Too divine to be mistook:

This, this is fhe

To whom our vows and wifhes bend;
Here our folemn search hath end.

Fame, that her high worth to raise,
Seem'd erst so lavish and profuse,
We may justly now accuse
Of detraction from her praise;
Lefs than half we find expreft,
Envy bid conceal the reft.

Mark what radiant state she spreads,
In circle round her fhining throne,
Shooting her beams like filver threads;
This, this is fhe alone,

Sitting like a Goddess bright,
In the center of her light.

daughter of this Countefs Dowager of Derby being married to John Earl of Bridgwater, before whom was prefented the Mak at Ludlow, we may conceive in fome measure how Milton was induc'd to compofe the one after the other. The alliance between the families

10

15

Might

naturally and eafily accounts for it: and in all probability the Genius of the wood in this poem, as well as the attendent Spirit in the Mak, was Mr. Henry Lawes, who was the great mafter of mufic at that time, and taught most of the young nobility.

Might the the wife Latona be,

20

Or the towred Cybele,

Mother of a hundred Gods;

Juno dares not give her odds;

Who had thought this clime had held

A deity fo unparallel'd?

25

As they come forward, the Genius of the wood appears, and turning toward them, fpeaks.

GENIUS.

TAY gentle Swains, for though in this disguise,

STA

I fee bright honor sparkle through your eyes;

Of famous Arcady ye are, and fprung

Of that renowned flood, fo often fung,
Divine Alpheus, who by fecret fluce
Stole under feas to meet his Arethufe;

And ye, the breathing roses of the wood,
Fair filver-bufkin'd Nymphs as great and good,

10. We may juftly now accufe &c] These lines were thus at firft in the Manufcript.

Now feems guilty of abuse And detraction from her praise Lefs than half he hath expreft, Envy bid her hide the rest. 18. Sitting like &c] It was at firft,

39

I

Seated like a Goddess bright &c.

23. Juno dares not &c] The Manufcript had at first,

Ceres dares not give her odds;
Who would have thought this
clime had held &c.
30. Divine Alpheus, &c] A fa-

mons

I know this quest of yours, and free intent
Was all in honor and devotion meant:
To the great mistress of yon princely fhrine,
Whom with low reverence I adore as mine,
And with all helpful fervice will comply
To further this night's glad folemnity;
And lead
ye where ye may more near behold
What shallow-fearching Fame hath left untold;
Which I full oft amidst these fhades alone
Have fat to wonder at, and gaze upon:
For know by lot from Jove I am the Power
Of this fair wood, and live in oaken bower,
To nurse the faplings tall, and curl the grove
With ringlets quaint, and wanton windings wove.
And all my plants I fave from nightly ill
Of noisome winds, and blasting vapors

mous river of Arcadia, that finking under ground paffeth thro' the fea without mixing his stream with the falt-waters, and rifeth at laft with the fountain Arethufe near Syracufe in Sicily. Virg. Æn. III. 694.

Alpheum fama eft huc Elidis amnem, Occultas egiffe vias fubter mare, qui nunc Ore, Arethusa, tuo Siculis confunditur undis.

chill

35

40

45

And

And from the boughs brush off the evil dew,

50

And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue,
Or what the cross dire-looking planet fmites,

Or hurtful worm with canker'd venom bites.
When evening gray doth rife, I fetch my round
Over the mount, and all this hallow'd ground, 55
And early ere the odorous breath of morn
Awakes the flumb'ring leaves, or taffel'd horn
Shakes the high thicket, hafte I all about,
Number my ranks, and vifit every sprout
With puiffant words, and murmurs made to blefs;
But elfe in deep of night, when drowsiness
Hath lock'd up mortal fenfe, then liften I
To the celeftial Sirens harmony,

That fit upon the nine infolded spheres,
And fing to those that hold the vital shears,

61

65

And

57. taffell'd barn] Spenfer, Faery Queen. B. 1. Cant. 8. St. 3.

an horn of bugle fmall, Which hung adown his fide in twisted gold And taffels gay.

62. Hath lock'd up mortal fenfe, ] He had written at firft Hath chain'd mortality.

64. the nine infolded spheres.] According to the doctrin of the G Ancients,

And turn the adamantin spindle round,

On which the fate of Gods and men is wound.

Such fweet compulfion doth in mufic lie,
To lull the daughters of Neceffity,

And keep unfteddy Nature to her law,

70

And the low world in meafur'd motion draw

After the heav'nly tune, which none can hear
Of human mold with grofs unpurged ear;

And yet fuch music worthiest were to blaze

The peerless highth of her immortal praise,
Whose luftre leads us, and for her most fit,

75

If
my inferior hand or voice could hit
Inimitable founds, yet as we go,

Whate'er the skill of leffer Gods can fhow,
I will affay, her worth to celebrate,

And so attend ye toward her glittering state;

Ancients, as it is explain'd by Cicero. Somnium Scipionis 4. Novem tibi orbibus, vel potius globis, connexa funt omnia: and then be enumerates them in this order, heaven or the fphere of the ftars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the fun, Venus, Mercury, the moon, and the earth. And in the next chapter he speaks of the mufic of the fpheres. Quid? hic, inquam, quis