Rob'd in flames, and amber light,
The clouds in thoufand liveries dight,
While the plowman near at hand
Whistles o'er the furrow'd land,
And the milkmaid fingeth blithe,
And the mower whets his fithe,

Non lunge a l'AUREE PORTE, ond' efce il fole,
E cristallina porta in oriente, &c.

65

62. The clouds in thousand liveries dight.] Literally from a very puerile poetical defcription of the Morning in one of his academic Prolufions. "Ipfa quoque tellus in adventum Solis, cultiori fe induit "veftitu, NUBESQUE juxta VARIIS CHLAMYDATE COLORIBUS, pompa folenni, longoque ordine, videntur ancillari furgenti Deo." PROSE-WORKS, ut fupr. vol. ii. 586. And just before, we have "The "cock with lively din, &c.”— "At primus omnium adventantem "Solem triumphat infomnis GALLUS, &c."

An ingenious critic obferves, that this morning- landschape of L'ALLEGRO has ferved as a repofitory of imagery for all fucceeding poets on the fame fubject. But much the fame circumftances, among others, are affembled by a poet who wrote above thirty years before, the author of BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS, B. iv. S. iv. p. 75. edit. 1616. I give the paffage at large,

By this had chanticlere, the village-clocke,

Bidden the good wife for her maides to knocke:
And the fwart plowman for his breakfast staid,
That he might till those lands were fallow laid:
The hills and vallies here and there refound
With the re-ecchoes of the deepe-mouth'd hound:
Each fheapherd's daughter with her cleanly peale,
Was come afield to milke the mornings meale;
And ere the funne had clymb'd the easterne hils
To guild the muttring bournes and petty rils;
Before the lab'ring bee had left the hiue,
And nimble fishes, which in riuers diue,
Began to leape, and catch the drowned flie,
I rofe from reft.

And

And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale.

Strait mine

eye hath caught new pleasures Whilst the landskip round it measures, Ruffet lawns, and fallows gray,

Where the nibbling flocks do ftray,

Mountains on whose barren breast

The lab'ring clouds do often rest,

67. And every fhepherd tells his tale

70

Under the bawthorn in the dale.] An image perhaps conveyed by Shakespeare, THIRD P. K. HENR. vi. A. ii. S. v.

Gives not the HAWTHORN BUSH a fweeter fhade

TO SHEPHERDS looking on their filly sheep, &c.

It has been fuggefted to me by an unknown correfpondent, that the word tale does not here imply ftories told by fhepherds, but that it is a technical term for numbering sheep, which is ftill used in Yorkshire and the diftant counties. But as to tell tales was in Milton's time a common phrafe, and as to tell tales was always a poetical amufement of fhepherds, the received acceptation has perhaps just as much right to determine the sense of the paffage. Not to refufe, however, every poffible plaufibility to an illuftration fo kindly communicated, I am unwilling to fupprefs the following line in Dryden's Virgil, BucoL. iii. 33.

And once fhe takes the TALE of all my lambs.

And in Lilly's GALLATHEA, written 1592, Phillida, disguised like a boy, fays, "My mother faid, I could be no lad till I was twentie, "nor keepe sheepe till I could TELL them." A. ii. S. i.

72. Where the nibbling flocks do ftray.] Shakespeare, in the TE MPEST, A. iv. S. i.

The turfy mountains where live NIBBLING SHEEP. Doctor Newton remarks, that STRAY is not here in the fenfe of wander. But why fhould we wish to take from the freedom and variety of Milton's landfchape? The learned commentator produces in proof, Virgil's Ille meos errare boves, ECL. i. 9. But there, I apprehend, the more the sheep are fuppofed to wander at large, the more is the fhepherd's happiness implied, who had recovered his old extent of country. Meadows

Meadows trim with daifies pide,

Shallow brooks, and rivers wide;
Towers and battlements it fees
Bofom'd high in tufted trees,

75

75. Meadows trim with daifies pide.] I need not mention Shakespeare's Daifies PIED. In Sydney's ASTROPHEL AND STELLA, we have "Enamiling with PIDE floures." ft. 3. Doctor Newton has improperly printed pied for pide. Both the two first editions have PIDE, and Tonfon's, 1705. So have even Tickell and Fenton. This was fo hackneyed an epithet among the paftoral writers for flowers, that Shakespeare has formed from it the fubftantive PIEDNESS. Perdita and Polixenes, in the WINTER'S TALE, are converfing about flowers. A. iv. S. iii. She says,

There is an art, which in their PIEDNESS fhares

With great creating nature.

That is, "There is an art, which can produce flowers, with as great a variety of colours as nature herfelf."

77. Towers and battlements it fees

Bofom'd high in tufted trees.] This was the great mansion-house in Milton's early days, before the old-fashioned architecture had given way to modern arts and improvements. Turrets and battlements were confpicuous marks of the numerous new buildings of the reign of king Henry the eighth, and of fome rather more antient, many of which yet remained in their original ftate, unchanged and undecayed: nor was that ftyle, in part at least, quite omitted in Inigo Jones's firft manner. Browne, in BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS, has a fimilar image. B. i. S. v. p. 96.

Yond pallace, whofe braue turret tops
Quer the statelie wood furuay the copfe.

Browne is a poet now forgotten, but must have been well-known to
Milton.

Where only a little is feen, more is left to the imagination. These fymptoms of an old palace, especially when thus difpofed, have a greater effect, than a difcovery of larger parts, and even a full display of the whole edifice. The embofomed battlements, and the spreading top of the tall grove, on which they reflect a reciprocal charm, ftill further intereft the fancy from novelty of combination: while just enough of the towering ftructure is fhewn, to make an accompaniment to the tufted expanfe of venerable verdure, and to compofe a picturefque affociation. With respect to their rural refidence, there was a coynels in the magnificence of our Gothic ancestors. Modern

feats

n

Where perhaps fome Beauty lies,
The Cynosure of neighb'ring eyes.
Hard by, a cottage chimney fmoaks,
From betwixt two aged oaks,
Where Corydon and Thyrfis met,
Are at their favoury dinner fet

Of herbs, and other country meffes,
Which the neat-handed Phillis dreffes ;
And then in hafte her bow'r fhe leaves,
With Theftylis to bind the fheaves;
Or if the earlier season lead

To the tann'd haycock in the mead.
Sometimes with fecure delight

The upland hamlets will invite,

feats are seldom fo deeply ambushed. They difclofe all their glories at once: and never excite expectation by concealment, by gradual approaches, and by interrupted appearances.

79. Where perhaps fome Beauty lies,

The Cynofure of neighb'ring eyes.] Moft probably from Burton's MELANCHOLY, as Peck obferves. But in Shakespeare we have " your 66 eyes are LODE-STARRES." MIDS. N. DR. A. i. S. i. We find the fame allufion in our author's REFORMATION. "But fince he muft "needs be the LOAD-STAR of Reformation, &c." PROSE-WORKS, vol. i.9. And this was no uncommon compliment in Chaucer, Skelton, Sydney, Spenfer, and other old English poets, as Mr. Steevens has abundantly proved. See alfo Grey's NOTES ON SHAKESPEARE, vol. i. P. 43. feq. Lond. 1754. And in the SPANISH TRAGEDY, 1603. Reed's OLD PL. iii. 186.

Led by the LOAD-STAR of her heavenly looks. Milton enlivens his profpect by this unexpected circumstance, which gives it a moral charm.

G

When

When the merry bells ring round,

And the jocond rebecks found

93. When the merry bells ring round.] The firft inftance I remember in our poetry of the circumftance of a peal of bells, introduced as defcriptive of feftivity, is in Morley's MADRIGALS.

Harke, iolly fhepheards,
Harke yon luftie ringing!

How cheerfullie the bells do daunce,
The whilft the lads are springing,

Go then, why fit we here delaying,

And all yond merrie wanton lasses playing.

Here too, as in our author, they are introduced as an accompaniment of the mirth of a village-holiday. ENGLAND'S HELICON, Signat. Q. 4. edit. 1614. But fee Shakespeare, SECOND P. HENR. iv. A. iv. S. iv.

And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear.

And Spenfer's EPITHALAMION, ft. xv.

Ring ye the bels, ye young men of the towne, &c. And the metrical romance of SIR TRYAMOURE.

94. And the jocond rebecks found. ] The REBECK was a fpecies of fiddle; and is, I believe, the fame that is called in Chaucer, Lydgate, and the old French writers, the REBIBLE. Du Cange quotes a middle-aged barbarous Latin poet, who mentions many musical inftruments, by names now hardly intelligible. GLOSS. LAT. V. BAUDOSA. One of them is the REBECK.

Quidam REBECCAM arcuabant.

Where, by arcuabant, we are to understand that it was plaid upon by a bow, ARCUS. The word occurs in Drayton's ECLOGUES, vol. iv. P. 1391.

He turn'd his REBECK to a mournfull note.

Where Milton's fenfe, that it was properly an inftrument adapted to mirth, is implied. It feems to have been almost a common name for a Fiddle. See Fletcher's KN. BURN. PESTLE, A. i. S.i. vol. vi. p.739. edit. 1751. "They fay 'tis prefent death, for thefe Fiddlers to tune "their REBECKS before the Great Turks Grace." And, our author's LIBERTY OF UNLICENSED PRINTING. "The villages also must have "their vifitors to inquire, what lectures the bagpipe and the REB. "BECK reads even to the gammuth of every municipal [town] FID"LER, for these are the countryman's ARCADIAS, and his MONTE. "MAYORS." PROSE-WORKS, vol. i. p. 149. Where he means Sydney's ARCADIA, and the DIANA of George of Montemayor, two paf toral romances, then popular

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