ELEGIARUM LIBER. ELEG. I. AD CAROLUM DEODATUM.a TANDEM, care, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ, Nuda nec arva placent, umbrasque negantia molles: Si sit hoc exilium patrios adiisse penates, Non ego vel profugi nomen sortemve recuso, Lætus et exilii conditione fruor. 10 15 20 a Charles Deodate was one of Milton's most intimate friends: he was an excellent scholar, and practised physic in Cheshire. He was educated with our author at St. Paul's school, and from thence was sent to Trinity college, Oxford, where he was entered February 7, 1621, at thirteen years of age. He was a fellow-collegian there with Alexander Gill, another of Milton's intimate friends, who was successively usher and master of St. Paul's school. Deodate has a copy of Alcaics extant in an Oxford collection on the death of Camden, called "Camdeni Insignia." He left the college, when he was a gentleman-commoner, in 1628, having taken the degree of master of arts. Toland says, that he had in his possession two Greek letters, very well written, from Deodate to Milton. Two of Milton's familiar Latin letters, in the utmost freedom of friendship, are to Deodate: both dated from London, 1637. But the best, certainly the most pleasing evidences of their intimacy, and of Deodate's admirable character, are our author's first and sixth Elegies, the fourth Sonnet, and the "Epitaphium Damonis:" and it is highly probable, that Deodate is the "simple shepherd lad," in "Comus," who is skilled in plants, and loved to hear Thyrsis sing, v. 619, seq. He died in the year 1638. This Elegy was written about the year 1627, in answer to a letter out of Cheshire from Deodate.-T. WARTON. e Me tenet urbs reflua quam Thamesis alluit unda. To have pointed out London, by only calling it the city washed by the Thames, would have been a general and a trite allusion: but this allusion being combined with the peculiar circumstance of the reflux of the tide, becomes new, poetical, and appropriate. The adjective reflua is at once descriptive and distinctive. Ovid has "refluum mare," "Metam." vii. 267.-T. WARTON. O, utinam vates nunquam graviora tulisset agro; Non tunc Ionio quicquam cessisset Homero, Et vocat ad plausus garrula scena suos. Detonat inculto barbara verba foro; Sæpe novos illic virgo mirata calores, Quid sit amor nescit; dum quoque nescit, amat. Et dolet, et specto, juvat et spectasse dolendo; Seu puer infelix indelibata reliquit Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit; Seu moret Pelopeia domus, seu nobilis Ili, Sed neque sub tecto semper, nec in urbe, latemus; Irrita nec nobis tempora veris eunt. Nos quoque lucus habet vicina consitus ulmo, Sæpius hic, blandas spirantia sidera flammas, d Excipit hinc fessum sinuosi pompa theatri, &c. 55 The theatre, as Mr. Warton observes, seems to have been a favourite amusement of Milton's youth. See "L'Allegro," v. 131.—TODD. • Sive decennali fœcundus lite patronus He probably means the play of "Ignoramus."-T. WARTON. By the youth in the first couplet, he perhaps intends Shakspeare's "Romeo;" in the second, either "Hamlet," or "Richard III." He then draws his illustrations from the ancient tragedians. The allusions, however, to Shakspeare's incidents do not exactly correspond. In the first instance, Romeo was not torn from joys "untasted:" although "puer" and "abrupto amore" are much in point. The allusions are loose, or resulting from memory, or not intended to tally minutely.-T. WARTON. Atque suburbani nobilis umbra loci. Some country-house of Milton's father very near London is here intended, of which we have now no notices.-T. WARTON. Collaque bis vivi Pelopis quæ brachia vincant, Et decus eximium frontis, tremulosque capillos, Et quæcunque vagum cepit amica Jovem. Et quot Susa colunt, Memnoniamque Ninon ; Tu nimium felix intra tua moenia claudis Quot tibi, conspicue formaque auroque, puellæ Ast ego, dum pueri sinit indulgentia cæci, Et vitare procul malefidæ infamia Circes Paucaque in alternos verba coacta modos. h Et quot Susa colunt, Memnoniamque Ninon. Susa, anciently a capital city of Susiana in Persia, conquered by Cyrus. Xerxes marched from this city, to enslave Greece. It is now called Souster. Ninos is a city of Assyria, built by Ninus; Memnon, a hero of the Iliad, had a place there, and was the builder of Susa. Milton is alluding to oriental beauty. In the next couplet, he challenges the ladies of ancient Greece, Troy, and Rome.-T. WARTON. 1 Nec Pompeianas Tarpëia Musa, &c. The poet has a retrospect to a long passage in Ovid, who is here called "Tarpeia Musa," either because he had a house adjoining to the Capitol, or by way of distinction, that he was the Tarpeian, the general Roman Muse.-T. Warton. The learned Lord Monboddo pronounces this Elegy to be equal to anything of the "elegiac kind, to be found in Ovid, or even in Tibullus."-T. WARTON. ELEG. II. In Obitum Præconis Academici Cantabrigiensis. J TE, qui, conspicuus baculo, fulgente, solebas n Alipes, ætherea missus ab arce Patris : i The person here commemorated is Richard Ridding, one of the university-beadles, and a master of arts of St. John's college, Cambridge. He signed a testamentary codicil, September 23, 1626, proved the eighth of November following.-T. WARton. k It was a custom at Cambridge, lately disused, for one of the beadles to make proclamation of convocations in every college. This is still in use at Oxford.-T. WARTON. 1 Talis, &c. These allusions are proofs of our author's early familiarity with Homer.-T. WARTON. m Magna sepulcrorum regina. A sublime poetical appellation for Death; and much in the manner of his English poetry.-T. WARTON. n Pondus inutile terræ. Homer, "Il." xviii. 104.-Jos. Warton. • Et madeant lacrymis nigra feretra tuis. Here seems to be an allusion to the custom of affixing verses on the pall, formerly perhaps more generally observed at Cambridge. "Lacrymis tuis" are the funeral poems, as "tear" is in "Lycidas," v. 14.-TODD. This Elegy, with the next on the death of bishop Andrewes, the Odes on the death of professor Goslyn and bishop Felton, and the poem on the fifth of November, are very correct and manly performances for a boy of seventeen. This was our author's first year at Cambridge. They discover a great fund and command of ancient literature.-T. WARTON. ELEG. III. in Obitum Præsulis Wintoniensis. p-ANNO ÆTATIS 17. Dum procerum ingressa est splendentes marmore turres Et memini heroum, quos vidit ad æthera raptos, "Mors fera, Tartareo diva secunda Jovi, Et crocus, et pulchræ Cypridi sacra rosa? Et quot alunt mutum Proteos antra pecus. Quid juvat humana tingere cæde manus; P Lancelot Andrewes, bishop of Winchester, had been originally master of Pembrokehall in Cambridge; but long before Milton's time. He died at Winchester-house in Southwark, Sept. 21, 1626.-T. WARTON. 9 Fecit in Angliaco quam Libitina solo. A very severe plague now raged in London and the neighbourhood, of which 35,417 persons are said to have died.-T. WARTON. • Tunc memini clarique ducis, &c. I am kindly informed by Sir David Dalrymple,-" The two generals here mentioned, who died in 1626, were the two champions of the Queen of Bohemia; the Duke of Brunswick, and Count Mansfelt: Frater' means a sworn brother in arms, according to the military cant of those days. The next couplet respects the death of Henry Earl of Oxford, who died not long before." Henry, Earl of Oxford, Shakspeare's patron, died at the siege of Breda in 1625.-T. WARTON. Et Tartessiaco, &c. Ovid, "Metam." xiv. 416 :-" Presserat occiduus Tartessia littora Phoebus." "Tar |