Blow is here used neutrally for makes to blow, like assiduo resonat cantu, see Virgil, lib. VII. 12. See Milton, Par. Lost, b. II. The character of Moloch seems to have given Addison many hints in his formation of the character of Sempronius. The same boisterousness and impetuosity is the prominent feature of both characters, Moloch exclaims, My sentence is for open war. In Cato, Sempronius says, "My voice is still for war. Line 5f. See what Addison says, Spectator, Vol. IV. No. 309, "(Loose his beard and hoary hair Stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air.)" GRAY'S Bard. This simile seems to have been suggested by a passage in Milton, Par. Lost, b. I. where Azazel unfurls the standard, which, full high advanced, Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind. In the same Ode Gray goes on, "Girt with many a baron bold, &c." Milton says, And what resounds In fable or romance of Uther's son Begirt with British and Armoric knights. For who would lose, 580. Though full of pain, this intellectual being, &c. &c. Milton, Par. Lost, b. II. 146. Though the thought is much finer in Gray, and very different, the cast of this passage is not unlike his well known "For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, As when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet This beautiful expression is to be found in a rather obscure passage of Shakespeare. See Henry VI. act II. sc. i. part 3. "See how the morning opes her golden gates, Mr. Gray has an expression of this sort in a most exquisite stanza, very justly commended by Mr. Mason, which is not inserted in his Elegy: "Him have we seen the greenwood side along, If my memory does not deceive me, I think I recollect a more immediate imitation of the passage in Milton in a beautiful little poem of Dr. J. Warton's, but for the want of the book am unable to quote it.* Gray, who hardly ever borrows ideas from any author whatever of his own country, has occasionally honoured Milton by imitating him. He has taken a whole line from bis L'Allegro, line 60. Right against the eastern gate, When the great sun begins his state. "Right against the eastern gate Descent of Odin. He has adopted an attribute from Milton's Penseroso: see his Description of Melancholy. There held in holy passion still, [* It is in the last line of his Ode to Evening: O modest Evening! oft let me appear That fills with farewell sweet thy dark'ning plain. F "And melancholy, silent maid, Gray's Ode to Adversity. At best the expression is a very unpoetical one, and hardly worth borrowing. In Milton it is still worse, from its contrast with the foregoing image of forgetting herself to marble. Milton describes Sabrina with amber-dropping hair, Comus, 863. We find the same attribute given to the daughters of Sabrina in Withers's Epithalamia, edit. 1622. Locks of amber are given to the Sun in Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 140. "Where's Sabrina with her daughters Those that with their locks of amber Milton a little further on talks of diamond rocks, 881. G. Fletcher, in his Christ's Victorie, part I. st. 61, edit. 1610, has "maine rocks of diamound." To Mr. Warton's note on Comus 837, I beg leave to add the following similar passage. from Bion as 'Taxivov. Idyll. ix. 3. 6 Χριεν δ' αμβροσίη και νεκταρι, χριεν απασών Ωτειλαν. Μοίραισι δ' αναλθεα φαρμακα παντα.” "Ungebat etiam ambrosia et nectare, ungebat totum Vulnus sed Parcis omnia remedia vana sunt." To the note, 5 Eleg. p. 462, in which Mr. Warton observes the circumstance of Milton's composing early in the morning, I beg leave to add the following passage from Horace, B. II. Ep. 1, 1. 112. "prius orto Sole, vigil calamum, et chartas, et scrinia posco.” These intimations, which we discover in great writers themselves relative to their lives or their works, are always acceptable to well-directed curiosity. Milton uses a compound epithet that might have been suggested to him by Spenser. The sun-clad power of chastity. "Sun bright honour." Comus 782. Shep. Calen. October To Mr. Warton's excellent note on "the great vision of the guarded mount," Lycid. 161, let me add, that Spenser had introduced this, probably for the first time, into our poetry. See Shep. Calend. July, where Morrel says, "In evil hour thou henst in hond St. Michel's Mount who does not know; That wards the Western coast?" &c.'. Compare this with the old rhymes quoted by Mr. Warton from Carew. Milton calls the song of the nightingale love-labour'd, Par. Lost, book V. 41. Spenser has something like this when he talks of "the birds love-learned song," vol. V. p. 95, Hughes's edit. Milton says of the birds, : but feather'd soon and fledg'd They summ'd their pens. Drayton has this phrase: Par. Lost, b. VII. 420. "The Muse from Cambria comes, with pinions summ'd and sound." Poly-Olb. Song 11. It is evident from what has been adduced by his several commentators, that Milton was not averse to borrowing hints from the popular poets of his day; and it is more than probable that many of his finest images were originally suggested by passages so much inferior from his improvement. on them as to be now scarcely discernible. He must have been an attentive reader of "The Purple Island." I mention it, therefore, in order to observe, that the earliest personification of Contemplation, I know of in our poetry, is to be found there, where it is stiled, ' still-musing Contemplation. Cant. 9. st. 12. Pope has his "ever-musing Melancholy." Milton's "cherub Contemplation" is, I believe, the next that we find. Milton describes the lark as startling the dull night," Alleg. 42. He might, previously to his writing the passage, have been struck with a very lively description of the same subject in the above-mentioned Canto of Fletcher: "The cheerful lark, mounting from early bed, Stan 2 Browne had been beforehand with them both in one of his Pastorals: "Here danc'd no nymph, no early-rising larke Compare Drayton's Description of Elysium from p. 1443 to 1448, Oldys's edit. vol. IV. with Milton, from 240 to 268, Par. Lost, book IV. Dr. J. Warton has observed on Mr. T. Warton's edition of Milton's Minor Poems, p. 159, that our great Bard has coined many beautiful compound epithets. Among many that he instances, he mentions love-durting eyes. Milton no doubt, has enriched our language with some epithets of the kind of his own coinage; but in general he had recourse to Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas, a very fertile storehouse for materials of this kind, and he might there probably have found love-darting, as it there occurs: "Whoso beholds her sweet love-darting eyn." 66 I will lay before the reader many epithets of much merit extracted from the before-mentioned Translator. "Honeysteeped style," 64; "figure-flowing pen," 124; "soulecharm image," 124; "Heaven-tuned harp," 124; "rosecrowned Zephyrus," 123; "forest-haunting heards," 123; "opal-coloured morn," 121; ghastly-grim," applied to Death, 50; "bright-brown clouds," 127; "milde-eyd Mercy," 141; "bane-breath'd serpent," 133; "manytowred crest," 128: but I have already enumerated more than perhaps are necessary. Peck also had been beforehand with Dr. W. on this particular in Milton; see pp. 117, 18, 19, of his, Memoirs. But I think our divine Bard is under higher obligations to Sylvester than for an occasional epithet. From a very exuberant description of Sleep, his gell, attendants, &c. the following is transcribed: "In midst of all this cave so dark and deep, |