His daughter she (in Saturn's reign, 25 Such mixture was not held a stain). gory is, that Melancholy is the daughter of Genius, which is typified by the bright-haired goddess of the eternal fire. Saturn, the father, is the god of saturnine dispositions, of pensive and gloomy minds. T. Warton. 66 30 35 likewise, who says it is a common term in Ben Jonson. 35. Undoubtedly cyprus is the true spelling. Quinque aurifrigia, quorum tria sunt opere cyprensi noblissimo, et unum "est de opere Anglicano." Lib. 35. And sable stole, &c.] Here Anniv. Basilic. Vatican. apud Ruis a character and propriety in beum in Vit. Bonifacii viii. P. P. the use of the stole, which, in the p. 345. See also Charpentier, poetical phraseology of the pre- Suppl. Gloss. Cang. tom. i. col. sent day, is not only perpetually 391. "Unum pluviale de canceo misapplied, but misrepresented." rubeo, cum aurifrigio de opere It was a veil which covered the head and shoulders; and, as Mr. Bowle observes, was worn only by such of the Roman matrons, as were distinguished for the strictness of their modesty. He refers us to the Le Imagini delle Donne, di Enea Vico. In Vinegia, 1557. p. 77. 4to. See also Albert Durer's Melancholia, where this description is exactly answered. T. Warton. 35.cyprus lawn,] In Milton's editions it is cipres lawn ; but I presume the word is cyprus, as Mr. Sympson observed "cyprensi." See Life of Sir T. Pope, p. 343. edit. 2. It is a thin transparent texture. So Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act iii. s. 1. -A cyprus, not a bosom, Lawn as white as driven snow, Come, but keep thy wonted state, With even step, and musing gait, With a sad leaden downward cast And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet, Epigrams, lxxiii. Dryden, by a Come away, come away, Death, And in sad cypress let me be laid. That is, in a shroud, not in a coffin of cypress-wood. See also Drummond's Sonnets, Edinb. 1616. P. i. sign. B. T. Warton. 36. decent shoulders,] Not exposed, therefore decent. T. Warton. 40. Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:] Thy ravished soul. So in Comus, 764. "Kindle my 40 45 "rapt spirits." And in many other passages of our author. See the note on P. L. iii. 522. T. Warton. 41. There held in holy passion still, Forget thyself to marble,] So in the Epitaph on Shakespeare, There thou our fancy of itself bereaving, Dost make us marble by too much conceiving. In both instances excess of thought is the cause. T. War ton. 43. With a sad leaden downward cast] The same epithet Shakespeare applies to Contemplation, in his Love's Labour's Lost. For when would you, my liege, or you, or you In leaden contemplation have found out &c. Thyer. 47. And hears the Muses in a ring Aye round about Jove's altar sing:] And add to these retired Leisure, That in trim gardens takes his pleasure; But first, and chiefest, with thee bring, Him that yon soars on golden wing, 50. That in trim gardens takes his pleasure.] Affectation and false elegance were now carried to the most elaborate and absurd excess in gardening. Laurem burgius, a physician of Rostock in Germany, has described some singular monuments of this extravagance at Chartres in France, and Hampton Court in England, " where in privet are figured va"rious animals, the royal arms "of England, and many other "things." Many gardens of England, he adds, as well as of Italy, were to be praised for a wonderful variety of these verdant sculptures. Horticultura, lib. i. cap. 29. s. iii. The pedantry of vegetation has not yet expired in some of our more remote counties. Milton, I fear, alludes to the trim garden in Arcades, 46. and in Comus, 984, 985, 990. But he had changed his ideas of a garden when he wrote the Paradise Lost. T. Warton. See Mr. Dunster's remarks on Milton's taste in this particular, P. R. ii. 289. E. 52. Him that yon soars on golden wing, &c.] Spenser has likewise given a description of Contemplation, but he describes him under the figure of a venerable old man; and I cannot but agree with Mr. Thyer, that there is more propriety in this than in the gayer personage of Milton. 52. By contemplation, is here meant that stretch of thought, by which the mind ascends "to the "first good, first perfect, and first "fair;" and is therefore very properly said to soar on golden wing, guiding the fiery-wheeled throne; that is, to take a high and glorious flight, carrying bright ideas of deity along with it. But the whole imagery alludes to the cherubic forms that conveyed the fiery-wheeled car in Ezekiel, x. 2. seq. See also Milton himself, Par. L. vi. 750. So that nothing can be greater or juster than this idea of Divine Contemplation. Contemplation, of a more sedate turn, and intent only on human things, is more fitly described, as by Spenser, under the figure of an old man; time and experience qualifying men best for this office. Hurd. Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne, And the mute Silence hist along, I cannot agree with Doctor Newton about this representation of Contemplation. To say nothing, that gaiety cannot very properly belong to the notion of a being, who is "guiding the "fiery-wheeled throne." Shakespeare has indeed given us the vulgar cherub, in K. Hen. VIII. act i. s. 1. -Their dwarfish pages were As cherubims, all gilt. But that Milton's uniform conception of this species of angel was very different, appears from various passages of the Paradise Lost. Satan calls Beelzebub "fallen Cherub," b. i. 57. Cherub and Seraph, part of the rebel warrior-angels, are "rolling in "the flood with scattered arms "and ensigns." Ibid. 324. Again, "Millions of flaming swords are "drawn from the thighs of mighty "Cherubim," b. i. 665. The cherub Zephon is a leader of the radiant files of heaven; and, in the figure of a graceful young severe in youthful "beauty," rebukes Satan, b. v. 797, 845. 'A cherubic watch, a cohort bright of watchful cherubim," is stationed on the eastern verge of Paradise, b. xi. man, 66 120, 128. Other examples are T. Warton. 56. 'Less Philomel will deign a song, In her sweetest, saddest plight, Smoothing the rugged brow of night,] Compare Shakespeare, Sonnet li. and see note, P. R. iv. 246. As Philomel in summer's front doth sing, And stops bis pipe in growth of riper days, Not that the summer is less pleasant Sweet bird that shunn'st the noise of folly, Thee chauntress oft the woods among I woo to hear thy even-song; And missing thee, I walk unseen 59. Add from Shakespeare, Mids. N. Dr. act iii. s. 9. For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast. T. Warton. 61. Sweet bird, &c.] It is remarkable that here he begins his time from evening, as in L'Allegro from the early morning, and here with the nightingale as there with the lark. And as Mr.Thyer observes, this rapturous start of the poet's fancy in praise of his favourite bird is extremely natural and beautiful and it is worth the reader's while too to observe, how finely he makes it serve to connect his subject, and insensibly as it were to introduce the following charming night-scene. 68. Riding near her highest noon.] So in P. L. v. 174. of the sun. -Both when thou climb'st, 65 70 And when high noon hast gain'd, and when thou fall'st. See the note, Sams. Agon. 683. A moon of light T. Warton. 74. I hear the far-off curfeu sound, &c.] William the Conqueror, in the first year of his reign, commanded that in every town and village a bell should be rung every night at eight of the clock, and that all persons should then put out their fire and candle, and go to bed; the ringing of which bell was called curfeu, Fr. couvre-feu, that is, cover-fire. See the Glossary to |