85

50

Nec mora, membra cavo posui refovenda cubili,

Condiderant oculos noxque soporque meos :
Cum mihi visus eram lato spatiarier agro;

Heu! nequit ingenium visa referre meum.
Illic punicea radiabant omnia luce,

Ut matutino cum juga sole rubent.
Ac veluti cum pandit opes Thaumantia proles,

Vestitu nituit multicolore solum.
Non dea tam variis ornavit floribus hortos

Alcinoi, Zephyro Chloris amata levi.t
Flumina vernantes lambunt argentea campos,

Ditior Hesperio flavet arena Tago.
Serpit odoriferas per opes levis aura Favoni,

Aura sub innumeris humida nata rosis.
Talis in extremis terræ Gangetidis oris

Luciferi regis fingitur esse domus.
Ipse racemiferis dum densas yitibus umbras,

Et pellucentes miror ubique locos,
Ecce ! mihi subito Præsul Wintonius astat;

Sidereum nitido fulsit in ore jubar;
Vestis ad auratos defluxit candida talos;

Infula divinum cinxerat alba caput:
Dumque senex tali incedit venerandus amictu,

Intremuit læto florea terra sono.
Agmina gemmatis plaudunt cælestia pennis,

Pura triumphali personat æthra tuba.
Quisque novum amplexu comitem cantuque salutat,

Hosque aliquis placido misit ab ore sonos :-
“ Nate, veni, et patrii felix cape gaudia regni;

Semper abhinc duro, nate, labore vaca.
Dixit, et aligeræ tetigerunt nablia turmæ;

At mihi cum teuebris aurea pulsa quies.
Flebam turbatos Cephaleia pellice somnos:

Talia contingant somnia sæpe mihi !

tessiacus” occurs in Martial, “ Epigr." ix. 46. We are to understand the straits of Hercules, or the Atlantic Ocean.-T. WARTON.

Non dea tam variis ornavit floribus hortos

Alcinoi, Zephyro Chloris amata levi. Eden is compared to the Homeric garden of Alcinous, "Paradise Lost," b. v. 341; b. ix. 439. Chloris is Flora, who, according to ancient fable, was beloved by Zephyr. Hence our author is to be explained, “ Paradise Lost," b. v. 16 :

Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes.-T. WARTON.

Semper abhinc duro, nate, labore vaca. Rev xiv. 18:—“Blessed are the dead which die the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours." —Jos. WARTON.

Milton, as he grew old in puritanism, must have looked back with disgust and remorse on the panegyric of this performance, as on one of the sins of his youth, inexperience, and orthodoxy; for he had here celebrated, not only a bishop, but a bishop who supported the dignity and constitution of the Church of England in their most extensive latitude ; the distinguished favourite of Elizabeth and James, and the defender of regal prerogative.-T. WARTON.

10

ELEG. IV. Ad THOMAX JUNIUM, preceptorem suum, apud mercatores Anglicos, Hamburge

agentes, pastoris munere fungentem.

Anxo ÆTATIS 18.
CURRE per immensum subito, mea litera, pontum;

I, pete Teutonicos læve per æquor agros ;
Segnes rumpe moras, et nis, precor, obstet eunti,

Et festinantis nil remoretur iter.
Ipse ego Sicanio frænantem carcere ventos

Æolon, et virides sollicitabo deos,
Cæruleamque suis comitatam Dorida nymphis,

Ut tibi dent placidam per sua regna viam,
At tu, si poteris, celeres tibi sume jugales,

Vecta quibus Colchis fugit ab ore viri;
Aut queis Triptolemus* Scythicas devenit in oras,

Gratus Eleusina missus ab urbe puer.
Atque ubi Germanas flavere videbis arenas,

Ditis ad Hamburgæ mænia flecte gradum,
Dicitur occiso quæ ducere nomen ab Hama,"
Cimbrica

quem

fertur clava dedisse neci.
Vivit ibi antiquæ clarus pietatis honore

Præsul, Cristicolas pascere doctus oves :
Ille quidem est animæ plusquam pars altera nostræ ;

Dimidio vitæ vivere cogor ego.
Hei mihil quot pelagi, quot montes interjecti,

Me faciunt alia parte carere mei !
Carior ille mihi, quam tu, doctissime Graium,

Cliniadi, pronepos qui Telamonis erat ;"

15

20

Thomas Young, now pastor of the church of English merchants at Hamburg, was Milton's private preceptor, before he was sent to St. Paul's school. Aubrey, in his manuscript Life, calls him, “a puritan in Essex, who cutt his haire short." Under such an instructor, Milton probably first imbibed the principles of puritanism: but whatever were Young's religious instructions, our author professes to have received from this learned master his first introduction to the study of poetry, v. 29.

This Thomas Young, who appears to have returned to England in or before the year 1628, was Dr. Thomas Young, a member of the Assembly of Divines, where he was a constant attendant, and one of the authors of the book called “Smectymnuus," defended by Milton; and who, from a London preachership in Duke's-place, was preferred by the parliament to the mastership of Jesus College in Cambridge: Neal's “ Hist. Pur.” üi. 122, 59. Clarke, a calvinistic biographer, attests that he was “a man of great learning, of much prudence and piety, and of great ability and fidelity in the work of the ministry.”—“Lives," p. 194.-T. WARTON. ir " Take the swift car of Medea, in which she fled from her husband.”—T. WARTON,

* Aut queis Triptolemus, &c. Triptolemus was carried from Eleusis in Greece, into Scythia, and the most uncultivated regions of the globe, on winged serpents, to teach mankind the use of wheat.T. WARTON.

y Dicitur occiso quce ducere nomen ab Hama. Krantzius, a Gothic geographer, says, that the city of Hamburg in Saxony took its name from Hama, a puissant Saxon champion, who was killed on the spot where that city stands by Starchater, a Danish giant." The “Cimbrica clava" is the club of the Dane. In describing Hamburg, this romantic tale could not escape Milton.-T. WARTON.

z Dearer than Socrates to Alcibiades, who was the son of Clinias, and has this appel

Quamque Stagyrites* generoso magnus alumno,

Quem peperit Libyco Chaonis alma Joyi.
Qualis Amyntorides, qualis Philyrëius heros

Myrmidonum regi, talis et ille mihi.
Primus ego Aonios, illo præeunte, recessus

Lustrabam, et bifidi sacra vireta jugi;
Pieriosque hausi latices, Clioque favente,

Castalio sparsi læta ter ora mero.
Flammeus at signum ter viderat arietis Æthon,

Induxitque auro lanea terga novo;
Bisque novo terram sparsisti, Chlori, senilem

Gramine, bisque tuas abstulit Auster opes:
Necdum ejus licuit mihi lumina pascere vultu,

Aut linguæ dulcis aure bibisse sonos.
Vade igitur, cursuque Eurum præverte sonorum;

Quam sit opus monitis, res docet, ipsa vides.
Invenies dulci cum conjuge forte sedentem,

Mulcentem gremio pignora cara suo:
Forsitan aut veterum prælarga volumina patrum

Versantem, aut veri Biblia sacra Dei;
Cælestive animas saturantem rore tenellas,

Grande salutiferæ religionis opus,
Utque solet, multam sit dicere cura salutem,

Dicere quam decuit, si modo adesset, herum.
Hæc quoque, paulum oculos in humum defixa modestos,

Verba verecundo sis memor ore loqui :
Hæc tibi, si teneris vacat inter prælia Musis,

Mittit ab Angliaco littore fida manus.
Accipe sinceram, quamvis sit sera, salutem;

Fiat et hoc ipso gratior illa tibi.
Sera quidem, sed vera fuit, quam casta recepit

Icaris a lento Penelopeia viro.
Ast ego quid volui manifestum tollere crimen,

Ipse quod ex omni parte levare nequit?
Arguitur tardus merito, noxamque fatetur,

Et pudet officium deseruisse suum.
Tu modo da veniam fasso, veniamque roganti;

Crimina diminui, quæ patuere, solent.
Non ferus in pavidos rictus diducit hiantes,

Vulnifico pronos nec rapit ungue leo.

45

50

55

60

lation in Ovid's “Ibis,"—“Cliniadæque modo," &c. v. 635. Alcibiades, the son of Clinias, was anciently descended from Eurysaces, a son of the Telamonian Ajax.T. WARTON. a Aristotle, preceptor to Alexander the Great.-T. WARTON.

• Qualis Amyntorides, qualis Philyrëius heros. Phoenix, the son of Amyntor, and Chiron, both instructors of Achilles. The instances are, of the love of scholars to their masters, in ancient history.—T. WARTON.

c Two years and one month; in which had passed three vernal equinoxes, two springs and two winters. Young, we may then suppose, went abroad in February, 1623, when Milton was about fifteen. But compare their prose correspondence, where Milton says " quod autem plusquam triennio nunquam ad te seripserim.”—T. WARTON.

Sæpe sarissiferi crudelia pectora Thracis

Supplicis ad mæstas delicuere preces :
Extensæque manus avertunt fulminis ictus,

Placat et iratos hostia parva Deos.
Jamque diu scripsisse tibi fuit impetus illi,

Neve moras ultra ducere passus Amor;
Nam vaga Fama refert, (heu, nuntia vera malorum !)

In tibi finitimis bella tumere locis;
Teque tuamque urbem truculento milite cingi,

Et jam Saxonicos arma parasse duces. •
Te circum late campos populatur Enyo,

Et sata carne virum jam cruor arva rigat;
Germanisque suum concessit Thracia Martem;

Illuc Odrysios Mars pater egit equos ;
Perpetuoque comans jam deflorescit oliva,

Fugit et ærisonam diva perosa tubam,
Fugit, io! terris, et jam non ultima virgo

Creditur ad superas justa volasse domos.
Te tamen interea belli circumsonat horror,

Vivis et ignoto solus inopsque solo;'
Et, tibi quam patrii non exhibuere penates,

Sede peregrina quæris egenus opem.
Patria, dura parens, et saxis sævior albis,

Spumea quæ pulsat littoris unda tui;
Siccine te decet innocuos exponere fætus,

Siccine in externam ferrea cogis humum?
Et sinis, ut terris quærant alimenta remotis

Quos tibi prospiciens miserat ipse Deus,
Et qui læta ferunt de coelo nuntia, quique,

Quæ via post cineres ducat ad astra, docent?
Digna quidem, Stygiis quæ vivas clausa tenebris,

Æternaque animæ digna perire fame!

6

d Sæpe sarissiferi. From the Macedonian "sarissa," or "pike;" whence soldiers were called "sarissophori.” See Liv. ix. 19. And Ovid, “Met.” xii. 466.---Todd.

e Et jam Saxonicos arma parasse duces. About the year 1626, when this Elegy was written, the imperialists, under General Tilly, were often encountered by Christian, Duke of Brunswick, and the Dukes of Saxony, particularly Duke William of Saxe Weimar, and the Duke of Saxe Lauenberg, in Lower Saxony, of which Hamburg, where Young resided, is the capital. See v. 77. Germany in general, either hy invasion or interior commotions, was a scene of the most bloody war, from the year 1618 till later than 1640. Gustavus Adolphus conquered the greater part of Germany about 1631.-T. WARTON.

i Vivis et ignoto solus inop8que solo. These circumstances, added to others, leave us strongly to suspect that Young was a non-conformist, and probably compelled to quit England on account of his religious opinions and practice. He seems to have been driven back to England, by the war in the Netherlands, not long after this Elegy was written.-T. WARTON.

6 Sede peregrina quæris egenus opem. Before and after 1630, many English ministers, puritanically affected, left their cures and settled in Holland, where they became pastors of separate congregations: when matters took another turn in England, they returned, and were rewarded for their unconforming obstinacy in the new presbyterian establishment.-T. WARTON.

100

1

105

110

Haud aliter vates terræ Thesbitidis olim

Pressit inassueto devia tesqua pede,
Desertasque Arabum salebras, dum regis Achabi

Effugit, atque tuas, Sidoni dira, manus :
Talis et, horrisono laceratus membra flagello,

Paulus ab Æmathia pellitur urbe Cilix.
Piscosæque ipsum Gergessæ civis lësum

Finibus ingratus jussit abire suis.
At tu sume animos; nec spes cadat anxia curis,

Nec tua concutiat decolor ossa metus.
Sis etenim quamvis fulgentibus obsitus armis,

Intententque tibi millia tela necem ;
At nullis vel inerme latus violabitur armis,

Deque tuo cuspis nulla cruore bibet.
Namque eris ipse Dei radiante sub ægide tutus;

Ille tibi custos, et pugil ille tibi :
Ille, Sionææ qui tot sub mænibus arcis

Assyrios fudit nocte silente viros;
Inque fugam vertit quos in Samaritadas oras

Misit ab antiquis prisca Damascus agris;
Terruit et densas pavido cum rege cohortes,

Aere dum vacuo buccina clara sonat,
Cornea pulvereum dum verberat ungula campum,

Currus arenosam dum quatit actus humum,
Auditurque hinnitus equorum ad bella ruentum,

Et strepitus ferri, murmuraque alta virum.
Et tus (quod superest miseris) sperare memento,

Et tua magnanimo pectore vince mala;
Nec dubites quandoque frui melioribus annis, k

Atque iterum patrios posse videre lares.

113

120

125

ELEG. V.
In Adventum Veris.

ANNO Ætatis 20.1
In se perpetuo Tempus revolubile gyro
Jam revocat Zephyros vere tepente novos ;

h Sidoni dira. Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. “Sidoni” is a vocative, from Sidonis, often applied by Ovid to Europa, the daughter of Agenor, king of Syria.-T. WARTON.

i Talis et, horrisono laceratus membra flagello, &c. Whipping and imprisonment were among the punishments of the arbitrary Starchamber, the threats “regis Achabi,” which Young fled to avoid.—T. WARTON.

j Et tu (quod superest), &c. From many obvious reasons, At tu is likely to be the true reading.-T. WARTON.

* This wish, as we have seen, came to pass. He returned; and, when at length his party became superior, he was rewarded with appointments of opulence and honour. T. WARTON.

1 In point of poetry, sentiment, selection of imagery, facility of versification, and Latinity, this Elegy, written by a boy, is far superior to one of Buchanan's on the same subject, entitled “Maiæ Calendae."-T. Warton.