Thus night oft fee me in thy pale carreer, Till civil-fuited morn appear, Not trickt and frounct as fhe was wont But kercheft in a comely cloud, While rocking winds are piping loud, Or ufher'd with a shower still, When the guft hath blown his fill, Ending on the rufsling leaves, With minute drops from off the eaves. legorical poetry it may be faid with great truth and propriety, that more is meant than meets the ear. And thus in thefe two little poems Milton makes his compliments to our greatest English poets, Johnfon and Shakefpear, Chaucer and Spenfer. 122. Till civil-fuited morn appear,] Paradife Regain'd. IV, 426. till morning fair Came forth with pilgrim fteps in amice gray. Richardfon. Shakespear for the fame reafon fays of night, Romeo and Juliet Act 3. Sc. 4. Come civil night, Thou fober-fuited matron, all in black, 125 130 To With the Attic boy to hunt,] Shakespear calls drefs tricking. Mrs. Page in the Merry Wives of Windfor Go get us properties and tricking for our faeries. Frounct is fignifying much the fame as frizled, another word to the fame purpose, crifped, curled. The Attic boy in Cephalus, with whom Aurora fell in love as he was hunting. See Peck, and Ovid. Met. VII. 701. 125. But kercheft in a comely cloud,] Kerchef is a head dress from the French, couvre chef ; a word ufed by Chaucer and Shakefpear. Julius Cæfar, Act 2. Sc. 3. 141.-day's 1 To arched walks of twilight groves, And fhadows brown that Sylvan loves Of pine, or monumental oak, 135 Where the rude ax with heaved stroke Was never heard the Nymphs to daunt, Or fright them from their hallow'd haunt. There in close covert by fome brook, 140 Romeo and Juliet. Act 3. Sc. 4. all the world fhall be in love with night, 148. Wave at his wings] Wave is ufed here as a verb neuter. 151.fweet mufic breathe &c] This thought is taken from Shakefpear's Tempest. Fortin. - 158. pillars may proof,] That is proof against a great weight. So And pay no worship to the garif in the poem of Arcades fun. - branching To walk the studious cloyfters pale, As 160 Diffolve — branching elm ftar-proof, that is which will refift the evil influence of the planets. It is a vulgar fuperftition that one fpecies. of elm has that virtue. Warburton. 160. Cafting a dim religious light.] Mr. Pope has imitated this in his Eloifa to Abelard. ver. 143. Where awful arches make a noonday night, And the dim windows fhed a folemn light. 161. There let the pealing organ blow, &c] This shows that Milton, however mistaken in other respects, did not run into the enthufiaftic madness of that fanatic age against Church Mufic. Thyer. 167. And Where I may fit and rightly spell Of every ftar that Heav'n doth fhew, 167. And may at laft my weary age &c] There is fomething extremely pleafing and proper in this laft circumftance, not merely as it varies and inlarges the picture, but as it adds fuch a perfection and completeness to it, by conducting the Penferofo fo happily to the laft fcene of life, as leaves the reader's mind fully fatisfied: And if preferring the one would not look like cenfuring the other, I would fay that in this refpect this poem clames a fuperio. rity over the Allegro, which, altho' defign'd with equal judgment, and executed with no lefs fpirit, yet ends as if fomething more might till have been added. Thyer. 179 175 AR 173. Till old experience do attain To fomething like prophetic ftrain.] This refembles what Cornelius Nepos fays of Cicero, that his prudence feemed to be a kind of divination, for he foretold every thing that happen'd afterwards like a prophet. et facile exiftimari poffit, prudentiam quodammodo effe divinationem. Non enim Cicero ea folum, quæ vivo fe acciderunt, futura prædixit, fed etiam, quæ nunc ufu veniunt, cecinit, ut vates. Vita Attici cap. 16. This ending is certainly very fine, but tho' Mr. Thyer thinks it perfect and complete, yet others have been of opinion that fomething more might ftill be added, and I have feen XV. * ARCADE S. Part of an Entertainment prefented to the Countefs Dowager of Derby at Harefield, by fome noble perfons of her family, who appear on the scene in pastoral habit, moving toward the seat of state, with this Song. I. SONG. OOK Nymphs, and Shepherds look, Too nature, or compofed by a different hand. The Countess Dowager of Derby, to whom it was prefented, must have been Alice, daughter of Sir John Spenfer of Althorp in Northamptonshire Knight, and the widow of Ferdinando Stanley the fifth Earl of Derby: and Harefield is in Middlesex, and according to Camden lieth a little to the north of Uxbridge, fo that I think we may certainly conclude, that Milton made this poem while he refided in that neighbourhood with his father at Horton near Colebrooke. It should feem too, that it was made before the Malk at Ludlow, as it is a more imperfect effay: and Frances the fecond daughter |