Which when I did, he on the tender grafs See Ovid, EPIST. PONT. iv. ii. 37. Hic, mea CUI RECITEM, &C. Again, TRIST. iv. i. 18. Sed neque CUI RECITEM, quifquam eft, &c. The tranfitions and connections of this Elegy, are conducted with the skill and address of a master, and form a train of allusions and digreffions, productive of fine fentiment and poetry. From a trifling and unimportant circumftance, the reader is gradually led to great and lofty imagery. I will give a fhort and hafty analysis. You have well described in your verses the merriments of Chriftmas. But why do you infinuate, that your poetry is weakened by feafting and wine? Bacchus loves poetry. And Phebus is not afhamed to decorate his brows with ivy-berries. Even the Mufes, mixed with Bacchanalian dames, have joined in their fhouts on mount Parnaffus. The worst of Ovid's poetry, is that which he fent from Scythia, where never vine was planted. What were Anacreon's fubjects but the grape and rofes? Every page of Pindar is redolent of wine; While the broken axle-tree of the proftrate chariot refounds, and the rider flies dark with the duft of Elis. It is when warmed with the mellow cafk, that Horace fweetly chants his Glycere, and his yellow-haired Chloe. Your genius has therefore been invigorated rather than depreffed by mirth. You have been facrificing to Bacchus, Apollo, and Ceres. No wonder your verses are so charming, which have been dictated by three deities. Even now you are liftening to the harp, which regulates the dance, and guides the fteps of the virgin in a tapestried chamber. At least give way to this milder relaxation. Such scenes infufe poetic warmth. Hence Elegy frames her tenderest song. Nor is it only by Bacchus and Ceres that Elegy is befriended: but by other feftive powers, by Erato, and by Love with his purple mother. Yet although the elegiac poet, and those who deal in the lighter kinds of verse, may enliven the imagination by these convivial gaieties; yet he who fings of wars, and Jove, pious heroes, and leaders exalted to demigods, the decrees of heaven, and the profound realms of hell, muft follow the frugal precepts of the Samian fage, muft quaff the pellucid stream from the beechen cup, or from the pure fountain. To this philofophy belong, chaste and blameless youth, severe manners, and unspotted hands. Thus lived Tirefias, fagacious after the lofs of fight, Ogygian Linus, the fugitive Chalchas, and Orpheus the conqueror of beafts in the lonely caverns. It was thus that the temperate Homer conducted Ulyffes through the tedious feas, the moniter-breeding hall of Circe, and the shallows of the fyrens, enfnaring men with female voices: and through your habitations, O king of the abyfs, where he detained the N° ELEG. VII. Anno tatis 19. 'Ondum blanda tuas leges, Amathusia, noram, Et Paphio vacuum pectus ab igne fuit. Sæpe cupidineas, puerilia tela, fagittas, Atque tuum fprevi maxime numen Amor. In genus humanum quid inania dirigis arma? 5 ΤΟ Non tulit hoc Cyprius, neque enim Deus ullus ad iras Promptior, et duplici jam ferus igne calet. Ver erat, et fummæ radians per culmina villæ At mihi adhuc refugam quærebant lumina no&tem, Aftat Amor lecto, pictis Amor impiger alis, Et quicquid puero dignum et Amore fuit. 16 20 the flocking ghofts with libations of black blood. For in truth, a poet is facred; he is the priest of heaven, and his bofom conceives, and his mouth utters, the hidden god. Meanwhile, if you wish to be informed how I employ myself as a poet, &c. 15. At mihi adbuc refugam qærebant lumina noctem, Nec matutinum juftinuere jubar.] Here is the elegance of poetical expreffion. But he really complains of the weakness of his eyes, which began early. He has " light unfufferable," ODE NATIV. V. 8. 21. Talis in æterno, &c.] This line is from Tibullus, iv. ii. 13. TALIS IN ETERNO felix Vertumnus OLYMPO. Mifcet amatori pocula plena Jovi; Et faciam vero per tua damna fidem. Et quoties meminit Peneidos, ipfe fatetur 2,5 30 35. 25. Addideratque iras, fed et has decuiffe putares.] This reminds us of what Olivia fays, of the fuppofed boy, with whom the falls in love. TWELFTH NIGHT, A. iii. S. i. O what a deal of fcorn LOOKS BEAUTIFUL In the contempt and ANGER of his lip. Compare Anacreon's BATHYLLUS, Xxviii. 12.. And Theocritus, ΕΡΑΣΤΗΣ, IDYLL. xviii. 14 - Αλλὰ καὶ ἔτως Ἦν καλός· ἐξ ὀργᾶς ἐρεθίζετο μᾶλλον ἐρασάς. -Attamen etiam fic Pulcher erat, ex ira magis accendebatur amator. And Shakespeare's VENUS and ADONIS, edit. 1596. Signat, A. iiij. Which bred more BEAUTIE in his ANGRIE eyes. We find alfo the fame idea in his ANTON. AND CLEOPATR.i.i. -Fye, wrangling queen! Whom every thing BECOMES: to chide, to laugh, To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd! 37. Cydoniufque mihi, &c.] Perhaps indefinitely as the Parthus eques, just before. The Cydonians were famous for hunting, which implies Infcius uxori qui necis author erat. Herculeæque manus, Herculeufque comes. Hærebunt lateri spicula noftra Jovis. implies archery. Ovid has, METAM. viii. 22. 40 45 "CYDONES QUE pharetras." And Callimacus, KYANNION Tóžov. HYMN. Dian. v. 81. If a perfon is here intended, he is moft probably Hyppolitus. Cydon was a city of Crete. See Euripides, HYPPOL. V. 18. But then he is mentioned here as an archer. Virgil ranks the Cydonians, with the Parthians, for their skill in the bow. N. xii. 852. PARTHUS, five CYDON, telum immedicabile torfit. Ibid. Et ille, &c.] Cephalus, who unknowingly shot his wife Procris. 38. Eft etiam nobis ingens quoque victus Orion.] Orion was also a famous hunter. But for his amours we must confult Ovid, ART. AMATOR. i. 731. Pallidus in Lyricen fylvis errabat Orion. See Parthenius, EROTIC. cap. xx. 46. Nec tibi Phabeus porriget anguis opem.] "No medicine “will avail you. Not even the ferpent, which Phebus fent to "Rome to cure the city of a peftilence." See Ovid, METAM, xi. 742. Huc fe de Latia pinu PHOEBEIUS ANGUIS Where fee the fable at large. Aurato quatiens mucrone fagittam.] So in PARAD. L. Here Love his GOLDEN fhafts employs, here lights Where, by the way, as Mr. Steevens has obferved to me, there is a palpable imitation of Jonfon, HYMENEI, Vol. V. p. 291. Marriage 50 Evolat in tepidos Cypridos ille finus. At mihi rifuro tonuit ferus ore minaci, Et mihi de puero non metus ullus erat. Et modo qua noftri spatiantur in urbe Quirites, Et modo villarum proxima rura placent. Turba frequens, facieque fimillima turba dearum, Splendida per medias itque reditque vias: Auctaque luce dies gemino fulgore corufcat: Fallor? An et radios hinc quoque Phœbus habet? Hæc ego non fugi fpectacula grata feverus, Marriage Love's object is, at whofe bright eyes He lights his torches, and calls them his skies; 55 But our author has a reference to Ovid's Cupid, who has a golden dart with a sharp point, which is attractive; and one of lead and blunted, which is repulfive, METAM. i. 470. Quod facit, AURATUM eft, et cufpide fulget ACUTA. So again, of faithlefs love," Strait his [Love's] arrows lose their GOLDEN heads." DIVORCE. B.i. ch. vi. PROSE-WORKS, i. 174. 57. See Note EL. i. 53. In Milton's youth the fashionable places of walking in London, were Hyde-Park, and Gray's-inn walks. This appears from fir A. Cokain Milton's contemporary. POEMS, Lond. 1662. 12mo. Written much earlier, A young he fays, p. 35. Frequents the theaters, HIDE PARK, or els talkes Take your unpaid for coach, and to HIDE PARK, And, in the fame poem, p. 39. Go into GRAYS INN WALKS, and you fhall fee This lady comes to fhew her new fine gown, Again, to his Miftrefs, p. 48. When you into HIDE PARK do go, all there lady. Impetus |