Would soon unbosom all their echoes mild, Might think th' infection of my sorrows loud 55 This subject the author finding to be above the years he had, when he wrote it, and nothing satisfied with what was begun, left it unfinished. V. On Time *. FLY envious Time, till thou run out thy race, So little is our loss, So little is thy gain. For when as each thing bad thou hast intomb'd, With an individual kiss; And Joy shall overtake us as a flood, * In these poems where no date is prefixed, and no circumstances direct us to ascertain the time when they were composed, we follow the order of Milton's own editions. And before this copy of verses, it appears from 5 10 the manuscript that the poet had written To be set on a clock-case. 12. individual] Eternal, inseparable. As in P. L. iv. 485. v. 610. See note on dividual, P. L. vii. 382. T. Warton. 14. sincerely good.] Purely, And perfectly divine, With truth, and peace, and love, shall ever shine Of him, t' whose happy-making sight alone When once our heav'nly-guided soul shall clime, Attir'd with stars, we shall for ever sit, 15 20 Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, O Time. VI. Upon the Circumcision. YE flaming pow'rs, and winged warriors bright, Seas wept from our deep sorrow: perfectly, good; as in Comus, 455. T. Warton. 18.-happy-making sight,] The plain English of beatific vision. 7. Your fiery essence can distil no tear, Burn in your sighs,] Milton is puzzled how to reconcile the transcendent essence of angels with the infirmities of men. He met with a similar difficulty in describing the repast of Raphael in Paradise; P. L. 5 10 v. 434-443. In the present 10. He who with all heav'n's Enter'd the world, now bleeds to give us ease; Sore doth begin His infancy to seize! O more exceeding love or law more just? Were lost in death, till he that dwelt above And that great covenant which we still transgress And the full wrath beside Of vengeful justice bore for our excess, And seals obedience first with wounding smart This day, but O ere long Huge pangs and strong Will pierce more near his heart". 15 20 25 Improbus ille puer: crudelis tu quoque mater. Richardson. 20. Emptied his glory,] An exby pression taken from Phil. ii. 7. but not as it is in our translation, He made himself of no reputation, but as it is in the original, izvtov Exevos, He emptied himself. Of sovereign power, &c. And again, b. ii. 516. Or heraldry may mean retinue, train, the procession itself; what he otherwise calls pomp. See the note, P. L. viii. 60. T. Warton. 15. O more exceeding love or law more just? 24. for our excess,] He has used the word in the same sense Paradise Lost, xi. 111. Bewailing their excess— but I think with greater pro Just law indeed, but more ex- priety there than here. ceeding love!] Virgil, Ecl. viii. 49. *It is hard to say, why these three odes on the three grand Crudelis mater magis, an puer im- incidents or events of the life of probus ille ? Christ, (the Nativity, the Passion, VII. At a Solemn Music. BLEST pair of Sirens, pledges of heav'n's joy, the Circumcision,) were not at 2. Sphere-born harmonious sisters, voice and verse.] So, says Mr. Bowle, Marino in his Adone, c. vii. 1. 5 Compare L'Allegro, 137. See -marrying so my heavenly verse In that King's Poeticall Exercises, 6. of pure concent,] So we read in the manuscript, and in the edition of 1673, and we prefer the authority of both to the single one of the edition in 1645, which has of pure content. 6. Concent, not consent, (which Tonson first reads, ed. fol. 1695.) is the reading of the Cambridge manuscript. Hence we should correct Jonson, in an Epithalamium on Mr. Weston, vol. vii. 2. And in the Foxe, a. iii. s. iv. p. 483. vol. vii. Works, ed. 1616. And perhaps Shakespeare, K. Henr. V. a. i. s. 2. For government, tho' high, and low, and lower Aye sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne With saintly shout, and solemn jubilee, With those just spirits that wear victorious palms, Singing everlastingly; That we on earth with undiscording voice concent is the diapason of the music of the spheres in Plato's system. See P. L. v. 625. and the note on Arcades, 64. But Plato's abstracted spherical harmony is here ingrafted into the song in the Revelations. T. Warton. 7. -the sapphire-colour'd throne] Alluding to Ezek. i. 26. And above the firmament that was over their heads, was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone. 10. -in burning row] He had With those just spirits that wear While all the starry rounds and arches blue Resound and echo Hallelu; That we on earth &c. The victorious palms is in allusion to Rev. vii. 9. clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. 10 15 14. Compare P. L. vi. 882. and the Epitaph. Damon. 216. Lætaque frondentis gestans umbracula palmæ. T. Warton. 17-25. That we on earth, &c. -renew that song] Perhaps there are no finer lines in Milton, less obscured by conceit, less embarrassed by affected expressions, and less weakened by pompous epithets. And in this perspicuous and simple style are conveyed some of the noblest ideas of a most sublime philosophy, heightened by metaphors and allusions suitable to the subject. T. Warton. 18. May rightly answer that melodious noise ;] The following lines were thus at first in the manuscript. By leaving out those harsh ill sounding jurs Of clamorous sin that all our music mars And in our lives, and in our song |