J Ah! miser ille tuo quanto felicius ævo Aurea maternæ fila movere lyræ! VIII-AD EANDEM. CREDULA quid liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas, Illic, Romulidum studiis ornata secundis, IX.-IN SALMASII HUNDREDAM.S QUIS expedivit Salmasio suam Hundredam, Centum, exulantis viscera marsupii regis. Ipse, Antichristi qui modo primatum Papæ d For the story of Pentheus, a king of Thebes, see Euripides's "Baccha," where he Es two suns, &c., v. 916. But Milton, in "torsisset lumina," alludes to the rage of Pentheus in Ovid, "Metam." iii. 557:— Aspicit hunc oculis Pentheus, quos ira tremendos • Parthenope's tomb was at Naples: she was one of the sirens.-T. WARTON. Pausilipi. The grotto of Pausilipo, which Milton no doubt had visited with delight.-TODD. 8 This Epigram is in Milton's "Defensio" against Salmasius; in the translation of which by Richard Washington, published in 1692, the Epigram is thus anglicized p. 187: Who taught Salmasius, that French chattering pye, The starving rascal, flush'd with just a hundred An outlaw'd king's last stock.-A hundred more Would make him pimp for the antichristian whore; And in Rome's praise employ his poison'd breath, Who threaten'd once to stink the pope to death.-T. WARTON. .b King Charles II., now in exile, and sheltered in Holland, gave Salmasius, who was a professor at Leyden, one hundred Jacobuses to write his defence, 1649. Wood asserts that Salmasius had no reward for his book: he says, that in Leyden, the king Bent Dr. Morley, afterwards bishop, to the apologist, with his thanks, "but not with a purse of gold, as John Milton the impudent lyer reported."-" Athen. Oxon." ii. 770.T. WARTON. This Epigram, as Mr. Warton observes, is an imitation of part of the Prologue te Persius's Satires.-TODD. Minatus uno est dissipare sufflatu, Cantabit ultro Cardinalitium melos.' X.-IN SALMASIUM.¡ GAUDETE Scombri, et quicquid est piscium salo, XI-IN MORUM. GALLI ex concubitu gravidam te, Pontia, Mori, XII.-APOLOGUS DE RUSTICO ET HERO.m RUSTICUS ex malo sapidissima poma quotannis Malum ipsam in proprias transtulit areolas. This is in the "Defensio Secunda." It is introduced with the following ridicule on Morus, the subject of the next Epigram, for having predicted the wonders to be worked by Salmasius's new edition, or rather reply:-"Tu igitur, ut pisciculus ille anteambulo, præcurris balænam Salmasium." Mr. Steevens observes, that this is an idea analogous to Falstaff's" Here do I walk before thee," &c., although reversed as to the imagery. -T. WARTON. j Mr. Warton observes, that Milton here sneers at a circumstance which was true. Salmasius was really of an ancient and noble family.-TODD. "Cubito mungentium," a cant appellation among the Romans for fishmongers.T. WARTON. : Christina, queen of Sweden, among other learned men who fed her vanity, had invited Salmasius to her court, where he wrote his "Defensio." She had pestered him with Latin letters seven pages long, and told him she would set out for Holland to fetch him if he did not come. When he arrived, he was often indisposed on account of the coldness of the climate; and on these occasions, the queen would herself call on him is a morning and locking the door of his apartment, used to light his fire, give him breakfast, and stay with him some hours. This behaviour gave rise to scandalous stories, and our critic's wife grew jealous.-It is seemingly a slander, what was first thrown out in the "Mercurius Politicus," that Christina, when Salmasius had published this work, dismissed him with contempt, as a parasite and an advocate of tyranny: but the ase was, to say nothing that Christina loved both to be flattered and to tyrannize, Salmiasius had now been long preparing to return to Holland, to fulfil his engagements with the university of Leyden: she offered him large rewards and appointments to remain in Sweden, and greatly regretted his departure; and on his death, very shortly afterwards, she wrote his widow a letter in French, full of concern for his less, 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. From Milton's "Defensio Secunda," and his "Responsio" to Morus's Supplement. This distich was occasioned by a report, that Morus had debauched a favourite waiting. maid of the wife of Salmasius, Milton's antagonist.-T. WArton. This piece first appeared in the edition 1673.-TODD. Hactenus illa ferax, sed longo debilis ævo, Possem ego avaritiam frænare, gulamque voracem: XIII.-AD CHRISTINAM SUECORUM REGINAM, NOMINE CROMWELLL- Christina, Arctoi lucida stella poli! Ast tibi submittit frontem reverentior umbra; Nec sunt hi vultus regibus usque truces. Those lines are simple and sinewy. They present Cromwell in a new and pleasing light, and throw an air of amiable diguity 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. Au 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 a follows, in Toland's life of the poet, fol. 1698, p. 39 :— Bright martid maid, queen of the frozen zone! SILVARUM LIBER. PSALM CXIV.a ΙΣΡΑΗΛ ὅτε παῖδες, ὅτ' ἀγλαὰ φύλ ̓ Ἰακώβου Ος τε καὶ ἐκ σπιλάδων ποταμοὺς χίε μορμύροντας, Philosophus ad regem quendam, qui eum ignotum et insontem inter reos forte captum inscius damnaverat, τὴν ἐπὶ θανάτωι πορευόμενος, hæc subito misit: Ω ΑΝΑ, εἰ ὀλέσης με τὸν ἔννομον, οὐδέ τιν ̓ ἀνδρῶν Δεινὸν ὅλως δράσαντα, σοφώτατον ἴσθι κάρηνον IN EFFIGIEI EJUS SCULPTOREM. ΑΜΑΘΕΙ γεγράφθαι χειρὶ τήνδε μὲν εἰκόνα 10 • Milton sent this translation to his friend Alexander Gill, in return for an elegant copy of hec lecsyllables.-T. WARTON. 9 IN OBITUM PROCANCELLARII, MEDICI.b PARERE fati discite legibus, Manusque Parcæ jam date supplices, Per tenebras Stygis ire certum est. Ense Locro, Jove lacrymante. Læsisset et nec te, Philyreie,s Nec tela te fulmenque avitam, Cæse puer genetricis alvo: 10 14 b 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. c 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. 4 Si triste futum, &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 "gialius" by Justin, Hist. lib. xliii. cap. 3, speaking of Jason and Metes:-"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. Philyreie, &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 Nec tela te, &c. Esculapius, who was cut out of his mother's womb by his father Apollo. Jupiter truck him dead with lightning, for restoring Hippolytus to life.-T. WARTON. |