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Quis mihi blanditiasque tuas, quis tum mihi risûs,
Cecropiosque sales referet, cultosque lepores?

Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni,
At jam solus agros, jam pascua solus oberro,
Sicubi ramosæ densantur vallibus umbræ ;
Hic serum expecto; suprà caput imber et Eurus
Triste sonant, fractæque agitata crepuscula silvæ."

Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Heu, quam culta mihi priùs arva procacibus herbis
Involvuntur, et ipsa situ seges alta fatiscit!
Innuba neglecto marcescit et uva racemo;
Nec myrteta juvant; ovium quoque tædet, at illæ
Mærent, inque suum convertunt ora magistrum.

Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Tityrus ad corylos vocat, Alphesibus ad ornos,
Ad salices Ægon, ad flumina pulcher Amyntas;
"Hic gelidi fontes, hic illita gramina musco,
"Hic Zephyri, hîc placidas interstrepit arbutus undas."
Ista canunt surdo, frutices ego nactus abibam.

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" The idea in this line is beautifully conceived and expressed. The broken and agitated shadows of the shaking wood are placed in strong representation before our eyes; and we are reminded not only of our author's "chequered shade," but of a fine expansion of the same image in the Task. The reader will thank me, perhaps, for giving him the entire passage.

How airy and how light the graceful arch,
Yet awful as the consecrated roof
Re-echoing pious anthems; while, beneath,
The chequer'd earth seems restless, as a flood
Brush'd by the wind. So sportive is the light
Shot through the boughs, it dances as they dance,
Shadow and sunshine intermingling quick;
And dark'ning and enlight'ning, as the leaves
Play wanton, every moment, every spot.

TASK, book I.

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Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agin. Mopsus ad hæc, nam me redeuntem forte notârat, (Et callebat avium linguas, et sidera Mopsus,)

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Thyrsi, quid hoc?" dixit, " quæ te coquit improba bilis? "Aut te perdit amor, aut te malè fascinat astrum:

"Saturni grave sæpe fuit pastoribus astrum,

"Intimaque obliquo figit præcordia plumbo."

Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Mirantur nymphæ, et "quid te, Thyrsi, futurum est?
"Quid tibi vis?" aiunt; "non hæc solet esse juventæ
"Nubila frons, oculique truces, vultúsque severi;
"Illa choros, lususque leves, et semper amorem
"Jure petit: bis ille miser qui serus amavit."

Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Venit Hyas, Dryopeque, et filia Baucidis Ægle,
Docta modos citharæque sciens, sed perdita fastu;
Venit Idumanii Chloris vicina fluenti: *
Nil me blanditiæ, nil me solantia verba,
Nil me, si quid adest, movet, aut spes ulla futuri.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat; agni.
Hei mihi! quàm similes ludunt per prata juvenci,
Omnes unanimi secum sibi lege sodales!
Nec magis hunc alio quisquam secernit amicum
De grege: sic densi veniunt ad pabula thoes;
Inque vicem hirsuti paribus junguntur onagri.
Lex eadem pelagi; deserto in littore Proteus
Agmina phocarum numerat, vilisque volucrum
Passer habet semper quicum sit, et omnia circum
Farra libens volitet, sero sua tecta revisens ;
Quem si sors letho objecit, seu milvus adunco
Fata tulit rostro, seu stravit arundine fossor,
Protinus ille alium socio petit inde volatu.
Nos durum genus, et diris exercita fatis

Gens homines, aliena animis, et pectore discors;
Vix sibi quisque parem de millibus invenit unum:

* The river Chelmer in Essex is called Idumanium fluentum

near its influx into Black-water bay.

WARTON.

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Aut si sors dederit, tandèm non aspera votis,
Illum inopina dies, quâ non speraveris horâ,
Surripit, æternum linquens in sæcula damnum.

Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Heu quis me ignotas traxit vagus error in oras
Ire per aëreas rupes, Alpemque nivosam!
Ecquid erat tanti Romam vidisse sepultam,
(Quamvis illa foret, qualem dum viseret olim,y
Tityrus ipse suas et oves et rura reliquit ;)
Ut te tam dulci possem caruisse sodale!
Possem tot maria alta, tot interponere montes,
Tot silvas, tot saxa tibi, fluviosque sonantes!
Ah certè extremùm licuisset tangere dextram,
Et benè compositos placidè morientis ocellos,
Et dixisse, "Vale, nostri memor ibis ad astra."

Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Quamquam etiam vestrî nunquam meminisse pigebit,
Pastores Thusci, Musis operata juventus,

Hic Charis, atque Lepos; et Thuscus tu quoque Damon,
Antiquâ genus unde petis Lucumonis ab urbe.
O ego quantus eram, gelidi cùm stratus ad Arni
Murmura, populeumque nemus, quà mollior herba,
Carpere nunc violas, nunc summas carpere myrtos,
Et potui Lycidae certantem audire Menalcam!
Ipse etiam tentare ausus sum; nec, puto, multùm
Displicui; nam sunt et apud me, munera vestra,
Fiscellæ, calathique, et cerea vincla cicuta.
Quin et nostra suas docuerunt nomina fagos
Et Datis, et Francinus, erant et vocibus amboz
Et studiis noti, Lydorum sanguinis ambo.

9

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y The allusion is to the first eclogue of Virgil, in which the poet describes himself, under the name of Tityrus, as allured from his farm and native Mantua by the beauty and grandeur of Rome.

z Of Carlo Dati and Antonio Francini, two of our author's warm friends and panegyrists at Florence, we have spoken in

Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Hæc mihi tum læto dictabat roscida luna,
Dum solus teneros claudebam cratibus hædos.
Ah quoties dixi, cùm te cinis ater habebat,
Nunc canit, aut lepori nunc tendit retia Damon,
Vimina nunc texit, varios sibi quod sit in usus!
Et quæ tum facili sperabam mente futura
Arripui voto levis, et præsentia finxi;

"Heus bone! numquid agis? nisi te quid fortè retardat, "Imus? et argutâ paulùm recubamus in umbrâ, "Aut ad aquas Colni, aut ubi jugera Cassibelauni? a "Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gramina, succos, "Helleborumque, humilesque crocos, foliumque hya"cinthi,

"Quasque habet ista palus herbas, artesque medentûm."
Ah pereant herbæ, pereant artesque medentûm,

Gramina; postquam ipsi nil profecere magistro!
Ipse etiam, nam nescio quid mihi grande sonabat
Fistula, ab undecimâ jam lux est altera nocte,
Et tum fortè novis admôram labra cicutis,
Dissiluere tamen ruptâ compage, nec ultra

Ferre

graves potuere sonos: dubito quoque ne sim
Turgidulus, tamen et referam; vos cedite, silvæ.

Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Ipse ego Dardanias Rutupina per æquora puppes b

the preceding part of our narrative. The Lydian origin of the Tuscans is known to every reader of Horace, without any reference to more recondite authorities.

a The Colne is a river of Buckinghamshire which flows near Horton, the residence of Milton's father. The town of Colnbrook derives its name from this river, or rather rivulet. By Cassibelauni jugera we are to understand, as Mr. Warton informs me, Verulam, or St. Albans.

In the fabulous history of Britain, Brutus, the grandson of Eneas, leads a colony of Trojans to this island, which he conquers and civilizes. He had previously married Inogen, the

le domum

Dicam, et Pandrasidos regnum vetus Inogeniæ,
Brennumque Arviragumque duces, priscumque Belinum,
Et tandem Armoricos Britonum sub lege colonos;
Tum gravidam Arturo, fatali fraude, lögernen,
Mendaces vultús, assumptaque Gorlöis arma,
Merlini dolus. O mihi tum si vita supersit,
Tu procul annosâ pendebis, fistula, pinu,
Multùm oblita mihi; aut, patriis mutata Camoenis,
Brittonicum strides: quid enim? omnia non licet uni,
Non sperâsse uni licet omnia, mî satis ampla
Merces, et mihi grande decus, (sim ignotus in ævum
Tum licèt, externo penitùsque inglorius orbi,)
Si me flava comas legat Usa, et potor Alauni,
Vorticibusque frequens Abra, et nemus omne Treantæ,
Et Thamesis meus ante omnes, et fusca metallis
Tamara, et extremis me discant Orcades undis.

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daughter of some Grecian king, called Pandrasus. Rutupium is Richborough on the coast of Kent. Armorica (or Bretagne) in France was conquered and occupied by the Britons, at the time, as it is generally supposed, that they were pressed by the Saxons. But we have no certain accounts of this emigration and conquest.

• Uther Pendragon, being changed by the magic of Merlin into the likeness of Gorlois, prince of Cornwall, got possession of his wife, lögerne's bed; and Arthur was the offspring of the trespass.

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Usa is perhaps the Ouse in Buckinghamshire. (WARTON.) Abra is a name, which has been given to the Tweed, the Severn, and the Humber. With Milton, in this place, it probably designates the last of these rivers. The Tamar, a Cornish river, is discoloured by running through metallic strata. Thule, a name which, receded with the extension of the Roman geography, farther to the north, and was latterly given to Iceland, is here assigned to the Orkneys, the northern extremity of the limits proposed by the poet to his fame, as the Tamar forms the southern.

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