...prsferre debeam." Milton alluùes to this play of his favorite author in the opening lines of the sonnet on his deceased wife : " Methought I saw my late espoused...grave, Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave, Ransomed from death by force, though pale and faint." The young student, however, is not to suppose...

...honoured her memory with what Johnson (out upon him !) calls a poor sonnet ; it is the one beginning Methought I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me, like Alcestis from the grave ; which, in its solemn and tender strain of feeling and modulated harmony, reminds us of Dante. He...

...might lead me through tlas world's vain mask, Content though blind, had I no otter guide.' Todd. XXHI. ON HIS DECEASED WIFE. METHOUGHT I saw my late espoused...her glad husband gave, Rescued from death by force, tho' pale and faint. Mine, as whom wash'd from spot of child-bed taint Purification in the old Law...

...Did n not glide in with the stillness of night, and, enacting We, draw Miltcn'a curtain'; " Melhonght I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me, like Alcestis,...grave, Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave, Uescu'd irom death by force, though pale and faint. Mice, as whom, wash'd from spot of cnildbed taint,...

...Euripides — a name which Milton's sonnet has rendered so familiar and holy to modern readers — (" Methought I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me, like Alcestis, from the grave:") and who is represented in the drama as voluntarily parting with life — as dying by way of commutation,...

...— " I waked, she fled, and I replunged in night ;" would perhaps be sufficiently unexceptionable. Methought I saw my late espoused saint, Brought to me, like Alcestis, from the grave, far more agreeable than those deadly shades of which Solomon is speaking; but if, as it is written,...

...channel " beautiful exceedingly," on their way down to the Great Glen of Night and Death ! " Methouglit I saw my late espoused saint, Brought to me, like Alcestis, from the grave ! " So said Milton — in a sonnet written for the whole world — but first of all, for his own soul....

...1 Did it not glide in with the stillness of night, and, enacting life, draw Milton's curtain t . " Methought I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me, like Alcestis, from tho grave. Whom Jove's great eon to her glad husband gave, Rescu'd from death by force, though pale...

...vain mask, Content though blind, had I no other guide.' Todd. XXm. ON HIS DECEASED WIFE. METHOD GHT I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me, like Alcestis,...her glad husband gave, Rescued from death by force, tho' pale and faint. Mine, as whom wash'd from spot of child-bed taint Purification in the old Law...

...appeal to any of our readers, after our Chapter on the Alcestis, against Dr. Johnson's judgement: * ON HIS DECEASED WIFE. METHOUGHT I saw my late espoused...pale and faint. Mine, as whom wash'd from spot of childhood taint. Purification in the old law did save, And such, as yet once more I trust to have Full...