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She heard them give thee this, that thou shouldst still
From eyes
of mortals walk invifible: o shd66
Yet there is something that doth force my fear, 91A
For once it was my difmal hap to hear

A Sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age, m.

age,mud

That far events full wifely could prefage,
And in time's long and dark prospective glass nedT
Forefaw what future days fhould bring to pafs

Your fon, said she, (nor can you it prevent) nodT
prevent)prod!T
Shall subject be to many an Accident. nct of tecT
O'er all his brethren he shall reign as king, 75
Yet every one shall make him underling, in nod
And thofe that cannot live from him afundert end
nd diver
Ungratefully shall strive to keep him under,
In worth and excellence he fhall out-go them,
Yet being above them, he shall be below them;
From others he fhall ftand in need of nothing,
Yet on his brothers fhall depend for clothing.to
To find a foe it shall not be his hap,
And peace shall lull him in her flow'ry lap; won?

ftotle's Categories, or Burgerfdicius, or any of the old logicians, he will not want what follows to be ex

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Yet fhall he live in ftrife, and at his door

Devouring war fhall never cease to roar:
Yea it fhall be his natural property

To harbour those that are at enmity. Fo

85

What pow'r, what force, what mighty fpell, if not ' Your learned hands, can loose this Gordian knot?

91. Rivers arife, &c.] In invoking thefe rivers Milton had his eye particularly upon that admirable episode in Spenfer of the marsiage of the Thames and the Medway, where the several rivers are introduc'd in honor of the ceremony. Faery Queen B. 4. Cant. 11. Of utmost Tweed; fo Spenfer St. 36.

90 The

who like fome earth-born giant &c.
This defcription is much nobler
than Spenfer's St. 35-

And bounteous Trent, that in
himself enfeams
Both thirty forts of fish, and
thirty fundry ftreams.

The name is of Saxon original, but (as Camden obferves in his

And Trede the limit betwixt Lo- Staffordshire.) " fome ignorant

gris land

And Albany

"and idle pretenders imagine the

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name to be derived from the "French word Trente, and upon

"rivers running into it, and like"wife fo many kinds of fifh fwim

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ming in it." However this notion might very well be adopted in poetry. Or fullen Mole &c. So Spenfer St. 32.

Or Oofe, either that in Yorkshire," that account have feign'd thirty or that in Cambridgeshire, both mention'd by Spenfer. Or gulphy Dun, I find not in Spenfer, but fuppofe the Don is meant from whence Doncafter has its name; and Camden's account of this river fhows the propriety of the epithet gulphy. "Danus, commonly Don and "Dune, feems to be fo call'd, be"cause it is carried in a low deep

channel; for that is the fignifi*cation of the British word Dan."

And Mole, that like a noufling
mole doth make
His way ftill under ground, till
Thamis he o'ertake.

See Camden's Yorkshire. Or Trent, See the fame account in Camden's

Surry.

The next Quantity and Quality spake in profe, then Relation was call'd by his name.

IVERS arife; whether thou be the fon

Rofumoft or or Dun,

Of utmost Tweed, or Oofe, or gulphy

Or Trent, who like fome earth-born giant fpreads His thirty arms along th' indented meads,

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And glifters wide, as als of won-
..drous Bath

And Briftow fair, which on his

waves he builded hath.

Or fedgy Lee, this river divides Middlefex and Effex.

defcribes it, St. 29.

Spenfer thus

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And the Medaway and the Thame are join'd together, as they are married in Spenser. I wonder that Milton has paid no particular compliment to the river flowing by Cambridge (this exercise being

The wanton Lee that oft doth made and spoken there) as Spenfer has done St. 34.

lose his way.

Or coaly Tine, Spenfer defcribes it by the Picts Wall. St. 36. Or ancient hallow'd Dec; fo Spenfer St.

391

And following Dee, which Bri-
tons long ygone
Did call divine, that doth by
Chefter tend.

Thence doth by Huntingdon and
Cambridge flit,

My mother Cambridge, whom
as with a crown

He doth adorn, and is adorn'd of it

With many a gentle Mufe, and many a learned wit.

To

95

Or fullen Mole that runneth underneath,
Or Severn swift, guilty of maiden's death, MT
Or rocky Avon, or of fedgy Lee,

Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee,

Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythian's name, ~T Or Medway fmooth, or royal towred Thame, bio

[The reft was profe.].

HI.

100

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T

HIS is the month, and this the happy morn,
Who is the month, and this the happing f
Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King,

Of. wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born, is bп♬
Our great redemption from above did bringad
For fo the holy fages once did fing,

That he our deadly forfeit fhould release,

And with his Father work us a perpetual peace. T

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That

pos'd 1629, fo that Milton was then 21 years old. He fpeaks of this poem in the conclufion of hise

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II.

That glorious form, that light unfufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of majesty,

Wherewith he wont at Heav'n's high council-table 10
To fit the midst of Trinal Unity,

He laid afide; and here with us to be,
Forfook the courts of everlasting day,

And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

III.

Say heav'nly Mufe, fhall not thy facred vein
Afford a present to the Infant God?
Haft thou no verfe, no hymn, or folemn strain,
To welcome him to this his new abode,

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Now while the Heav'n by the fun's team untrod, Hath took no print of the approaching light, 20 And all the fpangled host keep watch in fquadrons bright ?

IV:

See how from far. upon the eaftern road

The ftar-led wifards hafte with odors fweet :

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