El. B. By hoarie Nereus wrinoled looke,
And the Carpathian wizards hooke,
2 Bro. By scalie Tritons windinge shell,
And ould sooth-saying Glaucus spell,
El. B. By Lewcotheas lovely hands,

And her sonne that rules the strands,
2 Bro. By Thetis tinsel-slipper'd feete,
And the songs
Sirens sweete,
El. B. By dead Parthenopes deare tombe,
And fayer Ligeas golden combe,

Wherewith she sitts on diamond rocks,
Sleekinge her soft allureinge locks,
Dem. By all the nimphes of nightly dance,
Vpon thy streames with wilie glaunce,
Rise, rise, and heave thy rosie head,
From thy corall paven bed,
And bridle in thy headlonge wave,
Till thou our summons answered have.
Listen, and save.

The invocations, assigned to the Brothers in the preceding lines, are recited by the Spirit alone in all other copies of the poem. It is probable, that at Ludlow Castle, this part of the poem was sung; the four first lines perhaps as a trio; the rest by each performer separately.

Ver. 893. Thick set with agate, and the azur'd sheene.

Shakespeare has the "azur'd vault," Tempest, A. v. S. i. And Greene, the "azur'd skye.' Never too late, 1616, P. ii. p. 46. But Milton's own word is azurn. See the Note on Com. v. 893.

Ver. 897. Thus I rest my printles feete
Ore the couslips head.
Ver. 907. Of vnblest inchaunters vile,
Ver. 911. Thus I sprinkle on this brest,
STAGE-DIRECTION after v. 937. "Songe ends."
Ver. 938. El. Br. Come, Sister, while Heav'n
lends vs grace,

Let vs fly this cursed place, &c.
Dem. I shal be your faithfull guide
Through this gloomie covert wide, &c.
Ver. 951. All the swaynes that neere abide,

With jiggs and rural daunce resorte;
Wee shall catch them at this sporte,
&c.

El. B. Come, let vs hast, the starrs are high,
But night sitts monarch yet in the
mid skye,

The Spirit again is the sole speaker of the nine-
teen preceding lines in the printed copy.
STAGE-DIRECTION. "The Sceane changes, then
is presented Ludlowe towne, and the Presi-
dent's Castle; then come in Countrie daunces
and the like, &c. towards the end of these sports
the demon with the 2 brothers and the ladye

come in." Then

"The Spirit! singes,"

Back, shepheards, back, &c.

Then "2 Songe presents them to their father and mother."

Noble Lord, and Lady bright, &c. STAGE-DIRECTION after v. 975. "They dance, the daunces al ended, the Damon singes or sayes,"

Now my taske is smoothly done,
I can flye, or I can run
Quickly to the earthe's greene end,
Where the bow'd welkin slow doeth bend,
And from thence can soare as soone
To the corners of the Moone.

Mortalls, that would follow me,
Love vertue; she alone is free:
She can teach you how to clyme
Higher than the sphearie chime!
Or if vertue feeble were,
Heven it selfe would stoope to her.

The Epilogue, in this manuscript, has not the thirty-six preceding lines, which are in the printed copies. Twenty of them, however, as we have seen, open the drama. Like the Cambridge manuscript, this manuscript does not exhibit what, in the printed copies, relates to Adonis, and to Cupid and Psyche. The four charming verses also, which follow v. 983 in the printed copy, are not in the manuscript. TODD.

SONNETS.
I.

TO THE NIGHTINGALE.

0
NIGHTINGALE, that on yon bloomy spray
Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still;

Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost fill,
While the jolly Hours lead on propitious May.
Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day,

First heard before the shallow cuckoo's bill, Portend success in love; O, if Jove's will Have link'd that amorous power to thy soft lay, Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate

Foretel my hopeless doom in some grove nigh;
As thou from year to year hast sung too late
For my relief, yet hadst no reason why :.

Whether the Muse, or Love,call thee his mate,
Both them I serve, and of their train am 1.

"

A BOOK was writ of late called Tetrachordon,
And woven close, both matter, form, and style;
The subject new: it walk'd the town awhile,
Numbering good intellects; now seldom por'd

on.

Cries the stall-reader, Bless us! what a word on
A title page is this! and some in file
Stand spelling false, while one might walk to
Mile-
[Gordon,
End Green. Why is it harder, sirs, than
Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp?

Those rugged names to our like mouths grow
sleek,
[gasp.
That would have made Quintilian stare and
Thy age, like ours, O soul of sir John Cheek,
Hated not learning worse than toad or asp,
When thou taught'st Cambridge, and king
Edward, Greek.

XII.

ON THE SAME.

I DID but prompt the age to quit their clogs
By the known rules of ancient liberty,
When straight a barbarous noise environs me
Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs:
As when those hinds that were transform'd to
frogs

Rail'd at Latona's twin-born progeny,

Which after held the Sun and Moon in fee. That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood, But this is got by casting pearl to hogs;

And still revolt when truth would set them free.

Licence they mean when they cry Liberty; For who loves that, must first be wise and good; But from that mark how far they rove we see, For all this waste of wealth, and loos of blood.

XIII.

TO MR. H. LAWES ON THE PUBLISHING HIS
AIRS.

Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher
Than his Casella, whom he woo'd to sing
Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.

XIV.

Ver. 1. Daughter to that good earl,] She was the daughter of sir James Ley, whose singular learning and abilities raised him through all the great posts of the law, till he came to be made earl of Malborough, and lord high treasurer, and lord president of the council to king James WHEN Faith and Love, which parted from thee

I. He died in an advanced age; and Milton attributes his death to the breaking of the parliament; and it is true that the parliament was dissolved the 10th of March 1628-9, and he died on the 14th of the same month. He left several sons and daughters; and the lady Margaret was married to captain Hobson of the Isle of Wight. It appears from the accounts of Milton's life, that in 1643 he used frequently to visit this lady and her husband; about which time we may suppose this sonnet to have been composed.

Ver. 1. A book was writ of late call'd Tetrachordon,] This elaborate discussion, unworthy in many respects of Milton, and in which much acuteness of argument, and comprehension of reading, were idly thrown away, was received with contempt, or rather ridicule, as we learn from Howel's Letters. A better proof that it was treated with neglect, is, that it was attacked by two nameless and obscure writers only; one

ON THE RELIGIOUS MEMORY OF MRS. CATHERINE THOMSON', my Christian friend, deceased 16 Decemb. 1646.

never,

Had ripen'd thy just soul to dwell with God,
Meekly thou didst resign this earthly load
Of death, call'd life; which us from life doth

sever.

ers.

of whom Milton calls,a Serving-man turned Sollicitor! Our author's divorce was on Platonic principles. He held, that disagreement of mind was a better cause of separation than adultery or frigidity. Here was a fair opening for the laughThis and the following Sonnet were written soon after 1645. For this doctrine Milton was summoned before the Lords. But they not approving his accusers, the presbyterian clergy, or thinking the business too speculative, he was quickly dismissed. On this occasion Milton commenced hostilities against the Presbyterians.

'Mrs. Catherine Thomson,] I find in the accounts of Milton's life, that, when he was first

Thy works, and alms, and all thy good endea- | Whether to settle peace, or to unfold

vour,

liament which began in 1653, and was active in settling the protectorate of Cromwell. In consequence of his services, he was made president of Cromwell's council; where he appears to have signed many severe and arbitrary decrees, not only against the royalists, but the Brownists, fifth-monarchy men, and other sectarists. He continued high in favour with Richard Cromwell. Henry Lawrence, the virtuous son, is the author of a work entitled Of our Communion and Warre with Angels, &c. Printed Anno Dom. 1646. 4o, 139 pages. The dedication is "To my Most deare and Most honoured Mother, the lady Lawrence." He is perhaps the same Henry Lawrence, who printed A Vindication of the Scriptures and Christian Ordinances, 1649. Lond. 4o.

1

Son of William Skinner, esq. and grandson of sir Vincent Skinner; and his mother was Bridget, one of the daughters of the famous sir Edward Coke, lord chief justice of the King's Bench.

ORIGINAL VARIOUS READINGS OF THE SONNETS,

FROM THE CAMBRIDGE MS.

SONN. viii.

assault." Then, as at present; with an addition Title. "On his dore when the Citty expected an of the date 1642, afterwards expunged.

Ver. 3. If ever deed of honour did thee please. As in the edit. 1645. The present reading occurs first in the edit. 1673.

This sonnet is written in a female hand. Only the title, now prefix'd to it, is written by Milton,

SONN. ix