possession, 1631, it must have been one of the very earliest compositions of Milton. (IV.) ODE ON THE NATIVITY.-On this I shall only just remark, that the story of the voice announcing the death of Pan seems to have been a favourite one among the learned of Milton's age. It is found in Sir Richard Berkley's Summum Bonum, 1598, and at large in the Travels of George Sandys. Also that the beautiful picture of the Shepherds "simply chatting in a rustic row," seems to owe its origin to Warner, who has these lines in his Albion's England. Then choose a shepherd: with the sun he doth his flock unfold, (V.) L'ALLEGRO.-Apropos of shepherds. Milton's idea of a shepherd's life is that of a very happy one, which favours the interpretation of the Every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale, which every one must wish to be the true one, though the love of novelty and startling conjecture has inclined many to accept a more frigid interpretation. Milton was a great reader of poetry, and a great number of passages lay deeply imbedded in his mind. His To many a youth and many a maid seems to have had its origin in Chaucer. And many an hart and many an hynde.-The Dream. (VI.) IL PENSEROSO.-There is no note on What worlds or what vast regions hold Her mansion in this fleshly nook but it seems as if it might be proper to point out that there is an opposition between "world" and "vast regions;" the one the peopled, the other empty, spaces. Nor can I withhold myself from observing that the Commentators have left unnoticed a probable origin of the fine passage Oft on a plat of rising ground, I hear the far-off curfew sound, Over some wide-watered shore, in Constable's Third Sonnet of the Fifth Decade of his Diana. Or like the echo of a passing bell, Which sounding on the water seems to howl: So rings my heart a fearful heavy knell, And keeps all night in concert with the owl. (VII.) PARADISE LOST. Book I., 1. 61. A dungeon horrible on all sides round, As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames No light; but rather darkness visible Served only to discover sights of woe : Regions of sorrow, doleful shades. Whoever has been in the interior of one of the great foundries at a time when the melted metal is let off into the ducts, will be at no loss for the realization of this picture drawn by Milton. The strong bright light, too intense almost to be looked upon, does not illuminate the expanse, but really only serves to bring into view the remote obscurity; while the human beings, on whom as they move about light may casually fall, may be well mistaken for beings suffering the penalty of guilt. Milton has more exactly described one of these foundries in the present Book, 1. 700-709. Book I., 1. 81. To whom the Arch-Enemy, And thence in heaven called SATAN. This Milton's Hebrew reading would easily supply :", adversari; odio habere.”—Buxtorf. We are not to understand the poet as meaning to say that Satan had this name in heaven before his revolt, a word perfectly incongruous to the heavenly society, but that he was so called in heaven after his fall, and his having taken the lead of the revolting host: and to this the poet calls attention in the Fifth Book, 1. 658, where he makes Raphael say to Adam Satan, we call him now, his former name Is heard no more in Heaven, Book I., 1. 123. And, in the excess of joy, Sole reigning, holds the TYRANNY of Heaven. The rule, the sole authority: but Satan is skilfully made to select a word which, while it expressed the true sense, had so fallen into ill-repute, that it would call up ideas of the unjust exercise of the authority, without actually daring to make such a charge. 66 Book I., 1. 203. Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam, Moors by his side under the lea, while night Invests the sea, and wished for morn delays. Night-foundered" here, and in the lines of Comus, in which it occurs, Either some one, like us, night-foundered here, means simply surprised by the coming on of night, overtaken by the darkness. Book I, I. 287. Like the moon, whose orb Through optick glass the Tuscan Artist views At evening from the top of Fesolé, Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. Fesolé was one of the twelve ancient cities of Etruria, situated on one of the peaks of the Apennine range. It had fallen into great decay before the time of Milton. “Hodie hujus vestigia tantum cernuntur extra Florentiam, haud procul in Apennini colle," says the author of the "Parvum Theatrum Mundi," Franc. 4to., 1595, p. 187. If it could be shewn that Galileo was accustomed to resort to this eminence for the purpose of his celestial observations, it would go far to determine the question, whether, by "Tuscan Artist," Milton intended Galileo, whose name would be endeared to him on many accounts, and when he wrote this poem by having been joint sharers in the calamity of blindness; or used the expression more generally for any disciple or follower of Galileo who resorted to Fesolé for the purpose of observation. A device of the "Tuscan Artist," with his telescope in hand, and surrounded by various astronomical instruments, continued till the present century to be one of the ornaments of the Florentine Almanac, and the costume seems to carry us back to the age of Galileo. Milton in his Fifth Book, 1. 262, introduces Galileo by name in connection with his glass: As when by night the glass Of Galileo, less assured, observes Imagin'd lands and regions in the moon. Book I., 1. 303. Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks In VALLAMBROSA. The question is about the orthography of this word which Mr. Todd has printed as here exhibited, recalling what was Milton's own orthography. Yet both etymology and authority seem to be against it. The monastery is said to have been founded in a. D. 1070. "A. D. 1070, Secta Monachorum Vallis Umbrosæ incipit." -Epitome Historiarum by Perminius, 12mo. 1539. Book I., 1. 467. Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat Of Abbana and Pharpar, lucid streams. Mr. Todd shews after Mr. Dunster that Tasso had applied the epithet "bel" to Damascus; but he might have added. D 2 |