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under the shade of an aged beech, in careless slumber, sometimes looking with seeming earnestness upon the passing stream; sometimes rambling near a neighbouring wood, expressing the thoughts and fancies of his mind in his countenance, and speaking to himself; some-times smiling indignantly, sometimes moping in melancholy.-One morning he was absent from his usual haunts; two days passed without his appearing under his favourite tree. On the third, his funeral was seen passing by; and here, says the ancient villager, speaking to the stranger, who is supposed to be inquiring for the poet, here are his tomb and epitaph :

"Here rests his head, upon the lap of earth,
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown;
Fair science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And melancholy marked him for her own.

"Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heav'n did a recompense as largely send :
He gave to mis'ry all he had, a tear;

He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.

“No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose)
The bosom of his father and his God.".

The epitaph is obscure. The sense is as follows:-Here lies buried, a youth of humble

birth and fortune, not ignorant of science, "but of a melancholy mind; he had a generous heart, though he had but little beside compassion to bestow; Heaven recompensed his good intentions by bestowing upon him a true friend *. Seek no farther into his history, whatever were his faults or merits, they were known to God, whose sentence on the great day of retribution he awaits with hope mixed 'with holy fear.

*Mr. Mason.

L'ALLEGRO.

In this poem, and that which follows, the passions are continually personified, or spoken of as if they were perfons, or as heathen deities.

"Hence loathed Melancholy,

Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born,
In Stygian cave forlorn;

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy, Find out fome uncouth cell,

Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings,
And the night raven sings;

There under ebon shades and low-brow'd rocks,
As ragged as thy locks,

In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell."

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Fly hence, hateful Melancholy! thou offspring of the dog Cerberus; born in some lonely cave, upon the banks of Styx, in the midst of monsters and dismal screams. Go and dwell, far from me, in the Cimmerian-desert, under the shadow of rocks that hang down in feparate crags, divided like thy black and parted locks."

Stygian-belonging to Styx, the river of Hell. This river was supposed to divide the infernal (lower) regions. The gods swore by Styx; and such an oath was considered as irrevocable, even by Jupiter.

Cimmerian desert.-Cimmeria was that part of ancient Scythia, which is on the Palus. Meotis, and is now called the Crimea. The name of Krim, or Crimea, may be a corruption of the ancient iname Cimmeria. This part of the world is reprefented by the ancients as a cold and dreary desert, covered with black and gloomy forests.

"But come thou goddess fair and free,
In Heaven yclep'd, Euphrosyne,

And by men, heart-easing Mirth,
Whom lovely Venus, at a birth,
With two sister-graces more,
To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore:
Or whether (as some sages sing)

The frolic Wind that breathes the spring,
Zephyr, with Aurora playing,
As he met her once a maying,

There on beds of violets blue,

And fresh-blown roses washed in dew,
Filled her with thee a daughter fair,...
So buxom, blithe, and debonaire.

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"But come thou fair and free goddess ycleped (called) in heaven Euphrosyne, and known among men by the name of Mirth, come hither. Thou art, as some suppose, descended from Bacchus and Venus, and thou art one of the sister Graces: or as others think, thou art sprung from Zephyr, the frolic or playful western wind, which blows in the spring of the year, and Aurora the goddess of the dawn.

The young reader will observe, that as these are the fictitious or allegorical parents of Mirth, the poet means to point out, that Mirth is found by some to arise at convivial meetings from the exhilirating effects of wine, of which Bacchus was the deity; and that it arises amongst others (who are wiser) from exercise and from the healthful breezes of early morning, Zephyr and Aurora.

Milton seems particularly fond of early morning he says elsewhere,

"Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet With charm of earliest birds."

Euphrosyne, Thalia, and Aglae, the three graces.-Thalia is the name of one of the muses, as well as of one of the graces.

Buxom,-obedient, yielding with cheerful

ness.

"Winnows the buxom air." PAR. LOST..

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Many words which were used by good writers. in the time of Milton would not be suitable to modern conversation or writing.

Buxom is now commonly applied to persons of the lower order; a buxom lass means a strong healthy girl.

Blithe, is seldom used except in poetry.

Debonaire (which in French originally means, of a good air and manner) is now generally used in a sense rather ludicrous, we say a smart debonaire fellow, in opposition to slovenly, and inferiour to well-bred.

"Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee,
Jest, and youthful Jollity;

Quips, and Cranks, and wanton Wiles,
Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles,

Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,

And love to live in dimple sleek;

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