Mr. Warton, in his concluding criticism on this poem, imagines, that by "the gray-fly winds her sultry horn," the Poet describes "the sun-set by the buzzing of the chafer." But morning, noon, and night, I apprehend, are here distinguished; sultry agrees much better with noon than with sun-set. The horn of the gray-fy is probably the peculiarly distinct tone of the gnat*. The chafer which flies in the evening, the Scarabæus Melolontha, emerges from the ground at the first expansion of the leaves, when the weather is seldom sultry at any time of the day; the flight of the solstitial chafer is, as its name implies, at Midsummer, and is not, like the other, confined particularly to the evening; but the appearance of both these insects is too local and temporary to have been alluded to by our poet in such general terms. The pansy freakt with jet. v. 144. Or beauteous freakt with many a mingled hue." Johnson, in his Dictionary, erroneously supposes freakt to be a Scottish word, brought into England by Thomson. He touch'd the tender stops of various quills. v. 188. By this imaginary pipe of various quills, the Doric flute, or the pipe of Pan, is intended, which the shepherd in Theocritus forms of nine points of equal length, placed by the side of each other. (Idyl. 8. v. 21.) But that of Virgil is composed of seven which are unequal. (Ecl. 2. v. 36.) Milton in his fifth elegy, follows Virgil. "Nunc quoque septena modulatur arundine pastor. Or whether (as some sager sing)" The frolick wind that breathes the spring, v. 13. ¡ As some SAGER sing. By this expression it appears that Milton is of opinion, that Mirth is rather the offspring of Zephyr and Aurora, that is, a temperate climate, and early hours, than of Bacchus and Venus: in this light I always understood the passage, and with deference think the alteration of sager to sages unnecessary. Through the sweet-briar, or the vine, v. 47. Sweet-briar and Eglantine are the same plant; by the epithet twisted, the poet seems to intend the honeysuckle or woodbine. Sometimes with secure delight The upland hamlets will invite. v. 91. "Secure delight," "At secura quies." Virg. G. l. 2. v. 467. Upland means rude or uncultivated, and is used in that sense to this day in Essex. Rustic festivities were anciently held at the borders of forests. Mr. Warton cites in a note on v. 126, from the "Poetical Miscellanies of Phineas Fletcher, Cambr. 1633, 4to. p. 58." "Clad with a saffron robe, in's hand a torch." But the real line of Fletcher is, "Clad with a saffron coat, in's hand a light."* It is a pity the learned author suffers his works to be disgraced by inaccuracies so easily to be avoided. Married to immortal verse. "To marry mine immortal Layes to their's." v. 137. Sylvester's Du Bartas. 5 day, 1 week. And add to these retired Leisure, That in trim gardens takes his pleasure. IL PENSEROSO. V. 49. [* This error is corrected in the second edition. E) Retired leisure is the Epicurean philosophy personified. "Inscriptum hortulis (Epicuri): Hospes heic bene manebis, heic summum bonum voluptas est." Senec. Epist. 21. "Epicurum exigui lætum plantaribus horti.” Juven. Sat. 13, v. 122. However just the commentator's remarks may be on the quaint gardens of former centuries, there seems to be little foundation for fixing this taste on Milton in any part of his life; he does not place his chearful man among clipped and distorted ever-greens, but, By hedge-row elms, on hillocks green; and the prospect which entertains him is perfectly free And shadows brown that Sylvan loves Where the rude axe with heaved stroke If there are any allusions to the topiary art in Arcades, they were intended as a compliment to his patroness at Harefield, where the gardens were probably in the prevailing taste of the times. That." trim gardens" does not necessarily imply unnatural ornament, is plain from Meadows trim with daisies pied. While the bee with honied thie, "See the small brookes- L'Allegro. V. 142. With the smooth cadence of their murmuring. Drayton's Owle. Hor. Epod. 2. v. 27. "Fontesque lymphis obstrepunt manantibus; VOL II. Approach, and kiss her sacred vesture's hem. ARCADES, V. 85. "Fairfax, in the metrical dedication of his Tasso to Queen Anne, commands his Muse not to approach too boldly, nor to soil Her vesture's sacred hem.” WARTON What Queen Anne does Mr. Warton mean, and from what edition of Fairfax's translation does he quote "her vesture's sacred hem?” The edition before me is dedicated "To her high Majestie," concluding, "Your Maiesties humble subject," and, as it was printed in 1600, can be applied to no other queen but Elizabeth. Anne of Denmark, the queen: of James, did not come into England till the year 1603, and the verse is, "Her hand, her lap, her vesture's hem.” Poor Anne, her vesture's hem was not held very sacred by her craven consort, or his minions. O thievish night, Why should'st thou, but for some felonious end, COMUS, V. 195. « Κλέπτων γαρ η αυξ, τησδ' αληθειας το φως. Eurip. Iphig. in Taur. v. 1226. This might be rendered thus in old English; "the night is for thieves, but the day for true men." The folded flocks penn'd in their wattled cotes. Thyrsis? whose artful strains have oft delay'd' V. 494. "Orphea Arte materna, rapidos morantem Hor. lib. 1. Od. 12. v. 8. I hate when vice can bolt her arguments. V: 760. Bolting meal at the mill is, I believe, a modern invention; and bolting would not so often have been alluded to by our ancient writers, if that process had been only carried on in the mill; but, a century ago, almost every family had a bolting-hutch, the use of which was consequently familiar to the poets of those times. Modern refinement hath obscured many allusions in our old authors, by consigning spinning, weaving, dying, and other formerly domestic employments, to different trades. To hide her guilty front with innocent snow." ODES. Hymn on the Nativity, v. 39. Hath not this Cowleyan conceit an impropriety in bringing snow so far south as Bethlehem, nearly in latitude thirty-one? The winds with wonder whist Smoothly the waters kist, Whisp'ring new joys to the mild ocean, Who now hath quite forgot to rave, While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave. V. 64. "Perque dies placidos hiberno tempore septem Ovid. Met. lib. 11. v. 745. Thy age, like our's, O soul of Sir John Cheek, "In Cambridge also, in St. Johns Colledge, in my time, I doe know, that not so much the good statutes, as two jentlemen of worthy memory, Syr John Cheke and Doctour Redman, by their onely example of excellencie in learning, of godliness in lyving, of diligence in studying, of counsell in exhorting, by good order in all things, did brede up, so |