque despectat vertice summo
Or Tyrian Cynosure.]

Sidus Arcadium, geminumque plau.
Our greater or lesser bear-star.
Calisto the daughter of Lycaon
king of Arcadia was changed

into but the following words or Tyrian the greater bear called also Helice, the former is meant the greater

Cynosure shew evidently, that by and her son Arcas into the lesser, bear, as by the latter is plainly called also Cyrosura, by observing of which the Tyrians and Sidoni

meant the lesser, ans steered their course, as the

344. The folded flocks penn'd in 1 Grecian mariners did by the their wattled coles,] Folded flocks other. So Ovid. Fast. iii. 107.

makes the other part of the line

a mere expletive. Had Milton Esse duas Arctos; quarum Cynosura wrote bleating flocks, what folpetatur

lowed had been fine, and it had Sidoniis, Helicen Graia carina notet.

agreed better with what went Valerius Flaccus, i. 17.

strum:

Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock
Count the night watches to his feathery dames,
'Twould be some solace yet, some litle cheering
In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs.
But O that hapless virgin, our lost Sister,

350
Where may she wander now, whither betake her
From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles ?
Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now,
Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm
Leans her unpillow'd head fraught with sad fears. 335
What if in wild amazement, and affright,
Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp
Of savage hunger, or of savage heat?

349. In this close dungeon] So When the big wallowing flakes of altered in the Manuscript from

pitchy clouds

And darkness wound her in. In this sad dungeon

1 Bro. Peace, Brother, peace.

I do not think my sister &c. 349. -innumerous See Mr. Warton's note, P. L. vii. 455. É. These lines were altered, and the

350. But that hapless virgin, others added afterwards on a se&c.] Instead of the lines from parate scrap of paper. this to ver. 366, the Manuscript

358. Of savage hunger, or of had these following,

savage heat?] The hunger of

savage beasts, or the lust of men But oh that hapless virgin, our lost sister,

as savage as they. This apWhere may she wander now, whither pears evidently from the context betake her

to be the sense of the passage; From the chill dew in this dead soli- and I should not have mentioned tude?

it, if two very ingenious persons or surrounding wild ?

360

ELDER BROTHER.
Peace, Brother, be not over-exquisite
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils;
For grant they be so, while they rest unknown,
What need a man forestall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would most avoid?
Or if they be but false alarms of fear,
How bitter is such self-delusion?
I do not think my Sister so to seek,
Or so unprincipled in virtue's book,
And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever,
As that the single want of light and noise

365

pute, &c.”

359. -be not over-exquisite 365. such self-delusion?] It To cast the fashion]

was at first, this self-delusion. A metaphor taken from the 367. Or 80 unprincipled in vira founder's art. Warburton. tue's book,] So in the Tractate

Rather from astrology, as “to on Education, p. 101, ed. 1673. “cast a nativity." The meaning “ Souls so unprincipled in viris to "predict, prefigure, com- tue." And “unprincipled, un

Forecast is the “ edified, and laie rabble." Prose same word. See a Vacation Ex- Works, i. 153. Compare also Sams. ervise, 13. Sams. Agon. 254. and Agon. 760. T. Warton. P. L. ii. 634. T. Warton.

368. See the note P. L. v. 127. Exquisite was not now un- T. Warton. common in its more original 369. As that the single want of signification. B. and Fletcher, light and noise Little Fr. Law, act v. 8. 1.

(Not being in danger, as I trust

she is not) -They're exquisite in mischief. T. Warton. Could stir the constant mood of

her calm thoughts, &c.] 361. For grant they be so, while A profound critic cites the entire they rest unknown,] This line context, as containing a beautiobscures the thought, and loads ful example of Milton's use of the expression. It had been bet- the parenthesis, a figure which ter out, as any one may, see by 'he has frequently used with great reading the passage without it. effect. “'The whole passage is Warburton.

“ exceedingly beautiful; but 362. -- his date of grief,] The « what I praise in the parenManuscript had at first

“ thesis is, the pathos and con-the date of grief.

(Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 370
Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts,
And put them into misbecoming plight.
Virtue could see to do what virtue would
By her own radiant light, though sun and moon
Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self 375
Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,

66

presses. For every paren

371. Could stir the constant “ thesis should contain matter of mood] The Manuscript had sta

weight; and, if it throws in ble, but Milton corrected it to

some passion or feeling into constant mood; for stable gives “ the discourse, it is so much the the idea of rest, when the poet better, because it furnishes the

was to give the idea of action or speaker with a proper occa- motion, which constant does give. “ sion to vary the tone of his Warburton. “ voice, which ought always to So “my constant thoughts," “ be done in speaking a paren- P. L. v. 552.

T. Warton. thesis, but is never more pro- 373. Virtue could see to do what t

perly done than when some virtue would “ passion is to be expressed. By her own radiant light, &c.] “ And we may observe here, This noble sentiment was in" that there ought to be two spired from Spenser, Faery Qu. “ variations of the voice in speak- b. i. cant. 1. st. 12.

ing this parenthesis. The first “ is that tone which we use,

Virtue gives herself light through

darkness for to wade. “ when we mean to qualify or “ restrict any thing that we have

375. -- And Wisdom's self &c.] “ said before. With this tone Mr. Pope has imitated this “ should be pronounced, not thought;

being in danger; and the se- Bear me some God! oh quickly bear • cond member, as I trust she is not, should be pronounced with

To wholesome Solitude, the nurse of “ that pathetic tone in which we Where Contemplation prunes her “ earnestly hope or pray for any ruffled wings, “thing." Origin and Progr. of And the free soul looks down to pity Language, b. iv. p. ii. vol. iii. p.

kings. 76. Edinb. 1776. This is very

Warburton. specious and ingenious reasoning. 376. Oft seeks to sweet retired

L But some perhaps may think this' solitude,] At first he had written beauty quite accidental and un- the verse thus, designed. A parenthesis is often thrown in, for the sake of ex

Oft seeks to solitary sweet retire. · planation, after a passage is writ- 376. For the same uncommon ten. T. Warton.

use of seek, Mr. Bowle cites Bale's

me hence

sense :

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