Quel fereno fulgor d'amabil nero, V. fuoco Per certo i bei voftr'occhi, Donna mia 60. And in Coм US, beauty is characterised by vermeil-tinctured cheeks, and treffes like the morn. 2. Non fian lo mio fole Si mi percuoton forte] So Ariofto, ORLANDO FUR C. viii. 20. PERCOTE il SOL ardente il vicin colle. Again, C. x. 35. PERCOTE il SOL nel colle e fa ritorno. Milton has the fame Italian idiom in PARAP. L. B. iv. 244. The open field. So alfo Shakespeare, LovE's LAB. LOST, A. iv. S. iii. As thy eyebeams when their fresh RAYS have SMOTE Virgil fays of light, N. viii. 25. -Summique FERIT laquearia teƐti. And V. Flaccus, ARGON. i. 496. PERCUSSAQUE fole fequuntur Scuta virum. And Statius, THEB. vi. 666. Qualis Bistoniis clypeus Mavortis in agris Luce mala Pangæa FERIT. I will add a parallel from Prudentius, as it illuftrates another paffage of Milton, HYMN. ii. 6. CALIGO terræ fcinditur Solis PERCUSSA SPICULO. See Tt 2 Per l'arene di Libia chi s'invia, Scoffo mi il petto, e poi n'ufcendo poco VI. Giovane piano, e fimplicetto amante Poi che fuggir me stesso in dubbio fono, Madonna a voi del mio cuor l'humil dono Faro divoto; io certo a prove tante L'hebbi fedele, intrepido, coftante, De penfieri leggiadro, accorto, e buono ; See alfo Buchanan, SILV. iv. p. 53. OPP. edit. 1715. Arva. And De SPHÆRA, Lib. i. p. 123. Cum [it] FERIT Æthiopas radiorum CUSPID. See alfo, ibid. pp. 116. 119. 130. 132. And in other places. And Fletcher of the fun, PURPL. ISL. xii. 25. And with his arrowes th' idle fogge doth chase. So in PARAD. L. B. vi. 15. Of morning. From before her vanifh'd NIGHT SHOT THROUGH with orient beams. *The forced thoughts at the close of this Sonnet are intolera ble. But he was now in the land of conceit, and was infected by writing in its language. He had changed his native Thames for Arno, SONN. iii. 9. Canto, dal mio buon popol non inteso, E'l bel TAMIGI cangio col bel ARNO. Quando Quando rugge il gran mondo, e fcocca il tuono, Di timori, e fperanze al popol use E di cetta fonora, e delle muse : Sol troverete in tal parte men duro VII. On his being arrived to the age of 23. † How foon hath Time, the fubtle thief of youth, Stoln on his wing my three and twentieth year! 10 Milton had a natural severity of mind. For love-verses, his Italian Sonnets have a remarkable air of gravity and dignity. They are free from the metaphyfics of Petrarch, and are more in the manner of Dante. Yet he calls his feventh Sonnet, in a Letter printed from the Cambridge manuscript by Birch, a compofition in the PETRARCHIAN ftanza. In 1762, the late Mr. Thomas Hollis examined the Laurentian library at Florence, for fix Italian Sonnets of Milton, addressed to his friend Chimentelli; and, for other Italian and Latin compofitions and various original letters, faid to be remaining in manuscript at Florence. He fearched alfo for an original bust in marble of Milton, fuppofed to be fomewhere in that city. But he was unfuccessful in his curious enquiries. + Written at Cambridge in 1631, and fent in a letter to a friend, who had importuned our author to take orders. Of this letter there are two draughts in the Trinity manufcript. He there fays, you object" that I have given up myself to dream away my years in the arms of ftudious retirement, like Endymion with "the moon on Latmus hill." He calls this Sonnet," my night"ward thoughts fome time fince, made up in a Petrarchian "ftanza." 86 2. Stoln on his wing my three and twentieth year.] Mr. Bowle here cites ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, A. v. S. iii. On our quick'ft decrees The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time But My hafting days fly on with full career, It shall be still in ftricteft measure even 5 10 Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven; All is, if I have grace to use it so, As ever in my great task-master's eye. VIII. When the affault was intended to the City. Captain or Colonel, or Knight in arms, Whose chance on these defenceless doors may feife, If deed of honour did thee ever please, Guard them, and him within protect from harms. He can requite thee, for he knows the charms That call fame on fuch gentle acts as these, 5 But the application of STEAL is different. In Shakespeare, Time comes imperceptibly upon, fo as to prevent, our purposes. In Milton, Time, as imperceptibly and filently, brings on his wing, in his flight, the poet's twenty third year. Juvenal fhould not here be forgotten, in a paffage of confummate elegance. SAT. ix. 129. -Dum ferta, unguenta, puellas, Pofcimus, OB REPIT NON INTELLECTA fenectus. 1. Captain or Colonel, or Knight in arms.] So Shakespeare, K. RICHARD ii. A. i. S. iii. Where Bolingbroke enters," appel"lant in armour,' K. Rich. Marfhal, ask yonder KNIGHT IN ARMS. Whatever Whatever clime the fun's bright circle warms. Lift not thy spear against the Mufes bow'r : The great Emathian conqueror did spare The house of Pindarus, when temple' and tow'r Went to the ground: And the repeated air Of fad Electra's poet had the pow'r To fave th' Athenian walls from ruin bare. 10. The great Emathian conqueror did spare 10 The boufe of Pindarus.-] As a poet, Milton had as good right to expect this favour as Pindar. Nor was the English monarch lefs a protector of the arts, and a lover of poetry, than Alexander. As a fubject, Milton was too conscious that his fituation was precarious, and that his feditious tracts had forfeited all pretenfions to his fovereign's mercy. Mr. Bowle here refers us to Pliny, L. vii. c. 29. "Alexander "Magnus Pindari vatis familiæ penatibufque juffit parci, cum Thebas caperet.' And to the old commentator on Spenfer's Paftorals, who relates this incident more at large, and where it might have firft ftruck Milton as a great reader of Spenser. Ælian fays, that in this havock, Alexander ETIMHEE honoured the family of Pindar, and suffered his house alone to stand untouched and intire: having killed ninety thousand Thebans, and captivated thirty thoufand. VAR. HIST. Lib. xiii. c. 7. 11. When temple' and tow'r Went to the ground.- -] TEMPLE and TOWER is a frequent combination in the old metrical romances. See SEGE of JERUSALEM, MSS. Coтт. Cal. A. 2. f. 122. And Davie's ALEXANDER, Bibl. Bodl. f. 112. Our author has it again, PAR. REG. B. iii. 268. O'er hill and dale, Foreft, and field, and flood, TEMPLES AND TOWERS. And again, in the description of the buildings of Rome, ibid. B. iv. 34. --An imperial city stood . With TOWRES and TEMPLES proudly elevate. 13. Of fad Electra's poet, &c.] Plutarch relates, that when the Lacedemonian general Lyfander took Athens, it was propofed in a council of war intirely to rase the city, and convert its fite into a defert. But during the debate, at a banquet of the chief officers, a certain Phocian fung fome fine anaftrophics from a chorus of the ELECTRA of Euripides; which fo affected the hearers, that they declared |