Yea there, where very defolation dwells By grots and caverns fhagg'd with horrid shades, 430 v. 428. where very defolation dwells ] PAR. LOST, B. i. 181. "The feat of defolation." WARTON. v429. By grots and caverns Shagg'd with horrid Shades.] Pope appears to have adverted to this line, ELOIS. ABEL. V. 20. Ye grots and caverns fhagg'd with horrid thorn. Again, in the fame poem, v.24. I have not yet forgot myself to ftone. Almost as evidently from our author's IL PENS. V. 42. Forget thyself to marble. Pope again, ibid. v. 244. And low-brow'd rocks hang nodding o'er the deeps. From L'ALLEGRO, V. 8. There under ebon fhades and low-brow'd rocks. And in the MESSIAH, V. 6. touch'd Isaiah's hallow'd lips with fire. So, in the ODE NATIV. V.28. See fupr. at v. 24. and 380. And infr. at v. 861. And ESSAY ON POPE, p. 307. §. vi. edit. 2. This is the firft inftance of any degree even of the flightest attention being paid to Milton's fmaller poems by a writer of note, fince their firft publication. Milton was never mentioned, or acknowledged, as an English poet, till after the appearance of PARADISE LOST: and, long after that time, thefe pieces were totally forgotten and overlooked. It is ftrange that Pope, by no means of a congenial fpirit, fhould be the first who copied COMUS or IL PENSEROSO. But Pope was a gleaner of the old English poets; and he was here pilfering from obfolete English poetry, without the leaft fear or danger of being detected. WARTON. horrid Jhades.] PAR. LOST, B. ix. 185. Nor yet in horrid Jhade, or difmal den. Ibid. And PAR. REG. B. i. 296. A pathlefs defert, dufk with horrid Shades. Compare Taffo, GIER. LIB. C. xii. 29. Me n' andai fconofciuto, e per foresta Caminando, di piante horrida ombrofa-EDITOR. v. 430. —with unblench'd majesty.] Unblinded, unconfounded. See Steevens's Note on Blench, in HAMLET, at the close of the fecond Act. And Upton's GLOSS. Spenfer, V. Blend. And Tyrwhitt's GLOss. Ch. V. Blent. In B. and Fletcher's PILGRIM, A. iv. S. iii. vol. v. p. 516. Some fay, no evil thing that walks by night, That breaks his magic chains at Curfeu time, 435 -Men that will not totter, Nor blench much at a bullet. WARTON. v. 432. Some fay, no evil thing that walks by night.] Milton had Shakspeare in his head. HAMLET, A. i. S. i. Some fay, that ever 'gainst that season comes Another fuperftition is ufhered in with the fame form in PAR. Yearly injoin'd, fome fay, to undergo This annual humbling, certain number'd days. Where, doctor Newton fays, "I know not, nor can recollect, "from what author or what tradition Milton borrowed this notion." But doctor Warburton faw, it was from old romances. And the fame form occurs in the defcription of the phyfical effects of Adam's fall. B. x. 668. WARTON. Ibid. no evil thing that walks by night, In fog, or fire, by lake, or moorish fen, &c.] Milton here had his eye on the FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS, A. i. He has borrowed the fentiment, but raised and improved the diction. I have heard, (my mother told it me, And now I do believe it) if I keep My virgin flow'r uncropt, pure, chaste, and fair, Shall hurt my body, or by vain illusion Draw me to wander after idle fires;' Or voices calling me &c. NEWTON. 434. Blue meager hag.] Perhaps from Shakspeare's "blue"eyed hag." TEMP. A.i. S. ii. Ibid. WARTON. -Stubborn unlaid ghost That breaks his magic chains at Curfeu time.] An unlaid ghoft was among the most vexatious plagues of the world of Ipirits. It is one of the evils deprecated at Fidele's grave, in CYMBELINE, A. iv. S. ii. No exorcifer harm thee, Nor no witchcraft charm thee, Ghoft unlaid forbear thee! The metaphorical expreffion is beautiful, of breaking his magic chains, for "being fuffered to wander abroad." And here too the fuperftition is from Shakspeare, K. LEAR, A. iii. S. iv. "This "is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at Curfew, and walks No goblin, or fwart faery of the mine, "till the firft cock." Compare alfo Cartwright, in his play of the ORDINARY, where Moth the antiquary fings an old fong, A. ii. S. i. p. 36. edit. 1651. He wishes, that the house may remain free from wicked fpirits, From Curfew time To the next prime. Compare Note on IL PENS. v. 83. Profpero, in the TEMPEST, invokes thofe elves, among others, that rejoyce To hear the folemn Curfew. A. v. S. i. That is, they rejoice at the found of the Curfew, becaufe at the close of day announced by the Curfew, they are permitted to leave their feveral confinements, and be at large till cock-crowing. MACBETH, A. ii, S. iii. Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, ซ. 436. Swart faery of the mine.] In the Gothic fyftem of pneumatology, mines were fuppofed to be inhabited by various forts of fpirits. See Olaus Magnus's Chapter de METALLICIS DEMONIBUS, HIST. GENT. SEPTENTRIONAL. vi. x. In an old tranflation of Lavaterus De Spectris et Lemuribus, is the following paffage. "Pioners or diggers for metall do affirme, that "in many mines there appeare ftraunge Shapes and Spirites, "who are apparelled like vnto the laborers in the pit. These "wander vp and downe in caues and underminings, and feeme "to befturre themselves in all kinde of labor; as, to digge after "the veine, to carrie together the oare, to put it into basketts, and "to turn the winding wheele to drawe it vp, when in very deed "they do nothinge leffe, &c.". "Of GHOSTES and SPIRITES "walking by night, &c." Lond. 1572, Bl. Lett. ch. xvi, p. 73. And hence we fee why Milton gives this fpecies of Fairy a fwarthy or dark complexion. Georgius Agricola, in his tract De SUBTERRANEIS ANIMANTIBUs, relates among other wonders of the fame fort, that thefe Spirits fometimes affume the most terrible fhapes; and that one of them, in a cave or pit in Germany, killed twelve miners with his peftilential breath. Ad calc. De RE METALL. p. 538. Bafil. 1621. fol. Drayton personifies the Peak in Derbyshire, which he makes a witch skilful in metallurgy. POLYOLB. S. Xxvii. vol. iii. p. 1176. The Sprites that haunt the mines fhe could correct and tame, To testify the arms of Chastity? Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow, 440 445 See alfo POLYOLB. S. iii. ed. 1622. p. 63. Keysler, in his TRAVELS, fpeaking of Idria in Germany, fays, " As the inhabitants "of all mine-towns have their stories of goblins, fo are the people "here ftrongly poffeffed with a notion of fuch apparitions that "haunt the mines." vol. iii. p. 377. In certain filver and lead mines in Wales, nothing is more common, it is pretended, than thefe fubterranean fpirits, who are called knockers, and who goodnaturedly point out where there is a rich vein. They are reprefented as little ftatured, and about half a yard long. See Grofe's POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS, 1787. p. 41 And the GENT. MAG, vol. 65. p. 559. The goblin is claffed with the faery of the mine by an elaborate writer on the fubject. See Wierus De Præftigiis Dæmonum, lib. i, cap. 22. edit. Bafil. 1583. EDITOR. v. 440. To teftify the arms of Chastity?] St. Jerome, arguing on the fame fubject, calls " Antiquity from the old schools of Greece "to testify the arms of Chastity." Ad Principiam Virginem. "Ut autem fcias femper VIRGINITATEM gladium habere pudi"citiæ &c: gentilis quoque error Deas virgines finxit armatas." Hieronym, OPP. Tom. iii. p. 72. edit. Franc. fol. EDITOR. v. 441. Hence &c.] Milton, I fancy, took the hint of this beautiful mythological interpretation from a dialogue of Lucian betwixt Venus and Cupid, where the mother asking her fon how, after having attack'd all the other Deities, he came to fpare Minerva and Diana, Cupid replies, that THE FORMER look'd fo fiercely at him, and frighten'd him fo with the Gorgon Head which he wore upon her breast, that he durft not meddle wit her. Kai apa de douù, xai ini το ςήθος ἔχει πρόσωπον τι φοβερὸν, ἐχίδναις κατάκομον, ὅπερ ἐγὼ μάλισα δέδια· μορμολύτλεται γάρ με, καὶ φεύγω ὅταν ἴδω αὐτὸ and that as to DIANA, The was always fo employed in hunting, that he could not catch her. καταλαβεῖν αὐτὴν οἶοντε, φεύγεσαν ἀεὶ διὰ τῶν ὁρῶν. ΤΗΣ Ε. v. 445. The frivolous bolt of Cupid.] This reminds one of the "dribbling dart of Love," in M. FOR MEASURE. Bolt, I be. lieve, is properly the arrow of a crofs-bow. Fletcher, FAITHF. SHEPH. A. ii. S. i. p. 134. -with bow and bolt, To fhoot at nimble fquirrels in the holt. WARTON. See Shakspeare, MIDS. NIGHT'S DREAM, A. ii. S. ii. Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell. EDITOR. Fear'd her ftern frown, and she was Queen o'th' woods. And noble grace that dash'd brute violence 450 455 v. 449. Wherewith She freez'd her foes.] Milton here uses the regular form of the past time of the verb, freeze. So Chaucer, TEST. OF CRESEIDE, V. 19. "The frofte frefid." EDITOR. to congeal'd ftone.] The fourth foot is unac Ibid. cented, as above, at v. 273. Not any boast of skill, but extreme fhift And in PAR. Lost, B. i. 735. And fat as Princes, whom the fupreme King Compare Shakspeare, RICH. III. A. i. S. ii. See, fee! dead Henry's wounds Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afresh! Where the fecond foot is unaccented, as at v. 11. 66 Amongst "the enthron'd Gods;" and again, at v. 217. "That He, the "Supreme Good." EDITOR. v. 450. But rigid looks &c.] Rigid looks refer to the fnaky locks, and noble grace to the beautiful face, as Gorgon is represented on ancient gems. WARBURTON. v. 451. that dafl'd brute violence.] PAR. REG. B. i. 218. to fubdue and quell o'er all the earth Brute violence. THYER. v. 455. A thousand liveried Angels lacky her.] The idea, without the lowness of allufion and expreffion, is repeated in PARAD. L. B. viii. 559. About her, as a guard Angelic plac'd. WARTON A paffage in St. Ambrole, on VIRGINS, might have fuggefted this remark. "Neque mirum fi pro VOBIS Angeli militant quæ Angelorum moribus militatis. Meretur eorum præfidium Caftitas "virginalis, quorum vitam meretur. Et quid pluribus exequar "laudem Caftitatis? Caftitas enim angelos facit.". Ambros. OPP. Tom, iv. p. 536. edit Paris. 1586. fol. EDITOR... |