As if to show what creatures heav'n doth breed, To scorn the sordid world, and unto heav'n aspire? But oh why didst thou not stay here below 65 To stand 'twixt us and our deserved smart? Then thou the mother of so sweet a child 68. Or drive away the slaughtering pestilence,] It should be noted, that at this time there was a great plague in London, which gives a peculiar propriety to this whole stanza. 68. The application to present circumstances, the supposition that the heaven-loved innocence of this child. by remaining upon earth, might have averted the pestilence now raging in the kingdom, is happily and beautifully conceived. On the whole, 75 from a boy of seventeen, this Ode is an extraordinary effort of fancy, expression, 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 succeed in the Spenserian stanza. He moves with great ease and address amidst the embarrassment of a frequent return of rhyme. T. Warton. II. Anno ætatis 19. At a Vacation Exercise in the College, part Latin, part English. The Latin speeches ended, the English thus began. HAIL native language, that by sinews weak Small loss it is that thence can come unto thee, The daintiest dishes shall be serv'd up last. I pray thee then deny me not thy aid For this same small neglect that I have made: These verses were made in 1627, that being the nineteenth year of the author's age; and they were not in the edition of 1645, but were first added in the edition of 1673. 13. forecast,] See Sams. Agon. v. 254. T. Warton. 18. And from thy wardrobe bring thy chiefest treasure, 5 10 15 Not those new-fangled toys, and trimming slight Which takes our late fantastics with delight.] Perhaps he here alludes to Lilly's Euphues, a book full of affected phraseology, which pretended to reform or refine the English language; and whose effects, although it was published some Not those new fangled toys, and trimming slight years before, still remained. The But cull those richest robes, and gay'st attire, Which deepest spirits, and choicest From a youth of nineteen, these 20 25 30 19. Not those new-fangled toys] Dressed anew, fantastically decorated, newly invented. Shakespeare, Love's Lab. Lost, a. i. s. 1. At Christmas I no more desire a rose, Than wish a snow in May's neafangled shows. In Cymbeline, we have simply fangled, a. v. s. 4. "Be not, as our fangled world, &c." "Newand Fletcher. In our Church fangled work" occurs in B. Canons, dated 1603. sect. 74. vation in dress and doctrine. new fanglenesse is used for innoAnd so Spenser, F. Q. i. iv. 25. Full vaine follies and new-fanglenesse. See also Prefaces to Comm. Pr. of Cerem. A. D. 1549. and our Author's Prelatical Episcopacy, Pr. W. i. 37. and in Ulpian Fullwill's interlude, Like Wit to like, Nichol Newfangle is the vice. T. Warton. It 29. Yet I had rather, if I were to choose, Thy service in some graver sub ject use, &c.] appears by this address of Such as may make thee search thy coffers round, How he before the thunderous throne doth lie, To th' touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings Then passing through the spheres of watchful fire, Milton's to his native language, that even in these green years he had the ambition to think of writing an epic poem; and it is worth the curious reader's attention to observe how much the Paradise Lost corresponds in its circumstances to the prophetic wish he now formed. Thyer. Here are strong indications of a young mind anticipating the subject of the Paradise Lost, if we substitute Christian for Pagan ideas. He was now deep in the Greek poets. T Warton. 36. the thunderous throne] Should it not be the thunderer's? Jortin. Thunderous is more in Milton's manner, and conveys a new and stronger image. Besides, the word is used in Par. Lost, x. 702. Nature and ether black with thundrous clouds. It is from thunder, as slumbrous from slumber, Par. Lost, iv. 615. Wondrous from wonder is obvious. T. Warton. 37.-unshorn Apollo] An epithet by which he is distinguished in the Greek and Latin poets. 35 40 Pindar, Pyth. iii. 26. axegorxoua . Hor. Od. i. xxi. 2. Intonsum pueri dicite Cynthium. 40. Then passing through the spheres of watchful fire, &c.] A sublime mode of describing the study of natural philosophy. Compare another college exercise, written perhaps about the same time. Nec dubitatis, auditores, etiam in cœlos volare, ibique ille multiformia nubium spectra, niviumque coacervatam vim, contemplemini.... Grandinisque exinde loculos inspicite, et armamenta fulminum perscrutemini. Pr. W. ii. 591. But the thoughts are in Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 133. ed. 1621. supposes that the soul, while imprisoned in the body, often springs aloft into the airy regions; He And misty regions of wide air next under, 45 50 The fields he passed then, whence hail and snow, Thunder and rain fall down from clouds above. 42. Fairfax. green-ey'd Neptune] Virgil, Georg. iv. of Proteus. 48. Such as the wise Demodocus &c.] Alluding to the eighth book of the Odyssey, where Alcinous entertains Ülysses, and the celebrated musician and poet Demodocus sings the loves of Mars and Venus, and the destruction of Troy; and Ulysses and the rest are affected in the manner here described. 48. He now little thought that Homer's beautiful couplet of the fate of Demodocus, could, in a few years, with so much propriety be applied to himself. He was but too conscious of his resemblance to some other Greek the Paradise Lost. See b. iii. 33. bards of antiquity when he wrote seq. T. Warton. |