Seu catus auditur senior, seu prodigus hæres, Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragedia sceptrum Et dolet, et specto, juvat et spectasse dolendo, Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit ; 31. Sive decennali fœcundus lite Detonat inculto barbara verba He probably means the play 31. Mr. Dunster supposes "that his theatre, in this place, " was his own closet; where, "when fatigued with other "studies, he relaxed with his " favourite dramatic poets." And he conceives the "sinuosi pompa "theatri" &c. to be merely the creations of the poet's fancy with the work of some favourite dramatic author before him. E. 37. Sive cruentatum, &c.] 30 35 40 See Note on Il Pens. v. 98. Ovid calls his Medea " Scriptum " regale." Trist. ii. 553. Et dedimus tragicis scriptum regale cothurnis. Again, Ex Pont. iv. xvi. 9. Quique dedit Latio carmen regale Where he means the Tragedies 41. Seu puer infelix indelibata reliquit Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit ; Seu ferus e tenebris iterat Styga criminis ultor, Conscia funereo pectora torre movens ;] By the youth, in the first couplet, he perhaps intends Shakespeare's Romeo. In the second, either Hamlet, or Richard the Third. He then draws his illustrations from the ancient tragedians. The allusions, however, to Shakespeare's incidents do not exactly correspond. In :: Seu ferus e tenebris iterat Styga criminis ultor, Conscia funereo pectora torre movens ; Seu mæret Pelopeia domus, seu nobilis Ili, Aut luit incestos aula Creontis avos. Sed neque sub tecto semper nec in urbe latemus, Irrita nec nobis tempora veris eunt. Nos quoque lucus habet vicina consitus ulmo, Atque suburbani nobilis umbra loci. the first instance, Romeo was not torn from joys untasted: although puer and abrupto amore are much in point. The allusions are loose, or resulting from memory, or not intended to tally minutely. 44. Conscia funereo pectora torre movens ;] Mr. Steevens suggests, that the allusion is to Ate in the old play of Locrine, where she enters with a torch in her hand, and where the motto to the Scene is, In pæna sectatur et umbra. 48. Irrita nec nobis tempora veris eunt.] Ovid, Fast. ii. 150. -Primi tempora veris eunt. 49. Nos quoque lucus habet vicina consitus ulmo,] The gods had their favourite trees. So have the poets. Milton's is the elm. In L'Allegro, v. 57. Some time walking not unseen In Arcades, v. 89. By branching elm, star-proof. In Comus, v. 354. Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm Leans her unpillow'd head. In the Epitaphium Damonis, v. 15. -Simul assueta seditque sub ulio. Ibid. v. 49. -Desuper intonat ulmo. In Par. L. b. v. 215. -They led the vine To wed her elm. 45 50 The country about Colnebrook impressed Milton with a predilection for this tree. See the next note. 50. Atque suburbani nobilis umbra loci.] Some country house of Milton's father very near London is here intended, of which we have now no notices. A letter to Alexander Gill is dated "E nostro Suburbano "Decem. 4, 1634." Prose Works, vol. ii. 567. In the Apology for Smectymnuus, published 1642, he says to his opponent, " that "suburb wherein I dwell shall "be in my account a more "honourable place than his "University." Prose Works, i. 109. His father had purchased the estate at Colnebrook before 1632. In a letter to Deodate, from London, dated 1637, he says, "Dicam jam nunc serio "quid cogitem, in Hospitium "Juridicorum aliquod immi"grare, sicubi amœna et umbrosa "ambulatio est, &c. Ubi nunc "sum, ut nosti, obscure et anguste "sum." Prose Works, vol. ii. Sæpius hic, blandas spirantia sidera flammas, 569. In an academic Prolusion, written perhaps not far from the time of writing this Elegy, is the following passage, "Testor ipse "lucos, et flumina, et dilectas "villarum ulmos, sub quibus "æstate proximè præterita, si "deorum arcana eloqui liceat, " summam cum Musis gratiam " habuisse me, jucunda memoria " recolo, &c." Prose Works, vol. ii. 602. 55. Ah quoties vidi, &c.] Ovid, Epist. Heroid. ix. 79. Ah quoties digitis, &c. Propertius, 55 60 65 63. Cedite laudatæ toties Heroides olim, &c.] Ovid, Art. Buchanan, El. vi. p. 43. edit. ut Amator. i. 713. supr. -Superantia lumine flammas. 58. Quæque fluit puro nectare tincta via;] Here is a peculiar antique formula, as in the following instances. Virgil, Æn. i. 573. Urbem quam statuo vestra est. Jupiter ad veteres supplex Heroïdas Corripuit magnum nulla puella 65. Cedite Achæmeniæ turrita fronte puellæ,] Achæmenia is a part of Persia, so called from Achæmenes the son of Ægeus. Et quot Susa colunt, Memnoniamque Ninon; The women of this country wear 66. Et quot Susa colunt, Memnoniamque Ninon;] Susa [Susarum], anciently a capital city of Susiana in Persia, conquered by Cyrus. Xerxes marched from this city, to enslave Greece, "From Susa, his Memnonian " palace high." Par. L. x. 308. It is now called Souster. Propert. ii. xiii. i. Non tot Achæmeniis armantur Susa sagittis. Ninos is a city of Assyria, built by Ninus: Memnon, a hero of the Iliad, had a palace there, and was the builder of Susa. Milton is alluding to oriental beauty. In the next couplet, he challenges the ladies of ancient Greece, Troy, and Rome. 69. Nec Pompeianas Tarpeïa Musa, &c.] The poet has a retrospect to a long passage in Ovid, who is here called Tarpeia Musa, either because he had a house adjoining to the Capitol, or by way of distinction, that he was the Tarpeian, the genuine Roman muse. It is in Ovid's Art of Love, where he directs his votary Venus to frequent the portico of Pompey, or the The atre, places at Rome, among 70 others, where the most beautiful women were assembled. B. i. 67. Tu modo Pompeii lentus spatiare sub umbra, &c. And v. 89. Sed tu præcipue curvis venare theatris, &c. See also, b. iii. 387. Propertius says that Cynthia had deserted this famous portico, or colonnade, of Pompey, ii. xxxii. 11. Scilicet umbrosis sordet Pompeia columnis Porticus, aulæis nobilis Attalicis, &c. Where says the old scholiast, "Romæ erat Porticus Pompeia, " soli arcendo accommodata, sub qua æstivo potissimum tem"pore matronæ spatiabantur." See also iv. viii. 75. Other proofs occur in Catullus, Martial, and Statius. Pompey's theatre and portico were contiguous. The words Ausoniis stolis imply literally the theatre filled "with "the ladies of Rome." But Stola properly points out a matron. See Note on Il Pens. v. 35. And Ovid, Epist. ex Pont. iii. iii. 52. Scripsimus hæc istis, quarum nec vitta pudicos Contingit crines, nec stola longa And compare Heinsius on Ovid, Turrigerum late conspicienda caput, Paucaque in alternos verba coacta modos.* 74. Turrigerum late conspiciendu caput,] So in L'All. v. 117. Toro'red cities please us then. 88. See notes on Comus, v. 636. 89. -juncosas Cami remeare paludes,] The epithet juncosas is picturesque and appropriated, and exactly describes this river: hence in Lycidas, "his bonnet "sedge," v. 104. Dr. J. Warton. And above, v. 11. Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum. But there is a contempt in describing Cambridge, and its river, by the expression the 75 80 85 90 rushy marshes of Cam. See v. 13, 14. And notes on Lycid. v. 105. 92. The Roxana of Alabaster has been mentioned by Dr. Johnson as a Latin composition, equal to the Latin poetry of Milton: whoever but slightly examines it, will find it written in the style and manner of the turgid and unnatural Seneca. It was printed by the author himself at London, 1632. Yet it was written forty years before, 1592, and there had been a surreptitious edition. It is remarkable, that Mors, Death, is one of the persons of the Drama. Dr. J. Warton. |