And bid fair peace be to my fable shroud. have all loudly. He was perhaps thinking of a line in Dryden, an author whom he seems to have known better than Milton. A louder yet and yet a louder strain. Fenton has adopted Tickell's reading, in his edition of 1725. Shepherd, these things are all too cor for me, That is, "This fort of knowledge is too hard, too difficult for me, &c." 25. Together both, &c.] Here a new paragraph begins in the edition of 1645, and in all that followed. But in the edition 1638, the whole context is thus pointed and arranged. For we were nurft upon the self-same hill, Fed the fame flock, by fountain, fhade, and rill; 26. Under the opening eyelids of the morn.] Perhaps from Thomas Middleton's GAME AT CHESSE, an old forgotten play, published about the end of the reign of James the firft, 1625. Like a pearl, Dropt from the OPENING EYELIDS OF THE MORN I find GLIMMERING, inftead of OPENING, in the first edition, 1638. And in the Cambridge manufcript at Trinity college. He altered the reading in the fecond edition, 1645. None of the variations in the edition We drove afield, and both together heard edition of 1638, have hitherto been noticed. Shakespeare has the I'll fay yon grey is not the MORNING'S EYE. Again, A. ii. S. iii. The GREY-EYED morn smiles on the frowning night. 27. We drove afield. —] That is, "we drove our flocks afield." I mention this, that Gray's echo of the paffage in the CHURCH-YARD Elegy, yet with another meaning, may not mislead many careless readers. How joyous did they drive the team afield. From the regularity of his pursuits, the purity of his pleasures, his temperance, and general fimplicity of life, Milton habitually became an early rifer. Hence he gained an acquaintance with the beauties of the morning, which he fo frequently contemplated with delight, and has therefore fo repeatedly defcribed, in all their various appearances: and this is a fubject which he delineates with the lively pencil of a lover. In the APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUs he declares, "Thofe "morning haunts are where they should be, at home not fleeping "or concocting the furfeits of an irregular feaft, but up and stirring, " in winter often before the found of any bell awakens men to labour "or devotion; in fummer, as oft as the bird that first rouses, or not "much tardyer, to read good authors, &c." PROSE-WORKS, edit. 1738. vol.i.109. In L'ALLEGRO, one of the firft delights of his chearful man, is to hear the "lark begin her flight." His lovely landscape of Eden always wears its moft attractive charms at fun-rifing, and feems most delicious to our firft parents "at that feafon prime for "fweeteft fents and airs." In the prefent inftance, he more particularly alludes to the ftated early hours of a collegiate life, which he hared, on the felf-fame bill, with his friend Lycidas at Cambridge. 29. Batt'ning our flocks with the fresh dews of night.] To BATTEN is both neutral and active, to grow or to make fat. The neutral is most common. Shakespeare, HAML. A. iii. S. iv. Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, And Drayton, ECL. ix. vol. iv. ut fupr. p. 1431. Their BATTENING FLOCKS on graffic leas to hold. Milton had this line in his eye. BATFULL, that is plentiful, is a frequent epithet in Drayton, especially in his POLYOLBION. Oft Oft till the star that rose, at evening, bright, 30 Toward heav'n's defcent had flop'd his weft'ring wheel. Mean while the rural ditties were not mute, Temper'd to th' oaten flute; Rough Satyrs danc'd, and Fauns with cloven heel From the glad found would not be abfent long; And old Damætas lov'd to hear our fong. But O the heavy change, now thou art gone, Now thou art gone, and never must return! 36 30. Oft till the far that rofe, at evening, bright.] Thus the edition 1645. In the edition of 1638, and Cambridge manufcript, Oft till the evn-ftarre bright. And in the next line, BURNISHT was altered to WESTERING. 31. -Had flop'd his weft'ring wheel.] Befide to wESTER in Chaucer, of the fun, we have to WEST in Spenfer, F. Q. v. INTROD. 8. And twice hath rifen where he now doth WEST, And WESTED twice where he ought rise aright. Temper'd to th' oaten flute.] So Phineas Fletcher, a populaṛ author in Milton's days, PUKPL. ISL. C. ix. ft. iii. TEMPERING their fweeteft notes unto thy lay. And the fame writer, in POETICALL MISCELLANIES, Cambr. 1633. P. 55. 4to. And all in courfe their voice ATTEMPERING. And Spenfer, in JUNE. Where birds of every kind To th' waters fall their tunes ATTEMPER right. It is the fame phrafeology in PARAD. L. B. vii. 598. Of various inAtruments of mufic. TEMPER'D foft tunings. Thee c Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods, and desert caves The willows, and the hazel copfes green, Shall now no more be seen, Fanning their joyous leaves to thy foft lays. 4I 45 39. Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods, and desert caves, &c.] It is thus in the first edition, 1638. Thee fhepherds, thee the woods, and defert caves, &c. That is, "thee the shepherds, thee the woods, and thee the caves, "lament." Without the address to Lycidas. 40. With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown.] Doctor Warbur ton fuppofes, that the vine is here called GADDING, because, being married to the elm, like other wives fhe is fond of GADDING ABROAD, and seeking a new affociate. I have met with a peculiar ufe of the word GADDING, which alfo fhews its antient and original spelling. From the Register of a Chantry at Godderfton in Norfolk, under the year 1534.Receyvid at the GADYNG with Saynte Marye Songe at "Crifmas." Blomf. NORF. iii. 404. That is, "AT GOING ABOUT "from houfe to houfe at christmass with a Carol of the Holy Virgin, "&c." It seems as if there was fuch an old verb as GADE, a frequen. tative from co. Chaucer, Roм. R. 938. These bowis two held Swete-Loking, That ne femid like no GADLING. That is, "no gadder, idler, &c." And in the CoxE'S TALE of Gamelyn, v. 203. Stondith ftille thou GADILING. 45. As killing as the canker to the rofe.] Shakespeare is fond of this image, who, from frequent repetition, feems to have fuggefted it to Milton. SONN. lxx. For CANKER Vice the SWEETEST BUDS doth love. Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, Or froft to flow'rs, that their wardrobe wear, When first the white-thorn blows; gay Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherds ear. And of a rofe again, which had feloniously stolen the boy's complexion and breath, ibid. xcix. But for his theft, in pride of all his growth, A vengefull CANKER eat him up to death. And in the Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, A. i. S.i. The eating CANKER dwells, fo eating love, &c. Again, TEMPEST, A. i. S. ii. Something ftain'd With grief, that's beauty's CANKER. And in the FIRST P. OF HENR. vi. A. ii. S. iv. Hath not thy ROSE a CANKER, Somerset ? And in HAMLET, A. i. S. iii. The CANKER galls the INFANTS of the SPRING And in K. RICHARD ii. A. ii. S. iii. But now will CANKER forrow eat my BUD. And in the RAPE of LUCRECE, SUPPL. Shakefp. i. 52. And in the MIDS. N. DR. A. ii. S. iii. The fairies are employed, Canker-Blooms are mentioned in Shakespeare's SONN. liv. But there the CANKER-Bloom is the dog-rofe. As in MUCH ADO ABOUT ་་ "a rofe in his grace." "I had rather be a CANKER in a hedge, than Shakespeare affords other instances. Where |