25

Young Hyacinth, born on Eurotas' strand,
Young Hyacinth, the pride of Spartan land;
But then transform'd him to a purple flower :
Alack, that fo to change thee Winter had no power!

V.

Yet can I not perfuade me thou art dead,

Or that thy corse corrupts in earth's dark womb,
Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed,
Hid from the world in a low-delved tomb;
Could Heav'n for pity thee fo ftrictly doom?
Oh no! for fomething in thy face did fhine
Above mortality, that fhow'd thou was divine.

VI.

Refolve me then, oh Soul moft furely bleft,
(If fo it be that thou thefe plaints doft hear)
Tell me, bright Spirit, where'er thou hoverest,
Whether above that high first-moving fphere,
Or in th' Elyfian fields (if fuch there were)

31

35

40

Oh fay me true, if thou wert mortal wight, And why from us fo quickly thou didst take thy flight?

Yet in the eighth stanza, the perfon lamented is alternately fupposed to have been sent down to earth in the shape of two divinities, one of whom is styled a juft maid, and the other a fweet-fmiling youth. But the child was certainly a niece, a daughter of Milton's fifter Philips, and probably her first child.

29. See LYCID. V. 166.

31. Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed.] This fine periphrafis for grave, is from Shakespeare, MIDS. N. DR. A. iii. S. ult. Already to their WORMY BEDS are gone.

38. Tell me bright Spirit, where'er thou hovereft,

Whether above that high first-moving sphere, &c.] Thefe hypothetical queftions are like thofe in LYCIDAS, "Whether be"yond, &c." v. 156. Originally from Virgil, GEORG. i. 32. "Anne novum tardis fydus, &c."

40. If fuch there were.] He fhould have faid are, if the rhyme had permitted. H. VII. Wert

002

VII.

Wert thou fome ftar which from the ruin'd roof
Of shak'd Olympus by mifchance didst fall;
Which careful Jove in nature's true behoof
Took up, and in fit place did reinstall?
Or did of late earth's fons besiege the wall

Of sheeny Heav'n, and thou some Goddess fled Amongst us here below to hide thy nectar'd head?

VIII.

45

Or wert thou that just Maid, who once before 50
Forfook the hated earth, O tell me footh,

And cam'ft again to vifit us once more?
Or wert thou that sweet-fmiling youth?

Or that crown'd matron fage white-robed Truth?

44. Of fhak'd Olympus.] For fhaken. In CYMBELINE, A. ii. S. ii.

47.

A fly, and conftant knave, not to be SHAK'D.

Befiege the wall

Of fheeny heaven.-] In Spenfer's MOTHER HUBBERD'S TALE.

And beautifie the SHEENIE firmament.

SHEEN, as I fhould have before remarked, occurs in HAMLET, A. iii. S. ii.

And thirty dozen moons with borrowed SHEEN, &c.

53. Or wert thou that fweet-fmiling youth?

Or that crown'd matron fage white-robed Truth ?] In the first of these verses, a diffyllable word is wanting, which probably fell out at prefs. The late Mr. John Hefkin, of Chrift-Church, Oxford, who published an elegant edition of Bion and Mofchus, propofed in a periodical Mifcellany which appeared about the year 1750, and with the utmost probability, to infert MERCY.

Or wert thou MERCY, that sweet-fmiling youth? For, as he obferved, MERCY is not only most aptly represented as a fweet-fmiling youth, that is, of the age moft fufceptible of the tender paffions, but Mercy is joined with Juftice and Truth in the Ode on the NATIVITY, ft. XV. Doctor Newton has omitted the

hame

Or

any other of that heav'nly brood

55

Let down in cloudy throne to do the world fome good?

IX.

Or wert thou of the golden-winged hoft,
Who having clad thyself in human weed,
To earth from thy prefixed feat didft poft,
And after short abode fly back with speed,
As if to fhow what creatures heav'n doth breed,
Thereby to set the hearts of men on fire

60

To fcorn the fordid world, and unto heav'n afpire?

name of the author of this conjecture, and gives the reasons for it as his own.

54. Matron fage white-robed Truth?] In fome of the Mifcellanies of the reign of James the first, I remember a white-kirtled Matron. See Note on Coм. v. 254.

57. Or wert thou of the golden-winged hoft.] Mr. Bowle here cites Spenfer's HYMNE OF HEAVENLIE BEAUTIE.

Bright Cherubins

Which all with GOLDEN WINGS are overdight.

And Spenfer's Heavenly Love has GOLDEN WINGS.
Love lift me vp vpon thy GOLDEN WINGS.
Taffo thus defcribes Gabriel's wings, GIER. LIB. i. xiv.
Ali bianche vesti, ch' han d'or le cime.

An edging of gold. Fairfax tranflates the paffage,
Of filver wings he took a fhining payre,
Fringed with gold.-

See IL PENS. V. 52.

From the wings of Cherubims, our author, in his book of RɛFORMATION, has raised a puerile Italian conceit to exprefs the mildness of the divine mercy. God, when we least deserved, "fent out a gentle gale, and message of peace, from the wings of "thofe his Cherubims that FAN his mercy-feat." It is at leaft, unworthy of the fubject. PR. W. i. 22. The enthufiafm of puritanical devotion partook of the mystic vifions of monaftic quietifm. On Pope's blameless vestal,

The wings of Seraphs fhed divine perfumes.

But, allowing for the ftate of mind and habitual fentiments of the

fair

X.

But oh why didft thou not stay here below
To bless us with thy heav'n-lov'd innocence,
To flake his wrath whom fin hath made our foe,
To turn fwift-rufhing black Perdition hence,
Or drive away the flaughtering Pestilence,

65

69

To ftand 'twixt us and our deferved fmart? But thou canft best perform that office where thou art.

XI.

Then thou, the Mother of so sweet a Child,
Her falfe-imagin'd loss cease to lament,
And wifely learn to curb thy forrows wild;
Think what a present thou to God hast sent,
And render him with patience what he lent;
This if thou do, he will an offspring give,
That till the world's laft end fhall make thy name to

75

live.

fair reclufe, the fiction is natural, rational, and, highly poetical without extravagance.

67. To turn fwift-rushing black Perdition hence,

Or drive away the flaughtering Peftilence.] Among the bleffings, which the heaven-lov'd innocence of this child might have imparted, by remaining upon earth, the application to prefent circumftances, the fuppofition that she might have averted the peftilence now raging in the kingdom, is happily and beautifully conceived. On the whole, from a boy of feventeen, this Ode is an extraordinary effort of fancy, expreffion, and verfification. Even in the conceits, which are many, we perceive ftrong and peculiar marks of genius. I think Milton has here given a very remarkable specimen of his ability to fucceed in the Spenferian stanza. He moves with great eafe and addrefs amidst the embarrassment of a frequent return of rhyme.

ON

E

F

Ο Ν TIME.

ALY envious Time, till thou run out thy race,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy plummet's pace;
And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more than what is false and vain,
And merely mortal drofs;

So little is our lofs,

So little is thy gain!

For when as each thing bad thou haft intomb'd,
And last of all thy greedy felf confum'd,

Then long Eternity fhall greet our bliss

5

ΙΟ

With an individual kifs;

And Joy fhall overtake us as a flood,

When every thing that is fincerely good

And perfectly divine,

With truth, and peace, and love, shall ever shine
About the fupreme throne

Of him, t' whofe happy-making fight alone

When once our heav'nly-guided foul shall clime,
Then all this earthly groffnefs quit,

Attir'd with stars, we shall for ever fit,

Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee,
O Time.*

15

20

12. -Individual.-] Eternal, Infeparable. PAR. L. iv. 485. -To have thee by my fide,

Henceforth an INDIVIDUAL folace dear.

See alfo B. v. 610.

United as one INDIVIDUAL foul

For ever happy.

See Note on AD PATR. V. 66.

14. When every thing that is fincerely good.] SINCERELY, is purely, perfectly. As in CoмUS, V. 454.

So dear to heaven is faintly chastity,

That when a foul is found SINCERELY fo, &c.

• Milton could not help applying the moft folemn and myfte