of Bridgewater's sons, and his young daughter the Lady Alice Egerton. The story is said to have been founded on a circumstance that took place in the family of the Earl not long before ; and Milton wrote his Masque at the request of Henry Lawes, the celebrated musician. Dr. Johnson observes that the fiction is derived from Homer's Circe, but later investigations have discovered a closer resemblance in the Comus of Erycius Puteanus, and the Old Wives' Tale of George Peele.19 It is one of the most beautiful and, with the exception of a few passages, one of the most finished Poems in our language. It has all the sweetness of Fletcher, with a richer structure of versification, more foreign idioms, more learned allusions, and a higher reach of fancy. It does not rise into all the wildness of the romantic fable, only because it is guarded and subdued by a chaste and elegant judgment. Sir Henry Wotton was peculiarly delighted in the lyrical parts, with what he quaintly, but not incorrectly calls-'a certain doric delicacy in the songs and odes.' And Warburton speaks of the bright vein of its poetry, intermixed with a softness of description.20 T. Warton observes 'that Comus is a suite of speeches not interesting by discrimination of character, not conveying variety of incidents, nor gradually exciting curiosity; but perpetually attracting attention by sublime sentiment, and fanciful imagery 19 See G. Peele's Works by the Rev. A. Dyce, Vol. i. p. 204, ed. 1829. Is. Reed first directed attention to this play, then almost unknown. For extracts from Puteanus, see Todd's ed. of Comus, p. 57, 62. 20 On the system of 'orthography' adopted by Milton in this and his other poems, consult Capel Lofft's Preface to Par. Lost. 4to. 1792, and Todd's Preface to Comus, p. viii. and Richardson's Life, p. cxxx. of the richest vein, by an exuberance of picturesque description, poetical allusion, and ornamental expression.' , 21 In November, 1637, he wrote Lycidas, an elegy occasioned by the death of a young and very accomplished person, Mr. King, who was the friend of Milton, and a great favourite at Cambridge. Milton's Poem was published at the end of a small volume of Elegies, with which the University honoured the memory of their student. Some of the songs of LYCIDAS I have read, for -He knew Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme!' they are, for the most part, complimentary effusions on the birth of the children of Charles the First; but I have discovered nothing that I could extract with advantage.22 The beautiful 21 It has been asked where an illustration must be sought for the expression, ver. 252, At every fall, smoothing the raven down Of darkness till it smiled:' and the entire silence of the commentators has been remarked. I shall, therefore, observe that there can be no doubt, but that Milton had the following passage in Heywood's Love's Mistresse before him. Act. iii. sc. 1. PSYCHE. 'Time's eldest daughter, Night, mother of Ease, Thou smooth cheek'd negro, Night, the black eyed Queen, Of downy Ravens sleeke and sable plumes, 22 Edward King, of Christ's Coll. Camb. son of Sir John King, Secretary for Ireland in the time of Elizabeth, James, and Charles. He was drowned on the passage from Chester monody of Lycidas shows an intimate acquaintance with the Italian metres, and to one poem, the Alcon 28 of Balth. Castiglione, it is more peculiarly indebted for some of its imagery. It discovers also Milton's familiarity with our elder poets, and supported by the authority of his Master Spenser, 24 in similar allusions; it has mixed up with its pastoral beauties a stern, and early avowal of his hostility to the church.2 to Ireland. See Birch's Life, p. xvii. for an account of the collection in which Milton's Poems were published. The names of T. Farnaby, H. Moore, J. Beaumont, Cleveland, W. Hall, are in the list of contributors. The shipwreck of Mr. King took place on the 10th of Aug. 1637; it appears that he might have escaped with some others in the boat; for an account of his poetry, see Warton's Milton, p. 39, second ed. 23 See Class. Journal, No. Ixiii. p. 356, by G. N. Ogle. 24 There is among Spenser's Poems a Pastoral Æglogue on Sir P. Sydney's death, by L. B. which Milton had read when he wrote Lycidas. v. Todd's Spenser, vol. viii. p. 76. 25 Mr. Peck thinks that the manner in which Milton has dispersed his rhymes in Lycidas, is an attempt, though secretly, to give a poetical image or draught of the mathematical canon of music: he informs us how to make this out, 'by drawing a bow line from rhyme to rhyme,' he considers the whole poem as a lesson of music consisting of such a number of bars. The rhymes are the several chords in the bar: the odd dispersion of the rhymes may be compared to the beautiful way of sprinkling the keys of an organ. He says, Dryden imagined the rhymes fell so, because Mister Milton could not help it. I think they lie so, because Mr. Milton designed it. v. New Memoirs, 4to. p. 32. Mr. Peck has favoured us with stage directions for Paradise Lost, asEnter Adam, with his arms across. Adam pauses. Thunder and Lightning. Eve approaches him. Adam kicks at her. Eve embraces his legs. Eve is ready to faint, &c. He considers Paradise Lost as partly formed out of Gusman d'Alfarache, the Spanish Rogue. He says Mr. Fenton was a good judge when he took time to consider things, p. 83; he has composed an epitaph for Mr. Milton, out of Val. Maximus, p. 101. He says, 'His tip, and whiskers (an essay towards The short, but exquisitely beautiful poem, called 'the Arcades,' was, as I have previously said, composed about this time; Milton wrote only the poetical part, the remainder probably consisted of prose and machinery. Having completed his circle of study in the retirement of the country, Milton became anxious to enjoy the learned society, and the refined amusements of town. 'Excipit hinc fessum sinuosi pompa Theatri.' He writes to Deodati, I will tell you seriously what I design-To take chambers in one of the inns of court, where I may have the benefit of a pleasant and shady walk, and where with a few associates I may enjoy more comfort, when I choose to stay at home, and have a more elegant society when I choose to go abroad: in my present situation you know in what obscurity I am buried, and to what inconveniences I am exposed.'-His seventh Elegy discovers that these shady26 and suburban a beard), were of a thick, lightish colour, p. 103; that his eyes were black at twenty-six, but blue at sixty. He is satisfied that Milton could take an organ to pieces, and clean it, and put it together without help, p. 111; this he deduces from Par. Lost, 1. 709; he thinks ducks and nods' in Comus a sneer at the country people. He mentions Eve's instituting a religious order of young women, who were to continue virgins, 196; he speaks of Milton's great intimacy with Mrs. Thompson, p. 274. He considers King Charles the First a very proper person for Milton to present a poem to, by order of the House of Commons, p. 284. The Biography of Milton reads very differently through the medium of the laborious Mr. Todd, and the lepid Mister Peck. 26 In the time of Milton's youth, the fashionable places of walking in London were Hyde Park, and Gray's Inn Walks. See Warton's Quotations from Sir A. Cockaine's Poems, p. 470. In his Prolusiones, p. 113, he mentions the pleasures of London; 'Cum ex eâ urbe, quæ caput urbium est, huc nuper me reciperem, Academici, deliciarum omnium, quíbus is focus supra modum affluit, usque ad saginam, walks were enlivened by forms that made no light impression even on a scholar's heart. Et modo qua nostri spatiantur in urbe Quirites, These plans of life were suddenly changed by his mother's death in 1637,27 and he then obtained his father's permission to go abroad. He left England in 1638, having previously obtained some directions for his travels from Sir Henry Wotton; and as a presiding maxim of prudence, and means of safety, amid civil broils, and spiritual dissensions, he was desired to recollect the following sentence, which that experienced statesman had also impressed on other travellers.—' I pensieri stretti, ed il viso sciolto.' On his arrival at Paris, by the favour of Lord Scudamore, he was presented to Grotius, then prope dixerim, satur; sperabam mihi iterum aliquando otium illud Literarium, quo ego vitæ genere etiam cœlestes animas gaudere opinor; eratque penitus in animo jam tandem abdere me in Literas et jucundissimæ Philosophiæ perdius et per nox assidere, ita semper assolet laboris et voluptatis vicissitudo amovere satietatis tædium, &c. 27 Mr. Godwin says, 'There is great confusion among all the biographers of Milton, respecting the period of his travels, and this confusion originates with Milton himself.' See his Life of Philips, p. 357. |