PAGE NO. 58 LXVI 60 LXX 61 homeward, and to pity Lycidas, if his body has drifted into the troubled waters off the Land's End. Finisterre being the land due south of Marazion, two places in that district (then by our trade with Corunna probably less unfamiliar to English ears), are named,-Namancos now Mujio in Galicia, Bayona north of the Minho, or perhaps a fortified rock (one of the Cies Islands) not unlike Saint Michael's Mount, at the entrance of Vigo Bay. 1. 4 ore rays of golden light. Doric lay (1. 23) Sicilian, pastoral. The assault was an attack on London expected in 1642, when the troops of Charles I reached Brentford. 'Written on his door' was in the original title of this sonnet. Milton was then living in Aldersgate Street. 1. 10 The Emathian Conqueror: When Thebes was destroyed (B.c. 335) and the citizens massacred by thousands, Alexander ordered the house of Pindar to be spared. He was as incapable of appreciating the Poet as Lewis XIV of appreciating Racine: but even the narrow and barbarian mind of Alexander could understand the advantage of a showy act of homage to Poetry. 1. 1 the repeated air Of sad Electra's poet: Amongst Plutarch's vague stories, he says that when the Spartan confederacy in 404 B. C. took Athens, a proposal to demolish it was rejected through the effect produced on the commanders by hearing part of a chorus from the Electra of Euripides sung at a feast. There is however no apparent congruity between the lines quoted (167, 8 Ed. Dindorf) and the result ascribed to them. 62 LXXIII This high-toned and lovely Madrigal is quite in the style, and worthy of, the 'pure Simonides.' 63 LXXV Vaughan's beautiful though quaint verses should be compared with Wordsworth's great Ode, No. CCLXXXVII. 64 LXXVI Favonius: the spring wind. 65 LXXVII Themis: the goddess of justice. Skinner was grandson by his mother to Sir E. Coke;-hence, as pointed out by Mr. Keightley, Milton's allusion to the bench. L. 8: Sweden was then at war with Poland, and France with the Spanish Netherlands. 67 LXXIX 1. 10 Sydneian showers: either in allusion to the conversations in the Arcadia,' or to Sidney himself as a model of 'gentleness' in spirit and de meanour. 71 LXXXIV Elizabeth of Bohemia: Daughter to James I, and ancestor to Sophia of Hanover. These lines are a fine specimen of gallant and courtly compliment. 72 LXXXV Lady M. Ley was daughter to Sir J. Ley, afterwards Earl of Marlborough, who died March, 1628-9, coin PAGE NO. cidently with the dissolution of the third Parliament of Charles' reign. Hence Milton poetically compares his death to that of the Orator Isocrates of Athens, after Philip's victory in 328 B. C. 76 XCII, XCIII These are quite a Painter's poems. 80 XCIX 84 CV 85 CVI 87 CVII 88 CVIII 90 CXI 92 CXII From Prison to which his active support of Charles I Inserted in Book II as written in the character of a Corbies, crows: fail, turf: hause, neck: theek, The remark quoted in the note to No. XLVII applies equally to these truly wonderful verses, which, like 'Lycidas,' may be regarded as a test of any reader's insight into the most poetical aspects of Poetry. The general differences between them are vast: but in imaginative intensity Marvell and Shelley are closely related.-This poem is printed as a translation in Marvell's works: but the original Latin is obviously his own. The most striking verses in it, here quoted as the book is rare, answer more or less to stanzas 2 and 6: Alma Quies, teneo te! et te, germana Quietis, Simplicitas! vos ergo diu per templa, per urbes Quaesivi, regum perque alta palatia, frustra: Sed vos hortorum per opaca silentia, longe Celarunt plantae virides, et concolor umbra. L'Allegro and Il Penseroso. It is a striking proof of Milton's astonishing power, that these, the earliest pure Descriptive Lyrics in our language, should still remain the best in a style which so many great poets have since attempted. The Bright and the Thoughtful aspects of Nature are their subjects: but each is preceded by a mythological introduction in a mixed Classical and Italian manner. The meaning of the first is that Gaiety is the child of Nature; of the second, that Pensiveness is the daughter of Sorrow and Genius. 1. 2: Perverse ingenuity has conjectured that for Cerberus we should read Erebus, who in the Mythology is brother at once and husband of Night. But the issue of that union is not Sadness, but Day and Aether:-completing the circle of primary Creation, as the parents are both children of Chaos, tho first-begotten of all things. (Hesiod) 96 CXIII 97 98 66 1. 12 the mountain nymph; compare Wordsworth's Sonnet, No. ccx. L. 38 is in apposition to the preceding, by a grammatical license not uncommon with Milton. 1. 1 tells his tale: counts his flock. Cynosure (1. 14) the Pole Star. Corydon, Thyrsis &c.: Shepherd names from the old Idylls. 1. 24 Jonson's learned sock:-the gaiety of our age would find little pleasure in his elaborate comedies. L. 28 Lydian airs: a light and festive style of ancient music. 1. 3 bestead: avail. L. 19 starr'd Ethiop queen: Cassiopeia, the legendary Queen of Ethiopia, and thence translated amongst the constellations. 1. 29 Cynthia: the Moon: her chariot is drawn by dragons in ancient representations. 1. 16 Hermes, called Trismegistus, a mystical writer of the Neo-Platonist school. L. 27 Thebes &c. : subjects of Athenian Tragedy. Buskin'd (1,30) tragic. L. 32 Musaeus: a poet in Mythology. L. 37 him that left half told: Chaucer, in his incomplete 'Squire's Tale.' 1. 2 great bards: Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser, are here intended. L. 9 frounced: curled. The Attic Boy (1. 10) Cephalus. 100 CXIV Emigrants supposed to be driven towards America by the government of Charles I. 1. 9, 10 But apples, &c. A fine example of Marvell's imaginative hyperbole. 1. 6 concent: harmony. Summary of Book Third Ir is more difficult to characterize the English Poetry of the eighteenth century than that of any other. For it was an age not only of spontaneous transition, but of bold experiment: it includes not only such divergences of thought as distinguish the Rape of the Lock' from the 'Parish Register,' but such vast contemporaneous differences as lie between Pope and Collins, Burns and Cowper. Yet we may clearly trace three leading moods or tendencies:-the aspects of courtly or educated life represented by Pope and carried to exhaustion by his followers; the poetry of Nature and of Man, viewed through a cultivated, and at the same time an impassioned frame of mind by Collins and Gray:-lastly, the study of vivid and simple narrative, including natural description, begun by Gay and Thomson, pursued by Burns and others in the north, and established in England by Goldsmith, Percy, Crabbe, and Cowper. Great varieties in style accompanied these diversities in aim: poets could not always distinguish the manner suitable for subjects so far apart; and the union of the language of courtly and of common life, exhibited most conspicuously by Burns, has given a tone to the poetry of that century which is better explained by reference to its historical origin than by naming it, in the common criticism of our day, artificial. There is, again, a nobleness of thought, a courageous aim at high and, in a strict sense manly, excellence in many of the writers-nor can that period be justly termed tame and wanting in originality, which produced poems such as Pope's Satires, Gray's Odes and Elegy, the ballads of Gay and Carey, the songs of Burns and Cowper. In truth Poetry at this as at all times was a more or less unconscious mirror of the genius of the age and the brave and admirable spirit of Enquiry which made the eighteenth century the turning-time in European civilization is reflected faithfully in its verse. An intelligent reader will find the influence of Newton as markedly in the poems of Pope, as of Elizabeth in the plays of Shakespeare. On this great subject, however, these indications must here be sufficient. PAGE NO. The Bard. This Ode is founded on a fable that Edward I after conquering Wales, put the native Poets to death.-After lamenting his comrades (st. 2, 3) the Bard prophesies the fate of Edward II and the conquests of Edward III (4): his death and that of the Black Prince (5): of Richard II, with the wars of York and Lancaster, the murder of Henry VI, (the meek usurper,) and of Edward V and his brother (6). He turns to the glory and prosperity following the accession of the Tudors (7), through Elizabeth's reign (8): and concludes with a vision of the poetry of Shakespeare and Milton. 113 CXXIII 1. 13 Glo'ster: Gilbert de Clare, son-in-law to Edward. Mortimer, one of the Lords Marchers of Wales. 114 115 1. 3 Arvon: the shores of Carnarvonshire opposite Anglesey. L. 25 She-wolf: Isabel of France, adulterous Queen of Edward II. 1. 16 Towers of Julius: the Tower of London, built in part, according to tradition, by Julius Caesar. L. 22 bristled boar: the badge of Richard III. L. 28 Half of thy heart: Queen Eleanor died soon after the conquest of Wales. L. 38 Arthur: Henry VII named his eldest son thus, in deference to British feeling and legend. 117 cxxv The Highlanders called the battle of Culloden, Drumossie. 118 cxxvi lilting, singing blithely: loaning, broad lane: bughts, pens: scorning, rallying: dowie, dreary: daffin' and gabbin', joking and chatting: leglin, milkpail: shearing, reaping: bandsters, sheaf-binders: lyart, grizzled: runkled, wrinkled:fleeching, coaxing: gloaming, twilight bogle, ghost: dool, sorrow. 120 CXXVIII The Editor has found no authoritative text of this poem, in his judgment superior to any other of its class in melody and pathos. Part is probably not later than the seventeenth century: in other stanzas a more modern hand, much resembling Scott's, is traceable. Logan's poem (CXXVII) exhibits a knowledge rather of the old legend than of the old verses.Hecht, promised; the obsolete hight: mavis, thrush: ilka, every lav'rock, lark: haughs, valley-meadows: twined, parted from: marrow, mate: syne, then. 121 CXXIX The Royal George, of 108 guns, whilst undergoing a partial careening in Portsmouth Harbour, was overset about 10 A. M. Aug. 29, 1782. The total loss was believed to be near 1000 souls. In 124 CXXXI A little masterpiece in a very difficult style: Catullus himself could hardly have bettered it. grace, tenderness, simplicity, and humour it is worthy of the Ancients; and even more so, from the completeness and unity of the picture presented. 128 cxxxvi Perhaps no writer who has given such strong proofs of the poetic nature has left less satisfactory poetry than Thomson. Yet he touched little which he did not beautify: and this song, with 'Rule Britannia' and a few others, must make us regret that he did not more seriously apply himself to lyrical writing. 130 CXL 131 133 1. 1 Aeolian lyre: the Greeks ascribed the origin of 1. 9 Theban Eagle: Pindar. 135 CXLI 1. 23 chaste-eyed Queen: Diana. 136 CXLII Attic warbler: the nightingale. 138 CXLIV sleekit, sleek: bickering brattle, flittering flight: laith, loth: pattle, ploughstaff: whyles, at times: a daimen icker, a corn-ear now and then thrave, shock: lave, rest: foggage, aftergrass: snell, biting but hald, without dwelling-place: thole, bear: cranreuch, hoarfrost: thy lane, alone: a-gley, off the right line, awry. 142 CXLVII Perhaps the noblest stanzas in our language. 148 CLI 150 CLII drumlie, muddy: birk, birch. greet, cry: daurna, dare not. There can hardly exist a poem more truly tragic in the highest sense than this: nor, except Sappho, has any Poetess known to the Editor equalled it in excellence. CLIII fou, merry with drink: coost, carried: unco skeigh, very proud: gart, forced: abeigh, aside: Ailsa craig, a rock in the Firth of Clyde: grat his een blecrt, |