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Et bene compositos placide morientis ocellos,

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Et dixisse, Vale; nostri memor ibis ad astra."

Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Quamquam etiam vestri nunquam meminisse pigebit,
Pastores Tusci, Musis operata juventus;

Hic Charis, atque Lepos; et Tuscus tu quoque, Damon,
Antiqua genus unde petis Lucumonis ab urbe.a
O, ego quantus eram, gelidi cum stratus ad Arni
Murmura, populeumque nemus, qua mollior herba,
Carpere nunc violas, nunc summas carpere myrtos,
Et potui Lycidæ certantem audire Menalcam!
Ipse etiam tentare ausus sum; nec, puto, multum
Displicui; nam sunt et apud me munera vestra,
Fiscellæ, calathique, et cerea vincla cicutæ :
Quin et nostra suas docuerunt nomina fagos
Et Datis, et Francinus: erant et vocibus ambo
Et studiis noti; Lydorum sanguinis ambo.

Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Hæc mihi tum læto dictabat roscida luna,
Dum solus teneros claudebam cratibus hædos.
Ah, quoties dixi, cum te cinis ater habebat,
Nunc canit, aut lepori nunc tendit retia Damon;
Vimina nunc texit, varios sibi quod sit in usus !

Et

quæ

tum facili sperabam mente futura

Arripui voto levis, et præsentia finxi:

"Heus, bone! numquid agis? nisi te quid forte retardat,

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Imus? et arguta paulum recubamus in umbra,

Aut ad aquas Colni, aut ubi jugera Cassibelauni? a
Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gramina, succos,
Helleborumque, humilesque crocos, foliumque hyacinthi,

15C

Quasque habet ista palus herbas, artesque medentum.”
Ah, pereant herbæ, pereant artesque medentum,
Gramina, postquam ipsi nil profecere magistro!
Ipse etiam, nam nescio quid mihi grande sonabat

a Lucumonis ab urbe.

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Luca, or Lucca, an ancient city of Tuscany, was founded by Lucumon, an Hetruscan king.-T. WARTON.

b Et Datis, et Francinus.

Carlo Dati of Florence, with whom Milton corresponded after his return to England. -T. WARTON.

c Lydorum sanguinis ambo.

Of the most ancient Tuscan families. The Lydians brought a colony into Italy, whence came the Tuscans.-T. WARTON.

Aut ad aquas Colni, aut ubi jugera Cassibelauni ?

The river Colne flows through Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, in Milton's neighbourhood. By "jugera Cassibelauni," we are to understand Verulam, or St. Albans, called the town of Cassibelan, an ancient British king. Milton's appellations are often conveyed by the poetry of ancient fable.-T. WARTON.

e Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gramina, succos.

Deodate is the shepherd-lad in "Comus," ver. 619, &c.-T. WARTON.

He hints his design of quitting pastoral, and the lighter kinds of poetry, to write an epic poem. This, it appears, by what follows, was to be on some part of the ancient British story.-T. WARTON.

Fistula; ab undecima jam lux est altera nocte,
Et tum forte novis admoram labra cicutis;
Dissiluere tamen rupta compage, nec ultra
Ferre graves potuere sonos: dubito quoque ne sim
Turgidulus, tamen et referam; vos, cedite, silvæ.

Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Ipse ego Dardanias Rutupina per æquora puppes
Dicam, et Pandrasidos regnum vetus Inogeniæ,
Brennumque Arviragumque duces, priscumque Belinum,
Et tandem Armoricos Britonum sub lege colonos;
Tum gravidam Arturo, fatali fraude, lögernen,
Mendaces vultus, assumtaque Gorlöis arma,
Merlini dolus. O, mihi tum si vita supersit,
Tu procul annosa pendebis, fistula, pinu,
Multum oblita mihi; aut patriis mutata Camoenis
Brittonicum strides; quid enim? omnia non licet uni,
Non sperasse uni licet omnia: mi satis ampla
Merces, et mihi grande decus, (sim ignotus in ævum
Tum licet, externo penitusque inglorius orbi)
Si me flava comas legat Usa, et potor Alauni,
Vorticibusque frequens Abra, et nemus omne Treantæ,
Et Thamesis meus ante omnes, et fusca metallis
Tamara, et extremis me discant Orcades undis.

Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Hæc tibi servabam lenta sub cortice lauri,
Hæc, et plura simul; tum quæ mihi pocula Mansus,
Mansus, Chalcidicæ non ultima gloria ripæ,
Bina dedit, mirum artis opus, mirandus et ipse,
Et circum gemino cælaverat argumento:

In medio rubri maris unda, et odoriferum ver,
Littora longa Arabum, et sudantes balsama silvæ:
Has inter phoenix, divina avis, unica terris,
Cæruleum fulgens diversicoloribus alis,

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Auroram vitreis surgentem respicit undis:

Parte alia polus omnipatens, et magnus Olympus:

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Quis putet? hic quoque Amor, pictæque in nube pharetræ,

Arma corusca faces, et spicula tincta pyropo;

Nec tenues animas, pectusque ignobile vulgi,

Hinc ferit; at, circum flammantia lumina torquens,
Semper in erectum spargit sua tela per orbes

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Impiger, et pronos nunquam collimat ad ictus:
Hinc mentes ardere sacræ, formæque deorum.

Tu quoque in his, nec me fallit spes lubrica, Damon,
Tu quoque in his certe es; nam quo tua dulcis abiret

Mansus, Chalcidicæ non ultima gloria ripæ.

Manso, celebrated in the last poem, and a Neapolitan. A people called the Chalcidici are said to have founded Naples.-T. WARTON.

h Bina dedit, &c.

Perhaps a poetical description of two real cups thus richly ornamented, which Milton received as presents from Manso at Naples; or perhaps this is an allegorical description of some of Manso's favours.-T. WARTON.

Sanctaque simplicitas, nam quo tua candida virtus?
Nec te Lethæo fas quæsivisse sub orco,

Nec tibi conveniunt lacrymæ, nec flebimus ultra:
Ite procul, lacrymæ; purum colit æthera Damon,
Æthera purus habet, pluvium pede reppulit arcum;
Heroumque animas inter, divosque perennes,
Æthereos haurit latices, et gaudia potat

Ore sacro.

Quin tu, cœli post jura recepta,
Dexter ades, placidusque fave quicunque vocaris,
Seu tu noster eris Damon, sive æquior audis
Diodatus; quo te divino nomine cuncti
Coelicolæ norint, silvisque vocabere Damon.
Quod tibi purpureus pudor, et sine labe juventus
Grata fuit, quod nulla tori libata voluptas;
En, etiam tibi virginei servantur honores.
Ipse, caput nitidum cinctus rutilante corona,
Lætaque frondentis gestans umbracula palmæ,
Æternum perages immortales hymenæos ;
Cantus ubi, choreisque furit lyra mixta beatis,
Festa Sionæo bacchantur et orgia thyrso.

i En, etiam tibi virginei servantur honores. Deodate and Lycidas were both unmarried.-T. WARTON.

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Dr. Johnson observes, that this poem is "written with the common but childish imitation of pastoral life:" yet there are some new and natural country images, and the common topics are often recommended by a novelty of elegant expression. The pastoral form is a fault of the poet's times. It contains also some passages which wander far beyond the bounds of bucolic song, and are in his own original style of the more sublime poetry. Milton cannot be a shepherd long: his own native powers often break forth, and cannot bear the assumed disguise.-T. Warton.

JAN. 23, 1646.

AD JOANNEM ROUSIUM, OXONIENSIS ACADEMIÆ BIBLIOTHECARIUM. De libro Poematum amisso, quem ille sibi denuo mitti postulabat, ut cum aliis nostris in Bibliotheca publica reponeret, Ode.

Ode tribus constat Strophis, totidemque Antistrophis, una demum Epodo clausis; quas, tametsi omnes nec versuum numero, nec certis ubique colis exacte respondeant, ita tamen secuimus, commode legendi potius, quam ad antiquos concinendi modos rationem spectantes. Alioquin hoc genus rectius fortasse dici monostrophicum debuerat. Metra partim sunt κατὰ σχέσιν, partim ἀπολελυμένα. Phaleucia quæ sunt, spondæum tertio loco bis admittunt, quod idem in secundo loco Catullus ad libitum fecit.

GEMELLE cultu simplici gaudens liber,
Fronde licet gemina,

k

Munditieque nitens non operosa;
Quem manus attulit

Juvenilis olim,

Sedula tamen haud nimii poetæ ;

Dum vagus Ausonias nunc per umbras,

Nunc Britannica per vireta lusit,

Insons populi, barbitoque devius

Indulsit patrio, mox itidem pectine Dauniom

Longinquum intonuit melos"

Vicinis, et humum vix tetigit pede :

Quis te, parve liber, quis te fratribus

Subduxit reliquis dolo?

Cum tu missus ab urbe,

Docto jugiter obsecrante amico,

Illustre tendebas iter

Thamesis ad incunabula

Cærulei patris,

Fontes ubi limpidi

Aonidum, thyasusque sacer,

Orbi notus per immensos

STROPHE 1.

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J John Rouse, or Russe, master of arts, fellow of Oriel college, Oxford, was elected chief librarian of the Bodleian, May 9, 1620. He died in April, 1652, and was buried in the chapel of his college. He lived on terms of the most intimate friendship with G. J. Vossius; by whom he was highly valued and respected for his learning and activity in promoting literary undertakings. Not only on account of his friendship with Milton, which appears to have subsisted in 1637, but because he retained his librarianship and fellowship during part of Cromwell's usurpation, we may suppose Rouse to have been puritanically inclined.-T. WARTON.

Wood informs us, that Fairfax, Cromwell, &c., having been admitted to the degree of doctor of civil law, went, after the ceremony, to the Bodleian library, where they were received with a speech by the keeper Rouse, who prevented the plundering of Bodley's chest. He bequeathed twenty pounds to the library.-TODD.

k Fronde licet gemina, &c.

By "Fronde gemina," we are to understand, metaphorically, the "twofold leaf,” the poems both English and Latin, of which the volume consisted. So the Bodleian manuscript, and printed copies: but fronte is perhaps a better reading.-T. WARTON.

1 Insons populi.

uiltless as yet of engaging in the popular disputes of these turbulent times.--T. WARTON. m Mox itidem pectine Daunio.

His Italian Sonnets.-T. WARTON.

Temporum lapsus redeunte cœlo,
Celeberque futurus in ævum?
Modo quis deus, aut editus deo,
Pristinam gentus miseratus indolem,
(Si satis noxas luimus priores,
Mollique luxu degener otium)
Tollat nefandos civium tumultus,"
Almaque revocet studia sanctus,
Et relegatas sine sede Musas

Jam pæne totis finibus Angligenum;

Immundasque volucres,

Unguibus imminentes,

Figat Apollinea pharetra,

Phineamque abigat pestem procul amne Pegaseo?

Quin tu, libelle, nuntii licet mala

Fide, vel oscitantia,

Semel erraveris agmine fratrum,

Seu quis te teneat specus,

Seu qua te latebra, forsan unde vili
Callo tereris institoris insulsi,
Lætare felix: en, iterum tibi
Spes nova fulget, posse profundam
Fugere Lethen, vehique superam
In Jovis aulam, remige penna:
Nam te Rousius sui

Optat peculi, numeroque justo
Sibi pollicitum queritur abesse ;
Rogatque venias ille, cujus inclyta
Sunt data virum monumenta curæ:
Teque adytis etiam sacris

Voluit reponi, quibus et ipse præsidet,
Æternorum operum custos fidelis ;
Quæstorque gazæ nobilioris,

Quam cui præfuit Ion,"

Clarus Erectheides,

Opulenta dei per templa parentis;

Fulvosque tripodas, donaque Delphica;

Ion, Actæa genitus Creusa.

Ergo, tu visere lucos

Musarum ibis amoenos;

Diamque Phœbi rursus ibis in domum,

n Tollat nefandos civium tumultus, &c.

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ANTISTROPHE 2.

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ANTISTROPHE 3.

I fear Milton is here complaining of evils which his own principles contributed either to produce or promote; but his illustrations are so beautiful, that we forget his politics in his poetry. In reflecting, however, on those evils, I cannot entirely impute their origin to a growing spirit of popular faction: if there was anarchy on one part, there was tyranny on the other: the dispute was a conflict "between governors, who ruled by will, not by law; and subjects, who would not suffer the law itself to control their actions." Balguy's Sermons, p. 55.-T. WARTON.

• Quam cui præfuit Ion, &c.

Ion, the treasurer of the Delphic temple, abounding in riches.-T. WARTON.

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