XL-IN MORUM 1. GALLI ex concubitu gravidam te, Pontia, Mori, XIL-APOLOGUS DE RUSTICO ET HERO m. RUSTICUS ex malo sapidissima poma quotannis Mota solo assueto, protinus aret iners. Possem ego avaritiam frænare, gulamque voracem: Nunc periere mihi et fœtus, et ipse parens." XIII-AD CHRISTINAM SUECORUM REGINAM, NOMINE CROMWELLI ". Christina, Arctoi lucida stella poli! Cernis, quas merui dura sub casside rugas, Ast tibi submittit frontem reverentior umbra; Nec sunt hi vultus regibus usque truces. 10 cern for his loss, and respect for his memory. Such, however, was Christina's levity, or hypocrisy, or caprice, that it is possible she might have acted inconsistently in some parts of this business.-T. WARTON. 1 From Milton's "Defensio Secunda," and his "Responsio " to Morus' Supplement. This distich was occasioned by a report, that Morus had debauched a favourite waitingmaid of the wife of Salmasius, Milton's antagonist.-T. WARTON. This piece first appeared in the edition 1673.-TODD. These lines are simple and sinewy. They present Cromwell in a new and pleasing light, and throw an air of amiable dignity on his rough and obstinate character. They are too great a compliment to Christina, who was contemptible both as a queen and a woman. The uncrowned Cromwell had no reason to approach a princess with so much reverence, who had renounced her crown. The frolics of other whimsical modern queens have been often only romantic; the pranks of Christina had neither elegance nor even decency to deserve so candid an appellation. An ample and lively picture of her court, politics, religion, intrigues, rambles, and masquerades, is to be gathered from Thurloe's "State Papers."-T. WARTON. I have quoted the English version of Milton's epigram to Christina: it appeared as follows, in Toland's life of the poet, fol. 1698, p. 39 :— Bright martial maid, queen of the frozen zone! SILVARUM LIBER. PSALM CXIV ». ΙΣΡΑΗ Δ' ότε παίδες, ὅτ' ἀγλαὸ φίλ ̓ Ἰακώβου *Ος τε καὶ ἐκ σπιλάδων ποταμοὺς χέε μορμύροντας, Κρήνην τ ̓ ἀέναον πέτρης ἀπὸ δακρυοέσσης. Philosophus ad regem quendam, qui eum ignotum et insontem inter reos forte captum inscius damnaverat, τὴν ἐπὶ θανάτῳ πορευόμενος, haec subito misit: Ω ̓́ΑΝΑ, εἰ ὀλέσης με τὸν ἔννομον, οὐδέ τιν ̓ ἀνδρῶν IN EFFIGIEI EJUS SCULPTOREM. ̓ΑΜΑΘΕΙ͂ γεγράφθαι χειρὶ τήνδε μὲν εἰκόνα 10 15 Milton sent this translation to his friend Alexander Gill, in return for an elegant copy of henderasyllables.-T. WARTON. IN OBITUM PROCANCELLARII, MEDICI ↳. PARERE fati discite legibus, Manusque Parcæ jam date supplices, Vos si relicto mors vaga Tænaro Per tenebras Stygis ire certum est. Si destinatam pellere dextera Emathia jacuisset Œta: Nec fraude turpi Palladis invidæ Quem larva Pelidis, peremit Ense Locro, Jove lacrymante. Si triste fatum This Ode is on the death of Dr. John Goslyn, master of Caius college, and king's professor of medicine at Cambridge; who died while a second time vice-chancellor of that university, in October, 1626. Milton was now seventeen.-T. WARTON. e Quem larva Pelidis, &c. Sarpedon, who was slain by Patroclus, disguised in the armour of Achilles. At his death his father wept a shower of blood. See Iliad. xvi.-T. WARTON. d Si triste fatum, &c. "If enchantments could have stopped death, Circe, the mother of Telegonus by Ulysses, would have still lived; and Medea, the sister of Ægialus or Absyrtus, with her magical rod." Telegonus killed his father Ulysses, and is the same who is called "parricida " by Horace.-T. WARTON. e Absyrtus is called " Ægialius" by Justin, Hist. lib. xliii. cap. 3, speaking of Jason and Eetes:-" Filiam ejus Medeam abduxerat, et filium Ægialium interfecerat."-TODD. f Machaon. Machaon, the son of Esculapius, one of the Grecian leaders at the siege of Troy, and a physician, was killed by Eurypylus.-T. WARTON. Philyreic, &c. Chiron, the son of Philyra, a preceptor in medicine, was incurably wounded by Hercules, with a dart dipped in the poisonous blood of the serpent of Lerna.-T. WARTON. h Nee tela te, &c. Esculapius, who was cut out of his mother's womb by his father Apollo. Jupiter struck him dead with lightning, for restoring Hippolytus to life.-T. WARTON Tage Q Mummy major Apolline, miss muem une Cirrha luget, Erbles baratii recessus. Afla ripit Persephone tua, Zua, zum & videmt artibus, Sucsapte Fellent, 306 atris Crience Preses, nemòra precor, tua Sit nie ie ejuficium Faci Proserpina: Interque felices perennis E su spattere campo. IN QUINTUM NOVEMBRIS Avvo Erans 17 Jax plus extrema veniens Lacobus ab arcto, I have formerly remarked, that this little poem, as containing a council, conspiracy, and expedition of Satan, may be considered as an early and promising prolusion of Milton's genius to the "Paradise Lost."-T. WARTON. Talibus infestat populos Summanus et urbes, Cui nomen dederat quondam Neptunia proles; At simul hanc, opibusque et festa pace beatam, Jamque pruinosas velox superaverat Alpes, (Vesper erat sacer iste Petro) fremitusque canentum J Summanus. "Summanus is an obsolete and uncommon name for Pluto, or the god of ghosts and night, summus Manium," which Milton most probably had from Ovid," Fast." vi. 731. -T. WARTON. 66 k Cum circumgreditur, &c. He describes the procession of the pope to St. Peter's church at Rome, on the eve of St. Peter's day.-T. WARTON. 1 The orders of mendicant friars. -T. WARTON. |