Too divine to be mistook:

This, this is the

To whom our vows and wishes bend;
Here our folemn search hath end.

Fame, that her high worth to raise,
Seem'd erft fo lavish and profufe,
We may justly now accuse
Of detraction from her praise ;
Less than half we find expreft,
Envy bid conceal the rest.

Mark what radiant ftate fhe spreads,
In circle round her fhining throne,

Shooting her beams like filver threads;
This, this is the alone,

`Sitting like a Goddess bright,
In the center of her light.

daughter of this Countefs Dowager of Derby being married to John Earl of Bridgwater, before whom was prefented the Mafk at Ludlow, we may conceive in fome measure how Milton was induc'd to compofe the one after the other. The alliance between the families

naturally and easily accounts for it: and in all probability the Genius of the wood in this poem, as well as the attendent Spirit in the Mafk, was Mr. Henry Lawes, who was the great master of mufic at that time, and taught most of the young nobility.

ap

As they come forward, the Genius of the wood pears, and turning toward them, fpeaks.

GENIU S.

TAY gentle Swains, for though in this disguise,

STAY

I fee bright honor sparkle through your eyes;

Of famous Arcady ye are, and fprung

Of that renowned flood, fo often fung,
Divine Alpheus, who by fecret fluce
Stole under feas to meet his Arethuse;
And ye, the breathing roses of the wood,
Fair filver-bufkin'd Nymphs as great and good,

10. We may justly now accufe &c] Thefe lines were thus at firft in the Manufcript.

Now feems guilty of abufe And detraction from her praise Lefs than half he hath expreft, Envy bid her hide the rest. 18. Sitting like &c] It was at first,

30.

I

Seated like a Goddess bright &c.

23. Juno dares not &c] The Manufcript had at first,

Ceres dares not give her odds;
Who would have thought this
clime had held &c.
30. Divine Alphens, &c.] A fa-

mous

I know this queft of yours, and free intent
Was all in honor and devotion meant

To the great mistress of yon princely fhrine,
Whom with low reverence I adore as mine,
And with all helpful fervice will comply
To further this night's glad folemnity;

3

And lead ye where ye may more near behold

4

What shallow-fearching Fame hath left untold;

Which I full oft amidst these shades alone

•Have fat to wonder at, and gaze upon:

2

For know by lot from Jove I am the Power
Of this fair wood, and live in oaken bower,
To nurse the faplings tall, and curl the grove
With ringlets quaint, and wanton windings wove.
And all my plants I fave from nightly ill
Of noisome winds, and blasting vapors chill:

mous river of Arcadia, that finking under ground paffeth thro' the fea without mixing his ftream with the falt-waters, and rifeth at laft with the fountain Arethuse near Syracufe in Sicily. Virg. Æn. III. 694.

Alpheum fama eft huc Elidis amnem, Occultas egiffe vias fubter mare, qui nunc Ore, Arethufa, tuo Siculis confunditur undis.

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50

And from the boughs brush off the evil dew,
And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue,
Or what the cross dire-looking planet fmites,
Or hurtful worm with canker'd venom bites.
When evening gray doth rife, I fetch my round
Over the mount, and all this hallow'd ground, 55
And early ere the odorous breath of morn
Awakes the flumb'ring leaves, or taffel'd horn
Shakes the high thicket, haste I all about,
Number my ranks, and visit every sprout
With puiffant words, and murmurs made to bless;
But elfe in deep of night, when drowsiness
Hath lock'd up mortal sense, then liften I
To the celeftial Sirens harmony,

That fit upon the nine infolded spheres,
And fing to those that hold the vital fhears,

61

65

And

And turn the adamantin spindle round,

2

On which the fate of Gods and men is wound.

Such fweet compulfion doth in mufic lie,
To lull the daughters of Neceffity,

And keep unsteddy Nature to her law,
And the low world in measur'd motion draw
After the heav'nly tune, which none can hear
Of human mold with grofs unpurged ear;

70

And yet fuch mufic worthieft were to blaze

The peerless highth of her immortal praise,

75

Whofe luftre leads us, and for her most fit,
If my inferior hand or voice could hit

Inimitable founds, yet as we go,

Whate'er the skill of leffer Gods can show,

I will affay, her worth to celebrate,
And so attend ye toward her glittering state;

Ancients, as it is explain'd by Ci-
cero. Somnium Scipionis 4. No-
vem tibi orbibus, vel potius globis,
connexa funt omnia: and then he
enumerates them in this order,
heaven or the fphere of the ftars,
Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the fun,
Venus, Mercury, the moon, and
the earth. And in the next chap-
ter he speaks of the mufic of the
fpheres. Quid? hic, inquam, quis

80

Where