123

Edw. King bow 16th at Boyle in lock son of te sh King secretary for Island under Elizabeth, Fame pt. of life of Charles I, lected -ellow 1635 accordi to royal mandate. Intor & fellow as X's Coll. &praelector, wrote various complimentary Extin verses Melton's mother had died in 1637. Apr. 3. IN cetten Nov. 1637, pub. 1638 in tad collection, of verse on Edw. King, and of twod one, latin Greek, & the second English Obseques of the memorie of Mr. Edward Thing Anno dom. 163t Freides fined only J. M. last piece in volume.

v. fly. basat end

LYCIDAS. nac

In this Monody, the author bewails a learned friend, unfor-
tunately drowned in his passage from Chester on the Irish
seas, 1637; and by occasion foretells the ruin of our cor-

rupted clergy, then in their height. (trist

in 1645 ed. of M.'s poems).

In the 3yrs that had
YET once more, O ye laurels, and once more epice Comms, J.
had written no dah
Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere,

I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,

And with forc'd fingers rude,

Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 5
Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear,
Compels me to disturb your season due:
For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,
Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer:
Who would not sing for Lycidas? He knew 10
Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhime.
He must not float upon his watery bier

2 myrtles brown] Hor. Od. i. 25. 17. • Pulla magis atque
myrto.' Warton.

• dead] Phillisides is dead.' Past. Ægl. on Sir P. Sidney's death, by L. B. v. 8 (Todd's Spenser, viii. 76), and v. 71.

'Sweet bowres of myrtel twigs, and lawrel faire.'

10 Who] Neget quis carmina Gallo.' Virg. Ecl. x. 3.

Peck.

12 watery] See Theod. Prodrom. Dos. et Rhod. Am. p. 254, ed. Gaulm.

If is obvions per the step itself that Milton's relative to Ed. King specially tender relation

was not a

his heart.

Mark Pat wice, ( 88 × 132, M. rocals himself whe speaking from his most characteristic thoughts, thoughts out of harmony with i. set etificial share the of the poem.

Unwept, and welter to the parching wind,
Without the meed of some melodious tear.

15

Begin then, Sisters of the sacred well,
That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring, alter
Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string.
Hence with denial vain, and coy excuse,

So may some gentle Muse

With lucky words favour destin'd
my
And as he passes turn,

47

And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud.
For we were nurs'd upon the self-same hill
Fed the same flock by fountain, shade, and rill.
Together both, ere the high lawns appear'd 25
Under the opening eyelids of the morn, glimmering ell. 1636
We drove a field, and both together heard

What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn,
Batt'ning our flocks with the fresh dews of night,

14 melodious] Cleveland's Obsequy on Mr. King, 'I like
not tears in tune.'

17 sweep] Purg. i. 9.

19 Muse]

i. p. 341.

Todd.

E qui Calliopea alquanto surga,' Dante

'Gentle Muse-he passes." See Jortin's Tracts,

23 nurs'd] Compare Past. Ægl. on Sir P. Sidney's death, by L. B. ver. 85.

Through many a hill and dale, &c.' 26 opening] Middleton's Game at Chess.

Like a pearl,

Dropp'd from the opening eyelids of the morn.'
And Crashaw's Translation of Marino, The lids of day.'

Batt'ning] Drayton's Ecl. ix.

Warton, Todd.

"Their battening flocks on grassie leas to hold.' Warton.

26 Marlowe's Jew of Malta #1 1,58 Now Prebus ope to syphil

344 Fauns presided over fields; Satipo Sylvansoves. 30. Jay Keightley the surely could not mean the evening. not rises, & it is never anywhere but on

montain word: Jams hot, atip had not by atan fruit appear

"heaven's decent
125

34) Milton write first: "Off till the ever star bright burnich' whiel Oft till the star that rose, at evening, bright,

30

Toward heav'n's descent had slop'd his west'ring of HP, 55

Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute, [wheel.
Temper'd to th' oaten flute,

Rough Satyrs danc'd, and Fauns with cloven heel
From the glad sound would not be absent long,
And old Damotas lov'd to hear our song.

36

But, O the heavy change, now thou art gone,
Now thou art gone, and never must return!
Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods, and desert caves
With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown,
And all their echoes mourn.

41

contrast of the willow which are rather lays.grey Zas filtr the pub

The willows, and the hazel copses green,
Shall now no more be seen,
Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft
As killing as the canker to the rose

Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze,
Or frost to flow'rs, that their gay wardrobe wear,
When first the white-thorn blows;

Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear. [deep
Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless
Clos'd o'er the head of your lov'd Lycidas?
For neither were ye playing on the steep,

51

άρθρα Δάφνις ετάκετο, το πιο κα

333 Temper❜d] On this word see P. Fletcher's Purple Isl. I 66

c. ix. st. 3. Par. Lost, vii. 598. Warton.

37 thou art gone] Browne's Sheph. Pipe (ecl. 4). But he

is gone.

50 Where] Spenser's Astrophel, st. 22,

Ah, where were ye the while his shepheard peares, &c.

Warton. E

416 Tamint a small red epider by the country people accounted

cons choises, who,

deadly poison will commonly by FC; have hotelittunt Browse M

41

Adonas:

Lost Echo sits amid the voiceless mountains

saved with his remembered la

55 Drayten calls the Weaves

that it me

with the Bee in prophecy of ancient hallowed Dae n.162 L.GF 70 Joe Mist. It 6 "Grant quibus adpetention fance videretu quands Cham sapventions cupido glorice novisma exuitur

or was o

55 Drausten van 125ttat by ChachinLYCIDAS. it for the da metold or peace, plate bushland or Wales Severity, 166 Where your old Bards, the famous Druids, lie, Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high,

of

Calliope

see 14,5 Nor yet where Deva spreads her wisard stream. Ay me! I fondly dream! 55 Spreads toward the month Had ye been there, for what could that have done? What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore, The Muse herself for her inchanting son, 31 Whom universal nature did lament,

60

When by the rout that made the hideous roar,
His goary visage down the stream was sent,
Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore?
Alas! what boots it with incessant care
To tend the homely slighted shepherd's trade, 65

Musam mediorAnd strictly meditate the thankless Muse?

tarus

Were it not better done as others use,
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair?
Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of noble mind) ee cover at

abond Whook I dirty hotter I will not deny his appetite for flow which grsons 16 ore lates/test wisard] on the wisard stream of Deva, consult Warton's

note.

Auvies say, the

63 swift] Vir. Æn. 1. 321.

'Volucremque fuga prævertitur Hebrum.' Warton.
tangles] Benlowes's Theophila, p. 2.

Entangled thoughts in the trammels of their ambush hair.'
Greene's never too late,

Entangle men in their tresses.' p. 58. Shirley's Doubtful Heir. p. 36. G. Peele's Works, ed.

Dyce, 1829, i. p. 17. ii. p. 11..

70 Fame]

"Quasi hic subesset ingens Cupido gloriæ quæ

Hetiam sapientibus novissima exuitur." Strada Prelu. P. 161.

ed. Ox. a desire of honon refuite & immortal

- ame Leated in the breast of Every time scholen Milton leter 1632. of. Par List ret 31. Do between Uzania, earthly Muse But there diperamen

far off the barbar, a

of Bacchus &

༨

72 "He himself giving an example tothie under him of hard study & opare diet. Ed. Phillipe of M.

T.YCIDAS.

127

onj

"where"

74be

72 cf. Wordsworth's "Plam living & high thinking"
To scorn delights, and live laborious days;
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with th' abhorred shears, Ap
And slits the thin-spun life. But not the praise, cal
Phoebus replied, and touch'd my trembling ears; h
Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
Nor in the glist'ring foil

Set off to th' world, nor in broad rumour lies; 80
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;
As he pronounces lastly on each deed,
Of so much fame in heav'n expect thy meed.
O fountain Arethuse, and thou honour'd flood,
Smooth-sliding Mincius, crown'd with vocal reeds,
That strain I heard was of a higher mood:
But now my oat proceeds,

And listens to the herald of the sea

in

a

86

Hie virides tenera

arundine ripas

74 blaze] So P. Reg. iii. 47 y. Etxu may

For what is glory but the blaze of fame.' Warton.

75 blind] Spenser's R. of Rome. st. xxiv. Furie which warres breedeth oft.'

77 touched] Virg. Ecl. vi. 3.

Warton.

-Cynthius aurem

Vellit, et admonuit.

79 foil] See Shakes. Henry IV. act. i. s. 2.

If the blind

Peck.

Warton.

85 fountain] Hom. Od. xiii. 408. Kρývn'Apeloúσn. Virg.

87 higher] I'll tune my reed unto a higher key.' Browne's Brit. Past. iv. 41.