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And you a ftatue, or, as Daphne was,
Root-bound, that fled Apollo.

Lad.

Fool, do not boast, Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind With all thy charms, although this corporal rind Thou haft immanacled, while Heav'n fees good. 665 Com. Why are you vext, Lady? why do you frown? Here dwell no frowns, nor anger; from these gates Sorrow flies far: See, here be all the pleasures, That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts,

v.661.

or, as Daphne was,

Root-bound, &c.] The poet, inftead of faying root-bound, as Daphne was that fled Apollo, throws in root-bound into the middle betwixt the antecedent and the relative, a trajection altogether unufual in our language, but which must be allowed both to vary and raise the style; and, as the connection is not so remote as to make the language obfcure, I think it may not only be tolerated but praised. This way of varying the ftile is a figure very usual both in Greek and Latin. Lord Monboddo's ORIG. AND PROG. OF LANG. vol. iii. 2d edit. p. 101. EDITOR.

v. 663. Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind

With all thy charms.-] This Stoical idea of the invio. lability of virtue is more fully expreffed, v. 589. 90. WARTON. Compare Prior's SOLOMON. B. ii. 218. where the fair, indignant captive fays to the monarch,

This wretched body trembles at your power:

Thus far could Fortune, but she can no more.
Free to herself my potent mind remains,

Nor fears the victor's rage, nor feels his chains. ED. v. 666. This line confifts of a Choriambic and two Anapaefts. Why are you vext, Lady? why do you frown? ED. Here be all the pleasures, That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts, &c.] An echo to Fletcher, FAITHF. SHEPH. A. i. S. i. vol. iii. p. 119, Here be woods as green

v. 668.

As any, &c.

Here be all new delights, &c.

And again, p. 128.

Whofe virtues do refine

The blood of men, making it free and fair
As the first hour it breath'd, or the best air.

v. 669. That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts,

WARTON.

When the fresh blood grows lively, &c.] This is a thought

When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns 670
Brisk as the April buds in primrose-season.
And firft, behold this cordial julep here,
That flames and dances in his crystal bounds,
With fpirits of balm and fragrant fyrops mixt;
Not that Nepenthes, which the wife of Thone 675

of Shakspeare's, but vaftly improved by our poet in the manner of expreffing it. ROM. AND JUL. A. i. S. ii.

Such comfort as do lufty young men feel, When well-apparell'd April on the heel Of limping winter treads. THYER. Compare Taffo, GIER. LIB. C. xiv. 62.

O giovinetti, mentre Aprile, e Maggio

V' ammantan di fiorite, e verdi spoglie, &c. EDITOR. v. 673. That flames and dances in his cryftal bounds.] So in SAMS. AGON. V. 543. "the dancing ruby sparkling, out-pour'd." In both paffages the allufion is to PROV. xxiii. 31. "Look not "thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright." NEWTON.

66

Milton's expreffion, dances in his cryftal bounds, corresponds with the original, which the learned Dr. Hodgfon renders, in his Tranflation of the Book of Proverbs, "When it Sparkleth IN "THE GLASS; Glafs being used before the days of Solomon." And the dancing ruby Sparkling resembles the periphrafis for wine in the Perfian poetry, a melted ruby. Again in PAR. LOST, B. v. 633. "rubied Nectar." EDITOR.

v.674. With Spirits of balm and fragrant fyrops mixt.] Made more inebriating, like the bowl of Helen, or, like the mixed wine of the Hebrews, by the addition of higher ingredients, as fpices, opiates, and drugs. See bishop Lowth on ISAIAH, i. 22. EDITOR.

v. 675. Not that Nepenthes.-] The author of the lively and learned Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer, has brought together many particulars of this celebrated drug, and concludes, p. 135. edit. i. "It is true, they use opiates for pleasure all over "the Levant; but by the best accounts of them, they had them "originally from Egypt; and THIS OF HELEN appears plainly to "be a production of that country, and a custom which can be "traced from Homer to Auguftus's reign, and from thence to the age preceding our own." Dr. J. WARTON.

66

Compare Homer, ODYSS. A. 219. x. 7.λ. A curious treatise on this celebrated herb has been published, entitled "Petri Pe"titi Philofophi et Doctoris Medici Homeri NEPENTHES, five de "Helene Medicamento luctum, animique ægritudinem abolente, et aliis quibufdam eâdem facultate præditis, Differtatio." Traject. ad Rhen. 1689. EDITOR.

66

In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena,
Is of fuch pow'r to stir up joy as this,
To life fo friendly, or fo cool to thirst.
Why should you be fo cruel to yourself,

And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent 680
For gentle usage and foft delicacy?

But you invert the covenants of her truft,
And harfhly deal, like an ill borrower,

With that which you receiv'd on other terms;
Scorning the unexempt condition,

By which all mortal frailty must subsist,
Refreshment after toil, eafe after pain,

That have been tir'd all day without repaft,
And timely rest have wanted; but, fair Virgin,
This will reftore all foon.

Lad.

685

"Twill not, falfe traitor, 690 'Twill not restore the truth and honefty, That thou haft banish't from thy tongue with lies.

v. 676. Jove-born Helena.] Here the English word born, which anfwers to the Latin word natus, Milton has used in the claffical fenfe of natus; for the Romans faid natus ex patre, as well as ex matre; whereas, in common English we say only, born of the mother. Lord Monboddo's ORIG. AND PROG. OF LANG. vol. iii. 2d edit. p. 29. R. Niccols, in his Induct. MIR. FOR MAG. ed. 1610. has "Fove-born Phoebus," and again, p. 784. Jove-born Aftræa." EDITOR.

v. 679. Why Should you be fo eruel to yourself.] See Shakspeare, SONNET i. ed. Malone.. 1790, vol. x. p. 193..

Thyfelf thy foe, to thy fweet felf fo cruel. EDITOR.

v. 680. And to thofe dainty limbs.] Spenfer, F. Q. i. xi, 32. All night the watcht, ne once adowne would lay

Her dainty limbs.

The expreffion is repeatedly used in the FAERY QUEEN; and in G. Wither's MISTRESSE OF PHILARETE, 1622. See alfo Sir H. Wotton's SHORT HIST. OF WILLIAM I. "He was not of any "delicate texture; his limbs were rather sturdy than daynty." ED. which Nature lent.] So Shakspeare, SONNET. iv. ed. Malone, 1790. vol. x. p. 196.

Ibid.

Nature's bequest gives nothing, but doth lend;
And being frank, the lends to those are free.
Then, beauteous niggard, why doft thou abuse
The bounteous largefs given thee to give? STEEVENS.

Was this the cottage, and the fafe abode
Thou toldft me of? What grim afpects are thefe,
These ugly-headed monfters? Mercy guard me!
Hence with thy brew'd inchantments, foul deceiver !
Halt thou betray'd my credulous innocence
With vifor'd falfhood and bafe forgery?
And would't thou feek again to trap me here
With lickerish baits, fit to infnare a brute?
Were it a draft for Juno when the banquets,
I would not tafte thy treasonous offer; none

But fuch as are good men can give good things,
And that which is not good, is not delicious
To a well-govern'd and wife appetite.

V.

700

705

694. -What grim afpects are these?] So Drayton, PoLYOLD.

S. xxvii. vol. iii. p. 1196.

Her grim afpect to fee.

Again, ibid. S. xxx. vol. iii. p. 1225.

Th' afpect of these grim dales.

And Spenfer, F. Q. v. ix. 48.

With griefly grim afpect

Abhorred Murder.

WARTON.

So Shakspeare, RAPE OF LUCRECE.

fome ghaftly sprite

Whole grim afpect fets every joint a fhaking.

And Sir T. Overbury's CHARACTERS. ed. 1627. Effay on Valour. "They bee both of a trade, but he of grim afpect."

Milton uniformly follows the accentuation of afpect, by our elder poets, on the second fyllable. But the accentuation of the fubftantive convoy, on the fame fyllable, ver. 81, is perhaps peculiar to Milton. EDITOR.

v. 695. "Ougly," or "oughly-headed" in the old edd. See note, v. 695. APP. No. I. Tickell and Fenton read "owly headed." ED. v. 696. Hence with thy brew'd inchantments, foul deceiver !] Magical potions, brewed or compounded of incantatory herbs and poifonous drugs. Shakspeare's cauldron is a brewed inchantment, but of another kind. WARTON.

v. 700. With lickerish baits.] Dr. Newton and Mr. Warton read" liquorish baits.” EDITOR.

v. 702.

none

But fuch as are good men can give good things.] This noble fentiment Milton has borrowed from Euripides, MEDEA. v. 618. Κακὰ γὰρ ἀνδρὸς δῶρ ̓ ὄνησιν ἐκ ἔχει. NEWTON.

v. 704. And that which is not good, is not delicious

To a well-govern'd and wife appetite.} That is, an appe.

167974

Com. O foolishness of men! that lend their ears
To those budge doctors of the Stoic furr,
And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub,
Praifing the lean and fallow Abftinence.

Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710

tite in subjection to the rational part, and which is pleased with nothing but what reafon approves of: It is a noble sentiment, but expreffed in a manner which will appear flat and infipid to those who admire the present fashionable ftyle, far removed from the fimplicity of the antients. Milton was not only the greatest scholar and fineft writer of his age, but a good philofopher. See Lord Monboddo's "ANTIENT METAPHYSICS," vol. iii. Preface, p. xlii. EDITOR.

v. 707. To thofe budge doctors of the Stoic furr.] Thofe morofe and rigid teachers of abftinence and mortification, who wear the gown of the Stoic philofophy. Budge is fur, antiently an ornament of the fcholaftic habit. In the more ancient colleges of our Univerfities, the annual expences for furring the robes or liveries of the fellows, appear to have been very confiderable. "The Stoic fur" is as much as if he had faid "The Stoic fect." But he explains the obfolete word, in which there is a tincture of ridicule, by a very awkward tautology. WARTON.

Dr. Johnfon, in his Dictionary, introduces this paffage in order to illuftrate the ufe of budge, as an adjective, fignifying furly, ftiff, rugged. This definition accords with another expreffion, which is applied to the fame philofophers, in PAR. REG. B. iv. 280.

the fect

Epicurean, and the STOIC fevere.

The phrase "budge doctors" may thus feem highly appofite in the mouth of a contemptuous voluptuary. EDITOR.

v. 710. Wherefore did Nature &c. &c.] Randolph, in his MUSE'S LOOKING GLASS, A. ii. S. iii. ed. 1638. argues in the fame fpecious manner:

Nature has been bountiful

To provide pleasures, and fhall we be niggards
At plenteous boards? He's a difcourteous gueft
That will observe a diet at a feast.

When Nature thought the earth too little
To find us meat, and therefore ftor'd the air
With winged creatures; not contented yet,
She made the water fruitful to delight us, &c.
Did fhe do this to have us eat with temperance?
-Not to enjoy

All pleasures, and at full, were to make Nature
Guilty of that she ne'er was guilty of,

A vanity in her works. EDITOR,

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