60 The Mufe herself, for her enchanting fon, Ver. 63. Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian fhore?] In calling Hebrus fwift, Milton, who is avaricious of claffical authority, appears to have followed a verfe in the En. i. 321. 66 Volucrémque fuga prævertitur Hebrum." But Milton was mifled by a wrong although a very ancient reading. Even Servius, in his comment on the line, with an aggravation instead of apology, blames his author for attributing this epithet to Hebrus," Nam quietissimus eft, etiam cum per hyemem crefcit." See Burman's Virgil, vol. i. p. 95. col. 1. edit. 1746. 4to. Besides, what was the merit of the amazon huntress Harpalyce to outftrip a river, even if uncommonly rapid? The genuine reading might have been "Eurum." This emendation is propofed by Janus Rutgerfius, Lection. Venufin. c. vi. But Scaliger had partly fuggefted it to Rutgerfius, by reading, "Euro hyemis Sodali," instead of "Hebro," Hor. Od. i. xxv. 20. See alfo Huetiana, Ixiv. If, however, a river was here to be made a subject of comparison, there was a local propriety and an elegance, in the poet's felection of the Thracian river Hebrus. When Milton copies the ancients, it is not that he wants matter of his own, but becaufe he is fond of fhowing his learning or rather, becaufe the imagery of the ancients was fo familiar to his thoughts. T. WARTON. Mr. Upton, in his notes on Spenfer's Faerie Queene, has allo made objection to Milton's "Swift Hebrus ;" and fuppofes the poet likewife to have been mifled by the faulty reading of Virgil. Milton, I conceive, might be influenced, in the introduction of this difputed expreffion, not by the Virgilian paffage, but by the words of an almost contemporary poet. See a copy of hexameter verfes in Davifon's Poetical Rapfodie, ed. 1611. p. 164. "As when Calliope's dear fonne, fweete harmony finging, Alas! what boots it with inceffant care To tend the homely, flighted, shepherd's trade, And ftrictly meditate the thanklefs Mufe? 66 Were it not better done, as others use, To fport with Amaryllis in the fhade, Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair? Fame is the fpur that the clear spirit doth raise Ver. 64. Alas! what boots it &c.] The expreffion, what boots it," often occurs in Spenfer; and the fentiments, which follow, on the vanity of poetical pursuits, are not diffimilar to thofe of Davifon, Poet. Rapfodie, ed. 1611. p. 46. "Watch now ye fhepheards boyes with waking eye, "But painted praise that can no profit bring." TODD. Ver. 65. the homely, fighted, thepherd's trade,} As in Spenfer, Shep. Cal. June, ver. 67. "And holden fcorne of homely Shepherds quill." TODD. Ver. 67. 1638 reads 66 as others ufe,] The edition of as others do," an error of the prefs. TODD. Ver. 68. To Sport with Amaryllis in the fhade, Or with the tangles of Neera's hair?] In the first edition, 1638, as in the manufcript. "Hid in the tangles of Neæra's hair.” See the note at the end of the Elegies. T. WARTON. . Ver. 70. Fame is the fpur that the clear fpirit doth raife &c.] Thefe noble fentiments, Mr. Warton has obferved, Milton afterwards dilated or improved in Par. Reg. B. iii. 24, &c. The expreffions in this line may be compared with Spenfer's Teares of the Mufes, ver. 454. Due praife, that is the Spur of dooing well."And with Drummond's third Sonnet for Galatea: "that dragon, which doth keep Hefperian fruit, the spur in you doth raise.” (That laft infirmity of noble mind) Clear Spirit occurs in Milton's Profe-Works, ed. 1698. vol. i. 161. "Certainly never any cleare Spirit nurft up from brighter influences, &c." Drayton, in one of his Elegies, has the fame expreffion, p. 268. ed. 1631. "had not my cleare Spirit in fortunes fcorne "Mee above earth and her affections borne." TODD. Ver. 71. (That laft infirmity of noble mind)] Mr. Bowle obferves, that Abate Grillo, in his Lettre, has called " Questa fete di fama et gloria, ordinaria infirmita de gli animi generofi.” Lib. ii. p. 210. edit. Ven. 1604. 4to. Such alfo is Sir Henry Wotton's obfervation, in his Panegyrick to K. Charles, speaking of K. James I. "I will not deny his appetite of glory, which generous minds do ever latest part from." Mr. Gifford, the learned editor of Maffinger's Plays, notices a fimilar expreffion in the Very Woman of that author; referring it, as well as Milton's, to Tacitus and Simplicius. TODD. Ver. 73. But the fair guerdon] Prize, reward, a word, as Peck and doctor Newton have obferved, often ufed by our old writers, particularly Spenfer.. As in Faer. Qu. i. vii. 15. "To gain fo goodly guerdon." TODD. Ibid. when we hope] Here the edition of 1638 reads "where we hope." TODD. So, in the Hift of Orlando Furiofo, 4to. 1599. "Whofe glory's brighter &c. TODD. Ver. 75. Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred fhears,] In Shakspeare are the fhears of Destiny, with more propriety, K. John, A. iv. S. it. The king fays to Pembroke, And fits the thin-fpun life. "praise," "But not the 76 Phœbus replied, and touch'd my trembling ears; "Fame is no plant that grows on mortal foil, "Think you I bear the fhears of deftiny?" Milton, however, does not here confound the Fates and the Furies. He only calls Destiny a Fury. In Spenfer, we have blind Fury, Ruins of Rome, ft. xxiv. "If the blinde Furie which warres breedeth oft." And in Sackville's Gorboducke, A. v. S. iii. "O Joue, how are thefe peoples hearts abvs'd, "And what blind Fury headlong carries them?" See Obfervations on Spenfer's Faerie Queene, vol. ii. p. 253. edit. 2. T. WARTON. Ver. 76. But not the praife, &c.] "But the praife is not intercepted." While the poet, in the character of a hepherd, is moralifing on the uncertainty of human life, Phoebus interpofes with a fublime ftrain, above the tone of pastoral poetry. He then, in an abrupt and elliptical apoftrophe, at O fountain Arethufe, hastily recollects himself, and apologifes to his rural Mufe, or, in other words, to Arethufa and Mincius, the celebrated ftreams of bucolick fong, for having fo fuddenly departed from paftoral allufions, and the tenour of his fubject. “But I could not, he adds, refift the sudden and awful impulfe of the god of verfe, who interrupted me with a frain of higher mood, and forced me to quit for a moment my paftoral ideas:-But I now refume my rural oaten pipe, and proceed as I began." In the fame manner, he reverts to his rural ftrain, after S. Peter's dread voice, with "Return Alpheus." T. WARTON. Ver, 77. Phoebus replied, and touch'd my trembling ears;] Virgil, Ecl. vi. 3. "Cynthius aurem "Vellit et admonuit." PECK. Compare Seneca, Herc. Oet. ver. 1945. "Unde fonus trepidas aures feret ?" DUNSTER. "Nor in the gliftering foil 79 "Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies; 80 "But lives and fpreads aloft by those pure eyes, "And perfect witness of all-judging Jove; "As he pronounces laftly on each deed, "Of fo much fame in heaven expect thy meed." O fountain Arethufe, and thou honour'd flood, Smooth-fliding Mincius, crown'd with vocal reeds! That strain I heard was of a higher mood: And liftens to the herald of the fea That came in Neptune's plea ; He afk'd the waves, and afk'd the felon winds, Ver. 79. Nor in the glistering foil 86 90 Set off to the world,] Perhaps with a remembrance of Shakspeare, Part i. Hen. IV. A. i. S. ii. "And, like bright metal on a fullen ground, "My reformation glittering o'er my fault, "Shall fhow more goodly, and attract more eyes, "Than that which hath no foil to fet it off." T. Warton. Ver. 81. thofe pure eyes,] Perhaps from Scripture, "God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." And hence an epithet, fufficiently hackneyed in modern poetry, Com. V. 213. "Welcome pure-eyed Faith." T. WARTON. Ver. 85. O fountain Arethufe,] In giving Arethufa the dif tinctive appellation of Fountain, Milton clofely and learnedly attends to the ancient Greek writers. See more particularly the fcholiaft on Theocritus, Idyll. i. 117. And Servius on Virgil, En. iii. 694, Ecl. x. 4. Homer fays, Ody: xiii. 408.—'Eπí te KPHNH 'Aplon. Compare Hefychius, and his annotators, V. ΚΟΡΑΚΟΣ, ΑΛΦΕΙΟΣ, ΑΡΕΘΟΥΣΑ. And Stephanus Byzant. Berkel. p. 162. T. WARTON. Ver. 91. the felon winds,] The cruel |