THE PASSION.* I. EREWHILE of musick, and ethereal mirth, In wintry solstice, like the shorten'd light, II. For now to sorrow must I tune my song, Most perfect Hero, tried in heaviest plight 5 10 III. He, sovran Priest, stooping his regal head, 15 That dropt with odorous oil down his fair eyes, His starry front low-rooft beneath the skies: Yet more; the stroke of death he must abide; 20 IV. These latest scenes confine my roving verse; 25 * I cannot agree with Sir Egerton Brydges that this Ode or Elegy is "unaccountably inferior" to the preceding Hymn. True, this is not so highly finished as the other, but there are in it exquisite touches of beauty. A beloved friend and accomplished scholar of Oxford (J. W.) writes me-"That third stanza has often suffused my eyes and quickened my heart's pulsation: what a saddening, melancholy tenderness-a climax of pathos and of dear human sympathy in the last two lines1" 1. Erewhile, &c. Hence we may conjecture that this Ode was probably composed soon after that on the "Nativity." And this, perhaps, was a college exercise at Easter, as the last was at Christmas.T. WARTON. 13. Most perfect Hero. See Heb. ii. 10. 26. Cremona's trump. Vida's "Christiad," which our author seems to think the finest Latin poem on a religious subject, is here called Cremona's trump, because Vida was born at Cremona. Me softer airs befit, and softer strings v. Befriend me, Night, best patroness of grief; Over the pole thy thickest mantle throw, My sorrows are too dark for day to know: 30 34 The leaves should all be black whereon I write; VI. See, see the chariot, and those rushing wheels, VII. 40 Mine eye hath found that sad sepulchral rock 45 Yet on the soften'd quarry would I score For sure so well instructed are my tears, VIII. Or should I thence, hurried on viewless wing, Might think the infection of my sorrows loud This subject the author finding to be above the years he had when he wrote it, and nothing satisfied with what was begun, left it unfinished. 28. Of lute, or viol: That is, gentle; not noisy or loud like the trumpet. 34. The leaves, &c. Conceits were not confined to words only. Mr. Stevens has a volume of Elegies, in which the paper is black and the letters white: that is, in all the title-pages. Every intermediate leaf is also black. What a sudden change, from this childish idea to the noble apos trophe, the sublime rapture and imagiuation of the next stanza.-T. WARTON. 50 55 43. That sad sepulchral rock: That is, the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. 51. Take up a werping. Jer. ix. 10. 52. The gentle neighbourhood. A sweetly beautiful couplet, which, with the two preceding lines, opened the stanza so well, that I particularly grieve to find it terminate feebly in a most miserably disgusting concetto.-DUNSTER. ODES. UPON THE CIRCUMCISION.* YE flaming Powers, and winged Warriours bright, Burn in your sighs, and borrow Seas wept from our deep sorrow: He, who with all Heaven's heraldry whilere Alas, how soon our sin Sore doth begin His infancy to seize! O more exceeding love, or law more just? For we, by rightful doom remediless, Were lost in death, till he that dwelt above Entirely satisfied; And the full wrath beside Of vengeful justice bore for our excess; And seals obedience first, with wounding smart, This day; but, O! ere long, Huge pangs and strong Will pierce more near his heart. ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT, DYING OF A COUGH.† I. O FAIREST flower, no sooner blown but blasted. 5 10 15 20 25 * The "Circumcision" is better than the "Passion," and has two or three Miltonic lines. BRYDGES. † The "Elegy on the Death of a Fair Infant" is praised by Warton, and well characterized in his last note upon it; but it has more of research and laloure 1 fancy than of feeling, and is not a general favourite.--BRYDGES. It was written t the age of seventeen. 20. Emptied his glory. An expression taken from Phil. ii. 7, but not as in our translation, "He made himself of no 42* reputation,"-but, as it is in the original, (ἑαυτον εκένωσε,) "He emptied himself." -NEWTON. 497 Summer's chief honour, if thou hadst out-lasted That did thy cheek envermeil, thought to kiss, II. 5 For since grim Aquilo, his charioteer, By boisterous rape the Athenian damsel got, He thought it touch'd his deity full near, 10 Of long uncoupled bed and childless eld, Which, 'mongst the wanton gods, a foul reproach was held. 111. So, mounting up in icy-pearled car, 15 Through middle empire of the freezing air Down he descended from his snow-soft chair; But, all unwares, with his cold-kind embrace 20 IV. Yet art thou not inglorious in thy fate; But then transform'd him to a purple flower: v. Yet can I not persuade me thou art dead, 8. Aquilo, or Boreas, the North wind, enamoured of Orithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus, King of Athens. 12. Infamous, the common accent in old English poetry. 23. For so Apollo, &c. From these lines one would suspect, although it does not immediately follow, that a boy was the subject of the Ode; but in the last stanza the poet says expressly, Then thou, the mether of so sweet a child, 25 30 35 Yet, in the eighth stanza, the person lamented is alternately supposed to have been sent down to earth in the shape of two divinities, one of whom is styled a "just maid," and the other a "sweet smiling youth." But the child was cer tainly a niece, a daughter of Milton's sister Philips. 40. Were, instead of are, for rhyme.47. Earth's sons, the giants.-50. Maid, Justice.-54. Youth, Mercy. 67. To turn swift-rusking, &c. Among VI. Resolve me then, O soul most surely blest, VII. Wert thou some star, which from the ruin'd roof Of sheeny Heaven, and thou, some goddess fled, VIII Or wert thou that just Maid, who once before Or any other of that heavenly brood, Let down in cloudy throne to do the world some good? IX. Or wert thou of the golden-winged host, Thereby to set the hearts of men on fire x. But, O! why didst thou not stay here below the blessings which the Heaven-loved innocence of this child might have imparted, by remaining upon earth, the application to present circumstances, the supposition that she might have averted the pestilence now raging in the kingdom, is happily and beautifully conceived. On the whole, from a boy of seventeen, this Ode is an extraordinary effort of fancy, ex 40 45 50 55 60 65 pression, and versification; even in the conceits, which are many, we perceive strong and peculiar marks of genius. 1 think Milton has here given a very remarkable specimen of his ability to suc ceed in the Spenserian stanza. He moves with great ease and address amidst the embarrassment of a frequent return of rhyme.-T. WARTON. |