THE PASSION.* I. EREWHILE of musick, and ethereal mirth, In wintry solstice, like the shorten'd light, Soon swallow'd up in dark and long out-living night. II. For now to sorrow must I tune my song, And set my harp to notes of saddest woe, Which on our dearest Lord did seize ere long, Dangers, and snares, and wrongs, and worse than so, Most perfect Hero, tried in heaviest plight Of labours huge and hard, too hard for human wight! III. He, sovran Priest, stooping his regal head, That dropt with odorous oil down his fair eyes, His starry front low-rooft beneath the skies: O, what a mask was there, what a disguise! 10 15 Yet more; the stroke of death he must abide; Then lies him meekly down fast by his brethren's side. IV. These latest scenes confine my roving verse; His godlike acts, and his temptations fierce, 20 25 *I cannot agree with Sir Egerton Brydges that this Ode or Elegy is "unaccountably inferior" to the preceding Hymn. True, this is not so highly finished as the other, but there are in it exquisite touches of beauty. A beloved friend and accomplished scholar of Oxford (J. W.) writes me-"That third stanza has often suffused my eyes and quickened my heart's pulsation: what a saddening, melancholy tenderness-a climax of pathos and of dear human sympathy in the last two lines!" 1. Erewhile, &c. Hence we may conjecture that this Ode was probably composed soon after that on the "Nativity." And this, perhaps, was a college exercise at Easter, as the last was at Christmas.T. WARTON. 13. Most perfect Hero. See Heb. ii. 10. 26. Cremona's trump. Vida's "Christiad," which our author seems to think the finest Latin poem on a religious subject, is here called Cremona's trump, because Vida was born at Cremona, Me softer airs befit, and softer strings Of lute, or viol still, more apt for mournful things. V. Befriend me, Night, best patroness of grief; And work my flatter'd fancy to belief, 30 That heaven and earth are colour'd with my woe; My sorrows are too dark for day to know: The leaves should all be black whereon I write; 34 And letters, where my tears have wash'd a wannish white. VI. See, see the chariot, and those rushing wheels, In pensive trance, and anguish, and ecstatick fit. VII. Mine eye hath found that sad sepulchral rock My plaining verse as lively as before; For sure so well instructed are my tears, VIII. 40 45 Or should I thence, hurried on viewless wing, 50 Might think the infection of my sorrows loud 55 This subject the author finding to be above the years he had when he wrote it, and nothing satisfied with what was begun, left it unfinished. 28. Of lute, or viol: That is, gentle; not noisy or loud like the trumpet. 34. The leaves, &c. Conceits were not confined to words only. Mr. Stevens has a volume of Elegies, in which the paper is black and the letters white: that is, in all the title-pages. Every intermediate leaf is also black. What a sudden change, from this childish idea to the noble apostrophe, the sublime rapture and imagination of the next stanza.-T. WARTON. 43. That sad sepulchral rock: That is, the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. 51. Take up a weeping. Jer. ix. 10. 52. The gentle neighbourhood. A sweetly beautiful couplet, which, with the two preceding lines, opened the stanza so well, that I particularly grieve to find it terminate feebly in a most miserably disgusting concetto.-DUNSTER. ODES. UPON THE CIRCUMCISION.* YE flaming Powers, and winged Warriours bright, Seas wept from our deep sorrow: He, who with all Heaven's heraldry whilere Sore doth begin His infancy to seize ! O more exceeding love, or law more just? Were lost in death, till he that dwelt above And that great covenant which we still transgress And the full wrath beside Of vengeful justice bore for our excess; And seals obedience first, with wounding smart, Huge pangs and strong Will pierce more near his heart. ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT, DYING OF A COUGH.† I. O FAIREST flower, no sooner blown but blasted. The "Circumcision" is better than the "Passion," and has two or three Miltonic lines.-BRYDGES. The Elegy on the Death of a Fair Infant" is praised by Warton, and well characterized in his last note upon it; but it has more of research and laboured fancy than of feeling, and is not a general favourite.-BRYDGES. It was written at the age of seventeen. 20. Emptied his glory. An expression | reputation,"-but, as it is in the original, taken from Phil. ii. 7, but not as in our (avrOV EKEVWσE,) “He emptied himself.” translation,-"He made himself of no -NEWTON. Summer's chief honour, if thou hadst out-lasted That did thy cheek envermeil, thought to kiss, II. For since grim Aquilo, his charioteer, 10 By boisterous rape the Athenian damsel got, III. So, mounting up in icy-pearled car, 15 Through middle empire of the freezing air There ended was his quest, there ceased his care. IV. Yet art thou not inglorious in thy fate; Young Hyacinth, the pride of Spartan land; 20 25 Alack, that so to change thee Winter had no power! v. Yet can I not persuade me thou art dead, Or that thy corse corrupts in earth's dark womb, Could Heaven for pity thee so strictly doom? 30 35 Yet, in the eighth stanza, the person lamented is alteruately supposed to have been sent down to earth in the shape of two divinities, one of whom is styled a "just maid," and the other a "sweetsmiling youth." But the child was certainly a niece, a daughter of Milton's sister Philips. 40. Were, instead of are, for rhyme.47. Earth's sons, the giants.-50. Maid, Justice.--54. Youth, Mercy. 67. To turn swift-rushing, &c. Among VI. Resolve me then, O soul most surely blest, O, say me true, if thou wert mortal wight, VII. Wert thou some star, which from the ruin'd roof Of sheeny Heaven, and thou, some goddess fled, VIII Or wert thou that just Maid, who once before Or that crown'd matron sage, white-robed Truth? Let down in cloudy throne to do the world some good? IX. Or wert thou of the golden-winged host, 40 45 50 55 And after short abode fly back with speed, CO As if to show what creatures heaven doth breed; To scorn the sordid world, and unto heaven aspire? X. But, O! why didst thou not stay here below 65 pression, and versification; even in the conceits, which are many, we perceive strong and peculiar marks of genius. I think Milton has here given a very remarkable specimen of his ability to suc ceed in the Spenserian stanza. He moves with great ease and address amidst the embarrassment of a frequent return of rhyme.-T. WARTON. |