Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, Nor in the glist'ring foil Set off to th' world, nor in broad rumour lies, 80 Of so much fame in heav'n expect thy meed. O fountain Arethuse, and thou honour'd flood, Smooth-fliding Mincius, crown'd with vocal reeds! That strain I heard was of a higher mood: But now my oat proceeds, And liftens to the herald of the sea That came in Neptune's plea ; He ask'd the waves, and ask'd the fellon winds, What hard mishap hath doom'd this gentle swain? And question'd every gust of rugged wings 78. Fame is no plant, &c.] I think I remember the fublime morality of part of this allegory in Pindar. But I cannot readily turn to the paffage. 79. Nor in the gliff'ring foil Set off to th' world.-] Perhaps with a remembrance of Shakefpeare, PART I. HENR. iv. A. i. S. ii. And like bright metal on a fullen ground, My reformation glittering o'er my fault, Shall fhew more goodly, and attract more eyes, Than that which hath no FOIL to SET it OFF. 93. And question'd every guft of rugged wings.] We find WINDS for WINGS, in Tonfon's very incorrect but elegant octavo edition of Milton's POEMS ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS, 1705. They make the greater part of his fecond volume of all Milton's poetry. That That blows from off each beaked promontory; They knew not of his story, And fage Hippotades their anfwer brings, 95 94. Each beaked promontory.] That is, prominent or projecting like the beak of a bird. Harrifon in Hollinfhed has wefel-beaked. DESCRIPT. ENGL. p. 172. Our author has the "BEAKED prow" of Noah's ark, PARAD. L. B. xi. 746. 95. Of bis ftory.] So B. and Fletcher. PHILASTER, A. i. S. i. vol. 1. p. 109. edit. 1750. "I ask'd him all his STORY." 96. And Jage Hippotades their answer brings.] Hippotades is no very common or familiar name for Æolus the fon of Hippotas. It is not in Virgil the GREAT Storm-painter, and who appears to be fo perfectly acquainted with the poetical family of the winds. Perhaps I may be mistaken, but it occurs only in four claffic poets either abfolutely or conjunctively. In one of thefe, however, it occurs four times. In Homer, ODYSS. X. 2. Αἰολίην δ ̓ ἐς νῆσον ἀφικόμεθ ̓, ἔνθα δ' έναιεν Again, ibid. v. 35. Δῶρα παρ' "Αιολος μεγαλήτορος ΙΠΠΟΤΙΔΑΟ. In Apollonius Rhodius, a Greek poet whom I have frequently traced in Milton, ARGON. iv. 819. · ΙΠΠΟΤΑΔΗΝ δὲ Αίολον ὠκείας ἀνέμων αϊκας ἐρύξεν. In Ovid, EPISTOL. HEROID. Ep. LEAND. HERON. v. 46. Again, EPIST. ex Pont. L. iv. x. 15. Excipit HIPPOTADES, qui dat pro munere ventos, Again, METAM. L. iv. 661. Clauferat HIPPOTADES æterno carcere ventos. Again, ibid. L. xv. 707. HIPPOTADEQUE domos regis. In Valerius Flaccus, ARGON. L. i. 610. Tum valido contortam turbine portam Impulit HIPPOTADES. The name is feldom mentioned even by the mythologists. I muft C not That not a blast was from his dungeon stray'd; 100 Built in th' eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark, That funk fo low that facred head of thine. Next Camus, reverend fire, went footing flow, His mantle hairy, and his bonnet fedge, Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 105 Like to that fanguin flow'r inscrib'd with woe. Ah! Who hath reft (quoth he) my dearest pledge? not forget, that it is found in the geographical poem of Dionyfius, with an allufion to the Odyssey, v. 462. 100. -That fatal and perfidious bark Built in th' eclipfe, and rigg'd with curfes dark.] Evidently with a view to the enchantments in MACBETH, A. iv. S. i. Slips of yew Sliver'd in the moon's ECLIPSE. Again, in the fame incantation. Root of hemlock digg'd i'th' DARK. The vessel was wrecked not by a ftorm, but by ftriking against a rock. 103. Next Camus, reverend fire, went footing flow.] Compare SAMs. AGON. V. 326. But fee, here comes thy REVEREND SIRE, With careful step, locks white as down, Old Manoah. Again, ibid. v. 1456. Say, REVEREND SIRE, we thirst to hear. 107. Ab, who bath reft, quoth be, my dearest pledge ?] Mr. Bowle compares this line with one in the RIME SPIRITUALI of Angelo Grillo, fol. 7. a. It is a part of the Virgin's lamentation on the Paffion of Christ. Deh, diffe, ove ne vai mio caro pegno "Alas, Laft came, and last did go, The pilot of the Galilean lake; Two maffy keys he bore of metals twain, Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold? 115 "Alas, quoth fhe, where goeft thou, my dear pledge ?" And he adds, that REFT was here perhaps immediately taken from a paffage in Spenfer's DAPHNAIDA, where the fubject is the fame. And REFT from me my fweet companion, And REFT from me my love, my life, my hart. 111. The golden opes.-] Mr. Bowle thinks this an allufion to the Italian proverb, "Con le chiavi d oro s'apre ogna porta," to which one in Spanish correfponds. Saint Peter's two keys in the Gofpel, feem to have fupplied modern poetry with the allegoric machinery of two keys, which are variously used. In Dante's INFERNO, the ghoft of a courtier of the emperor Frederick tells Virgil, that he had poffeffed two keys with which he locked and unlocked his mafter's heart. CANT. xiii. And hence perhaps the two keys, although with a different application, which Nature, in Gray's Ode on the POWER of POETRY, prefents to the infant Shakespeare. See alfo Dante, ibid. C. xxvii. In COMUS, an admired poetical image was perhaps fuggested by faint Peter's golden key, v. 13. Where he mentions That GOLDEN KEY That opes the palace of eternity. See QUINT. NOVEMBR. V. 101. Et quid APOSTOLICÆ poffit custodia CLAVIS. See also the Key of SIN in PARAD. L. B. ii. 774. ·Such, as for their bellies fake, 114. Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold.] He here animadverts on the endowments of the church, at the fame time infinuating that they were fhared by thofe only who fought the emoluments of the facred office, to the exclufion of a learned and confcientious clergy. Thus Of other care they little reckoning make, Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold A fheep-hook, or have learn'd aught elfe the leaft That to the faithful herdman's art belongs! Thus in PARAD. L. B. iv. 193. So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold: So fince into his church LEWD HIRELINGS CLIMB. 121 Where LEWD fignifies ignorant. Even after the diffolution of the hicrarchy, he held this opinion. In his fifteenth SONNET, written 1652, he fupplicates Cromwell, To fave free confcience from the paw Of HIRELING Wolves, whofe GOSPEL is their MAW. During the ufurpation, he published a pamphlet entitled "The like"lieft means to remove HIRELINGS out of the church," against the revenues transferred from the old ecclefiaftic establishment to the presbyterian minifters. See alfo his book of REFORMATION IN ENGLAND, PROSE-WORKS, vol.i.28. Where, among others which might be noticed, is this paffage. "A teaching and laborious miniftry, the paftor-like and "apoftolick imitation of meek and unlordly difcipline, the gentle and "benevolent mediocrity of church-maintenance, without the ignoble "HUCKSTERAGE of PAYING TYTHES." More will be faid of this matter hereafter. 120. In the tract on REFORMATION he fays, "Let him advise "how he can reject the paftorly rod and SHEEP-HOOK of Christ.” PROSE-WORKS, vol. i. 25. Wickliff's pamphlets are full of this paftoral allufion. 121. That to the faithful herdman's art belongs.] Peck propofes to read Shepherd, because a herdman does not keep theep. PREF. to BAPTISTES. MEM. Milt. p. 273. edit. 1740. But herdman (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. What |