Oh, skill'd in Nature! see the hearts of Swains, Their artless passions, and their tender pains. 15 Now setting Phoebus shone serenely bright, And fleecy clouds were streak'd with purple light; When tuneful Hylas with melodious moan, Taught rocks to weep, and made the mountains groan. Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away! To Delia's ear the tender notes convey. As some sad turtle his lost love deplores, And with deep murmurs fills the sounding shores; Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs along! Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away! Die ev'ry flow'r, and perish all, but she. NOTES. 30 35 Ver. 25.] This rich assemblage of very pleasing pastoral images, is yet excelled by Shenstone's beautiful Pastoral Ballad in four parts. Warton. Let op'ning roses knotted oaks adorn, And liquid amber drop from ev'ry thorn. Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs along! The birds shall cease to tune their ev'ning song, 40 The winds to breathe, the waving woods to move, And streams to murmur, ere I cease to love. Not bubbling fountains to the thirsty swain, Not balmy sleep to lab'rers faint with pain, NOTES. Ver. 43. Not bubbling] The turn of these four lines is evidently borrowed from Drummond of Hawthornden, a charming but neglected Poet. He was born 1585, and died 1649. His verses are as smooth as Waller's, whom he preceded many years, having written a poem to King James, 1617; whereas Waller's first composition was to Charles I, 1625. His Sonnets are exquisitely beautiful and correct. He was one of our first, and best imitators of the Italian Poets, and Milton had certainly read and admired him, as appears by many passages that might be quoted for that purpose. The four lines mentioned above follow: To virgins flow'rs, to sun-burnt earth the rain, Cool shades to pilgrims, whom hot glances burn, And afterwards again our author borrows in Abelard; The grief was common, common were the cries. I will just add, that Drayton's Pastorals, and his Nymphidia, do not seem to be attended to so much as they deserve. Warton. Mala ferant quercus; narcisso floreat alnus, Pinguia corticibus sudent electra myricæ." Ver. 43, &c. Virg. Ecl. viii. P. "Quale sopor fessis in gramine, quale per æstum Dulcis aquæ saliente sitim restinguere rivo." Ecl. v. P. Not show'rs to larks, nor sun-shine to the bee, 45 Are half so charming as thy sight to me. 50 Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away! Come, Delia, come; ah, why this long delay ? Thro' rocks and caves the name of Delia sounds, Delia, each cave and echoing rock rebounds. Ye pow'rs, what pleasing phrenzy sooths my mind! Do lovers dream, or is my Delia kind? She comes, my Delia comes !-Now cease my lay, And cease, ye gales, to bear my sighs away! Next Ægon sung, while Windsor groves admir'd; Rehearse, ye Muses, what yourselves inspir'd. 60 Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful strain! Of perjur❜d Doris, dying I complain : Here, where the mountains, less'ning as they rise, Lose the low vales, and steal into the skies: While lab'ring oxen, spent with toil and heat, In their loose traces from the field retreat : While curling smoaks from village-tops are seen, And the fleet shades glide o'er the dusky green. Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful lay! 65 Beneath yon' poplar oft' we past the day: VARIATIONS. Ver. 48. Originally thus in the MS. With him through Lybia's burning plains I'll go, Warburton. IMITATIONS. Ver. 52. "An qui amant, ipsi sibi somnia fingunt?" Oft' on the rind I carv'd her am'rous vows, 70 Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful strain! Now bright Arcturus glads the teeming grain, Now golden fruits on loaded branches shine, And grateful clusters swell with floods of wine; Now blushing berries paint the yellow grove; 75 Just Gods! shall all things yield returns but love? Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful lay! The shepherds cry, "Thy flocks are left a prey"— Ah! what avails it me, the flocks to keep, Who lost my heart while I preserv'd my sheep. 80 Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful strains! I'll fly from shepherds, flocks, and flow'ry plains, From shepherds, flocks, and plains, I may remove, Forsake mankind, and all the world-but love! NOTES. Ver. 68. While she with garlands hung the bending bows:] This line forcibly recalls the beautiful description of the "Poor Ophelia." There with fantastic garlands did she come, Ver. 82. Or what ill eyes] IMITATIONS. "Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos." Stevens. P. I know thee, Love! on foreign mountains bred, Thus sung the shepherds till th'approach of night, The skies yet blushing with departing light, When falling dews with spangles deck'd the glade, And the low sun had lengthen'd ev'ry shade. 100 NOTES. Ver. 97. Thus sung.] Among the multitude of English Poets who wrote Pastorals, Fairfax, to whom our Versification is thought to be so much indebted, ought to be mentioned. He wrote ten or twelve Eclogues after the accession of James I. They were like those of the Mantuan and Spenser, allegorical, and alluded to the manners and characters of the times, and contained many satyrical strokes against the King and his Court. They were lost in the fire that consumed the Banquetting House at Whitehall: but it is said that Mr. W. Fairfax, his son, recovered them from his father's papers; the fourth of them was published by Mrs. Cooper in the Muses Library, 1737. Warton. I wonder Dr. Warton should have omitted Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, an almost forgotten work, but containing some images of rural beauty which Milton did not disdain sometimes to copy. See T. Warton's edition of Milton's smaller poems, page 53. Bowles. Ver. 98. 100.] There is a little inaccuracy here; the first line makes the time after sun-set; the second, before. Warburton. &c. IMITATIONS. Ver. 89. "Nunc scio quid sit Amor: duris in cotibus illum," P. This from Virgil is much inferior to the passage in Theocritus, from whence it is taken. Warton. |