Where round fome mould'ring tow'r pale ivy creeps, 255 For thee the fates, feverely kind, ordain A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain; 250 Thy life a long dead calm of fix'd repose; No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows. Still as the fea, ere winds were taught to blow, Or moving spirit bade the waters flow; Soft as the slumbers of a faint forgiv'n, And mild as op'ning gleams of promis'd heav'n. Come, Abelard! for what haft thou to dread? The torch of Venus burns not for the dead. Nature stands check'd; Religion disapproves; Ev'n thou art cold-yet Eloisa loves. Ah hopeless, lafting flames; like those that burn To light the dead, and warm th' unfruitful urn. What scenes appear where'er I turn my view? 260 The dear Ideas, where I fly, pursue, NOTES. VER. 261. Ah hopeless, &c.] The same image used in Verses to the memory of an unfortunate Lady. I waste the Matin lamp in fighs for thee, While proftrate here in humble grief I lie, NOTES, 270 275 280 Come, VER. 274. Priests, tapers, temples, Equal to any part of Sappho's Ode, so celebrated by Longinus for an affemblage of striking circumstances. WARTON. VER. 275. In seas of flame, &c.] How finely does this glowing imagery introduce the tranfition, While proftrate here in humble grief I lie, PARALLEL PASSAGES. VER. 274. Priests, tapers, &c.] "Priefts, tapers, temples, swam before my fight, Altars, and victims Smith's Phædra and Hippalitus. Come, with one glance of those deluding eyes Take back that grace, those forrows, and those tears; Nor share one pang of all I felt for thee. Forget, renounce me, hate whateʼer was mine. And Faith, our early immortality! NOTES. 300 In VER. 298. Low-thoughted care!] An epithet from Milton's Comus. WARTON. VER. 303. See in her cell] It certainly should be near, not in her cell. The doors of all cells open into the common cloifter, where are often many tombs. Description of Paraclete. VER. 304. Propt on fome tomb,] The image here, though beautiful, is not correct. "The cell of a Nun," which is extremely 2 In each low wind methinks a Spirit, calls, Here, as I watch'd the dying lamps around, 305 From yonder shrine I heard a hollow found. 66 Come, fister, come! (it faid, or feem'd to say) 310 " Thy place is here, sad fifter, come away; " Here grief forgets to groan, and love to weep, " Ev'n superstition loses every fear : " For God, not man, abfolves our frailties here." I come, I come! prepare your roseate bow'rs, Celestial palms, and ever-blooming flow'rs. Thither, where sinners may have rest, I go, Where flames refin'd in breasts seraphic glow: 320 315 Thou, Abelard! the last fad office pay, NOTES. Present tremely narrow, could not possibly admit of any tomb to lean upon; and though the door might have opened into the cloister, Paraclete had been too recently founded for monuments of the dead to be expected there. STEVENS. VER. 308. a hollow found] Though Virgil evidently gave the hint: (Hinc exaudiri voces & verba vocantis visa viri, 1. 4. p. 460.;) yet this call of some sister, that had been involved in a fimilar distress, appears more folemn and interesting. WARTON. 330 335 Present the Cross before my lifted eye, VER. 339.] NOTES. Then, These circumstances are conformable to the no tions of myftic devotion. The death of St Jerome is finely and forcibly painted by Dominichino, with fuch attendant particulars. VER.343. May WARTON. one kind grave] This wish was fulfilled The body of Abelard, who died twenty years before Eloifa, was sent to Eloifa, who interred it in the monaftery of the Paraclete; and it was accompanied with a very extraordinary form of absolution, from the famous Peter de Clugny: "Ego Petrus Cluniacenfis ab. bas, qui Petrum Abelardum in monachum Cluniacenfem recepi, & corpus ejus furtim delatum Heloiffæ Abbatiffæ & monialibus Paracleti conceffi, auctoritate omnipotentis Dei, & omnium sanctorum, absolvo eum, pro officio, ab omnibus peccatis fuis." (Epift. E 3 Abæl. |