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This epithet is suggested by Milton and unnoticed by Mr. Mason. See P. Lost.

"Now when a sacred light began to dawn,
In Eden, on the humid flowers that breath'd
Their morning incense,-

These shall the fury passions tear.

"The fury passions from that flood began
And turn on man, a fiercer tyrant, man.-'

Eton. Coll.

Pope's 3d. Eth. Ep.

GRAY.

The painful family of death.

"Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain."

Pope's 2d. Eth. Ep.

When Gray wrote his Church-yard, his mind seems to have been much tinctured with reading Tickell's Poem to the Earl of Warwick. It were difficult to produce passages that were immediately parallel. I must refer your readers, therefore, to the two pieces; the following imitations are amongst the most striking.

"Proud names who once the reins of empire held.”

TICKELL.

"Hands that the rod of empire might have held."

GRAY.

"What awe did the slow solemn knell inspire,
The pealing organ, and the pausing choir!"

TICKELL

"The pealing anthem swells the note of praise."

GRAY.

Gray appears to have been a most attentive reader of Cowley, as he has adopted many of his occasional brilliances, which Dr. Hurd has pointed out in his edition; this, however, seems to have escaped him. Cowley beautifully exclaims:

"Ye fields of Cambridge, our dear Cambridge, say Have you not seen us walking every day?" &c. Hurd's Edit, Vol. I. p. 117.

"Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen," &c.

GRAY.

"Hence 'twas a master in those ancient days,

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&c.

Father itself was but a second name."

Hurd's Edit. Vol. I. p. 114.

These lines are an imitation of Juvenal's fine apostrophe. "Dii majorum umbris tenuem et sine pondere terram, Spirantesque crocos, et urna perpetuum ver,

Qui præceptorem sancti voluere parentis

Esse loco,"-7 Sat.

To me the sun is more delightful far,
And all fair days much fairer are, &c.

"Instar veris enim vultus ubi tuus
Affulsit populo, gratior it dies,
Et soles melius nitent."

COWLEY..

Hor. 5 Od. 4 B.

Edwards's Sonnet upon a Family Picture, has as much merit as any sonnet, perhaps, can be entitled to; there is a passage in one of Pope's letters, that reminds us of the leading idea that pervades the sonnet.

It seems that like a column left alone,
The tottering remnant of some splendid fane,
'Scap'd from the fury of the barbarous Gaul,
And wasting time, which has the rest o'er thrown,
Amidst our houses' ruins I remain

Single, unpropp'd, and nodding to my

fall.

EDWARDS.

"Nothing, says Scneca, is so melancholy a circumstance in human life, or so reconciles us to the thought of our death, as the reflection and prospect of one friend after another dropping round us! Who would stand alone, the sole remaining ruin, the last tottering column of all the fabric of friendship, once so large, seemingly so strong, and yet so suddenly sunk and buried.-Letter 10th, to Hon. R. Digby. Vol. VI. p. 87.

In support of the usage of the word tale in Milton, which an anonymous writer suggested to Mr. Warton in his late edition, perhaps the following passage may be adduced:

nor the vale

Of Alsbury, whose grass seems given out by tale."

Drayton, New Edit. p. 369, col. 1.

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Milton seems to have been a great reader of Phineas Fletcher, and Drayton. I shall refer your readers to a few instances. See Fletcher, p. 173, sect. 58. "to try what may be." See Par. Lost, b. 1, 270. eyes that sparkling blazed." Milton, 193. b. 1. See Fletcher, sect. 61, 174. See Par. Lost, b. 1, 48. See Fletcher, sect. 54, p. 174, "troop to the infernal jail," Ode on Ch. Nativity. "Troop the poor." Fletcher, p. 131. " numbers numberless." Fletcher, P. Island, 123. "shapeless shapes." Fletcher, 166,"nummed soul." Fletcher, 83, " imparadised." Fletcher, P. Island, p. 4. The expressive alliteration of Milton's combinations is, in some instances, to be found in both Fletcher and Drayton "valleys dark and deep." Drayton, Fol. Edit. p. 279, col. 1. "Ryedale dark and deep." 378, col. 1. "rude resort." Drayton, 337, 305, col. 2. "waste of waters." Drayton, 349, col. 1. Married applied to music, see Drayton, Fol. Ed. p. 52. col. 2. "whilst she sat under an estate of lawn." Drayton, p. 73, col. 1. Milton uses state in this sense, "saily wings," Drayton, p. 368, col. 2. " flaggy sails," Fletch. P. Island, 173. See Milton's Par. Lost, b. 1, 225. Drayton's 15th Sonnet seems suggested by the story of Coucy, which is to be found in Howell's Letters, and in Baron's Cyprian Academy. Drayton has an idea which I never saw exceeded, though we frequently find common-place ideas of the kind; perhaps, notwithstanding its beauty, it has something the cast of a conceit,

"Whilst in their crystal eyes he doth for Cupids look." The two following lines are a specimen of fine imagery, not easily to be equalled:

"Her mantle richly wrought with sundry flowers; Her moistful temples bound with quivering reeds," Drayton, 326, col. 1.

Lord Rochester's verses on Nothing, which Dr. Johnson supposes might have been suggested by a Latin Poem, on that subject, by Passerat, might have arisen from some verses of P. Fletcher, on the same subject, see p. 70; or he might have found the idea in Crashaw, p. 14. It is much to be regretted that Mr. Upton did not live to complete his magnificent edition of Spenser; he has left all the minor poems unpublished. Spenser's incongruities, as well as his beauties, are without end. See Shep. Cal. April,

I see Calliope speed her to the place,
Where my Goddess shines;
And after her the other Muses trace
With their violines.

See likewise Shep. Cal. June.

I saw Calliope with Muses moe,
Soon as thy oaten pipe began to sound
Their ivory lutes and tamburins forego.

From the ridiculous insignia of violins and tamburins, that are here assigned to the muses, we might almost be led to imagine that Spenser had seen a painting by Carlo Maratti, who has very facetiously drawn Apollo, playing on the fiddle, surrounded by the nine muses. The imitations of Spenser, which we find in Shakespeare, are not unfrequent; the following instance (if it comes under the head of an imitation)I do not recollect to have seen remarked. Cassius says of Cæsar, to Brutus:

Why, man, he doth bestride this narrow world,
Like a Colossus, and we, petty men,
Walk under his huge legs.

See F. Queen, B. 4. Cant. 10.

Jul. Cæs. Scene 3.

"But I, tho' meanest man of many moe,
Yet much disdaining unto him to lout,
Or creep between his legs."

"This bold bad man," occurs in Shakesp. Hen. VIII. Act 2. sc. 4. a mode of expression every where to be met with in Spenser, "like a pined ghost," Spenser, B. 3. Cant. 2. 51. Shakespeare has this word in one of his most exquisite sonnets, "hanging her pale and pined head beside."

With you bring triumphant Mart.

Spens. Introd. b. 1. Stan. 3.

This usage of the word Mart for Mars we find in Massinger's Bashful Lover. Mason's Edit. p. 289.

1786, Feb.

C-T-O.

Or whether (as some sager sing)

The frolick wind that breathes the spring,
Zephyr with Aurora playing.

v. 13.

As some SAGER sing. By this expression it appears that Milton is of opinion, that Mirth is rather the offspring of Zephyr and Aurora, that is, a temperate climate, and early hours, than of Bacchus and Venus: in this light I always understood the passage, and with deference think the alteration of sager to sages unnecessary.

Through the sweet-briar, or the vine,
Or the twisted eglantine.

v. 47.

Sweet-briar and Eglantine are the same plant; by the epithet twisted, the poet seems to intend the honeysuckle or woodbine.

Sometimes with secure delight

The upland hamlets will invite.

v. 91.

"Secure delight," "At secura quies." Virg. G. l. 2. v. 467. Upland means rude or uncultivated, and is used in that sense to this day in Essex. Rustic festivities were anciently held at the borders of forests.

Mr. Warton cites in a note on v. 126, from the "Poetical Miscellanies of Phineas Fletcher, Cambr. 1633, 4to. p. 58."

"Clad with a saffron robe, in's hand a torch.”

But the real line of Fletcher is,

"Clad with a saffron coat, in's hand a light."*

It is a pity the learned author suffers his works to be disgraced by inaccuracies so easily to be avoided.

Married to immortal verse.

"To marry mine immortal Layes to their's."
Το

v. 137.

Sylvester's Du Bartas. 5 day, 1 week.

And add to these retired Leisure,

That in trim gardens takes his pleasure.

IL PENSEROSO. V. 49.

[*This error is corrected in the second edition. E]

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