Hæc mihi tum læto dictabat rofcida luna, 149 145 Heus bone numquid agis? nifi te quid forte retardat, Non quia, Mæcenas, LYDORUM quicquid ETRUSCOS See alfo Propert. iii. ix. 1. It is for this reafon, Virgil says, -Ubi Lydius arva Inter opima virum leni fluit agmine TYBRIS. LYDIAN, that is Tufcan: and Tufcany is washed by the Tyber. Virgil, GEORG. ii. 499. "Qui TUSCUM Tiberim." And by Ovid it is frequently called the Tufcan river. See Ovid, METAM. iii. 375.583. 140. Hæc mihi tum læto dictabat rofcida luna, Dum folus teneros claudebam cratibus hædos.] As in Ly CIDAS, V. 29. Battening our flocks with the fresh DEWS OF NIGHT. The Crates are the wattled cotes in CoмUS, V. 345. 149. Aut ad aquas Colni, aut ubi jugera Cafibelauni ?] The river Colne flows through Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, in Milton's neighbourhood. Our author's father's houfe and lands. at Horton near Colnbrook, were held under the earl of Bridgewater, before whom Coмus was acted at Ludlow-Caftle. Milton's mother is buried in the chancel of Horton church, with this Inscription on a flat ftone over the grave. "Heare lyeth the body of "Sara Milton the wife of John Milton, who died the 3d of "April, 1637." By jugera Caffibelauni, we are to understand Verulam or Saint Alban's, called the town of Caffibelan, an antient British king. See Camd. BRIT. i. 321. edit. Gibf. 1772. Milton's appellations are often conveyed by the poetry of antient fable. Tu F Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gramina fuccos, Helleborumque, humilefque crocos, foliumque hyacinthi, 151 Quafque habet ifta palus herbas, artefque meden tum. 156 Ah ́pereant herbæ, pereant artesque medentum, 150. Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gramina, fuccos.] Deodate is the shepherd-lad in Coмus, v.619. A certain shepherd lad, Of small regard to fee to, yet well skill'd That spreads her verdant leaf to th' morning ray: He loy'd me well, and oft would beg me fing, And in requital ope his leathern fcrip, And fhew me fimples of a thousand names, See Note on EL. vi. 90. 155. He hints his defign of quitting paftoral, and the lighter kinds of poetry, to write an epic poem. This, it appears by what follows, was to be on fome part of the antient British story. 162. Ipfe ego Dardanias, &c.] The landing of the Trojans in England under Brutus. Rhutupium is a part of the Kentish coaft. Brutus married Inogen, the eldest daughter of Pandrasus a Grecian king; from whose bondage Brutus had delivered his countrymen the Trojans. Brennus and Belinus were the fons of Molutius Dunwallo, by fome writers called the first king of Britain. The two fons carried their victorious arms into Gaul and Italy. Arviragus, or Arvirage, the fon of Cunobelin, conquered the Roman general Claudius. He is faid to have founded Dover-castle. Dicam, et Pandrafidos regnum vetus Inogeniæ, Brennumque Arviragumque duces, prifcumque Belinum, Et tandem Armoricos Britonum fub lege colonos ; Tum gravidam Arturo, fatali fraude, lögernen, 166 · Mendaces vultus, affumptaque Gorlöis arma, Merlini dolus. O mihi tum fi vita fuperfit, 169 Tu procul annofa pendebis fiftula pinu, 165. Et tandem Armoricos Britonum fub lege colonos ] Armorica, or Britany in France, was peopled by the Britons when they fled from the Saxons. 166. Tum gravidam Arturo, &c.] Iogerne was the wife of Gorlois prince of Cornwall. Merlin transformed Uther Pendragon into Gorlois; by which artifice Uther had access to the bed of Iogerne, and begat king Arthur, This was in Tintagel-castle in Cornwall. See Geffr. Monm. viii. 19. The ftory is told by Selden on the POLYOLBION, S. i. vol. ii. 674. Perhaps it will be faid, that I am retailing much idle history. But this is fuch idle history as Milton would have cloathed in the richest poetry. 46 168. O mihi, &c.] I have corrected the pointing. "And Q, if " I should have long life to execute these defigns, you, my rural pipe, fhall be hung up forgotten on yonder antient pine: you are now employed in Latin ftrains, but you fhall foon be exchanged " for English poetry. Will you then found in rude British tones? Yes-We cannot excell in all things. I fhall be fufficiently " contented to be celebrated at home for English verse.” Our author fays in the Preface to CH. Gov. B. ii. "Not caring to be "once nained abroad, though perhaps I could attain to that: but content with these British ilands as my world." PROSE-WORKS, vol. i. 60. 175. Si me flava comas legat Ufa, et potor Alauni.] Ufa is perhaps the Oufe in Buckinghamshire. But other rivers have that name, Vorticibúfque frequens Abra, et nemus omne Treantæ, Et Thamefis meus ante omnes, et fufca metallis name, which fignifies water in general. Alaunus is Alain in Dorfetfhire, Alonde it. Northumberland, and Camlan in Cornwall; and is alfo a Latin name for other rivers. 176. Vorticibufque frequens Abra.-] So Ovid, of the river Evenus. METAM. ix. 106. VORTICIBUSQUE frequens erat, atque impervius amnis. And Tyber is "denfus vorticibus," FAST. vi. 502. ABRA has been used as a Latin name for the Tweed, the Humber, and the Severn, from the British Abren, or Aber, a river's-mouth. Of the three, I think the Humber, vorticibus frequens, is intended. Leland proves from fome old monkish lines, that the Severn was originally called Abren; a name, which afterwards the Welsh bards pretended to be derived from king Locrine's daughter Abrine, not Sabrine, drowned in that river. COMM. CYGN. CANT. vol. ix. p. 67. edit. 1744. In the Tragedy of LOCRINE, written about 1594, this lady is called Sabren. SUPPL. SHAKESP vol. ii. P. 262. A. iv. S. v. Yes, damfels, yes, Sabren shall surely die, &c. And it is added, that the river [Severn] into which fhe is thrown, was thence called Sabren. Sabren, through Safren, easily comes to Severn. See CoмUS, V. 826. feq. In the fame play, Humber the Scythian king exclaims, p. 246. A. iv. S. iv. And gentle Aby take my troubled corfe. That is, the river Aby, which juft before is called Abis. Ptolemy, enumerating our rivers that fall into the eastern sea, mentions Abi; but probably the true reading is Abri, which came from Aber. Aber might foon be corrupted into Humber. The derivation of the Humber from Humber, king of the Huns, is as fabulous, as =that the name Severn was from Abrine or Sabrine. But if Humber, a king of the Huns, has any concern in this name, the best way is to reconcile matters, and afsociate both etymologies in Hun-Aber, or HUMBER. 176.- -Nemus omne Treante.] The river Trent. In the next line, he calls Thamefis, meus, because he was born in London. 177. Fufca metallis Tamara.-] The river Tamar in Cornwall, tinctured with tin-mines, Tamara, Tamara, et extremis me difcant Orcades undis. 180 Hæc, et plura fimul; tum quæ mihi pocula Manfus, In medio rubri maris unda, et odoriferum ver, 185 Parte alia polus omnipatens, et magnus Olympus: 191 Arma corufca faces, et fpicula tincta pyropo; 195 182. Manfus Chalcidica non ultima gloria ripæ.] Manfo celebrated in the laft poem, and a Neapolitan. A people called the Chalcidici are faid to have founded Naples. See the third Epigram on Leonora, v. 4. "Corpora CHALCIDICO facra dediffe rogo.' And Virgil's tenth Eclogue, Chalcidico verfu, v. 50. And ÆN. vi. 17. 183. Perhaps a poetical description of two real cups thus richly ornamented, which Milton received as prefents from Manso at Naples. He had flattered himself with the happiness of shewing these tokens of the regard with which he had been treated in his travels, to Deodate, at his return. Or perhaps this is an allegorical defcription of fome of Manfo's favours. 195. He aims his darts upwards, per orbes, among the ftars. He wounds the gods. 198. Tu quoque in bis, &c.] The tranfition is elegant. Tu |