Page images
PDF
EPUB

Castiglioni commences his poem with

Ereptum fatis primo sub flore juventæ,

Alconem nemorum decus, et solatia amantum.

Lycidas' love for the Muses is celebrated; and the elegit latinism from the first epistle of Horace,

Seu condis amabile carmen,

is made to adorn the beautiful apostrophe

Who would not sing for Lycidas? He knew
Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.
Castiglioni thus speaks of his friend :

Alcon delicia Musarum et Apollinis, Alcon
Pars animæ, &c.

When the following lines from both the poets are considered together, it is presumed that the association of ideas will be too evident to require any metaphysical elucidation.

Milton under the fictitious images of rural employments describes his studies with his friend:

[ocr errors]

Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute,

Temper'd to the oaten flute;

Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel
From the glad sound would not be absent long;
And old Damætas loved to hear our song.

Castiglioni in the same figurative language writes:

Quem toties Fauni et Dryades sensere canentem,
Quem toties Pan est, toties miratus Apollo,

Flebant Pastores

The former speaks of

Fauns with cloven heel.

The latter enumerates among the mourners for Alcon,

Capripedes Satyriscos.

Milton in the following words conveys a poetical and touching thought:

The willows, and the hazel copses green,

Shall now no more be seen

Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays.

the origin of which is found in

Non tecum posthac molli resupinus in umbra
Effugiam longos æstivo tempore soles;
Non tua vicinos mulcebit fistula montes,
Docta nec umbrosæ resonabunt carmina valles.

Even the line

Ay me! I fondly dream

has a thought responsive to it in

Vana mihi incassum fingebam somnia demens.

In the ensuing verses of our English bard are a few lines on which I wish to offer some remark, since the reference of Milton has not been noticed by Warton:

Were it not better done, as others use
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair?

These lines contain a sarcastic allusion to Buchanan, who often wandered from his severer studies to sport with Amaryllis, or sing of Neæra:

Cum das basia, nectaris Neæra
Das mî pocula, das dapes Deorum,
Ut factus videar mihi repente
Unus e numero Deûm, Deisve
Siquid altius est, beatiusve.

Milton was residing in the country when he wrote the monody on his friend, consequently his mind was alive to every rural image; yet even this lament,

Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods, and desert caves
With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown,
And all their echoes mourn:

The willows and the hazel copses green

Shall now no more be seen

Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays.

As killing as the canker to the rose,

Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze,
Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear,

When first the white thorn blows;

Such Lycidas thy loss to shepherds' ear

has a passage so responsive to it in feeling and imagery, that, when considered with the other similarities, it leads us, at least, to conclude that he remembered it:

Arboribus cecidere comæ, spoliataque honore est
Sylva suo, solitasque negat pastoribus umbras.
Prata suum amisere decus, morientibus herbis
Arida; sunt sicci fontes, et flumina sicca.
Infœcunda carent promissis frugibus arva,
Et mala crescentes rubigo exedit aristas.

Squalor tristis habet pecudes, pecudumque magistros.

Those who are accustomed to watch the operations of their minds, to trace with patient care their ideas to their sources,

and to observe accurately the various associations arising from the same origin, and spreading into various ramifications unconnected in their details, will readily perceive that the following passage, (with the circumstance of his friend being a churchman,)

Impastus stabulis sævit lupus, ubere raptos

Dilaniatque ferus miseris cum matribus agnos;

Perque canes prædam impavidus pastoribus aufert

gave rise to the prophetic insinuation of the execution of Archbishop Laud, whom he considered as the cause of all the schisms then existing in the church—

Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw

Daily devours apace, and nothing sed:

But that two-handed engine at the door

Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.

The opinion almost receives confirmation from the fact, that both the poets make a sudden transition to rural imagery of a more tender character: Milton in his beautiful invocationReturn, Alpheus, the dread voice is past,

That shrunk thy streams; return Sicilian Muse,
And call the vales, and bid them hither cast
Their bells, and flowrets of a thousand hues,
Ye valleys low where the mild whispers use
Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks,
("Nil nisi triste sonant et sylvæ, et pascua, et amnes,
Et liquidi fontes; tua tristia funera flerunt")
On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks;
Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes,
That on the green turf suck the honied showers
And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.
Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies,
The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,
The white pink, and the pansy peak'd with jet,
The glowing violet,

The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine,
With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,
And every flower that sad embroidery wears:
Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed,
And daffodillies'fill their cups with tears,
To strew the laureat herse where Lycid lies.

This invocation has one in the Alcon so nearly responsive to

it in the names of the flowers and the

scope of the

the spring from which it flowed is clearly seen:

passage,

that

Vos mecum, o pueri, beneolentes spargite flores,
Narcissum, atque rosas, et suave rubentem hyacinthum,
Atque umbras hedera lauroque inducite opacas.
Nec desint casiæ, permixtaque cinnama amomo,

[ocr errors]

Excitet ut dulces aspirans ventus odores.

Interea violas intertexent amaranthis,

Et tumulo spargent flores et serta Napææ.

There are no lines in the Lycidas which exceed in magnificence and beauty the simile of

So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed,
And yet anon repairs his drooping head,

And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky :-

Unless so many corresponding parts had been discovered, I should have hesitated in saying that it may be deemed a splendid paraphrase of

Adspice, decedens jam Sol declivis Olympo
Occidit, et moriens accendit sidera cœlo ;
Sed tamen occiduo cum laverit æquore currus,
Idem iterum terras orienti luce reviset.

Milton's thoughts rise beyond the simile, and he triumphantly exclaims:

Through the dear might of him that walk'd the waves
Where, other groves and other streams along,
With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves,
And hears the unexpressive nuptial song,
In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.
Castiglioni too places his Alcon in Elysium :

Et nunc Elysia lætus spatiaris in umbra,
Alcone et frueris dulci, æternumque frueris.

It is presumed that no doubt can ever again be entertained of the origin of the Monody on Lycidas. The poem of Alcon may be compared to the sketch of an inferior artist which Milton studied, his genius enlarged the outline, made every form bolder, added strength and beauty to every part, then touched it with a master's hand, and imbued it with colors soft and strong and rich and varied.

N. OGLE.

362

In DEMOSTHENEM Commentarii JOANNIS SEAGER, Bicknor Wallica in Com. Monumethia Rectoris.

No. VI.—[Continued from No. LVI.]

αν

IN Aristocratem, p. 638. 1. 14. φέρε, ἂν δέ τι συμβῇ τοιοῦτον οἷον ἴσως ἤδη τῳ καὶ ἄλλῳ, ἀπαλλαγῇ μὲν (Charidemus, psephismate Aristocratis Sacrosanctus) ἐκ Θράκης, ἐλθὼν δὲ εἰς πόλιν οἰκῇ που, τῆς μὲν ἐξουσίας μηκέτι κύριος ὤν, δι ̓ ἧς πολλὰ ποιεῖ τῶν ἀπειρημένων ὑπὸ τῶν νόμων, τοῖς δ ̓ ἔθεσι καὶ ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις ταῦτ ̓ ἐπιχειρῶν πράττειν, ἄλλο τι ἢ σιγῶντα δεήσει Χαρίδημον ἐᾶν αὑτὸν ὑβρίζειν ;

F. ἄλλο τι ἢ ΣΙΓΩΝΤΑΣ δεήσει Χαρίδημον ἐὰν ΑΥΤΟΥ ὑβρίζειν ; αὐτοῦ, Ibi, illic.

In Aristocratem, p. 644. 1. 25. λογιζόμενοι δ ̓ ὅτι μητέρα Ορέστ της ἀπεκτονώς, ὁμολογῶν, θεῶν δικαστῶν τυχῶν ἀποφυγγάνει, νομίσαι (δοκοῦσι) δίκαιόν τινα εἶναι φόνον.

Rectius ἀποφυγγάνοι.

In Aristocratem, p. 645. 1. 11. ἀλλ ̓ ἀόριστον αὐτὴν εἰπὼν τὴν αἰτίαν, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτ ̓ εὐθὺς προσγράψας ἀγώγιμον εἶναι, τρίτον τουτὶ δικαστήριον καὶ τὰ τούτου νόμιμα παραβεβηκώς φαίνῃ.

αὐτὴν τὴν αἰτίαν) Merum crimen, merum nomen homicidii, sine adjunctione liciti vel illiciti.

In Aristocratem, p. 647. l. 9. ἀλλ ̓ οὐχ οὗτος ἔγραψε ταῦτα. ἀλλὰ τὸν μὲν ἀθῷον αἰτιάσασθαι· τὸν δὲ ἄκριτον, παραχρῆμα ἐκδίδοσα θαι. - Distinguendum τὸν δὲ, ἄκριτον παραχρῆμα ἐκδίδοσθαι.

τὸν μὲν Accusatorem.—ἀθῷον) μὴ προσόφλοντα χιλίας, ἐὰν μὴ μεταλάβῃ τὸ πέμπτον μέρος τῶν ψήφων.

τὸν δὲ τὸν ἀνδρόφονον.

In Aristocratem, p. 667. 1. 11. ἐν δὴ Λαμψάκῳ τινὲς ἄνθρωποι γίγνονται δύο. Θερσαγόρας ὄνομα αὐτῶν θατέρῳ τῷ δὲ ̓Εξήκεστος. οι παραπλήσια τοῖς παρ' ὑμῖν γνόντες περὶ τῶν τυράννων, ἀποκτιννύουσι Φιλίσκον δικαίως, τὴν αὑτῶν πατρίδα οἰόμενοι δεῖν ἐλευθεροῦν. εἰ δὴ τῶν τότε ὑπὲρ Φιλίσκου λεγόντων, ὅτε ἐμισθοδότει μὲν τοῖς ἐν Περίνθῳ ξένοις, εἶχε δ' ὅλον τὸν ̔Ελλήσποντον, μέγιστος δ ̓ ἦν τῶν ὑπάρχων, ἔγραψέ τις, ὥσπερ οὗτος νυνὶ, ἐάν τις ἀποκτείνῃ Φιλίσκον, ἀγώγιμον αὐτὸν ἐκ τῶν συμμάχων εἶναι· πρὸς Διὸς, θεάσασθε εἰς ὅσην ἂν αἰσχύνην ἡ πόλις ἡμῶν ἐληλύθει. ἧκε μὲν γὰρ ὁ Θερσαγόρας, καὶ ὁ Εξή κεστος, εἰς Λέσβον, καὶ ᾤκουν ἐκεῖ. εἰ δ' ἐφήπτετό τις τῶν Φιλίσκου παίδων ἢ φίλων, ἐξεδίδοτ ̓ ἂν ὑπὸ τοῦ ὑμετέρου ψηφίσματος.

Corrigendum, ΕΞΕΔΙΔΟΝΤ ̓ ἄν.

Constructio est, εἰ δέ τις τῶν Φιλίσκου παίδων ἢ φίλων ἐφήπτετο

« PreviousContinue »