Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze,
Or frost to flow'rs, that their gay wardrobe wear,
When first the white-thorn blows;
Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherds ear.

Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep
Clos’d o'er the head of your lov'd Lycidas ?

51 For neither were ye playing on the steep, Where

your

old Bards, the famous Druids, lie, Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high,

Nor

Anglesey, or the shady iland as it was And noted was by both to be an called by the ancient Britons, And

ominous flood, Deva is the river Dee, the mean- That changing of his foards, the ing of which word Deva is by

future ill or good some fupposed to be God's water Of either country told, of either's or divine water. See Camden's

war or peace, Cheshire. And for the same rea- The fickness or the health, the fon that it is here called wifard dearth or the increase &c. fream, it has the name of ancient ballow'd Dee in our author's Vaca- These places all look toward Iretion Exercise; and Spenser thus in- land, and were famous for the refitroduces it among his rivers, Faery dence of the Bards and Druids, Queen, B. 4. Cant. 11. St. 39. who are distinguish'd by most au

thors, but Milton speaks of them And Dee, which Britons long as the same, and probably as priests ygone

they were Druids, and as poets they Did call divine, that doth by were Bards. For Cæsar, who has Chefter tend.

given us the best and most authenAnd Drayton in his Polyolbion. tic account of the ancient Druids,

says that among other things they

learn a great number of verses. A brooke it was, fuppos'd much Magnum ibi numerum versuum edir: bus'nefs to have seen,

scere dicuntur. De Bel. Gall. Lib. 6. Which had an ancient bound c. 13. 'twixt Wales and England been,

56. Ay

Song X.

Nor

yet where Deva spreads her wisard stream: 55 Ay me! I fondly dream Had

ye

been there, for what could that have done? What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore, The Muse herself for her inchanting son, Whom universal nature did lament,

60 When by the rout that made the hideous roar, His goary visage down the stream was sent, Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore?

Alas! what boots it with inceffant care To tend the homely flighted shepherd's trade, 65

And

56. Ay me! I fondly dream 58. What could the Mufe &c] Had

ye been there, for what could Milton had first written thus,

that have done?) We have here follow'd the pointing of Mil

What could the golden hair'd ton's manuscript in preference to

Calliope all the editions : and the meaning

For her inchanting fon! plainly is, I fondly dream of your

When she beheld (the Gods farhaving been there, for what would

fighted be) that have signified ? Mr. Thyer

His goary scalp roll down the conjectur'd that the passage should

Thracian lee: be so pointed, and Milton has so but in his Manuscript he alter'd pointed it, tho' he does not often these lines with judgment. And afobserve the stops in his Manuscript. terwards his goary visage was a corMr. Jortin likewise perceiv'd this rection from his divine visage. to be the sense, and asks whether this transposition would not be bet- 66. And Atriatly meditate the thankter than the common reading.

less Mufe ??] Meditate the Muse, Had

ye

been there Ay me, I Virg. Ecl. I. 2. Mufam meditaris. fondly dream

The thankless Muse, that earns no For what could that have done? thanks, is not thank'd by the unWhat could the Muse &c. grateful world : as ingratus in Latin

And strictly meditate the thankless Muse?
Were it not better done as others use,
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair ?
Fame is the spur that the clear spi'rit doth raise 70
(That last infirmity of noble mind)
To scorn delights, and live laborious days;
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with th' abhorred shears, 75
And sits the thin spun life. But not the praise,

Phæbus

St. 15

is used in a paflive as well as the third book of Paradise Regain'd, active fignification. Salluft. Cat. and confirm'd by numerous quotaXXXVIII. otium ingrato labori tions from the Heathen philosoprætulerat. Virg. Æn. VII. 425. phers in a note by Mr Jorrin.

73. But the fair guerdoir Prize, I nunc, ingratis offer te, irrise, periclis.

reward, recompense A word from

the French, ofien used by our old 68. To sport with Amaryllis in the writers, and particularly Spenser. Jade,

Faery Queen. B.i. Or with the tangles of Neare's

Phoebus reply'd, and touch'd my trembling ears ;
Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
Nor in the glist'ring foil
Set off to th' world, nor in broad rumor lies, 80
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;
As he pronounces lastly on each deed,
Of so much fame in Heav'n expect thy meed.

O fountain Arethuse, and thou honor'd flood, 85
Smooth-sliding Mincius, crown'd with vocal reeds,
That strain I heard was of a higher mood :
But now my oat proceeds,

And

a

hour was come. These were distinct It would have been better, if the from the Furies, but Milton calls rime had not oblig'd Milton to say the last a blind Fury in his indigna- ears. tion for her cutting his friend's un- 79. Nor in the glif'ring foil] As timely and undeserv'd. Richardson. much as to say, It is not leaf gold, Milton here has made the Fates the it is true fterling. Spenser, Faery same with the Furies ; which is not Queen, B. 1. Cant. 4. St. 4. quite deftitute of authority, for so Orpheus in his hymns, two of which

And golden foil all over them difare address to these Goddesses, B.

play'd. ftiles them,

St.

5. 15. Αλλα θεαι μοιeαι εφοπλοκαμοι

As guileful goldsmith, that by

secret skill πολυμορφοι. Sympson.

With golden foil doth finely over. 77. Phæbus reply'd, and touch'd

spread
my trembling ears ;] Virgil Ecl. Some baser metal &c.

85. O fountain Arethufe, &c. ] Cynthius aurem Now Phoebus, whose strain was of Vellit et admonuit.

a higher mood, has done speak

4. Cant.

VI. 3.

And listens to the herald of the sea
That came in Neptune's plea ;

90
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
That blows from off each beaked promontory;
They knew not of his story,

95 And sage Hippotades their answer brings, That not a blast was from his dungeon stray'd, The air was calm, and on the level brine Sleek Panope with all her sisters play’d. It was that fatal and perfidious bark

100 Built

III. 140

ing, he invokes the fountain Area Smooth.sliding Mincius, ] It was thuse of Sicily the country of The- at first, ocritus, and Mincius, the river of

and thou fmooth flood, Mantua, Virgil's country, which

Soft-sliding Mincius ; river he calls bonor'd flood to show his respect to that poet, and de- and then smoth was alter'd to fam'd, scribes much in the same manner and then to honor'd in the Manuas Virgil himself has done Georg. fcript; as pft Riding was to smooth

sliding tardis ingens ubi flexibus Triton. Hippotades, Æolus the son

89. the herald of the sea &c] Mincius, et tenera prætexit arun- knowing the weather. Panope, a

of Hippotas, called farge from foredine ripas.

fea nymph: the word itself figIt the more necessary for him nifies that

pure

calm and tranquilto call to mind these two famous lity that gives an unbounded propastoral poets, as now his own oaten spect over the smooth and level pipe proceeds.

brine ; therefore sleek Panope. 85. me and thou honor'd flood,

Richardson.

errat

was

O2

11. Built