That even to his last breath-there be that say 't— He had been an immortal carrier. Yet-strange to think!-his wain was his increase. Only remains this superscription. 30 AN EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER.-M. (1631.)* THIS rich marble doth inter The honoured wife of Winchester, A Viscount's daughter, an Earl's heir, Added to her noble birth, 30. course reciprocal, sc. between Cambridge and London; and as he went so many times a month regularly, he may be said to have obeyed the moon. 32. wain. A play on the similar sound of wain and wane. Shakespeare also (Son. 126) has a play on wane: "Who hast by waning grown." * Led astray by the assertion of Warton, in our Life of Milton, when treating of this poem, we dated it too early by the space of three years. The subject of Sir John Beaumont's poem, alluded to by Warton, died in 1614. Ben Jonson, as well as Milton, wrote a noble elegy on this illustrious lady. It commences thus: "What gentle ghost, besprent with April-dew, Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew? And beckoning woos me from the fatal tree To pluck a garland for herself or me?" The reader will call to mind Pope's imitation of this passage. 1. inter. The employment of this word here is not quite correct; for it is only persons who inter (in terram ponunt). 3. an Earl's heir. Her mother was one of the coheiresses of Earl Rivers (Life of Milton, p. 256). Earl's, a dissyl. (ib. p. 260). "The golden wires of his ravishing harp" (Peele, Dav. & Baths. Prol.) is exactly parallel in structure. More than she could own from earth. After so short time of breath, To house with darkness and with death! Her high birth and her graces sweet But with a scarce well-lighted flame; And, with remorseless cruelty, And the languished mother's womb Was not long a living tomb. 6. own, i.q. possess; here perhaps, derive. Her virtues, he intimates, were derived from heaven. 12. praise. Used perhaps in the Latin sense, praiseworthy deeds. 19. "Sunt hic sua præmia laudi." En. i. 461. "Adfuit ille quidem; sed nec solemnia verba Nec lætos voltus, nec felix attulit omen; Fax quoque, quam tenuit, lacrimoso stridula fumo Utque fuit, nullosque invenit motibus ignes." Ov. Met. x. 4.-J. 22. cypress. Emblematic of a funeral. 25. And now, etc., i.e. she now goes a second time with child. 33. languished. He seems to use this verb, like cease and shrink (Ode on Nativ. vv. 45, 202), in a causal sense. So have I seen some tender slip, Gentle Lady, may thy grave Peace and quiet ever have! And some flowers and some bays For thy hearse, to strew the ways, "Cut his hedges, prune his 35. tender slip, i.e. tender, delicate plant. trees, look to his tender slips." Anim. Rem. Def.—T. 37. The pride, etc. i.e. this slip is the finest in the garden, the pride of the remaining flowers, which he calls her 'carnation train,' apparently using 'carnation' in the sense of the Latin purpureus, i.e. brilliant, glowing; for he could hardly mean the flower of that name. See on Par. Lost, ix. 429. 38. Plucked, etc. There is some confusion here (see Life of Milton, p. 426), but the meaning seems to be that as the swain, when intending only to crop a flower, by proceeding too roughly pulls up the plant, so Death when only intending to take the child took the mother also. And renowned be thy grave." Cymb. iv. 2.-K. 55. Here be, etc. Meaning the verses by Ben Jonson and others, written on this occasion. 57. And some, etc. A collection of verses in her honour, among which was this poem, was made at Cambridge. 58. herse. Probably the A.-S. hypre, ornament, decoration. Minshew says, a herse is "a monument or empty tomb erected or set up at the month's or year's end, for the honourable memory of the dead." Sent thee from the banks of Came, Devoted to thy virtuous name; Whilst thou, bright Saint, high sittest in glory, Next her, much like to thee in story, That fair Syrian shepherdess, Who, after years of barrenness, The highly-favoured Joseph bore To him that served for her before, 60 70 SONNET I.* [VII] On his being arrived to the age of twenty-three. How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year! 63. That fair, etc. Rachel, whose name signifies ewe, who kept the flock of her father Laban, the Syrian, and for whom Jacob served her father. 73. sheen. See on Ode on Nativity, v. 145. 74. Queen. He alludes perhaps to, "And hast made us unto our God kings and priests," Rev. v. 10; and to the Virgin's title Regina Cæli, and, as Todd thinks, to Anne Boleyn's last message to her brutal husband. Jonson, in his Elegy, has a similar idea :— "Beholds her Maker, and in him doth see What the beginnings of all beauties be; Which they that have the crown are sure to know." * See Life of Milton, p. 266. In our observations on this poem in that work we fell into an error with respect to France; for in the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth century the sonnet was very much cultivated there by Ronsard and other eminent poets. 1. "Time's thievish progress to eternity." Shakespeare, Son. 77.—K. 2. stolen, i.e. brought on furtively, without my perceiving it. This, and not My hasting days fly on with full career, To that same lot, however mean or high, As ever in my great Task-Master's eye. 10 ON TIME.-M. FLY, envious Time, till thou run out thy race; taking away, must be the sense, as in Milton's mode of computation his twenty-third year began on his twenty-fourth birthday, i.e. the day he completed his twenty-third year. 4. But, etc. It appears from this, that, though he had already written the Ode on the Nativity, etc., he regarded himself as a late-flowering plant in the gardens of literature. 5. Perhaps, etc., i.e. his very youthful appearance might induce people to think him younger than he was. 7. inward ripeness, i.e. that inward ripeness. He seems to mean that his youthful appearance might also conceal from people the fact that the development of his mental powers was not so great as in those whose minds had ripened earlier. 9. soon, i.e. quick, early. He uses it as an adjective. 10. even, i.e. equal, in proportion.—lot, i.e. station in life. 13. All, etc. His meaning here is obscure, but it seems to be: All depends upon my employing it as feeling myself to be under the eyes of my great Task-Master. 1. envious. On account of his destructive nature, as if he envied existence to any. 2. Call on, i.e. bid hasten. 3. Whose speed, etc. An evident allusion to the pendulum. 4. And glut, etc. Alluding probably to Saturn's (Time's) devouring his offspring. |