OF

(2) THE NAME LYCIDAS

(From The Athenæum for Aug. 1, 1891)

F the many pastoral names at his service, why did Milton select Lycidas to designate his college friend Edward King? Commentators refer us to Virgil's Ninth Eclogue, in which two shepherds-Lycidas and Morisdiscourse on certain ejectments that are taking place, and also on certain things poetical. Both are themselves versewriters, and gracefully quote each other's songs. Lycidas seems to accept the title of 'poeta,' though he modestly shrinks from that of 'vates':

Et me fecere poetam

Pierides, sunt et mihi carmina; me quoque dicunt
Vatem pastores; sed non ego credulus illis ;
Nam neque adhuc Vario videor nec dicere Cinna
Digna, sed argutos inter strepere anser olores.

And this Vergilian use of the name, probably enough, was in Milton's mind when he wrote his exquisite monody. But still more, I wish now to suggest, was he influenced in his choice by three other poets, with whose works he was certainly well acquainted, and even familiar, viz., Theocritus, and two of the Italian pastoralists, Sannazaro and Giovanni Baptista Amaltei.

In one of the most delightful of Theocritus's idyls we are introduced to a goatherd Lycidas. As Simichidas with his friends Eucritus and Amyntas were on the road to a certain festival, they met another wayfarer; it was Lycidas, a goatherd, as everybody might see who looked at him :

καὶ τιν ̓ ὁδίταν

ἐσθλὸν σὺν Μοίσαισι Κυδωνικὸν εὕρομες ἄνδρα
οὔνομα μὲν Λυκίδαν, ὃς δ ̓ αἰπόλος οὐδέ κέ τίς μιν
ἠγνοίησεν ἰδών, ἐπεὶ αἰπόλῳ ἔξοχ ̓ ἑῴκει,

We learn that he is a well-known minstrel :

συρικτὰν μεγ ̓ ὑπείροχον ἔν τε νομεῦσιν

ἔν τ ̓ ἀμητήρεσσι

And with little delay Simichidas proposes that they shall pastoral it together :

-

Βουκολιασώμεσθα τάχ ̓ ὤτερος ἄλλον ὀνασεῖ.

Lycidas, after deprecating extravagant praise, sings a song, some of whose echoes may well have attracted Milton's ears when he was brooding over the loss of a friend by shipwreck, as certainly they were not forgotten when he wrote the 'Hymn on the Nativity.' It speaks of one Ageanax, who is voyaging to Mitylene; and promises him calm seas, if only he will deliver Lycidas from the love wherewith he is consumed :

Ἔσσεται ̓Αγεάνακτι καλὸς πλόος εἰς Μυτιλάναν,
χῶταν ἐφ' ἑσπερίοις ἐρίφοίς νότος ὑγρὰ διώκῃ
κύματα, χωρίων ὅτ ̓ ἐπ ̓ ὠκεανῷ πόδας ἴσχει,
αἴκεν τὸν Λυκίδαν ὀπτώμενον ἐξ ̓Αφροδίτας
ῥύσηται· θερμὸς γὰρ ἔρως αὐτῶ με καταίθει.
χάλκυόνες στορεσεῦντι τὰ κύματα τάν τε θάλασσαν
τόν τε νότον τόν τ' εὗρον ὃς ἔσχατα φυκία κινεῖ.
άλκυονες γλαυκαῖς Νηρηίσι ταί τε μάλιστα
ὀρνιθων ἐφίληθεν, ὅσαις τέ περ ἐξ ἁλὸς ἄγρα.
ὥρια παντα γένοιτο, καὶ εὔπλοος ὅρμον ἵκοιτο.

An eclogue of Joh. Bapt. Amaltheus is entitled Lycidas:

His deploratum in sylvis nemorumque latebris
Dicemus Lycidæ musam ; quem flumina circum
Quem flevere suo spoliati gramine colles.

Lycidas, it appears, has to leave the land that loves him,

Jussus terras lustrare repostas;

and in this his last song bids it adieu :—

Effudit miseros extremo hoc carmine questus.

The lovely hills and the fields that the Muses haunt, and the liquid fountains and the caves that neighbour the fountains, and the woodland shades-he bids them all adieu. From their embrace the impious fates tear him asunder to traverse 'the monstrous world,'

Ut videam iratas errantia monstra per undas.

He weeps for the so sweet scenes of so many happy memories, which he must now needs quit. He bethinks him of the gentle breezes amidst which he had sung so gaily, and prays them to be with him on his voyage :—

Vos placidæ salvete auræ, mecumque per æquor
Atque per insuetos mecum decurrite campos—

Nunc vero quoniam superi tot gaudia noctis
Invidere, trucis tentare pericula ponti,

Et Pyrenæo considere vertice certum est.

Lastly, a certain eclogue by Actius Syncerus Sannazarius, gave associations to the name Lycidas, which certainly in some degree determined Milton's choice. This is the eclogue entitled Phillis, or Phyllis in the old spelling (which was probably inspired by a false etymology.) Like Milton's poem, it is an elegy. Two shepherds, Lycidas and Mycon, on the anniversary of Phillis's death, recall that sad day and all its distresses :

:

Ecce dies aderat, charam qua Phyllida terræ

Condidimus, tumuloque pias deflevimus umbras.

Mycon urges Lycidas to testify their grief and their love in some threnody

Sed tu, siquid habes, veteres quod lugeat ignes,

Quod manes cineresque diu testetur amatos,

Q

Incipe; quandoquidem molles tibi littus arenas
Sternit, et insani posuerunt murmura fluctus.

And standing by Phillis's tomb Lycidas wails his wail. Phillis, it appears, was to have been his bride; and he cannot live without her. What place will the sea-gods find for him in their domain, for he cannot but have done with the earth, and will become 'liquidi novus incola ponti ?' Who, who was it that snatched her from his arms? He will seek her in the deep :—

Nunc juvat immensi fines lustrare profundi ;
Perque procellosas errare licentius undas
Tritonum immistum turbis, scopulosaque cete
Inter et informes horrenti corpore Phocas.

Then, forgetting the swift extinction to which he had just sentenced himself, he vows to build altars and offer sacrifices to his lost love. Panope and her sisters shall weave dances in her honour. And she shall become a deity. At tu sive altum felix colis æthera, seu jam Elysios inter manes cætusque verendos [Midst 'solemn troops and sweet societies '] Lethæos sequeris per stagna liquentia pisces; Seu legis æternos formoso pollice flores, Narcissumque crocumque, et vivaces amaranthos, Et violis teneras misces pallentibus algas, Adspice nos mitisque veni; tum numen aquarum Semper eris, semper lætum piscantibus omen.

Compare Milton's words :

Henceforth thou art the genius of the shore
In thy large recompense, and shalt be good
To all that wander in that perilous flood.

P.S.-Since writing the above note, I find with much pleasure that Mr Symonds, in his Renaissance in Italy, has called attention to the influence on Milton of the Renaissance Latin verse, though he does not refer to the special poems I have named.

DID MILTON SERVE IN THE PARLIAMENTARY ARMY?

IN

(From The Academy for Oct. 31, 1876)

N the second volume, pp. 472, et seq., of his Life of Milton, Professor Masson raises the question whether the poet ever was in arms among the Parliamentarians. He seems to feel that Milton ought to have been so; and also he finds in his writings a singularly minute acquaintance with military matters, of which he gives some very interesting illustrations. On the whole, Professor Masson concludes that Milton did not actually serve. 'The proof positive,' he says, 'that Milton was not in the Parliamentary army is furnished by his own hand;' and he presently proceeds to quote the famous sonnet written, 'When the Assault was intended to the City.' Strangely enough, he overlooks a passage in the Defensio Secunda, where Milton speaks explicitly and fully on this very point. It would seem that he was conscious that some persons in his own time thought, as his learned biographer in ours, that he ought to have taken his place in the ranks, and he vindicates himself at some length. Possibly he may have suffered some appeals of conscience on the subject. We may be sure he had fully debated the question with himself in that inner 'forum.' He was not the man to shrink from any duty, however distasteful, that he recognised to be a duty, 'were it the meanest under-service, if God by his secretary-conscienceenjoin it, it were sad for me if I should draw back.' The passage from the Second Defence is as follows:

Atque illi quidem (those who took up arms for the laws and religion. Deo perinde confisi, servitutem honestissimis armis pepulere; cujus