• PO E MS

ON

SEVERAL OCCASIONS.

I. Anno ætatis 17. On the death of a fair infant, dying

of a cough.

I.
O FAIREST flow'r no sooner blown but blasted,
Soft silken primrose fading timelessly,
Summer's chief honour, if thou hadst out-lasted
Bleak Winter's force that made thy blossom dry;
For he being amorous on that lovely dye

5 That did thy cheek envermeil, thought to kiss, But kill’d, alas, and then bewail'd his fatal bliss.

This elegy was not inserted in shews plainly that the child was the first edition of the author's not a nephew, but a niece, and poems printed in 1645, but was consequently a daughter of his added in the second edition sister Philips, and probably her printed in 1673. It was com- first child. posed in the year 1625, that 5. For he being amorous on being the seventeenth year of that lovely dye &c.] In Romeo Milton's age. In some editions and Juliet, Affliction and Death the title runs thus, On the death turn paramours. T. Warton. of a fair infant, a nephew of his, 6. -thought to kiss, dying of a cough: but the sequel But kill'd, alas, &c.]

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II.
For since grim Aquilo his charioteer
By boist'rous rape th’ Athenian damsel got,
He thought it touch'd his deity full near,
If likewise he some fair one wedded not,
Thereby to wipe away th' infamous blot

Of long-uncoupled bed, and childless eld, Which’mongst the wanton Gods a foul reproach was held.

III.
So mounting up in icy-pearled car,
Through middle empire of the freezing air
He wander'd long, till thee he spied from far;

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cere nomen.

Copied probably from this verse of Pluto, as reported by Clauin Shakespeare's Venus and Ado- dian. De Rapt. Pros. i. 32. nis,

Dux Erebi quondam tumidas exarsit He thought to kiss him, and hath

in iras kill'd him so.

Prælia moturus superis, quod solus 8. For since grim Aquilo &c.]

egeret

Connubii, sterilesque diu consumeret Boreas or Aquilo carried off by annos, force Orithyia daughter of Erec- Impatiens nescire torum, nullasque theus king of Athens, Ovid,

mariti Met. vi. fab. 9. as she crossed

Illecebras, nec dulce patris cognos. over the river Ilissus, (as Apollodorus says, lib. 3.) that is, she

15. So mounting up in icywas drowned in a high wind pearled car] We should rather crossing that river. Richardson. read ice-ypearled. And so in 12. —th' infámous blot

the Mask, v. 890. rush-yfringed, Of long-uncoupled bed, and Otherwise we have two epithets childless eid, &c.]

instead of one, with a weaker The author probably pronounced sense. Milton himself affords an infamous with the middle syllable instance in the Ode on The Nalong as it is in Latin. Eld is tivity, v. 155. old age, a word used in innume- Yet first to those ychair'd in sleep. rable places of Spenser and our Of the prefixture of y, in a conold writers. And in saying that catenated epithet there is an exlong-uncoupled bed and childless ample in the Epitaph on Shakeeld was held a reproach among speare, v. 4. the wanton Gods, the poet seems Under a star-ypointing pyramid. to allude particularly to the ease

T. Warton. 20

There ended was his quest, there ceas'd his care.
Down he descended from his snow-soft chair,

But all unwares with his cold-kind embrace Unhous'd thy virgin soul from her fair biding place.

IV.
Yet art thou not inglorious in thy fate ;
For so Apollo, with unweeting hand,
Whilome did slay his dearly-loved mate,
Young Hyacinth born on Eurotas' strand,
Young Hyacinth the pride of Spartan land;

But then transformd him to a purple flower; Alack that so to change thee Winter had no power.

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V.

30

Yet can I not persuade me thou art dead,
Or that thy corse corrupts in earth's dark womb,
Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed,
Hid from the world in a low delved tomb;
Could Heav'n for pity thee so strictly doom?

Oh no! for something in thy face did shine
Above mortality, that show'd thou wast divine.

VI. Resolve me then, oh Soul most surely blest, (If so it be that thou these plaints dost hear,)

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23. For so Apollo, &c.] Apollo And in Spenser's Astrophel, st. slew Hyacinthus by accident 48. playing at quoits, and afterwards

Ah no! it is not dead, ne can it die, changed him into a flower of the

But lives for aye in blissful Paradise,

&c. same name. See Ovid, Met. x. fab. 6.

The fine periphrasis for grave 29. Yet can I not persuade me in v. 31. is from Shakespeare, thou art dead,] So in Lycidas, Mids. N. Dr. a. iii. s. ult.

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Tell me bright Spirit where'er thou hoverest,
Whether above that high first-moving sphere,
Or in th’ Elysian fields, (if such there were,)

Oh say me true, if thou wert mortal wight,
And why from us so quickly thou didst take thy flight.

VII.
Wert thou some star which from the ruin'd roof
Of shak’d Olympus by mischance didst fall;
Which careful Jove in nature's true behoof
Took up, and in fit place did reinstall ?
Or did of late earth's sons besiege the wall

Of sheeny heav'n, and thou some goddess fled
Amongst us here below to hide thy nectar'd head?

VIII.
Or wert thou that just Maid who once before

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38. Tell me bright Spirit 44. — didst

fall ;] This is somewhere'er thou hoveresi, what inaccurate in all the edi. Whether above, &c.]

tions. Grammar and syntax reThese hypothetical questions are quire did fall. like those in Lycidas, " Whether 47. Or did of late earth's sons

beyond the stormy Hebrides, &c.] For when the giants in" &c.” v. 156. originally from vaded heaven, the deities fled Virgil, Georg. i. 32.

and concealed themselves in vaAnne novum tardis sidus te mensibus rious shapes. See Ovid, Met. v. addas, &c.

319, &c. T. Warton. 48. Of sheeny hearen,] So in 39. —that high first-moving Spenser, sphere,] The primum mobile, And beautifie the sheenic firmament. that first mored as he calls it, Sheen occurs in Hamlet, a. ii. Paradise Lost, iii. 483. where

S. 2. see the note.

And thirty dozen moons with bor40. -if such there were.] He rowed sheen, &c. should have said are, if the

T. Warton. rhyme had permitted. Hurd.

49. -nectar'd head ?] As in 44. Of shak'd Olympus) For Lycidas, ver. 175. shaken. In Cymbeline, a. ii. s. 2.

With nectar pure his oozy locks he A sly, and constant knave, not to be

laves. shak'da

50. —that just Maid] Astrea T. Warton.

or the Goddess of justice, who

Forsook the hated earth, O tell me sooth,
And cam’st again to visit us once more?
Or wert thou that sweet smiling Youth?
Or that crown'd matron sage white-robed Truth?
Or any other of that heav'nly brood

55 Let down in cloudy throne to do the world some good?

IX.
Or wert thou of the golden-winged host,
Who having clad thyself in human weed,
To earth from thy prefixed seat didst post,
And after short abode fly back with speed,

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offended with the crimes of men Orb'd in a rainbow; and like glories forsook the earth. Ovid, Met. i.

wearing

Mercy will sit between &c. 150. Ultima cælestum terras Astrea re

And Mercy is not unfitly repreliquit.

sented as a sweet smiling youth, 53. --that sweet smiling Youth?] this age being the most suscepAt first I imagined that the au

tible of the tender passions. thor meant Hebe, in Latin Ju- 53. The late Mr. John Heskin, venta, or Youth. And Mr. Jortin of Ch. Ch. Oxford, who published communicated the following note.

an elegant edition of Bion and “ A word of two syllables is Moschus, was the author both of « wanting to fill up

the measure

this ingenious conjecture and of " of the verse.

It is easy to the reasons for it in the preceding “ find such a word, but impos

note. T. Warton. o sible to determine what word

57. Or wert thou of the golden" Milton would have inserted. winged host.] Mr. Bowle cites “ He uses Youth in the feminine Spenser's Hymne of Heavenlie

Beautie. gender, as the Latins some“ times use juvenis, and by this