Fatidicamque Upin, cum flavicoma Hecaërge, Fortunate fenex, ergo quacunque per orbem Et parili carpes iter immortale volatu. Dicetur tum fponte tuos habitaffe penates 50 55 fent fruits to Apollo in Delos, into British goddeffes. See Callimachus, HYMN. DEL. V. 292.. Οὔπις τε, Λοξώτε, καὶ εὐαίων Εκαέργη, Upifque, et Loxo, et beata Hecaerge, Milton here calls Callimachus's Loxo, CORINEIS, from Corineus a Cornish giant and fuppofes, that the naked bofoms of these three Nymphs were tinged with Caledonian or Pictish woad. Some writers hold, that Britain, or rather that part of it called Scotland, was the fertile region of the Hyperborei. 52. Tu quoque in ora frequens venies, plaufumque virorum.] So Propertius, as Mr. Bowle obferves, iii. ix. 32. -VENIES TU QUOQUE IN ORA VIRUM. This affociation of immortality is happily inferred. 56. At non fponte domum tamen, &c.] Apollo, being driven from heaven, kept the cattle of king Admetus in Theffaly, who had entertained Hercules. This was in the neighbourhood of the river Peneus, and of mount Pelion, inhabited by Chiron. It has never been obferved, that the whole context is a manifeft imitation of a fublime Chorus in the ALCESTIS of Milton's favourite Greek dramatift, Euripides, v. 581. feq. Rura Pheretiadæ, cœlo fugitivus Apollo; $7. Maculofa lynces. Ivit autem, linquens Othyrum Saltum, leonum Fulva cohors. Saltavit autem circa tuam citharam, O Phæbe, vario-villo-præditus Hinnulus, fupra alticomas Abietes faliens levi pede, Gaudens læto carmine, See Ovid, FAST. ii. 239. Cynthius Admeti vaccas paviffe PHEREAS, &C. 60 And EPIST. HEROID. EP. V. 151. Pheretiades occurs more than once in Ovid. From Homer, IL. ii. 763. xxiii. 376. 60. Nobile manfueti ceffit Chironis in antrum.] Chiron's cavern was ennobled by the vifits and education of fages and heroes. Chiron is ftyled manfuetus, because, although one of the Centaurs, and the inhabitant of a cave in a mountain, he excelled in learning, wisdom, and the most humane virtues. Or, he may be called manfuetus, either on account of his mildness as a teacher, or his hofpi Irriguos inter faltus, frondofaque tecta, Peneium prope rivum: ibi fæpe fub ilice nigra, Tum neque ripa fuo, barathro nec fixa fub imo 6 tality to ftrangers. See a beautiful Poem in Dodsley's Mifcellanies, by the late Mr. Bedingfield, called the EDUCATION of ACHILLES. Mr. Steevens adds, "The most endearing instance of the manfuetude of Chiron, will be found in his behaviour when the Argo failed near the coast on which he lived. He came down to the very margin of the sea, bringing his wife with the young Achilles in her arms, that he might fhew the child to his father Peleus who was proceeding on the voyage with the other Argonauts. Apollon. Rhod. lib. v. 553. Πηλείδην ̓Αχιλῆα φίλῳ δειδίσκετο πατρί.” Ibid. Chironis in antrum,] The end of a verfe in Ovid, METAM. iii. 631. 64. Exilii duros lenibat voce labores.] Ovid fays, that he foothed the anxieties of love, not of banishment, with his music; and it is related, or implied, by Tibullus, and others, that he was enamoured of Admetus when a boy, or the grandfon of an elder Admetus. Ovid, METAM. ii. 684. Dumque AMOR eft curæ, dum te tua fistula mulcet. See alfo EPIST. HEROID. Ep. v. 151. FAST. ii. 239. Calli machus more exprefsly, HYмN. APOLL. V. 49. , -Επ' Αμφρυσῷ ζευγήτιδας ἔτρεφεν ἵππος, Ἠιθέα ὑπ ̓ ἔρωτι κεκαυμένος ̓Αδμήτοιο. Juxta Amphryfum pavit jugales equos, Inflammatus amore impuberis Admeti. But Milton uniformly follows Euripides, who fays that Apollo was unwillingly forced into the service of Admetus by Jupiter, for having killed the Cyclopes, ALCEST. v. 6. Thus, v. 56. At non SPONTE domum tamen idem, &c.. The very circumftance which introduces this fine compliment and digreffion. 65. Tum neque ripa fuo, &c.] The bank of the river Peneus, just mentioned. 66.Nutat Trachinia rupes,] Mount Oeta, connected with the mountains, Pelion in which was Chiron's cave, and Othrys mentioned in the paffage juft cited from Euripides. See Ovid, METAM. vii. 353. But with no impropriety, Milton might here mean Nec fentit folitas, immania pondera, filvas; 70 Diis dilecte fenex, te Jupiter æquus oportet Nafcentem, et miti luftrarit lumine Phoebus, Atlantifque nepos; neque enim, nifi charus ab ortu Diis fuperis, poterit magno faviffe poetæ. Hinc longæva tibi lento fub flore fenectus Vernat, et Æfonios lucratur vivida fufos ; Nondum deciduos fervans tibi frontis honores, Ingeniumque vigens, et adultum mentis acumen. O mihi fi mea fors talem concedat amicum, Phœbæos decoraffe viros qui tam bene norit, Siquando indigenas revocabo in carmina reges, 75 80 mean Pelion by the Trachinian rock; which, with the rest, had immania pondera filvas, and which Homer calls ivócspúnxor, frondofum. Its Orni are also twice mentioned by V. Flaccus, ARGON. B. i. 406. "Quantum Peliacas in vertice vicerat OR NOS." Again, B. ii. 6. " Jamque fretis fummas æquatum Pelion ORNOS." 72. Atlantifque nepos] See DE ID. PLATON. Note on v. 27. Mercury is the god of eloquence. 73. Magno faviffe poeta.] The great poet Taffo. Or a great poet like your friend Taffo. Either fenfe fhews Milton's high idea of the author of the GERUSALEMME. 74. Lento fub flore fenectus Vernat, &c.] There is much elegance in lento fub flore. I venture to object to vernat jenectus. 79. Phæbæos decoraffe viros, &c.] Phabeos is intirely an Ovidian epithet. As, "PHOEBAEA lyra." EPIST. HEROID. XVI. 180. "PHOEBAEIS fortibus." METAм. iii. 130. And in numerous other places. See above, EL. vii. 46. 80. Si quando indigenas revocabo in carmina reges, Arturumque etiam fub terris bella moventem, &c.] The indigena reges are the antient kings of Britain. This was the subject for an epic poem that firft occupied the mind of Milton. See the fame idea repeated in EPITAPH. DAMON. V. 162. King Arthur, after his death, was fuppofed to be carried into the fubterraneous land of Faerie or of Spirits, where he ftill reigned as a king, and whence he was to return into Britain, to renew the Round Table, conquer Arturumque etiam fub terris bella moventem! 90 conquer all his old enemies, and reestablish his throne. He was, therefore, ETIAM movens bella fub terris, STILL meditating wars under the earth. The impulfe of his attachment to this fubject was not entirely fuppreffed: it produced his Hiftory of Britain. By the expreffion, revocabo in carmina, the poet means, that these antient kings, which were once the themes of the British bards, should now again be celebrated in veríe. Milton in his CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, written 1641, fays, that after the example of Taffo," it haply would be no rafhness, from an equal diligence and inclination, to prefent the like offer " in one of our own ANCIENT STORIES." PROSE-WORKS, i. 60. It is poffible that the advice of Manfo, the friend of Taffo, might determine our poet to a defign of this kind. 82.Sociali fædere menfæ, &c.] The knights, or affociated champions, of king Arthur's Round Table. 84. The fabulous exploits of the British Arthur against the Saxons. 85. Annorumque fatur, &c. &c.] Mr. Steevens thinks, that the context is amplified from a beautiful paffage in the MEDEA of Euripides, v. 1032. Medea fpeaks to her fons. Εἶχον ἐλπίδας Πολλὰς ἐν ὑμῖν γηροβοσκήζειν τ' ἐμὲ, 90. -Parva componi molliter urna.] I take this opportunity of obferving, that Milton's biographers have given no clear or authentic account of the place of his interment. He died of the gout at his house in Bunhill-fields, about the tenth day of November, 1674, not quite fixty fix. His burial is thus entered in the Regifter of Saint Giles's Cripplegate. " John Melton, gentleman. Con"fumption, VOL. I. Z z z |