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That strain again; -it had a dying fall!
O, it came o'er my ear, like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour. Enough! no more-
'Tis not so sweet now, as it was before.
O fpirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou!
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the fea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soever,
But falls into abatement and low price,

Even

ing the sweets of flowers, is very common in the best Italian poets." It may be, S. took the thought from them himself; for he was no less converfant in the works of the Italian poets than Milton. W. observes, that amongst the beauties of this charming fimilitude, its exact propriety is not the least. For as the south wind, while blowing over a violet bank, wafts away the odour of the flowers, it, at the fame time, communicates its own sweetness to it. So the soft affecting music here described, though it takes away the natural, sweet, tranquility of the mind, yet at the same time it communicates a new pleasure to it. Cr, it may allude to another property of music, where the fame strains have the power to excite pain or pleasure, as the state is in which it finds the hearer. Hence Milton makes the self-same strains of Orpheus proper to excite both the affections of mirth and melancholy, just as the mind is then disposed. If to mirth, he calls for fuch music,

That Orpheus' felf may heave his head,
From golden slumbers on a bed
Of heapt Elysian flowers, and hear
Such strains as would have won the ear

Of Pluto, to have quite set free

His half-regain'd Euridice.

If to melancholy,

Or bid the foul of Orpheus fing

Such notes as, warbled to the string,

Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek;

And made hell grant what love did feek.

L' Allegro.

Il Penferoso.

Even in a minute; so full of shapes in fancy,
That it alone is high fantastical. (2)

Love, in reference to Hunting.

O, when my eyes did see Olivia first, Methought she purg'd the air of peftilence; That inftant was I turn'd into a hart, (3) And my defires, like fell and cruel hounds, E'er fince pursue me.

Natural Affection akin to Love.

(4) O, she, that hath a heart of that fine frame, To pay this debt of love but to a brother, How will the love, when the rich golden shaft

Hath

(2) High fantastical] Means no more, says St. than fantastical to the height. W. proposes hight, i. e. called fantastical.

(3) Into a bart.] The duke makes this speech on being alked, If he would go hunt the hart? And he alludes to the story of Acteon, by which S. feems to think men cautioned against too great familiarity with forbidden beauty. Acteon, who faw Diana naked, and was torn to pieces by his hounds, represents a man, who indulging his eyes, or his imagination, with the view of a woman he cannot gain, has his heart torn with incessant longing. An interpretation far more elegant and natural than that of Sir Francis Bacon, who in his Wisdom of the Ancients, supposes this story to warn us against enquiring into the secrets of princes, by shewing, that those who know that which for reasons of state is to be concealed, will be detected and destroyed by their own fervants. J.

(4)

-Hic parva confuetudinis
Caufâ, bujus mortem fert tam familaritèr :
Quid fi ipse amâsset? Quid mihi bic facit patri?

Ter. And. A. 1. v. 83.

"He on account of a small acquaintance only, lays her death very much to heart: what, if he had been in love with her? What will he do, when I his father am dead?"

Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else
That live in her; when liver, brain and heart,
These sovereign thrones, are (5) all supply'd, and fill'd
(Her sweet perfections) with one self-fame king!

SCENE II. Description of Sebastian's Escape.

-I (6) faw your brother,

Most provident in peril, bind himself
(Courage and hope both teaching him the practice)
To a strong mast, that liv'd upon the fea;
Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,
I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves,
So long as I could fee.

Actions of the Great always talked of.

You know

What great ones do, the less will prattle of.

(5) Are all, &c.] Perhaps this should be read,

Outward

-Are all fupply'd, and fill'd

Her sweet perfections with one, &c.

i. e. " when liver, &c. those fovereign thrones, are all fupplied, and her sweet perfections filled with," &c. the verbs belonging to each noun being applicable to all. S's diftinction (Mrs. G. observes) of the three thrones, is admirable: these are truly the feats of the three affections of love; the heart for paffion, the mind for esteem, and the liver for jealousy: if Horace's anatomy is to be credited :

Dificile bile tumet Jecur.

(6) I, &c.] Compare this with a fimilar passage in the Tempest, Act 2. and another in Julius Cafar, Act 1. which will ferve to shew S's fertility and extent of genius on the fame fubject.

Outward Appearance a Token of inward Worth.

There is fair behaviour in thee, captain;
And, though that nature with a beauteous wall
Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee
I will believe, thou hast a mind that suits
With this thy fair and outward character.

SCENE III. Care an Enemy to Life.

Sir Toby. What a plague means my niece, to take the death of her brother thus? I am sure, care's an enemy to life.

Sir Toby's Recommendation of Ague-Cheek.

Sir Toby. He plays o' the viol-de-gambo, (7) and speaks three or four different languages word for word without book, and hath all the good gifts of nature.

SCENE

(7) He plays o' the viol-de-gambo.] The viol-de-gambo seems in our author's time, to have been a very fashionable instrument. In The Return from Parnassus, 1606, it is mentioned with its proper derivation.

Her viol-de-gambo is her best content,

For 'twixt her legs the holds her instrument.

See Steevens. The reader will find much more in this hu morous scene respecting Sir Andrew: he says of himself,

"Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Chriftian, or an ordinary man has ; but I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit."

Sir Toby fays,

What is thy excellence in a galliard, knight?

Sir Andrew. Faith, I can cut a caper.

Sir Toby. And I can cut the mutton to't.

Sir Toby. Why dost thou not go to church in a galliard, and come home in a coranto? My very walk should

be

1

SCENE IV. A beautiful Boy..

Dear lad, (8) believe it;

For they shall yet bely thy happy years,
That say, thou art a man; Diana's lip

Is not more fmooth and rubious; thy small pipe

Is

be a jig: I would not so much as make water, but in a fink-a-pace. What dost thou mean? Is it a world to hide virtues in?י

(8) Dear lad, &c.] Alas! what kind of grief can thy

years know?

Thy brows and cheeks are smooth as waters be,
When no breath troubles them: believe me, boy,
Care seeks out wrinkled brows, and hollow eyes,
And builds himself caves to abide in them.

Philafter, Act 2.

The lady, in Comus, speaking of her brothers, says,
Their unrazor'd lips were smooth as Hebe's.

When Comus, telling her he had seen 'em, goes on most
beautifully,

Their port was more than human, as they stood,

I took it for a fairy vifion,

Or fome gay creatures of the element,

That in the colours of the rainbow live,

And play i'th' plighted clouds.

Spenser, defcribing an angel, B. 2. c. 8. f. 5. speaks of him thus;

Besides his head there fat a fair young man,
Of wond'rous beauty and of freshest years,
Whose tender bud to blossom new began,
And flourish fair above his equal peers :
His snowy front curled with golden hairs,

Like Phœbus' face adorn'd with funny rays,
Divinely shone; and two sharp winged shears
Decked with diverse plumes, like painted jays,
Were fixed at his back to cut his airy ways.
The reader, if he thinks proper, may be agreeably amused
by comparing this with Milton's celebrated description of
Raphael, B. 5. V. 277.

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