That draw the litter of close-curtain’d sleep; 555 cursu. N And as Mr. Thyer farther ob- Sleep. And so has Claudian, Humentes jam Noctis equos ; Letherowed from Shakespeare, Mac aque somnus beth, act ii. s. 2. Frena regens, tacito volvebat sydera and wicked dreams abuse The curtain'd sleep. And Statius, Theb. ii. 59. 553. But he makes the horses Sopor obvius illi Noctis agebat equos. T. Warton. 555. At last a soft and solenin It must be allowed, that drowsy- breathing sound &c.] No doubt but flighted is a very harsh combi- that our poet in these charming nation. Notwithstanding the lines imitated his favourite ShakeCambridge manuscript exhibits speare, Twelfth Night at the drousie-fighted, yet drousie fright- beginning. ed without a composition, is a That strain again, it had a dying fall; more rational and easy reading, 0, it came o'er my ear, like the sweet and invariably occurs in the edi south, That breathes upon a bank of violets, tions 1637, 1645, and 1673. Stealing and giving odour. Thyer. revelry.” Milton made the Vision of Delight, a Masque Yet let it like an odour rise To all the senses here; And fall like sleep upon their eyes, By steedes of iron-gray drawne Or musicke in their eare. through the sky. But the thought appeared before, And Silvester, of Sleep, Du Bart. where it is.exquisitely expressed, p. 316. edit. fol. ut supr. in Bacon's Essays. “ And because And in a noysless coach, all darkly 6 the breath of flowers is farre dight, " sweeter in the aire, where it Takes with him silence, drousinesse, goes like the warbling and night. “ of musicke" Of Gardens, Ess. Mr. Bowle conjectures drowsie. xlvi. Milton means the gradual freighted, that is, charged or increase and diffusion of odour loaded with drowsiness. in the process of distilling perWe are to recollect, that Mil- fumes; for he had at first written 'ton has here transferred the “ slow-distillid.” horses and chariot of Night to In the edition of 1673, we VOL. IV. G comes and Rose like a steam of rich distillid perfumes, 560 Solemn is used to characterize Tale, act iv. 8. S. Of hearing a the music of the nightingale, song. - All their other senses Par. L. iv. 648.“ Night's solemn “ stuck in their ears.” And in « bird.” And she is called “ the the Tempest, Prospero says, “No " solemn nightingale,” vii. 435. “ tongues, all eyes." Compare T. Warton. also Herrick's Hesperides, p. 21. Before these two lines were edit. 1648. 8vo. corrected as they are at present, When I thy singing next shall heare the author had written them thus, Ile wish I might turne ALL to eare. At last a sweet and solemn breathing This thought, and expression, sound occurs first in Drummond's SonRose like a steam of slow distilld per. nets, 1616. Signat. D. 2. To the fumes. nightingale. 557.—that even Silence &c.] We Such sad lamenting straines, that see in these three lines the luxuri.. Night attends, Become all care, starres stay to heare ancy of a juvenile poet's fancy; thy plight, &c. there is something more correct T. Warton. and manly in three words upon a like occasion in the Paradise 561.—that might create a soul Lost, iv. 604. Under the ribs of death :) The general image of creating a Silence was pleas'd soul by harmony is again from Butin a young genius there should Shakespeare. But the particular always be something to lop and one of a soul under the ribs of prune away. As Cicero says, De death, which is extremely groOrat. ii. 21. volo esse in adole- tesque, is taken from a picture scente, unde aliquid amputem. in Alciat's emblems, where a soul If there is not something re in the figure of an infant is redundant in youth, there will be presented within the ribs of a something deficient in age. skeleton, as in its prison. This 560. --I was all ear.] So curious picture is presented by Catullus, of a rich perfume, Quarles." Warburton. carm. xiii. 13. That might create a soul, that is, says Mr. Sympson, recreate, avaQuod tu cum elfacies, deos rogabis Totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, nasum. tevrey: and Mr. Theobald pro posed to read recreate, There is the same thought, in And took in strains might recreate a Jonson's Underw. vol. vi. 451. soul: Under the ribs of death: but o ere long 570 2. BROTHER. O night and shades, How are ye join'd with hell in triple knot, Against th' unarmed weakness of one virgin 580 but I presume they knew not of And s. 8. the Ghost to Hamlet, the allusion just mentioned. I could a tale unfold, whose lightest 563. Too well I did perceive] word In the Manuscript it is Would harrow up thy soul. 574. The aidless innocent Lady] 565. -harrow'd with grief and At first he had written helpless, fear,] So in Shakespeare, Hamlet, but altered it, that word occuract i. s. 1. Horatio of the Ghost, ring again within a few lines it harrows me with fear and afterwards. wonder. 585 Alone, and helpless! Is this the confidence ELDER BROTHER. Yes, and keep it still, may be assaild, but never hurt, 590 595 584. Yes, and keep it still, &c.] and exalted sentiments of the This confidence of the Elder Stoics concerning the power of Brother in favour of the final virtue. Thyer. efficacy of virtue holds forth :a 597. Self-fed, and self-convery high strain of philosophy, sum'd:) This image is wonderdelivered in as high strains of fully fine. It is taken from the eloquence and poetry. T. War- conjectures of astronomers conton. cerning the dark spots, which 589. Virtue may be assaild, but from time to time appear on the never hurt,] Milton seems in this surface of the sun's body, and line to allude to the famous after a while disappear again, answer of the philosopher to a ty- which they suppose to be the rant, who threatened him with scum of that fiery matter, which death, Thou may'st kill me, but first breeds it, and then breaks thou canst not hurt me. And it thro' and consumes it. Warburmay be observed, that not only ton. in this speech, but also in many 598. The pillar'd firmament] i others of this poem, our author See Paradise Regained, iv. 455. has made great use of the noble and the note there. And earth's base built on stubble. But come let's on. a 602. But for that damn'd Such as those which Carlo and magician, let him be girt, &c.] Ubaldo meet, in going to Compare P. R. iv. 626. et seq. Armida's enchanted mountain, T. Warton. in Fairfax's Tasso, c. xv. 51.. 605. Harpies and hydras, or All monsters which hot Africke forth all the monstrous forms.] Or spoils doth send the metre. Yet an anapæst may 'Twixt Nilus, Atlas, and the southern be admitted in the third part, cape, Where all there met. see v. 636. 682. Although this last is not an anapæst. But any Milton often copies Fairfax, and foot of three syllables may be not his original. T. Warton. admitted in this place of an 607. -to restore his purchase iambic verse, if the licence be back,] He had written at first not taken too frequently. Hurd. to release his new got prey. Harpies and hydras are combination in an enumeration 608. -to a foul death, of monsters, in Sylvester's Du Curs'd as his life.] Bartas, p. 206. fol. ut supr. In the Manuscript, and in the And th’ugly Gorgons, and the edition of 1637, it is Sphinxes fell, and cleave his scalp Hydraes and harpies gan to yawne Down to the hips : T. Warton. and he has preserved the same -or all the monstrous image in his Paradise Lost, forms] In Milton's Manuscript, speaking of Moloch, vi. 361. and the edition of 1637 it is, Down cloven to the waist, with shat. ter'd arms or all the monstrous bugs ; which word was in more familiar use And uncouth pain fled bellowing: formerly, and hence bugbear. and no wonder he was led to it 605. all the monstrous forms by his favourite romances, and 'Twixt Africa and Ind, ] his favourite plays. Jonson has and yel. 605. |