Thou honour'ft verfe, and verfe muft lend her wing To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire, That tun'ft their happiest lines in hymn, or ftory. 11 Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher Than his Cafella, whom he woo'd to fing Met in the milder fhades of Purgatory. Ver. 9. Thou honour'ft verfe,] Compare Browne, of Lord Brooke, Brit. Paft. 1616, B. ii. S. ii. "Time fhall fee "Thee honor'd by thy verfe, and it by thee." TODD. Ver. 11. or ftory.] "The story of Ariadne fet by him to mufick." This is a note in the margin of this fonnet, as it stands prefixed to "Choice Pfalms put into mufick by Henry and William Lawes, Lond. for H. Moseley, 1648." The infcription is there, "To my friend Mr. Henry Lawes." In the ninth line, is the true reading lend, as in the manufcript, for "fend her wing," as in the edition of 1673. T. WARTON, Lawes's Ariadne appears to have been much admired. In the Verfes prefixed to his First Book of Ayres, thofe by John Cobb obferve, that "Thy Ariadne's grief's fo fitly shown, "As brings us pleasure from her faddeft groan." And those by John Philips, that the musician's powerful strains "have low defcended to the deep, "And waken'd Thefeus' Queen from Stygian sleep; &c." and the poet promises him as his reward, "Hereafter thou shalt wear fair Ariadne's crown." TODD, Ver. 13. Than his Cafella, &c.] Dante, on his arrival in Purgatory fees a veffel approaching the fhore, freighted with fouls under the conduct of an angel, to be cleanfed from their fins and made fit for Paradife. When they are difembarked, the poet recognises in the croud his old friend Cafella the mufician. The interview is ftrikingly imagined, and, in the course of an affectionate dialogue, the poet requests a foothing air; and Cafella fings, with the most ravishing sweetness, Dante's fecond Canzone. Convit. p. 116. vol. iv. P. i. Ven. 1758. 4to. It begins, "Amor, che nella mente mi ragiona." See Dante's Purgator. C. ii. v. 111. The Italian commentators on the paffage fay, that Cafella, Dante's friend, was a musician of diftinguifh'd excellence. He muft have died a little before the year 1300. In the Vatican library is a Ballatella, or Madrigal, infcribed Lemmo da Piftoja, e Cafella diede il Suono. That is, Lemmo da Pistoja wrote the words, which were set to musick by Cafella. Num. 3214. f. 149. Crefcimbeni mentions an ancient manuscript Ballatella, with Dante's words and his friend Schochetti's mufick. Infcribed Parole di Dante, e Suono di Schochetti. IST. VOLG. POES. p. 409. From many parts of his writings, Dante appears to have been a judge and a lover of mufick. This is not the only circumftance in which Milton resembled Dante. By milder fhades, our author means, fhades comparatively much lefs horrible than those which Dante describes in the Inferno. T. WARTON, XIV. On the religious memory of Mrs. CATHERINE THOMSON *, my chriftian friend, deceased 16 Decemb. 1646. WHEN Faith and Love, which parted from thee never, Had ripen'd thy juft foul to dwell with God, Thy works, and alms, and all thy good en deavour, Staid not behind, nor in the 5 grave were trod; * Mrs. Catherine Thomfon,] I find in the accounts of Milton's life, that, when he was first made Latin fecretary, he lodged at one Thomfon's next door to the Bull-head tavern at CharingCrofs. This Mrs. Thomfon was in all probability one of that family. NEWTON. Peck fuppofes, that Milton, from his acquaintance with this Mrs. Thomfon and Thomas Elwood, was a quaker. Milton was certainly of that profeffion, or general principle, in which all fectarists agree, a departure from establishment; and there was at leaft one common caufe in which all concurred who deferted the church, whether Quakers, Anabaptifts, or Brownifts. T. WARTON. "Nor Ver. 6. Staid not behind, nor in the grave were trod ;] in the grave were trod," is a beautiful periphrafis for "good deeds forgotten, at her death," and a happy improvement of the original line in the manufcript. "Strait follow'd thee the path that faints have trod." T. WARTON. But, as Faith pointed with her golden rod, Follow'd thee up to joy and blifs for ever. Love led them on, and Faith, who knew them beft Thy hand-maids, clad them o'er with purple beams 10 And azure wings, that up they flew fo dreft, And fpake the truth of thee on glorious themes Before the Judge; who thenceforth bid thee reft, And drink thy fill of pure immortal streams. Ver. 7. with her golden rod,] Perhaps from the golden reed in the Apocalypfe: Which he mentions in his Church Government, B. i. ch. i. "The golden furveying reed [of the Saints] marks out and measures every quarter and circuit of the New Jerufalem." T. WARTON. Ver. 10. clad them o'er with purple beams And azure wings, that up they flew fo dreft, &c.] This, fays Mr. Warton, is like the thought of the perfonication and afcent of the Prayers of Adam and Eve; a fiction from Ariosto and Taffo, Par. Loft, B. xi. 14, &c. To this I may add, that the paffage bears fome refemblance alfo to the following lines of P. Fletcher, Poetic. Mifc. 1633, p. 83. "Moft bleffed foul, that, lifted up with wings "Of faith and love, leaves this bafe habitation; "And, fcorning fluggish earth, to heav'n up Springs." TODD. Ver. 14. And drink thy fill of pure immortal streams,] See the Epitaph. Damon. v. 206. The allufion is to the waters of life, and more particularly to Pf. xxxvi. 8, 9. "Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures, for with thee is the well of life." On this fcriptural idea, which is enlarged. with the decorations of Italian fancy, Milton feems to have founded his feast of the angels, Parad. Loft, B. v. 632. T. WARTON. XV. To the Lord General FAIRFAX *. 'FAIRFAX, whofe name in arms through Europe rings, For obvious political reafons this Sonnet, the two following, and the two to Cyriack Skinner, were not inferted in the edition of 1673. They were first printed at the end of Phillips's life of Milton prefixed to the English verfion of his publick Letters, 1694. They are quoted by Toland in his Life of Milton, 1698, p. 24, 34, 35. Tonfon omitted them in his editions of 1695, 1705. But growing lefs offenfive by time, they appear in his edition of 1713. The Cambridge manufcript happily corrects many of their vitiated readings. They were the favourites of the republicans long after the restoration: It was fome confolation to an exterminated party, to have such good poetry remaining on their fide of the question. Thefe five fonnets being frequently tranfcribed, or repeated from memory, became extremely incorrect: their faults were implicitly preferved by Tonfon, and afterwards continued without examination by Tickell and Fenton. This Sonnet, as appears from Milton's Manufcript, was addreffed to Fairfax at the fiege of Colchester, 1648. T. WARTON. 66 Ver. 1. rings,] Milton is fond of ring, for violence of found; I mean in a good fenfe, and out of its appropriated literal application. Sonn. xxii. 12. "Of which all Europe rings from fide to fide." Hymn. Nativ. v. Ring out ye cryftal fpheres." Par. Loft, B. ii. 495. "Hill and valley rings." Ib. B. iii. 347. "Heaven rung with jubilee." Ib. B. vi. 204. "the faithful armies rung Hofanna." Ib. B. vii. 562. "all the conftellations rung." Ib. B. vii. 633. empyrean rung with hallelujahs." Ib. B. ix. 737. "The found yet rung of his perfuafive words." T. WARTON. "The |