Built in th' eclipfe, and rigg'd with curfes dark, Next Camus, reverend fire, went footing flow, 101. Built in theclipfe, &c.] Horace speaks much in the fame fpirit concerning the tree by whofe fall he was in danger of being kill'd. Od. II. XIII. 1. Ille et nefafto te pofuit die &c. To this fhip may be juftly applied that which Horace fays of another. Epod. X. 1. Mala foluta navis exit alite. And the misfortune is afcribed to the fhip according to the Latin infcription at the beginning of the poem, navi in fcopulum allifa, et rimis et ictu fatifcente 103. Next Camus, reverend fire, &c] The river Cam is fitly introduc'd upon this occafion, and is called reverend fire, as both Mr. King and Milton were educated at Cambridge; and is described according to the nature of that river. Went footing flow, as it is a gentle winding ftream, according to Cam The den, who fays the British word Cam fignifies crooked. It abounds too with reeds and fedge, for which reafon his mantle is hairy, and his bonnet fedge, which as a teftimony of his grief and mourning was inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge like to a byacinth, that fanguin flow'r as it fprung according to the poets from the blood of the boy Hyacinthus or of Ajax, inferib'd with woe as the leaves were imagin'd to be mark'd with the mournful letters A A. For these particulars you may confult the poets, and especially Ovid, who thus defcribes the form of the flower. Met. X. 210. Ecce cruor, qui fufus humi fig- Flos oritur, formamque capit, quam lilia, fi non Purpureus color huic, argenteus effet in illis. -Non The pilot of the Galilean lake, Two maffy keys he bore of metals twain, (The golden opes, the iron fhuts amain) 110 He shook his miter'd locks, and stern bespake, Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold? Non fatis hoc Phoebo eft; is enim Flos habet infcriptam; funefta- 105. Inwrought with figures dim,] In the Manufcript it was firft written Scraul'd o'er: Inwrought is the marginal reading there. 107. — my dearest pledge ?] My dearest child, as children were fimply call'd by the Latins pignora, pledges. Richardfon. 109. The pilot of the Galilean lake, &c] Milton finely raises the character of St. Peter by making him the pilot of the lake of Genefareth in Galilee. See how artfully he takes this hint from Luke V. The two keys (which he hath likewife painted poetically) Chrift him felf gave him. Mat. XVI. 19. But the miter, which has fo fine an effect in this picture, Milton would not 115 Thàn have allow'd him a very few years afterwards. See his treatife of Prelatical Epifcopacy. Richardfon. It feems fomewhat extraordinary to introduce St Peter after Apollo, Triton &c, a Chriftian bishop among Heathen deities; but here Milton's imagination was dazled, his tafte corrupted, and his judgment perverted by reading the Italian poets. It is much that this inveterate 112. He shook his miter'd locks, ] enemy of prelacy would allow Peter to be a bishop. But the whole circumftance is taken from the Italian fatirifts. Befides I fuppofe he thought it fharpen'd his fatire to have the prelacy condemn'd by one of their own order. Warburton. 114. Enow of fuch &c] As Milton has frequently imitated his mafter Spenfer in this poem, so in this place particularly he has had an eye to Spenfer's invectives against the corruptions of the clergy in his fifth, seventh, and ninth Eclogues. 0 3 119. Blind Than how to scramble at the fhearers feast, Blind mouths! that fcarce themselves know how A fheep-hook, or have learn'd ought elfe the leaft And or gloffary that I have confulted; but I prefume it answers to the firi. denti of Virgil. 128. Befides what the grim wolf &c] We offer'd fome explication of this difficult paffage in the Life of Milton, that the poet meant to accufe Archbishop Laud of privily in his zeal threaten'd him with the introducing popery, and therefore lofs of his head; which notion was fuggefted to me by Dr. Pearce, the Lord Bishop of Bangor. We exhibited too Mr. Warburton's explanation of this paffage in the notes on the fixth book of Paradife Loft. But if neither of these accounts feem fatisfactory to the reader, we will lay before him another, in which we have the concurrence of Mr. Thyer and Mr. Richardfon. Befides what the grim wolf &c, Befides what the popish priests privately pervert to their religion and Spenfer in his 9th Eclogue defcribes them under the fame image of wolves, and com. plains much in the fame manner. Yes And when they lift, their lean and flashy songs 125 But fwoll'n with wind, and the rank mist they draw, Rot inwardly, and foul contagion fpread : Daily at hand; near, even at the doors, Mat. XXIV. 33. Behold the judge ftandeth before the door. James V. 9. And it was to be a thorough and effectual reformation, Stands ready to fmite once, and fmite no more, in allufion to the language of Scripture, 1 Sam. XXVI. 8. Let me Smite him, I pray thee, with the spear, even to the earth at once, and I will not fmite him the fecond time. This explication is the more probable, as it agrees fo well with Milton's fentiments and expreffions in other parts of his works. His head was full of these thoughts, and he was in expectation of fome mighty alteration in religion, a appears from the earlieft of his profeworks, which were publifh'd not four years after this poem. In the fecond book of his treatife of Reformation in England, he employs the fame metaphor of the ax of God's reformation, hewing at the old and hollow trunk of papacy, and prefages the time of the bishops to be but fhort, and compares them to a wen that is going to be cut off. 0 4 Vol. Daily devours Stands ready to fmite once, and smite no more. Vol. 1. p. 17, 18. Edit. 1738. And in his Animadverfions upon the Remonftrants Defense, addreffing himfelf to the Son of God he fays -but thy kingdom is now at hand, and thou ftanding at the door. Come forth out of thy royal chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth, for now the voice of thy bride calls thee, and all creatures figh to be renew'd. p. 91. The reading of these treatifes of Milton will fufficiently make appear what his meaning muft be, and how much about this time he thought of lopping off prelatical episcopacy. 130 135 Ye 136. where the mild whispers ufe] The word use is employ'd the fame fense by Spenser, Faery Queen, B. 6. St. 2. in Ne Guide ye my footing, and con- In these ftrange ways, where ne- 138. On whofe fresh lap the fwart ftar fparely looks, ] The fwart far is the dog-ftar, Sirius ardens, burning and drying up things, and making them look black and fwarthy. But he fparely looks on Te flagrantis atrox hora caniculæ 132. Return Alpheus, &c] As he thefe valleys, as he approaches not had before diftinguish'd the voice Horace's fountain of Blandufia, of Apollo, fo here he far more Od. III. XII. 9. exalts that dread one of St. Peter, that quite brinks up the fiream of Alpheus. Now this is paft, return Sicilian Mufe, Sicelides Mufæ. Virg. Ecl. IV. 1. Now comes paftoral poetry again, and calls the vales to caft their flowers on Lycidas his herfe, according to the cuftom of the Ancients. Richardfon. Nefcit tangere. In the Manuscript it was first sparely, then alter'd to flintly, and then to fparely again; and in the next line Throw hither was at firft Bring hither &c. 142. Bring |