55

60

65

70

Turba b frequens, facieque simillima turba dearum,

Splendida per medias itque reditque vias ; Auctaque luce dies gemino fulgore coruscat :

Fallor? An et radios hinc quoque Phæbus habet ? Hæc ego non fugi spectacula grata severus ;

Impetus et quo me fert juvenilis, agor ; Lumina luminibus male providus obvia misi,

Neve oculos potui continuisse meos. Unam forte aliis supereminuisse notabam :

Principium nostri lux erat illa mali.
Sic Venus optaret mortalibus ipsa videri,

Sic regina deum conspicienda fuit.
Hanc memor objecit nobis malus ille Cupido,

Solus et hos nobis texuit ante dolos :
Nec procul ipse vafer latuit, multæque sagittæ,

Et facis a tergo grande pependit onus :
Nec mora ; nunc ciliis hæsit, nunc virginis ori;

Insilit hinc labiis, insidet inde genis :
Et quascunque agilis partes jaculator oberrat,

Hei mihi! mille locis pectus inerme ferit.
Protinus insoliti subierunt corda furores ;

Uror amans intus, flammaque totus eram.
Interea, misero quæ jam mihi sola placebat,

Ablata est oculis, non reditura , meis.
Ast ego progredior tacite querebundus, et excors,

Et dubius volui sæpe referre pedem.
Findor, et hæc remanet: sequitur pars altera votum,

Raptaque tam subito gaudia flere juvat.
Sic dolet amissum proles Junonia cælum,

Inter Lemniacos præcipitata focos:
Talis et abreptum solem respexit, ad Orcum

Vectus ab attonitis Amphiaraus equis.
Quid faciam infelix, et luctu victus ? Amores

Nec licet inceptos ponere, neve sequi.
O, utinam, spectare semel mihi detur amatos

Vultus, et coram tristia verba loqui !
Forsitan et duro non est adamante creata,

Forte nec ad nostras surdeat illa preces ! Crede mihi, nullus sic infeliciter arsit;

95

Jam tuus, O! certe est mihi formidabilis arcus,

Nate dea, jaculis, nec minus igne, potens :
Et tua fumabunt nostris altaria donis,

Solus et in superis tu mihi summus eris.
Deme meos tandem, verum nec deme, furores ;

Nescio cur, miser est suaviter omnis amans d.
Tu modo da facilis, posthæc mea siqua futura est,

Cuspis amaturos figat ut una duos.

100

Hæc ego e, mente olim læva, studioque supino,

Nequitiæ posui vana tropæa meæ.
Scilicet abreptum sic me malus impulit error,

Indocilisque ætas prava magistra fuit;
Donec Socraticos umbrosa Academia rivos

Præbuit, admissum dedocuitque jugum.
Protinus, extinctis ex illo tempore flammis,

Cincta rigent multo pectora nostra gelu :
Unde suis frigus metuit puer ipse sagittis,

Et Diomedeam vim timet ipsa Venus.

EPIGRAMMATUM LIBER.

1.-IN PRODITIONEM BOMBARDICAM.
Cum simul in regem nuper satrapasque Britannos

Ausus es infandum, perfide Fauxe, nefas,
Fallor? An et mitis voluisti ex parte videri,

Et pensare mala cum pietate scelus ?
Scilicet hos alti missurus ad atria coeli,

Sulphureo curru, flammivolisque rotis :
Qualiter ille, feris caput inviolabile Parcis,

Liquit Iordanios turbine raptus agros.

d Deme meos tandem, verum nec deme, furores ;

Nescio cur, miser est suaviter omnis amans. There never was a more beautiful description of the irresolution of love. He wishes to have his woe removed, but recals his wish ; preferring the sweet misery of those who love. Thus Eloisa wavers, in Pope's fine poem :

Unequal task! a passion to resign
For hearts so touch'd, so pierced, so lost, as mine.-TODD.

e Hoec ego, &c. These lines are an epilogistic palinode to the last Elegy. The Socratic doctrines of the shady Academe soon broke the bonds of beauty : in other words, his return to the university. They were probably written when the Latin poems were prepared for the press in 1645.-T. WARTON.

II.-IN EANDEM.

5

SICCINE tentasti celo donasse läcobum,

Quæ septemgemino, Bellua, a monte lates ?
Ni meliora tuum poterit dare munera numen,

Parce, precor, donis insidiosa tuis.
Ille quidem sine te consortia serus adivit

Astra, nec inferni pulveris usus ope.
Sic potius fædus in coelum pelle cucullos,

Et quot habet brutos Roma profana deos :
Namque hac aut alia nisi quemque adjuveris arte,

Crede mihi, cæli vix bene scandet iter.

10

III.-IN EANDEM.

PURGATOREM animæ derisit läcobus ignem,

Et sine quo superum non adeunda domus. Frenduit hoc trina monstrum Latiale corona,

Movit et horrificum cornua dena minax.
“Et nec inultus," ait, "temnes mea sacra, Britanne :

Supplicium, spreta relligione, dabis :
Et, si stelligeras unquam penetraveris arces,

Non nisi per flammas triste patebit iter.' 0, quam funesto cecinisti proxima vero,

Verbaque ponderibus vix caritura suis ! Nam

10

Aut Deus, aut vacui certe mens tertia cæli,

Per tua secreto guttura serpit agens;
Serpit agens, facilisque docet mortalia corda

Sensim immortali assuescere posse sono.
Quod si cuncta quidem Deus est, per cunctaque fusus,

In te una loquitur, cætera mutus habet.

VII.-AD EANDEM.
ALTERA Torquatum cepit Leonora o poetam,

Cujus ab insano cessit amore furens.
Ah! miser ille tuo quanto felicius ævo

Perditus, et propter te, Leonora, foret !
Et te Pieria sensisset voce canentem

Aurea maternæ filia movere lyrå!
Quamvis Dircæo torsisset lumina Pentheo d

Sævior, aut totus desipuisset iners,
Tu tamen errantes cæca vertigine sensus

Voce eadem poteras composuisse tua;
Et poteras, ægro spirans sub corde, quietem

Flexanimo cantu restituisse sibi.

VIII.--AD EANDEM.
CREDULA quid liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas,

Claraque Parthenopes e fana Achelöiados;
Littoreamque tua defunctam Naiada ripa,

Corpora Chalcidico sacra dedisse rogo?
Illa quidem vivitque, et amena Tibridis unda

Mutavit rauci murmura Pausilipi f.
Illic, Romulidum studiis ornata secundis,

Atque homines cantu detinet atque deos.

IX.-IN SALMASII HUNDREDAM 8.
Quis expedivit Salmasio suam Hundredam,
Picamque docuit verba nostra conari ?

• Altera Torquatum cepit Leonora. This allusion to Tasso's Leonora, and the turn which it takes, are inimitably beautiful.—T. WARTON.

d For the story of Pentheus, a king of Thebes, see Euripides' “Bacchæ,” where he sees two suns, &c., v. 916. But Milton, in “ torsisset lumina," alludes to the rage of Pentheus in Ovid, “Metam.” iii. 557 :

Aspicit hunc oculis Pentheus, quos ira tremendos

Fecerat.-T. WARTON. e Parthenope's tomb was at Naples : she was one of the sirens.-T. WARTON.

i Pausilipi. The grotto of Pausilipo, which Milton no doubt had visited with delight.—TODD.

8 This Epigram is in Milton's “Defensio" against Salmasius; in the translation of which by Richard Washington, published in 1692, the Epigram is thus anglicised, p. 187 :

Who taught Salmasius, that French chattering pye,
To aim at English, and Hundreda cry?

Magister artis venter, et Jacobæi
Centum, exulantis viscera marsupii regis h.
Quod si dolosi spes refulserit nummi,
Ipse, Antichristi qui modo primatum Papæ
Minatus uno est dissipare sufflatu,
Cantabit ultro Cardinalitium melos.

X.-IN SALMASIUM,
GAUDETE scombri, et quicquid est piscium salo,
Qui frigida hyeme incolitis algentes freta !
Vestrum misertus ille Salmasius, eques
Bonus, amicire nuditatem cogitat;
Chartæque largus, apparat papyrinos
Vobis cucullos, præferentes Claudii
Insignia, nomenque et decus, Salmasiij :
Gestetis ut per omne cetarium forum
Equitis clientes, scriniis mungentium
Cubito k virorum, et capsulis, gratissimos.

The starving rascal, flush'd with just a hundred
English Jacobusses, Hundreda blunder'd:
An outlaw'd king's last stock.-A hundred more
Would make him pimp for the antichristian whore;
And in Rome's praise employ his poison'd breath,

Who threaten'd once to stink the pope to death.-T. WARTON. h King Charles II., now in exile, and sheltered in Holland, gave Salmasius, who was a professor at Leyden, one hundred Jacobuses to write his defence, 1649. Wood asserts that Salmasius had no reward for his book : he says, that in Leyden, the king sent Dr. Morley, afterwards bishop, to the apologist, with his thanks, “but not with a purse of gold, as John Milton the impudent lyer reported.”—“Athen. Oxon.” ü. 770.-T. WARTON.

This Epigram, as Mr. Warton observes, is an imitation of part of the Prologue to Persius Satires. --TODD.

i This is in the “Defensio Secunda.” It is introduced with the following ridicule on Morus, the subject of the next Epigram, for having predicted the wonders to be worked by Salmasius's new edition, or rather reply :-“Tu igitur, ut pisciculus ille anteambulo, præcurris balænam Salmasium.” Mr. Steevens observes, that this is an idea analogous to Falstaff's—“Here do I walk before thee,” &c., although reversed as to the imagery.-T. Warton.

i Mr. Warton observes, that Milton here sneers at a circumstance which was true : Salmasius was really of an ancient and noble family.-TODD.

k “Cubito mungentium,” a cant appellation among the Romans for fishmongers. T. WARTON.

Christina, Queen of Sweden, among other learned men who fed her vanity, had invited Salmasius to her court, where he wrote his “Defensio.” She had pestered him with Latin letters seven pages long, and told him she would set out for Holland to fetch him if he did not come. When he arrived, he was often indisposed on account of the coldness of the climate ; and on these occasions, the queen would herself call on him in a morning : and locking the door of his apartment, used to light his fire, give him breakfast, and stay with him some hours. This behaviour gave rise to scandalous stories, and our critic's wife grew jealous. It is seemingly a slander, what was first thrown out in the “Mercurius Politicus," that Christina, when Salmasius had published this work, dismissed him with contempt, asa parasite and an advocate of tyranny: but the case was, to say nothing that Christina loved both to be flattered and to tyrannise, Salmasius had now been long preparing to return to Holland, to fulfil his engagements with the university of Leyden : she offered him large rewards and appointments to remain in Sweden, and greatly regretted his departure; and on his death, very shortly afterwards, she wrote his widow a letter in French, full of con