610

SPIRIT.

Alas! good vent’rous Youth,
I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise ;
But here thy sword can do thee little stead;
Far other arms, and other weapons must
Be those that quell the might of hellish charms:
He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints,
And crumble all thy sinews.

the same image in the Fox, act the same, Paradise Lost, xi. 642. iii. s. 8.

Spenser uses the word, Faery O that his well driv'n sword

Queen, b. ii. cant. 3. st. 35. Had been so covetous to have cleft me

-whose warlike name down

Is far renown'd through many a bold Unto the navel.

emprise. And Shakespeare in Macbeth, And Fairfax, cant. ii. st. 77. act i. s. 2.

If you achieve renown by this emTill he unseam'd him from the nave prise. to th' chops.

611. But here thy sword can do Bu I know Mr. Warburton reads thee little stead; &c.] Virgil, Æn. here

ii. 521. from the nape to th' chops,

Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus

istis and supports it very ingeniously;

Tempus eget: but if any alteration were necessary, I should rather read

See Æn. vi. 290. Tasso, cant. xv.

st. 49. Richardson. Till he unseam'd him from the chops to th' nave.

Before the poet had corrected

this line, he had written, Nay Shakespeare carries it so far as to make Coriolanus cleave

But here thy steel can do thee small

avail. men down from head to foot. Coriolanus, act ii. s. 6.

613. Be those that quell the -his sword, (death's stamp)

might of hellish charms :] ComWhere it did mark, it took

from face pare Shakespeare's K. Richard

III. act iii. s. 4. But notwithstanding these in

-With devilish plots

Of damned witchcraft; and that have stances, I believe every reader

prevail'd will agree that Milton altered

Upon my body with their hellish the passage much for the better charms. in the edition of 1645.

T. Warton. Or drag him by the curls to a foul v 614. He with his bare wand death,

can unthread thy joints, Curs'd as his life.

And crumble all thy sinews.] 610. --and bold emprise ;] See He had written at first,

to foot.

ELDER BROTHER.

Why prythee, Shepherd, 615 How durst thou then thyself approach so near, As to make this relation?

SPIRIT.

Care and utmost shifts
How to secure the Lady from surprisal,
Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad,
Of small regard to see to, yet well skill'd
In every virtuous plant and healing herb,
That spreads her verdant leaf to th' morning ray:
He lov'd me well, and oft would beg me sing,

a

620

He with his bare wand can unguilt Tu mihi, cui recitem, judicis instar thy joints,

eris. And crumble every sinew.

Eleg. sext. ad Deodatum. 614. So in Prospero's com- and sometimes explained to him mands to Ariel, Temp. act iv. s. the nature and virtues of simult.

ples, Go, charge my goblins, that they

Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gragrind their joints

mina, succos, With dry convulsions, shorten up

Helleburumque, humilesque crocos, their sincws

foliumque hyacinthi, With aged cramps.

Quasque habet ista palus berbas, ar. T. Warton.

tesque medentům. 622. — to th' morning ray:]

Epitaph, Damonis. See note on Lycidas, 142. T. 623. —and oft would beg me Warton.

sing, &c.] Mr. Bowle remarks 623. He lov'd me well, &c.] I that here is an imitation of Spencannot help thinking that Milton ser, in C. Clout's come home again, designed here a compliment to yet with great improvement. his schoolfellow and friend Charles Deodati, who was bred

He sitting me beside in that same

shade, to the study of physic, and had

Provoked me to play some pleasant an exceeding love for our au

fit: thor,

And when he heard the musick which

I made, Pectus amans nostri, tamque fidele

He found himself full greatly pleas'd caput.

Eleg. prim. ad Deodatum. and used to hear him repeat his Such parallels are of little more verses,

importance, than to shew what Te quoque pressa manent patriis me poets were familiar to Milton. ditata cicutis,

T. Warton.

at it.

Which when I did, he on the tender

grass
Would sit, and hearken ey'n to ecstasy,
And in requital ope his leathern scrip,
And show me simples of a thousand names,
Telling their strange and vigorous faculties:
Amongst the rest a small unsightly root,
But of divine effect, he cull'd me out;
The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it,
But in another country, as he said,
Bore a bright golden flow'r, but not in this soil:

630

L

627. -of a thousand names,] but, to avoid its recurring in two It was at first,

lines together, of a thousand hues.

But in another country, as he said,

Bore a bright golden flow'r, not in 632. But in another country, as

this soil :
he said,

But then on the other hand it
Bore a bright golden flow'r, but

must be said, that such redund.
not in this soil :

ant or hypercatalectic verses Unknown, and like esteem'd,

sometimes occur in Milton. We
&c.]

had one a little before, ver. 605.
So these verses are read in Mil-
ton's own Manuscript, and in all

Harpies, and hydras, or all the

monstrous forms.
his editions. For like esteemed
we have in Mr. Fenton's edition And for like esteemed I think it
little esteemed, and Mr.Warburton may be defended without any
proposes to read light esteemed: alteration. Unknown and like
and Mr. Seward, in note 25 esteemed, that is, Unknown and
upon the Faithful Shepherdess, unesteemed, Unknown and e-
has very ingeniously reformed steemed accordingly.
the whole

682. It is true that “ such re-
thus.
passage

« dundant verses sometimes oc-
But in another country, as he said,
Bore a bright golden flow'r, but in

cur in Milton,” but the re-
this soil

dundant syllable is never, I think,

i
Unknown and light esteem'd. found in the second, third, or
The middle verse indeed hath a

fourth, foot. The passage before
redundant syllable; and before us is certainly corrupt, or at least
I had seen Mr. Seward's emend- inaccurate, and had better been
ation, I had proposed either to given thus,
leave out the monosyllable not,

But in another country, as he said,

Bore a bright golden flow'r; not in
Bore a bright golden flow'r, but in

this soil
this soil

Unknown, though light esteem'd.
Unknown and like esteem'd;

Hurd.
or to leave out the monosyllable Mr. Seward's emendation is

Unknown, and like esteem'd, and the dull swain
Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon;
And yet more med'cinal is it than that moly

635

very plausible and ingenious. of this poem very much upon But to say nothing of the edi- the episode of Circe in the Odystions under Milton's own inspec- sey; and here he himself plainly tion, I must object, that if an points out the parallel between argument be here drawn for the them. The characters of Circe alteration from roughness or re- and her son Comus very much dundancy of verse, innumerable resemble each other. They have instances of the kind occur in both of them a potent wand and our author. See P. R. i. 175. inchanting cup, and the effects and 302. and the notes there. of both are much the same: and T. Warton.

they are both to be opposed in 634.

-dull] Unobservant. the same manner with force and T. Warton.

violence. Mercury bids Ulysses 635. -clouted shoon;] So to rush upon Circe with his Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI. act iv. drawn sword, as if he would kill s. 3. Čade speaks,

her. Odyss. x. 294. We will not leave one lord, one gen. Δη τοτε συ ξιφος οξυ ερυσσαμενος παρα tleman;

fungou Spare none but such as go in clouted Κιρκη επαίξαι, ώστε νταμεναι μενεαιων. shoon.

and the attendant Spirit exhorts 635. Add the following pas- the two Brothers to assault Cosage from Cymbeline, act iv. s. mus in the same manner, 2. which not only exhibits but

-with dauntless hardihood, contains a comment on the phrase

And brandish'd blade rush on him in question.

&c. - I thought he slept, and put My clouted brogues from off my feet, the same manner, Circe by the

And they are both overcome in whose rudeness Answer'd my steps too loud. virtues of the herb moly, which Clouts are thin and narrow plates

Mercury gave to Ulysses, and

Comus by the virtues of hæmony, of iron affixed with hob nails to

which the attendant Spirit gives the soles of the shoes of rustics.

to the two Brothers. But the These made too much noise. The word brogues is still used author varied here from his ori

parallel holds no farther. Our for shoes among the peasantry of

ginal with great judgment. The Ireland. T. Warton. 636. And yet more med'cinal is decent and modest manner than

Lady is released in a much more it &c.] At first he had thus writ

the companions of Ulysses, ten these two lines,

636. Drayton introduces a And yet more med'cinal than that shepherd “his sundry simples

ancient moly Which Mercury to wise Ulysses gave.

sorting," who, among other

rare plants, produces moly. Mus. Our author hath formed the plan Elys. Nymph. v. vol. iv. p. 1489.

That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave;
He call'd it hæmony, and gave it me,

Here is my moly of much fame herbs and springs. Gier. lib.
In magicks often used.

xiv. 42.
It is not agreed, whether Mil- Qual in se virtù celi d l herba )
ton's hæmony, more virtuous l'fonte,
than moly, and “ of sovereign In the Faerie Queene, the Pal-
use 'gainst

all inchantments," is a real or poetical plant. Dray- like Milton's moly and hæmony,

mer has a vertuous staffe, which, ton, in the lines following the defeats all monstrous apparitions passage just quoted, recites with and diabolical illusions. And many more of the kind,

Tasso's Ubaldo carries a staff of Here holy vervain, and here dill,

the same sort, when he enters 'Gainst witchcraft much avayling. the palace of Armida, xiv. 73. But Milton, through the whole

XV. 49. T. Warton. of the context, had his eye on

637. That Hermes once &c.] Fletcher, who perhaps availed Ovid, Metam. xiv. 289. himself of Drayton, Faith. Shep.

Nec tantæ cladis ab illo act ii. s. 1. vol. iii. p. 127. The

Certior, ad Circen ultor venisset

Ulysses : shepherdess Clorin is skilled in the medicinal and superstitious

Pacifer huic dederat florem Cyllenius

album, uses of plants.

Moly vocant superi, &c. You, that these hands did crop long From Homer, Odyss. K. v. 305. before prime,

T. Warton. Give me your names, and next your

638. He calld it hæmony, &c.] V This is the clote, bearing a yellow I conceive this to be neither the flower, &c.

anemone nor the hemionion deIn Browne's Inner Temple scribed by Pliny, though their Masque, written on Milton's

names are something alike: and subject, Circe attended by the it is in vain to enquire what it is ; Sirens uses moly for a charm,

I take it to be (like the moly to p. 135. Our author again al- which it is compared) a plant ludes to the powers of moly for that grows only in poetical

quelling the might of hellish ground. It cannot be the he" Charms." El. i. 87.

mionion particularly, because

Pliny says that this bears Et vitare procul malefidæ infamia

no flower.

Hemionion vocant,
Circes
Atria, divinæ molyos usus ope.

spargentem juncos tenues, folia

parva, asperis locis nascentem, Compare Sandys's Ovid, p. 256. austero sapore, nunquam floren479. edit. 1632. And Drayton's tem. Lib. xxv. sect. 20. nec cauNymphid. vol. ii. p. 463. And lem, nec florem, nec semen habet. Polyolb. s. xii. vol. iii. p. 919. Id. lib. xxvii. s. 17. And yet Mr.

In Tasso, Ubaldo, a virtuous Thyer imagines it to be the same, magician, performs his opera- and what in English we call tions, by the hidden powers of spleenwort: and if his conjecture

hidden power.