II.

For since grim Aquilo, his charioteer,
By boisterous rape the Athenian damsel got,
He thought it touch'd his deity full near,
If likewise he some fair one wedded not,
Thereby to wipe away the infamous blot

10

uses the verb with much finer effect; which perhaps he remembered in Chaucer's Ballad in commendacion of our Ladie, v. 45.

"O benigne braunchilet of the pine-tre,

"Vinarie envermailed, refreshir of bodé." TODD.

Ver. 6.

thought to kiss,

But kill'd, alas !] Copied probably from Shakspeare's Venus and Adonis :

"He thought to kiss him, and hath kill'd him so.”

NEWTON.

P. Fletcher has the same conceit, Purp. Isl. c. v. st. 61. ed. 1633.

"Thus Orpheus wanne his lost Eurydice,

"Whom some deaf snake, that could no musick heare,
"Or some blinde neut, that could no beautie see,

"Thinking to kiss, kill'd with his forked spear." TODD. Ver. 8. For since grim Aquilo, &c.] Boreas ravished Orithyia, Ovid. Metam. vi. 677. T. WARTON.

Ver. 12.

the infamous blot] Doctor Newton observes that Milton here uses the Latin accent on infamous, namely on the second syllable. But this is a common accent in our elder poetry; as in Drummond's Urania, 1616.

"On this infamous stage of woe to die."

And in Sylvester's Du Bart. 1621, p. 241.

"By thine infamous life's accursed state."

And in Carew's Coel. Britannicum, 1633.

"Th' infamous lights from their usurped sphere."

See also P. Fletcher, Pisc. Eclog. 1633, p. 4.

Of long-uncoupled bed and childless eld, Which, 'mongst the wanton gods, a foul reproach was held.

III.

So, mounting up in icy-pearled car,

Through middle empire of the freezing air
He wander'd long till thee he spied from far;

15

"And now he haunts th' infamous woods and downs." I apprehend, from the sense also of the word in this last illustration, that infamous in Comus, v. 424, should be thus accented:

66

Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds." TODD.

Ver. 13. Of long-uncoupled bed &c.] The poet seems to allude particularly to the case of Pluto, as reported by Claudian, De Raptu Proserp. i. 32.

"Dux Erebi quondam tumidas exarsit in iras,
"Prælia moturus Superis, quod solus egeret

66

Connubii, sterilésque diu consumeret annos, "Impatiens nescire torum, nullásque mariti

66

Illecebras, nec dulce patris cognoscere nomen."

NEWTON.

Ver. 15. So, mounting up in icy-pearled car,] We should rather read ice-ypearled. And so in the Mask, rush-yfringed, v. 890. Otherwise, we have two epithets instead of one, with a weaker sense. Milton himself affords an instance in the Ode on

The Nativity, v. 155.

"Yet first to those ychain'd in sleep."

Of the prefixture of the augment y, in a concatenated epithet, there is an example in the Epitaph on Shakspeare, v. 4.

"Under a star-ypointing pyramid." T. WARTON.

Yet Milton uses similar compound epithets, without prefixing y to the latter of them; as rosy-bosom'd, fiery-wheel'd, flowerykirtled. The fine compound icy-pearled owes its origin probably to Sylvester, as Mr. Dunster also observes, Du Bart. 1621, p.

There ended was his quest, there ceas'd his care:
Down he descended from his snow-soft chair,

But, all unawares, with his cold-kind embrace 20 Unhous'd thy virgin soul from her fair biding place.

IV.

Yet art thou not inglorious in thy fate;

For so Apollo, with unweeting hand,
Whilom did slay his dearly-loved mate,
Young Hyacinth, born on Eurotas' strand,

25

310, where the hail-stones are called "ice-pearls," and again p. 1096,"the bounding bals of ice-pearl." See also p. 240. "Icy crystall." TODD.

Ver. 21.

thy virgin soul] An expression in Barnfield's Lady Pecunia, 4to. 1605, sign. C. 2.

"But now more Angels than on earth yet weare

"Her golden impresse, haue to heauen attended
"Her virgin soule."

See also Donne's Poems, ed. 4to. p. 235. TODD.
Ver. 23. For so Apollo, with unweeting hand,

Whilom did slay his dearly-loved mate,

Young Hyacinth,] From these lines one would suspect, although it does not immediately follow, that a boy was the subject of the Ode. The child is only called a fair infant in, the edition 1673, where this piece first appeared, although it was written in 1625. So also in Tonson, 1705. Tickell's title is a Fair Infant, a NEPHEW of his, &c. This is adopted by Fenton. But in the last stanza the poet says expressly;

"But thou the mother of so sweet a child,

"Her false-imagin'd loss cease to lament."

Yet, in the eighth stanza the person lamented is alternately sup posed 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, and probably her first child.

T. WARTON.

Young Hyacinth, the pride of Spartan land;

But then transform'd him to a purple flower: 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, 30
Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed,

Hid from the world in a low-delved tomb:
Could Heaven for pity thee so strictly doom?

Oh no! for something in thy face did shine
Above mortality, that show'd thou wast divine.

VI.

Resolve me then, oh Soul most surely blest,
(If so it be that thou these plaints dost hear ;)
Tell me, bright Spirit, where'er thou hoverest,
Whether above that high first-moving sphere,
Or in the Elysian fields, (if such there were ;)

35

40

Ver. 26. Young Hyacinth,] Observe the repetition as in Lycidas, ver. 9.

"For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,

"Young Lycidas," &c. TODD.

Ver. 31. Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed,] This fine periphrasis for grave, is from Shakspeare, Mids. N. Dr. A. iii. S. ult.

"Already to their wormy beds are gone." T. WARTON. Ver. 38. Tell me, bright Spirit, where'er thou hoverest,

Whether above that high first-moving sphere, &c.] These hypothetical questions are like those in Lycidas, "Whether beyond," &c. ver. 156. Originally from Virgil, Georg. i. 32. "Anne novum tardis sidus," &c. T. WARTON.

Ver. 40.

(if such there were ;)] He should

have said are, if the rhyme had permitted. HURD.

Oh say me true, if thou wert mortal wight,

And why from us so quickly thou didst take thy flight?

VII.

Wert thou some star which from the ruin'd roof
Of shak'd Olympus by mischance didst fall;
Which careful Jove in Nature's true behoof
Took up,
and in fit place did reinstall?
Or did of late Earth's sons besiege the wall

Of sheeny Heaven, and thou, some goddess fled, Amongst us here below to hide thy nectar'd head?

Ver. 44.

45

shak'd] For shaken. So, in Cymbeline, A. ii. S. 2. "A sly and constant knave, not to be shak'd."

Again in Troil, and Cressid. A. i. S. 3.

"O when degree is shak'd.”

T. WARTON.

It appears indeed to have been an usual participle both before, and in, Milton's time. Thus in Archbishop Parker's Transl. of the Psalms, p. 169.

"Even thou that hast sore shak't our land."

And in the Hist. of Sir Clyomon, 1599, of a ship: "she was through storms sore shak't.”

And in Randolph's Poems, 1640:

"From her shak'd side the native engines flye."

Again, in Herrick's Hesperides, 1648, p. 91, “More shak't thy self," &c. TODD.

Ver. 48. Of sheeny Heaven,] In Spenser's Mother Hubberd's Tale, ver. 1269.

"And beautifie the sheenie firmament." T. WARTON. The word is shinie in Spenser's own edition, but is converted into sheenie in subsequent editions: The original word is restored in that of 1805.

Ver. 49.

175.

TODD.

nectar'd head?] As in Lycidas, ver.