Where throngs of knights and barons bold, In saffron robe, with taper clear', Or sweetest Shakspeare, Fancy's child, wards, we have another "Then," with the same sense and reference, ver. 131. 1 In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold. 120 123 130 Here too By "triumphs" we are to understand, shows, such as masks, revels, &c. and here, that is in these exhibitions, there was a rich display of the most splendid dresses, of the "weeds of peace." See "Samson Agonistes," v. 1312.-T. WARTON. There let Hymen oft appear In saffron robe, with taper clear, &c. For, according to Shakspeare, "Love's Labour's Lost," a. iv. s. 3 : Revels, dances, masks, and merry hours, Forerun fair Love, strewing her way with flowers. Among these triumphs, were the masks, pageantries, spectacles, and revelries, exhibited with great splendour, and a waste of allegoric invention, at the nuptials of noble personages. Here, of course, the classical Hymen was introduced as an actor, properly habited, and distinguished by his characteristic symbols.-T. WARTON. And pomp, and feast, and revelry, With mask, and antique pageantry. The revels, according to Minsheu, were "sports of dauncing, masking, comedies, tragedies, and such like, used in the king's house, the houses of court, or of other great personages." The "antique pageants" were, at first, merely processions and emblematic spectacles at the public reception of distinguished personages. See Warton's "Hist. of Eng. Poetry," vol. ii. 204. They were afterwards distinguished by speaking characters. From these the poet proceeds to the "well-trod stage ;" on which expression Mr. Warton remarks that Milton had not yet gone such extravagant lengths in puritanism, as to join with his reforming brethren in condemning the stage.-TODD. If Jonson's learned sock be on. This expression occurs in Jonson's recommendatory verses, prefixed to the first folio edition of Shakspeare's plays in 1623 :— Or when thy socks were on.-T. WARTON. in Or sweetest Shakspeare, Fancy's child, There is good reason to suppose, that Milton threw many additions and corrections into the "Theatrum Poetarum," a book published by his nephew Edward Phillips, in 1675: it contains criticisms far above the taste of that period: among these is the following judgment on Shakspeare, which was not then, I believe, the general opinion, and which perfectly coincides both with the sentiment and words of the text :-" In tragedy, never any expressed a more lofty and tragic highth, never any represented nature more purely to the life; and where the polishments of art are most wanting, as probably his learning was not 1 And ever, against eating cares, Such as the meeting soul may pierce, In notes, with many a winding bout " Of heap'd Elysian flowers 9, and hear Such strains, as would have won the ear His half-regain'd Eurydice. These delights if thou canst give, Mirth, with thee I mean to live. extraordinary, he pleases with a certain wild and native elegance," &c. p. 194.-T. WARTON. 138 140 145 130 "Mod. Poets," Milton shows his judgment here in celebrating Shakspeare's comedies, rather than his tragedies: but for models of the latter, he refers us rightly, in his "Penseroso," to the Grecian scene, verse 97.-HURD. The present editor reprinted Phillips's "Theatrum," as far as concerned the English poets, in 1800, and again at Geneva, in 1824. n Bout. "Bout" is a fold or twist, and often used in this sense by Spenser. See "Faer. Qu." I. xi. 3.-TODD. • With wanton heed and giddy cunning. "Cunning" is used in the same sense, in our translation of the Psalms :-" If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning," Ps. cxxxvii. 5. Which Sandys rightly paraphrases,-"Let my fingers their melodious skill forget," Ps. ed. 1648, p. 210. -TODD. P The melting voice through mazes running, Untwisting all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony. Mr. Malone thinks that Milton has here copied Marston's comedy, “What you Will," 1607. Suppl. Shaks. vol. i. 588: Cannot your trembling wires throw a chain Of powerful rapture 'bout our mazed sense? But the poet is not displaying the effect of music on the senses, but of a skilful musician on music. Milton's meaning is not, that the senses are enchained or amazed by music; but that, as the voice of the singer runs through the manifold mazes or intricacies of sound, all the chains are untwisted which imprison and entangle the hidden soul, the essence or perfection, of harmony. In common sense, let music be made to show all, even her most hidden powers.-T. WARTON. See" Paradise Lost," b. iii. distinction from that of most Pope has borrowed Milton's " TODD. Of heap'd Elysian flowers. 359. Mr. Warton adds, that Milton's florid style has this other poets; that it is marked with a degree of dignity. Elysian flowers," in his "Ode on St. Cecilia's Day." IL PENSEROSO. HENCE, vain deluding Joys", The brood of Folly without father bred! Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys! And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, b As thick and numberless As the gay motes that people the sun-beams; Or likest hovering dreams, The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train. Hail, divinest Melancholy ! Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of human sight, And therefore to our weaker view O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue; Prince Memnon's sister might beseem, a Hence, vain deluding Joys, &c. 10 15 The opening of this poem is formed from a distich in Sylvester, the translator of "Du Bartas," p. 1084 : Hence, hence, false pleasures, momentary joyes! Mocke us no more with your illuding toyes!-Bowle. b As thick, &c. This imagery is immediately from Sylvester's Cave of Sleep in "Du Bartas," p. 316, edit. fol. 1621. He there mentions Morpheus, and speaks of his "fantasticke swarms of dreames that hovered," and swarms of dreams and these resemble Green, red, and yellow, tawney, black and blew : The unnumbred moats which in the sun do play. And these dreams, from their various colours, are afterwards called the "gawdy swarme of dreames." Hence Milton's "fancies fond," "gaudy shapes," "numberless gay motes in the sun-beams," and the "hovering dreams of Morpheus."-T. WARTON. © The fickle pensioners, &c. "Fickle" is transitory, perpetually shifting, &c. "Pensioners" became a common appellation in our poetry, for train, attendants, retinue, &c. As in the "Mids. Night's Dream," a. ii. s. 1, of the faery queen : The cowslips tall her pensioners be. This was in consequence of queen Elizabeth's fashionable establishment of a band of military courtiers by that name. They were some of the handsomest and tallest young men, of the best families and fortune, that could be found: they gave the mode in dress and diversions they accompanied the queen in her progress to Cambridge, where they held torches at a play on a Sunday in King's College chapel.-T. WARTON. d Prince Memnon's sister. That is, an Ethiopian princess, or sable beauty. Memnon, king of Ethiopia, being an auxiliary of the Trojans, was slain by Achilles. See Virg. Æn." i. 493. "Nigri MemIt does not however appear that Memnon had any sister. Tithonus, nonis arma. ३ * fuma crowns. Memnun and Emathion. Theog." Pre Tara vs de vie of Centers. Eng of Ethiopia: she SHEMtoured, vai zusorted Cassiope into heaven, force des n'ai ↑ "But starr'i Etheo queen." See 3. Wrones o have been struck with an old medy strong of the astronomers, Dis dant à epresion and a PICS HAY TESHei with wilde stars.-T. WARTON. It's the same sort of perfiction in our author's enzoù an Stakspeare :— There thou, our fncy of self berarving. In both nsances excess of noughts the use.-T. WARTOR 66 With a sad leaden downward casti And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet, Aye round about Jove's altar sing. And add to these retired Leisure, k That in trim gardens takes his pleasure: Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, With a sad leaden downward cast. Hence, says Mr. Warton, Gray's expressive phraseology, of the same personage, in his 'Hymn to Adversity :" With leaden eye that loves the ground.-TODD. k Trim gardens. Mr. Warton here observes, that affectation and false elegance were now carried to the most elaborate and absurd excess in gardening; and he notices, among similar monuments of extravagance in other countries, "the garden at Hampton-court, where in privet are figured various animals, the royal arms of England, and many other things." The architecture du jardinage, he thinks, may be also discovered in the "spruce-spring," the cedarn alleys," the "crisped shades and bowers," in "Comus :" and the "trim garden " in "Arcades," v. 46-TODD. 66 1 Him that yon soars on golden wing Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne, The cherub Contemplation. By contemplation, is here meant that stretch of thought, by which the mind ascends to the first good, first perfect, and first fair; and is therefore very properly said to "soar on golden wing, guiding the fiery-wheeled throne:" that is, to take a high and glorious flight, carrying bright ideas of Deity along with it. But the whole imagery alludes to the cherubic forms that conveyed the fiery-wheeled car in Ezekiel, x. 2, seq. See also Milton himself, "Par. Lost," b. vi. 750: so that nothing can be greater or juster than this idea of "divine Contemplation." Contemplation, of a more sedate turn, and intent only on human things, is more fitly described, as by Spenser, under the figure of an old man ; time and experience qualifying men best for this office. Spenser might then be right in his imagery; and yet Milton might be right in his, without being supposed to ramble after some fanciful Italian.-HURD. m And the mute Silence hist along. I always admired this and the seventeen following lines with excessive delight. There is a spell in it, which goes far beyond mere description: it is the very perfection of ideal, and picturesque, and contemplative poetry. n Most musical, most melancholy. “L'Allegro" began with the morning of the day, and the lively salutations of the lark: "Il Penseroso," with equal propriety, after a general exordium, opens with the night: with moonshine, and the melancholy music of the nightingale. -T. WARTON. |
