O DE S. ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY*. I. HIS is the month, and this the happy morn, TH Wherein the Son of Heaven's Eternal King, * This Ode, in which the many learned allufions are highly poetical, was probably compofed as a college-exercise at Cambridge, our author being now only twenty-one years old. In the edition of 1645, in its title it is faid to have been written in 1629. We are informed by himself, that he was employed in writing this piece, in the conclufion of the fixth Elegy to his friend Deodate, which appears to have been fent about the close of the month December. Deodate had inquired how he was fpending his time. Milton anfwers, v. 81. "Paciferum canimus cœlefti femine regem, Of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born, That he our deadly forfeit should release, And with his Father work us a perpetual peace. 5 The concluding pentameter of the paragraph points out the best part of the Ode. "Et fubito elifos ad fua fana deos." See ft. xix.-xxvi. "The Oracles are dumb, "No voice or hideous hum, &c." The reft of the Ode chiefly confifts of a string of affected conceits, which his early youth, and the fashion of the times, can only excufe. But there is a dignity and fimplicity in these lines, worthy the matureft years, and the best times, ft. iv. "No war, or battle's found, "Was heard the world around, "The idle fpear and fhield were high up hung; "The hooked chariot ftood "Unftain'd with human blood; "The trumpet spake not to the armed throng; "And kings fat ftill with awful eye, "As if they furely knew their fovran Lord was nigh." Nor is the poetry of the stanza immediately following, an expreffion or two excepted, unworthy of Milton. But I muft avoid general anticipation, and come to particulars. WARTON. Ver. 3. Of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born,] This is in Crashaw's manner, who calls the Virgin Mary -"maiden Wife, and maiden Mother too.” See his Poems, p. 119. Paris edit. 1652. Sylvefter fimply calls hermaid and mother," Du Bart. 1621, p. 17. Ver. 5. Jages] The prophets of the Old II. That glorious form, that light unfufferable, To fit the midst of Trinal Unity, He laid afide; and, here with us to be, 10 And chofe with us a darksome house of mortal clay. III. Say, heavenly Mufe, fhall not thy facred vein 15 Haft thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, from Shakspeare's "heavenly-harnefs'd team," Hen. IV. P. A. ii. S. iv. which Randolph imitates, Poems, 2d edit. 1640. P. 74. "the funne, . "Where he unbarnefs'd, and where's teame begunne.” Sylvefter has the Sun's "tyer-lefs teem," Du Bart. 1621, p. 84. Again, "The Sun turus back his teem," p. 226. In Kyd's Cornelia, 1595, we find Night's "flow-pac'd team;" and, in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdefs, Night's" laży team." Hath took no print of the approaching light, And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright? IV. 21 See, how from far, upon the eastern road, Ver. 21. 25 the Spangled hoft keep watch in Squadrons bright?] See the Note on Comus, v. 113. The ftars are called "the fkie's bright fentinels," in Poole's English Parnaffus, p. 542. And Sylvefter, as Mr. Dunfter alfo remarks, calls them "heaven's glorious hoft in nimble Squadrons, &c." Du Bart. p. 13. Drummond describes the angels "arch'd in fquadrons bright," Poems, p. 286. men. Ver. 23. The star-led wifards hafte with odours fweet :] WifeSo Spenfer calls the ancient philofophers, the "antique wifards", Faer. Qu. iv. xii. 2. And he fays that Lucifera's kingdom was upheld by the policy," and ftrong advizement, of fix wifards old." That is, fix wife counfellers. Ibid. i. iv. 12, 18. Proteus is ftyled the Carpathian wifard," Comus, v. 872. See alfo what is faid of the river Dee, in Lycidas, v. 55. WARTON. Ver. 28. From out his fecret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire.] Alluding to Ifaiah vi. 6, 7. In his Reason of Ch. Government Milton has another beautiful allufion to the fame paffage, which I quoted in a note on Par. Loft, B. i. 17. As Pope's Messiah is formed upon paffages taken from the prophet Ifaiah, he very properly invocates the fame divine Spirit: "O thou my voice infpire, Who touch'd Ifaiah's hallow'd lips with fire." NEWTON, |