Talis in æterno juvenis Sigeius Olympo
Miscet amatori pocula plena Jovi;
Aut, qui formosas pellexit ad oscula nymphas,
Thiodamantæus Naide raptus Hylas.
Addideratque iras, sed et has decuisse putares;
Addideratque truces, nec sine felle, minas:
Et," Miser, exemplo sapuisses tutius," inquit:
"Nunc, mea quid possit dextera, testis eris:
Inter et expertos vires numerabere nostras,

Et faciam vero per tua damna fidem.
Ipse ego, si nescis, strato Pythone superbum
Edomui Phoebum, cessit et ille mihi;
Et quoties meminit Peneidos, ipse fatetur
Certius et gravius tela nocere mea.
Me nequit adductum curvare peritius arcum,
Qui post terga solet vincere, Parthus eques:
Cydoniusque mihi cedit venator, et ille
Inscius uxori qui necis auctor erat.
Est etiam nobis ingens quoque victus Orion,"
Herculeæque manus, Herculeusque comes.
Jupiter ipse licet sua fulmina torqueat in me,
Hærebunt lateri spicula nostra Jovis.
Cætera, quæ dubitas, melius mea tela docebunt,
Et tua non leviter corda petenda mihi:
Nec te, stulte, tuæ poterunt defendere Musæ,
Nec tibi Phœbæus porriget anguis opem."
Dixit; et, aurato quatiens mucrone sagittam,
Evolat in tepidos Cypridos ille sinus.
At mihi risuro tonuit ferus ore minaci,

Et mihi de puero non metus ullus erat:

Et modo qua nostri spatiantur in urbe Quirites,

Et modo villarum proxima rura placent.

b

Turba frequens, facieque simillima turba dearum,
Splendida per medias itque reditque vias;

Auctaque luce dies gemino fulgore coruscat:

Fallor? An et radios hinc quoque Phoebus habet?

* Cydoniusque mihi, &c.

2235

80

55

Perhaps indefinitely, as the "Parthus eques," just before. The Cydonians were famous for hunting, which implies archery. If a person is here intended, he is most probably Hippolytus. Cydon was a city of Crete. But then he is mentioned here as an archer. Virgil ranks the Cydonians with the Parthians for their skill in the bow, "En." xii. 852.-T. WARTON.

y Et ille, &c.

Cephalus, who unknowingly shot his wife Procris.-T. WARTON,

z Est etiam nobis ingens quoque victus Orion.

Orion was also a famous hunter.-T. WARTON.

a Nec tibi Phabæus porriget anguis opem.

"No medicine will avail you: not even the serpent, which Phoebus sent to Rome to cure the city of a pestilence." Ovid, "Metam." xv. 742.-T. WARTON.

b Turba, &c.

In Milton's youth, the fashionable places of walking in London were Hyde-Park, and Gray's-Inn Walks.-T. WARTON.

Hæc ego non fugi spectacula grata severus;
Impetus et quo me fert juvenilis, agor;
Lumina luminibus male providus obvia misi,
Neve oculos potui continuisse meos.
Unam forte aliis supereminuisse notabam:
Principium nostri lux erat illa mali.
Sic Venus optaret mortalibus ipsa videri,
Sic regina deum conspicienda fuit.
Hanc memor objecit nobis malus ille Cupido,
Solus et hos nobis texuit ante dolos:
Nec procul ipse vafer latuit, multæque sagittæ,
Et facis a tergo grande pependit onus:
Nec mora; nunc ciliis hæsit, nunc virginis ori;
Insilit hinc labiis, insidet inde genis:
Et quascunque agilis partes jaculator oberrat,
Hei mihi! mille locis pectus inerme ferit.
Protinus insoliti subierunt corda furores;

Uror amans intus, flammaque totus eram.
Interea, misero quæ jam mihi sola placebat,
Ablata est oculis, non reditura, meis.
Ast ego progredior tacite querebundus, et excors,
Et dubius volui sæpe referre pedem.

Findor, et hæc remanet: sequitur pars altera votum,
Raptaque tam subito gaudia flere juvat.

Sic dolet amissum proles Junonia cœlum,
Inter Lemniacos præcipitata focos:
Talis et abreptum solem respexit, ad Orcum
Vectus ab attonitis Amphiaraus equis.
Quid faciam infelix, et luctu victus? Amores
Nec licet inceptos ponere, neve sequi.
O, utinam, spectare semel mihi detur amatos
Vultus, et coram tristia verba loqui!
Forsitan et duro non est adamante creata,
Forte nec ad nostras surdeat illa preces!
Crede mihi, nullus sic infeliciter arsit;
Ponar in exemplo primus et unus ego.
Parce, precor, teneri cum sis deus ales amoris,
Pugnent officio nec tua facta tuo.

Jam tuus, O! certe est mihi formidabilis arcus,
Nate dea, jaculis, nec minus igne, potens :
Et tua fumabunt nostris altaria donis,

Solus et in superis tu mihi summus eris.
Deme meos tandem, verum nec deme, furores;
Nescio miser est suaviter omnis amans:

cur,

c Non reditura.

He saw the unknown lady, who had thus won his heart, but once. The fervour of his love is inimitably expressed in the following lines.-TODD.

d Deme meos tandem, verum nec deme, furores;
Nescio cur, miser est suaviter omnis amans.

There never was a more beautiful description of the irresolution of love. He wishes

35

Tu modo da facilis, posthæc mea siqua futura est,
Cuspis amaturos figat ut una duos.

HÆC ego, mente olim læva, studioque supino,
Nequitiæ posui vana tropæa meæ.

Scilicet abreptum sic me malus impulit error,
Indocilisque ætas prava magistra fuit;
Donec Socraticos umbrosa Academia rivos
Præbuit, admissum dedocuitque jugum.
Protinus, extinctis ex illo tempore flammis,
Cincta rigent multo pectora nostra gelu;
Unde suis frigus metuit puer ipse sagittis,
Et Diomedeam vim timet ipsa Venus.

EPIGRAMMATUM LIBER.

10

I.-IN PRODITIONEM BOMBARDICAM.

CUM simul in regem nuper satrapasque Britannos
Ausus es infandum, perfide Fauxe, nefas,
Fallor? An et mitis voluisti ex parte videri,
Et pensare mala cum pietate scelus?
Scilicet hos alti missurus ad atria coli,
Sulphureo curru, flammivolisque rotis:
Qualiter ille, feris caput inviolabile Parcis,
Liquit Iördanios turbine raptus agros.

II. IN EANDEM.

SICCINE tentasti cœlo donasse Iäcobum,
Quæ septemgemino, Bellua," monte lates?
Ni meliora tuum poterit dare munera numen,
Parce, precor, donis insidiosa tuis.
Ille quidem sine te consortia serus adivit
Astra, nec inferni pulveris usus ope.
Sic potius foedus in cœlum pelle cucullos,

Et quot habet brutos Roma profana deos:

to have his woe removed, but recalls his wish; preferring the sweet misery of those who love. Thus Eloisa wavers, in Pope's fine poem :

Unequal task! a passion to resign

For hearts so touch'd, so pierc'd, so lost, as mine.-TODD.

e Hæc ego, &c.

These lines are an epilogistic palinode to the last Elegy. The Socratic doctrines of the shady Academe soon broke the bonds of beauty: in other words, his return to the university. They were probably written when the Latin poems were prepared for the press in 1645.-T. WARTON.

* Quæ septemgemino, Bellua, &c.

The Pope, called, in the theological language of the times, "The Beast."-T. WARTON.

Namque hac aut alia nisi quemque adjuveris arte,
Crede mihi, cœli vix bene scandet iter.

III.-IN EANDEM.

PURGATOREM animæ derisit Iacobus ignem,
Et sine quo superum non adeunda domus.
Frenduit hoc trina monstrum Latiale corona,
Movit et horrificum cornua dena minax.

"Et nec inultus," ait, "temnes mea sacra, Britanne:
Supplicium, spreta relligione, dabis:

Et, si stelligeras unquam penetraveris arces,
Non nisi per flammas triste patebit iter."
O, quam funesto cecinisti proxima vero,
Verbaque ponderibus vix caritura suis!
Nam prope Tartareo sublime rotatus ab igni,
Ibat ad æthereas, umbra perusta, plagas.

IV.-IN EANDEM.

QUEM modo Roma suis devoverat impia diris,
Et Styge damnarat, Tænarioque sinu;
Hunc, vice mutata, jam tollere gestit ad astra,
Et cupit ad superos evehere usque deos.

V.-IN INVENTOREM BOMBARDE.

IAPETIONIDEM laudavit cæca vetustas,
Qui tulit ætheream solis ab axe facem;
At mihi major erit, qui lurida creditur arma,
Et trifidum fulmen, surripuisse Jovi.

VI.-AD LEONORAM ROMÆ CANENTEM.b

ANGELUS unicuique suus, sic credite gentes,
Obtigit æthereis ales ab ordinibus.
Quid mirum, Leonora, tibi si gloria major?
Nam tua præsentem vox sonat ipsa Deum.
Aut Deus, aut vacui certe mens tertia cœli,
Per tua secreto guttura serpit agens;
Serpit agens, facilisque docet mortalia corda
Sensim immortali assuescere posse sono.
Quod si cuncta quidem Deus est, per cunctaque fusus,
In te una loquitur, cætera mutus habet.

VII.-AD EANDEM.

ALTERA Torquatum cepit Leonora poetam,

Cujus ab insano cessit amore furens.

b Adriana of Mantua, for her beauty surnamed the Fair, and her daughter Leonora Baroni, the lady whom Milton celebrates in these three Latin Epigrams, were esteemed by their contemporaries the finest singers in the world. When Milton was at Rome he was introduced to the concerts of Cardinal Barberini, where he heard Leonora siLg and her mother play. It was the fashion for all the ingenious strangers, who visited Rome, to leave some verses on Leonora.-T. WARTON.

Altera Torquatum cepit Leonora.

This allusion to Tasso's Leonora, and the tun which it takes, are inimitably beauti ful.-T. WARTON.

Ah! miser ille tuo quanto felicius ævo
Perditus, at propter te, Leonora, foret!
Et te Pieria sensisset voce canentem

Aurea maternæ fila movere lyræ!
Quamis Dircæo torsisset lumina Pentheo
Sævior, aut totus desipuisset iners,
Tu tamen errantes cæca vertigine sensus
Voce eadem poteras composuisse tua;
Et poteras, ægro spirans sub corde, quietem
Flexanimo cantu restituisse sibi.

VIII-AD EANDEM,

CREDULA quid liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas,
Claraque Parthenopese fana Achelöiados;
Littoreamque tua defunctam Naiada ripa,
Corpora Chalcidico sacra dedisse rogo?
Illa quidem vivitque, et amona Tibridis unda
Mutavit rauci murmura Pausilipi.'

Illic, Romulidum studiis ornata secundis,
Atque homines cantu detinet atque deos.

IX.-IN SALMASII HUNDREDAM.s

QUIS expedivit Salmasio suam Hundredam,
Picamque docuit verba nostra conari?
Magister artis venter, et Jacobæi

Centum, exulantis viscera marsupii regis.
Quod si dolosi spes refulserit nummi,

Ipse, Antichristi qui modo primatum Papæ

d For the story of Pentheus, a king of Thebes, see Euripides's "Bacche," where he sees two suns, &c., v. 916. But Milton, in "torsisset lumina," alludes to the rage of Pentheus in Ovid, "Metam." iii. 557:—

Aspicit hunc oculis Pentheus, quos ira tremendos
Fecerat.-T. WARTON.

e Parthenope's tomb was at Naples: she was one of the sirens.-T. WARTON.

↑ Pausilipi.

The grotto of Pausilipo, which Milton no doubt had visited with delight.-TODD.

This Epigram is in Milton's "Defensio" against Salmasius; in the translation of which by Richard Washington, published in 1692, the Epigram is thus anglicized, p. 187:Who taught Salmasius, that French chattering pye, To aim at English, and Hundreda cry? The starving rascal, flush'd with just a hundred English Jacobusses, Hundreda blunder'd:

An outlaw'd king's last stock.-A hundred more

Would make him pimp for the antichristian whore;

And in Rome's praise employ his poison'd breath,

Who threaten'd once to stink the pope to death.-T. WARTÓN.

h King Charles II., now in exile, and sheltered in Holland, gave Salmasius, who was a professor at Leyden, one hundred Jacobuses to write his defence, 1649. Wood asserts that Salmasius had no reward for his book: he says, that in Leyden, the king sent Dr. Morley, afterwards bishop, to the apologist, with his thanks, "but not with a purse of gold, as John Milton the impudent lyer reported."-" Athen. Oxon." ii. 770.— T. WARTON.

This Epigram, as Mr. Warton observes, is an imitation of part of the Prologue to Persius's Satires.-TODD.