“What recks it them? What need they? They are "And when they lift, their lean and flashy fongs "Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw; "The hungry fheep look up, and are not fed, 125 "But fwoln with wind, and the rank mift they draw, "Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread : "Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw "Daily devours apace, and nothing fed: berdman (not herdsman) has a general fenfe in our old writers; and, as Mr. Bowle remarks, often occurs in Sydney's ARCADIA, a book well known to Milton. As thus, vol. i. p. 151. edit. 1724. A HERDMAN rich, of much account was he. In our old Paftorals, Heard-groome fometimes occurs for Shepherd, 122. See Note on Coм. v. 404. He might here use reck as a paftoral word, occurring in Spenfer's KALENDAR, Decemb. “What 66 RECKED I of wintry age's waste." 124. Scrannel is thin, lean, meagre. "A ferannel pipe of "ftraw" is contemptuously for Virgil's " tenuis avena." 128. Befides what the grim wolf, &c.] It has been conjectured, that Milton in this paffage has copied the fentiments of Piers, a proteftant controverfial fhepherd, in Spenfer's Eclogue MAY. Of this there can be no doubt: for our author, in another of his puritanical tracts, written 1641, illustrates his arguments for purging the church of its rapacious hirelings and infidious wolves, by a quotation of almost the whole of Piers's fpeech; obferving, that Spenfer puts these words into the mouth of his righteous fhepherd, "not "without some prefage of these REFORMING times." ANIMADV. ON THE REMONSTR. DEF. ubi fupr. vol. i. p. 98. 129. Daily devours apace, and nothing fed] In edition 1638, it is "little faid.” For which reading, nothing is blotted out in the margin with his own hand. But in the edition 1645, nothing Jed appears. I have hence adopted fed. This Spelling was cuftomary for the fake of the rhyme. So in L'ALLEGRO, edit, 1545. v. 101. She was pinch'd and pull'd fhe SED, And he by friers lantern led. And in our author's EPITAPH on Hobfon, of the fame edition, V. 17. It fhall be SED." In Harrington's ARIOSTO, we have 66 66 "But that two-handed engin at the door 130 "Stands ready to fmite once, and fimite no more. "As before I SED." vii. 64. Again, "Those wofull words he "SED." v. 60. Again, Looking grimly on Ferraw he SED." i. 26. And in other places. And in the FAERIE QUEENE, Vi. xii. 29. I prefer, yet I have not used, the reading Little. Some suppose, that our author in this expreffion infinuates the connivance of the court at the secret growth of popery. But perhaps Milton might have intended a general reflection on what the puritans called unpreaching prelates, and a liturgical clergy, who did not place the whole of religion in lectures and fermons three hours long. Or, with a particular reference to prefent circumftances, he might mean the clergy of the church of England were filent, and made no remonftrances against these encroachments. It is in the mean time certain, that the verb to SAY was a technical term for the performance of divine fervice, as in ALBION'S ENGLAND, B. ix. ch. p. 238. edit. 16oz. He is fpeaking of ignorant enthusiasts intruding into the churches, and in contempt of order praying after their own way. Each fot impugning order SAITH, and doth his fantasie ; 53 Our booke of Common Prayer, though most found diuinitie, towre, There making tedious preachments of no edifying powre. 130. But that two-handed engine at the door Stands ready to fmite once, and fmite no more. .] In thefe lines our author anticipates the execution of archbishop Laud by a two-handed engine, that is, the ax; infinuating that his death would remove all grievances in religion, and complete the reformation of the church. Doctor Warburton supposes, that faint Peter's fword, turned into the two-handed sword of romance, is here intended. But this fuppofition only embarraffes the paffage. Michael's fword "with huge two-handed fway" is evidently the old Gothic fword of chivalry, PARAD. L. B. vi. 251. This is ftiled an Engine, and the expreffion is a periphrafis for an ax, which the poet did not choose to name in plain terms. The fenfe therefore of the context feems to be, "But there will foon be an end of "all these evils: the ax is at hand, to take off the head of him "who has been the great abettor of these corruptions of the gospel. "This will be done by one stroke." In the mean time, it coincides juft as well with the tenour of Milton's doctrine, to fuppofe, that he alludes in a more general acceptation to our Saviour's metaphorical ax in the gospel, which was to be laid to the root of the tree, and whose stroke was to be Return, Alpheus, the dread voice is past, 135 "And now quick and decifive. MATT. iii. 10. LUKE, iii. 9. Things are now brought to a crifis. There is no room for a "moment's delay. God is now about to offer the last dispensation "of his mercy. If ye reject these terms, no others will be offered "afterwards: but ye shall suffer ONE FINAL fentence of deftruc“tion, as a tree, &c." All false religions were at once to be done away by the appearance of christianity, as when an ax is applied to a barren tree: fo now an ax was to be applied to the corruptions of chriftianity, which in a fimilar procefs were to be deftroyed by a fingle and speedy blow. The time was ripe for this bufinefs: the inftrument was at hand. Our author has the fame metaphor in a treatife written 1641. "They feeling the Ax of "God's REFORMATION HEWING at the old and hollow TRUNK "of popery." PROSE-WORKS, ut fupr. vol. i. 17. Where he also fays, that" the painted battlements, and gaudy rottenness, of Prelatry, want but ONE PUFF of the king's to blow them down, "like a pafte-board house built of court-cards." ib. 18. But he is rather unhappy in his comparison, which follows, of epifcopacy to a large wen growing on the head: for allowing fuch a wen, on his own principles, to be an excrefcence and a deformity, to cut it off may prove a dangerous operation; and perhaps it had better remain untouched, with all its inconveniencies. It is matter of furprise, that this violent invective against the church of England and the hierarchy, couched indeed in terms a little myfterious yet fufficiently intelligible, and covered only by a tranfparent veil of allegory, fhould have been published under the fanction and from the prefs of one of our univerfities; or that it fhould afterwards have escaped the fevereft animadverfions, at a period when the profcriptions of the Star-chamber, and the power of Laud, were at their height. Milton, under pretence of expofing the faults or abuses of the epifcopal clergy, attacks their eftablishment, and strikes at their existence. 133. That shrunk thy ftreams.-] In other words, "that fi"lenced my paftoral poetry." The Sicilian Mufe is now to return, with all her her store of rural imagery. On On whofe fresh lap the swart-star sparely looks; 138. On whose fresh lap the fwart-ftar Sparely looks.] Swart or fwarth. "Your warth Cymerian." TIT. ANDR. ii. iii. The dog-ftar is called the SWART-STAR, by turning the effect into the caufe. SWART is fwarthy, brown, &c. Shakespeare, Coм. ERR. A. iii. S. ii." Ant. What complexion is fhe of? S. SWART, "like my fhoe, but her face nothing like fo cleane kept." And in FIRST P. K. HEN. vi. A. i. S. ii. And whereas I was black and SWART before. And in KING JOHN, A. iii. S. i. Lame, foolish, crooked, SWART, prodigious. And in Shakespeare's SON N. xxviii. "The SWART-Complexion'd night." And in Browne's BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS, B. iv. S. iv. p. 71. edit. ut fupr. And the SWART plowman for his breakfast staid. In ENGLAND'S HELICON, we find "Swarthe clouds with"drawne." edit. 1614. Signat. B. 4. In Browne, ubi fupr. B. ii. S. i. p. 22. The tyred bodie of the SWARTIE cloune. Hence we see the process to the prefent word swARTHY. In Leland's ITINERARY, this word denominates a dark-coloured fort of stone. "The caftel is waullid with a very hard sUART stone "hewid." vol.i. fol. 39. Of the fame complexion is the " SWART faery of the mine," in our author's MASK, V. 435. The word occurs both in Chaucer and Spenser. 66 Perhaps LOOKs is a term from aftrology. So in ARCADES, V. 51. Or what the crofs dire-LOOKING planet fmites. The ASPECT of a ftar was familiar language in Milton's age. See PARAD. L. B. vi. 313. Shakespeare in one citation will illuftrate what I have faid. WINTER'S TALE, A. ii. S.i. -There's fome ill planet reigns; I must be patient, till the heavens LOOK With an ASPECT more favourable.. Milton is more likely to have here had an eye to Beaumont and Fletcher's PHILASTER, than to Horace's Fount of Blandufia, as alleged by Doctor Newton. A. v. S. i. vol. i. p. 159. -Whofe still shades The worthier beasts have made their layers, and slept 139. Eyes.] The term Eyes, is technical in the Botany of Aowers. That That on the green turf fuck the honied fhowers, And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. 141 Bring the rathe primrose that forfaken dies, 142. Bring the rathe primrose that forfaken dies.] It is obvious, that the general texture and fentiment of this line is from the WINTER'S TALE, A. iv. S. v. -Pale primrofes That die unmarried, &c. Especially as he had first written UNWEDDED for forfaken, which appears in the edition of 1638. But the particular combination of "Rathe primrose" is perhaps from a Paftoral called a PALINODE by E. B. probably Edmond Bolton, in ENGLAND'S HELICON, edit. 1614. Signat. B. 4. And made the RATHE and timely PRIMROSE grow. In the weft of England, there is an early species of apple called the Rathe-ripe. We have "rathe and late," in a PASTORAL, in Davifon's POEMS, edit. 4. Lond. 1621. p. 177. In Baftard's Epigrams, printed 1598, I find "The RASHED Primrose, and "the violet." Lib. i. Epigr. 34. p. 21. 12mo. Perhaps RASHED is a provincial corruption from RATHE. But why does the Primrofe die UNMARRIED? Not because it blooms and decays before the appearance of other flowers; as in a state of folitude, and without fociety. Shakespeare's reafon, which follows his lines juft quoted, why it dies unmarried, is unintelligible, or rather is fuch as I do not wish to understand. The true reafon is, because it grows in the shade, uncherished or unfeen by the fun, which was fuppofed to be in love with fome forts of flowers. Thus in Drayton, ECL. ix. vol. iv. p. 1432. Than rofes richer to behold And again, EcL. i. p. 1389. And spreadft thee like the MORN-LOV'D marigold. And in Shakespeare's SONNETS, XXV. Great princes FAVOURITES their fair leaves spread And in the morning-fong, in CYMBELINE, A. ii. S. 3. To ope their golden eyes. VOL. I. D For |