EPITAPHIUM DAMONIS. ARGUMENTUM. Thyrfis et Damon, ejufdem viciniæ paftores, eadem Studia fequuti, à pueritia amici erant, ut qui plurimùm. Thyrfis animi causâ profectus peregrè de obitu Damonis nuncium accepit. Demùm pofteà reverfus, et rem ità effe comperto, fe, fuámque folitudinem, hoc carmine deplorat. Damonis autem fub perfonâ hic intelligitur Carolus Deodatus ex urbe Hetruriæ Lucâ paterno genere oriundus, cætera Anglus; ingenio, doctrinâ, clariffimifque cæteris virtutibus, dum viveret, juvenis egregius *. HIMERIDES nymphæ (nam vos et Daphnin, et Hylan, Et plorata diu meminiftis fata Bionis,) * See Notes on El. i. Charles Deodate's father, Theodore, was born at Geneva, of an Italian family, in 1574. He came young into England, where he married an English Lady of good birth and fortune. He was a doctor in phyfick; and, in 1609, appears to have been physician to Prince Henry, and the princess Elizabeth, afterwards queen of Bohemia. Fuller's Worthies, Middlefex, p. 186. He lived then at Brentford, where he performed a wonderful cure by phlebotomy; as appears by his own narrative of the cafe, in a Letter dated 1629, printed by Hakewill at the end of his Apologie, Lond. 1630. Signat. Y y 4. Hakewill calls him," Dr. Deodate, a French physician living in London, &c." See Apol. L. iii. §. v. p. 218. One of his defcendants, Monf. Anton. Jofuè Diodati, who has honoured me with fome of thefe notices, is now the learned Librarian of the Republick of Geneva. Theodore's Brother, Giovanni Deodati, was an B b VOL. VII. Dicite Sicelicum Thamefina per oppida carmen: Quas mifer effudit voces, quæ murmura Thyrfis, Et quibus affiduis exercuit antra querelis, 5 eminent theologift of Geneva; with whom Milton, in confequence of his connection with Charles, contracted a friendship during his abode at Geneva, and whofe annotations on the Bible were tranflated into English by the puritans. The original is in French, and was printed at Geneva, 1638. He also published, "Thefes LX de Peccato in genere et specie, Genev. 1620.”— "I SACRI SALMI, messi in rime Italiane da Giovanni Diodati, 1631, 12mo.”—" An Italian Tranflation of the Bible, 1607."And An Anfwer fent to the Ecclefiastical Assembly at London, with marginal obfervations by king Charles the firft. Newcastle, 1647." But this last is a tranflation into English, by one of the puritans. Perhaps the only genuine copy of it, for there were many fpurious editions, is now to be feen in the Bodleian library. See a curious story concerning this G. Deodati, of his preaching at Venice in a trooper's habit, and converting a Venetian courtezan, in Lord Orrery's Memoirs by T. Morrice, prefixed to State Papers, ch. i. In which it is faid by Lord Orrery, who lived a year in his house, that he was not unfavourably difpofed towards the English hierarchy, but wifhed it might be received. under fome reftrictions at Geneva; that he was a learned man, a celebrated preacher, and an excellent companion. The family left Italy on account of religion. Compare Archbishop Usher's Letters, Lond. 1686. ad calc. Lett. xii. p. 14. T. WARTON. Giovanni Deodati published alfo "A French Tranflation of Father Paul's History of the Council of Trent." TODD. Ver. 1. Himerides nymphæ] Himera is the famous bucolick river of Theocritus, who fung the death of Daphnis, and the lofs of Hylas. Bion, in the next line, was lamented by Mofchus. In the Argument of this Paftoral, "Rem ita effe comperto." Tickell has ignorantly and arbitrarily altered comperto to comperiens. He is followed, as ufual, by Fenton. T. WARTON. I muft defend Tickell from the preceding cenfure. He found comperiens in Tonfon's edition of 1713, which, as I have before obferved, he feems to have usually followed. TODD. Flumináque, fontéfque vagos, nemorúmque re ceffus ; Dum fibi præreptum queritur Damona, neque altam Luctibus exemit noctem, loca fola pererrans. Ite domum impafti, domino jam non vacat, agni. Hei mihi! quæ terris, quæ dicam numina cœlo, Ver. 12. Thyrfis, or Milton, was now at Florence. It is obfervable, that he gives this name to the Spirit, affuming the habit of a fhepherd, in Comus. T. WARTON. Ver. 15. affuetâ feditque fub ulmo,] So, in Il Penf. v. 60, as Mr. Warton obferves: "While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke, "Gently o'er the accuftom'd oak." The Windfor oak is distinguished, in the Merry W. of Windsor, by an accustomed dance around it. But, till 'tis one o'clock, "Our dance of custom, round about the oak "Of Herne the hunter, let us not forget." Milton, however, had probably Ovid in mind. Met. x. 533. "Hunc tenet, huic comes eft, affuetá femper in umbra, "Indulgere fibi, &c." TODD. Poftquam te immiti rapuerunt funere, Damon! 20 agni. 30 Solvere poft Daphnin,poft Daphnin dicere laudes, Gaudebunt,dum rura Pales,dum Faunus, amabit: Siquid id eft, prifcámque fidem coluiffe, piúmque, Palladiáfque artes, fociúmque habuiffe canorum. Ite domum impafti, domino jam non vacat, 35 agni, Hæc tibi certa manent, tibi erunt hæc præmia, Damon ; Ver. 28. Indeplorato non comminuere fepulchro,] Ovid, Trisk. iii. iii. 45. "Sed fine funeribus caput hoc, fine honore fepulchri, See alfo Met. xi. 670, Ibis, v. 166. And Lycidas, v. 14. T. WARTON. And Chapman's tranflation of the twenty-fecond Iliad, fol. p. 306, no date. "But why use I a word "Of any act, but what concerns my friend? dead, undeplor'd, "Unfepulcher'd." TODD. At mihi quid tandem fiet modò? quis mihi fidus agni. Pectora cui credam? quis me lenire docebit 45 Mifcet cuncta foris, et defuper intonat ulmo? Ver. 46. Mordaces curas,] As in thofe exquifite lines in L'Allegro, v. 135. “And ever, against eating cares, "Lap me in foft Lydian airs, &c." Horace has " curas edaces," Od. II. xi. 18. But the phrase in the text is Lucan's, Lib. ii. 681. "Curis animum mordacibus angit." Whence alfo Marino, Rime &c. Parte 1ma. p. 40. edit. Venet. 1602. "Tarlo, e lima d'Amor, cura mordace, "Che mi rodi &c." TODD. Ver. 47. Dulcibus alloquiis,] From Hor. Epod. XIII. 25. "Illic omne malum vino cantuque levato, Deformis ægrimoniæ "Dulcibus alloquiis." JOHN WARTON. Ver. 49. Mifcet cuncta foris,] Virgil, Æn. i. 128. "Interea magno mifeeri murmure pontum." So, in the fame fenfe, Par. Reg. B. iv. 452. "I heard the wrack, "As earth and sky would mingle." BowLE. |