Nec mora, membra cavo posui refovenda cubili, Heu! nequit ingenium visa referre meum. Ut matutino cum juga sole rubent. Vestitu nituit multicolore solum. Non dea tam variis ornavit floribus hortos Alcinoi, Zephyro Chloris amata levi.t. Agmina gemmatis plaudunt coelestia pennis, 60 Quisque novum amplexu comitem cantuque salutat, 65 tessiacus" occurs in Martial, "Epigr." ix. 46. We are to understand the straits of Hercules, or the Atlantic Ocean.-T. WARTON. t Non dea tam variis ornavit floribus hortos 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 in 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. ELEG. IV. Ad THOMAM JUNIUM, preceptorem suum, apud mercatores Anglicos, Hamburgæ agentes, pastoris munere fungentem. CURRE ANNO ÆTATIS 18. per immensum subito, mea litera, pontum; Ipse ego Sicanio frænantem carcere ventos Præsul, Cristicolas pascere doctus oves: Ille quidem est animæ plusquam pars altera nostræ; Hei mihi quot pelagi, quot montes interjecti, Carior ille mihi, quam tu, doctissime Graium, 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." iii. 122, 59. Clarke, a calvinistic biographer, attests that he was " 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. "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 quæ 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. Dearer than Socrates to Alcibiades, who was the son of Clinias, and has this appel Quamque Stagyrites generoso magnus alumno, Flammeus at signum ter viderat arietis Ethon, Bisque novo terram sparsisti, Chlori, senilem Forsitan aut veterum prælarga volumina patrum Coelestive animas saturantem rore tenellas, 45 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, 50 Hæc tibi, si teneris vacat inter prælia Musis, Mittit ab Angliaco littore fida manus. Accipe sinceram, quamvis sit sera, salutem; Sera quidem, sed vera fuit, quam casta recepit 55 Ast ego quid volui manifestum tollere crimen, Tu modo da veniam fasso, veniamque roganti; 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. b 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. e 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 save "quod autem plusquam triennio nunquam ad te scripserim."-T. Warton. Sæpe sarissiferi crudelia pectora Thracis Nam vaga Fama refert, (heu, nuntia vera malorum !) Teque tuamque urbem truculento milite cingi, 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 by 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. Vivis et ignoto solus inopsque 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. 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. 65 70 13 Haud aliter vates terræ Thesbitidis olim Talis et, horrisono laceratus membra flagello,' 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, At nullis vel inerme latus violabitur armis, ELEG. V. In Adventum Veris. ANNO ETATIS 20.1 IN se perpetuo Tempus revolubile gyro Jam revocat Zephyros vere tepente novos; h Sidoni dira. 100 105 110 115 120 125 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. 3 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 "Maia Calendæ."-T. WARTON. |