Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being,
Unmindful of the crown that virtue gives
After this mortal change to her true servants
Amongst the enthron'd Gods on sainted seats.
Yet some there be that by due steps aspire
To lay their just hands on that golden key,

10

fax's Tasso, c. xiii. 20. Shake- if he had said just before

speare, K. Lear, act ii. s. 2. Two Gent. Verona, act i. s. 1. It is a pound in Hudibras. A pinner is a shepherd in some parts of England, one who pins the fold. In old deeds, among manorial rights, the privilege of a pinfold for pound is claimed. T. Warton.

8. Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being, This endeavour is in itself no fault; it becomes so only as it is circumstanced: and the Trinity manuscript gives this circumstance, which was therefore necessary to the justness of the thought,

Beyond the written date of mortal
change.

By the written date is meant
Scripture, in which is recorded
the abridged date of mortal life.
Warburton.

I am still inclined to think that this line is better omitted. For though it may not be a fault in itself to

Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being,

yet it certainly is so to strive to keep it up

Unmindful of the crown that virtue gives:

and he could not have added

-the crown that virtue gives After this mortal change

Beyond the written date of mortal change:

and therefore I cannot but think that he blotted out this line not without reason.

8. Besides, an allusion to the written date of Scripture would be improper in the person of the attendant spirit. For the same

reason there seems to be an im

propriety in supposing an allusion to St. Peter's golden key in v. 13, where see the note. Ε.

11. Amongst the enthron'd Gods on sainted seats.] So this verse stands in Milton's manuscript as well as in all his editions: and yet I cannot but prefer the reading of Mr. Fenton's editions,

Amongst the enthroned Gods on sainted seats.

11. Shakespeare, Anton. Cleop. act i. s. 3.

Though you in swearing shake the
throned Gods.

See note on Par. L. v. 535. Τ.
Warton.

13. that golden key, &c.] This seems to be said in allusion to Peter's golden key, mentioned likewise in Lycidas, 110.

Two massy keys he bore of metals twain,

(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain.)

And this verse, which was first

That opes the palace of eternity :
To such my errand is; and but for such,
I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds
With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould.
But to my task. Neptune besides the sway
Of every salt flood, and each ebbing stream,
Took in by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove
Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles
That like to rich and various gems inlay
The unadorned bosom of the deep,
Which he to grace his tributary Gods

written That shows &c. after-
wards altered,

That opes the palace of eternity,
Mr. Pope has transferred with a
little alteration into one of his
Satires, speaking of Virtue,

15

20

22. That like to rich and various gems inlay

The unadorned bosom of the deep,]

The first hint of this beautiful passage seems to have been taken from Shakespeare's Rich. II. act

Her priestess Muse forbids the good ii. sc. 1. where John of Gaunt

to die, And opes the temple of eternity.

13. Jonson, Hymen, v. p. 296. of Truth.

Her left [holds] a curious bunch of golden keys,

With which heaven's gate she lock-
eth and displays.

Where displays is opens.
Warton.

18. But to my task &c.] These four lines were thus in the manuscript before they were altered.

calls this island by the same sort of metaphor,

-this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea.

22. But Milton has heightened the comparison, omitting ShakeTspeares petty conceit of the silver sea, the conception of a jeweller, and substituting another and a more striking piece of imagery. This rich inlay, to use an expression in the Paradise Lost, gives beauty to the bosom of the deep, else unadorned. It has its effect on a simple ground. Thus the bare earth, before the creation, was " desert and bare, unsightly, unadorned." P. L. vii. 314.

But to my business now. Neptune,
whose sway

Of every salt flood, and each ebbing
stream,
Took in by lot 'twixt high and nether

Jove

The rule and title of each sea-girt isle. And they were altered with great reason, no verb following the nominative case, Neptune.

Eve's tresses are unadorned,
Ibid. iv. 305. T. Warton.

By course commits to several government,
And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns,
And wield their little tridents: but this isle,
The greatest and the best of all the main,
He quarters to his blue-hair'd deities;
And all this tract that fronts the falling sun

25

30

A noble Peer of mickle trust and power
Has in his charge, with temper'd awe to guide
An old, and haughty nation proud in arms :
Where his fair offspring nurs'd in princely lore
Are coming to attend their father's state,
And new-intrusted sceptre; but their way

28. -the best of all the main, So altered in the manuscript from -the best of all his empire.

29. He quarters] That is, Neptune: with which name he honours the king, as sovereign of the four seas; for from the British Neptune alone this noble Peer derives his authority. Warburton.

32.-With temper'd awe to guide

An old and haughty nation, proud in arms.]

That is, the Cambro-Britons, who were to be governed by respect mixed with awe. The Earl of Bridgewater, "A noble Peer of "mickle trust and power," was now governor of the Welch as lord-president of the principality. "Proud in arms," is Virgil's "belloque superbi." Æn. i. 21. T. Warton.

34. Where his fair offspring, nurs'd in princely lore, &c.] I have been informed from a manuscript of Oldys, that Lord Bridgewater entered upon his official residence

35

at Ludlow castle with great so-
lemnity. On this occasion he
was attended by a large con-
course of the neighbouring no-
bility and gentry. Among the
rest came his children; in par-
ticular, Lord Brackley, Mr. Tho-
mas Egerton, and Lady Alice,
-To attend their father's state,
And new-intrusted sceptre.
They had been on a visit at a
house of their relations the Eger-
ton family in Herefordshire; and
in passing through Haywood
forest were benighted, and the
Lady Alice was even lost for a
short time. This accident, which
in the end was attended with no
bad consequences, furnished the
subject of a Mask for a Michael-
mas festivity, and produced Co-
mus. Lord Bridgewater was ap-
pointed Lord President, May 12,
1633. When the perilous ad-
venture in Haywood forest hap-
pened, if true, cannot now be
told. It must have been soon.
after. The Mask was acted at
Michaelmas, 1634. T. Warton.

Lies through the perplex'd paths of this drear wood,
The nodding horror of whose shady brows
Threats the forlorn and wand'ring passenger ;
And here their tender age might suffer peril,
But that by quick command from sovereign Jove
I was dispatch'd for their defence and guard;
And listen why, for I will tell you now

What never yet was heard in tale or song,
From old or modern bard, in hall or bower.

Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape
Crush'd the sweet poison of misused wine,
After the Tuscan mariners transform'd,

Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed,
On Circe's island fell: (Who knows not Circe
The daughter of the sun? whose charmed cup
Whoever tasted, lost his upright shape,
And downward fell into a grovelling swine)
This Nymph that gaz'd upon his clust'ring locks,
With ivy berries wreath'd, and his blithe youth,
Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son
Much like his father, but his mother more,
Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus nam'd,