His whispering ftream: within the walls, then view The schools of ancient fages; his, who bred 251 Great Alexander to fubdue the world, Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next: pleafant river.-χαρίενα γῆν καὶ καθαρὰ καὶ διαφανῆ τὰ ἐδάτια Caira. Edit. Serr. vol. iii. p. 229. The philofophical retreat at the fpring-head is beautifully defcribed by Plato, in the next page, where Socrates and Phædrus are reprefented fitting on a green bank, fhaded with a fpreading platane, of which Cicero hath faid very prettily, that it feemeth not to have grown fo much by the water which is defèribed, as by Plato's eloquence; quæ mihi videtur non tam ipfa aquula, quæ defcribitur, quam Platonis oratione creviffe." De Orat. i. 7. NEWTON. Ver. 251. who bred Great Alexander to fubdue the world,] Milton, in his Elegy to his former preceptor, Thomas Young, then minister of the church of the English Merchants at Hamburgh, fpeaks of his affection for his old master as fuperiour to that of Alcibiades to Socrates, or of Alexander for Ariftotle, El. iv. 25. We are told by Cicero that Aristotle, having obferved how Ifocrates had rifen to celebrity on the fole ground of florid declamation, (inanem fermonis elegantiam,) was thereby induced to add to his own stock of folid knowledge, the external grace of oratorical embellishments; which recommended him fo much to Philip of Macedon, that he fixed upon him to be preceptor to his fon Alexander, whom he wished to be taught at once conduct and eloquence," et agendi præcepta, et loquendi." De Orator. iii. 41. Ed. Prouft. The letter which Philip wrote to Ariftotle upon the birth of his fon, is preferved by Aulus Gellius. L. ix. C. 3. DUNSTER. Ver. 253. Lyceum there,] The Lyceum was the fchool of Ariftotle, who had been tutor to Alexander the Great, and was the founder of the fect of the Peripateticks, fo called, and re pal, from his walking, and teaching philofophy. But there is fome reafon to queftion, whether the Lyceum was within the walls, as Milton afferts. For Suidas fays exprefsly, that it was a place in the fuburbs, built by Pericles for the exercising of There shalt thou hear and learn the fecret power 255 Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit foldiers and I find the fcholiaft upon Ariftophanes in the Irene, fpeaks of going into the Lyceum, and going out of it again, and returning back into the city:-εἰς τὸ Λύκειον ἔισιονες—καὶ πάλιν ἔξιολες ἐκ τὸ Λύκειο, καὶ ἄπιονες εἰς τὴν πόλιν. NEWTON. The establishment of the Lyceum has been attributed both to Pififtratus and Pericles. Meurfius (Athena Attica, L. ii. C. 3.) supposes that it might have been begun by the former, and completed by the latter. Plutarch afcribes it to Pericles, who, he fays, made plantations, and built a Palaftra there. See Life of Pericles. The fame writer (Sympof. viii. Quæft. 4.) fays that it was dedicated to Apollo, as the god of healing, and thus with propriety, because health alone can furnish the firength requifite for all corporeal exercifes and exertions. That the Lyceum ftood without the walls, appears from the beginning of Plato's Lyfis, where it is positively described as being without the walls; 'Eπopevoμnv μὲν ἐξ ̓Ακαδημίας, εὐθὺ Λύκεια τὴν ἔξω τειχοῦς, ὑπ ̓ αὐτὸ τὸ τεῖχος, Strabo alfo fpeaks of fome fountains of clear and excellent water without the gates near the Lyceum, ἐκτὸς τῷ Διόχαρος καλου μένων πυλων, πλησίον το Λύκειο. L. ix. p. 397. DUNSTER. Ver. 253. - painted Stoa] Stoa was the fchool of Zeno, whofe difciples from the place had the name of Stoicks; and this Stoa, or portico, being adorned with variety of paintings, was called in Greek Hoxían, or various, and here by Milton the painted Stoa. See Diogenes Laertius, in the Lives of Ariftotle and Zeno. NEWTON. Ver. 257. Æolian charms &c.] Eolia carmina, verfes fuch as thofe of Alcæus and Sappho, who were both of Mitylene in Lefbos, an ifland belonging to the Eolians, Hor. Od. III. Xxx. 13. "Princeps Eolium carmen ad Italos See alfo @d. IV. iii. 12. And Dorian lyrick odes; fuch as thofe of Pindar; who calls his lyre Aafíav Póquiyya, Olymp. i. 26, &c. NEWTON. And his, who gave them breath, but higher fung, Blind Melefigenes, thence Homer call'd, Whofe poem Phœbus challeng'd for his own: 260 Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught Ver. 258. And his, &c.] Our author agrees with those writers, who speak of Homer as the father of all kinds of poetry. Such wife men as Dionyfius the Halicarnaffean, and Plutarch, have attempted to fhow that poetry in all its forms, tragedy, comedy, ode, and epitaph, are included in his works. NEWTON. Homer's works gave the idea of all the various species of poetry. Shaftesbury, fpeaking on this fubject, fays finely; "There was no more for Tragedy to do after him, [Homer,] than to erect a stage, and draw dialogues and characters into fcenes turning in the fame manner upon one principal action, or event, with that regard to place and time which was suitable to a real fpectacle. Even Comedy itself was adjudged to this great mafter." Characteristicks, vol. i. p. 198. Jos. WARTON. Ver. 259. Blind Melefigenes, thence Homer call'd,] Our author here follows Ilerodotus, in his life of Homer, where it is faid that he was born near the river Meles, and that from thence his mother named him at firft Melefigenes,-τίθεται ὄνομα τῷ παιδὶ Μελεσιγένια, ἀπὸ τὸ ποταμὲ τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν λαβέσα,—and that afterwards when he was blind and fettled at Cuma, he was called Homer, quafi i un pāv, from the term by which the Cumaans diftinguified blind perfons; ἐντῖνθεν δὲ καὶ τὔνομα Ὅμηρος ἐπεκράτησε τῷ Μελησιγένει, ἀπὸ τῆς συμφορῆς, οἱ γὰς Κυμαῖοι τοὺς τυφλὲς ὁμέρες λέγεσιν. ΝΕΤΟΝ, Ver. 260. Whofe poem Phabus challeng'd for his own :] Alluding to a Greek Epigram, in the firft book of the Anthologia; Ἠείδον μὲν ἐγὼν, ἐχάρασσε δὲ θεῖος Ὅμηρος. NEWTON. Ver. 261. the lofty grave tragedians] Æfchylus is thus characterised by Quinctilian; "Tragedias primum in lucem fchylus protulit, fublimis et gravis, et grandiloquus, &c." L. x. C. 1. Where alfo the fame author, comparing Sophocles and Euripides fays, "gravitas, et cothurnus et fonus Sophoclis videtur effe fublimior." Tragedy was termed lofty by the In Chorus or Iambick, teachers best Of moral prudence, with delight receiv'd ancients from its ftyle, but at the fame time not without a reference to the elevated buikin which the actors wore. Thus Claudian, defcribing tragedy as diftinguished from comedy, De .Mall. Theod. Conf. v. 314. "alte graditur majore cothurno:" And Ovid, Amor. L. ii. El. 18, speaking of himself as having written tragedy, but being feduced from fo grave an employment by the charms of his miftrefs, adds, "Déque cothurnato vate triumphat amor." Again, Trift. L. ii. El. i. 553, he refers to his Medea in fimilar terms; giving the epithet gravis to the cothurnus, or high tragick bufkin. Milton, in his brief difcourfe on tragedy, prefixed to his Samfon Agonijies, fays, "Tragedy, as it was anciently compofed, hath ever been held the gravest, moraleft, and moft profitable of all other poems, &c." And Ovid had faid, Trift. El. II. i. 381." Omne genus fcripti gravitate Tragædia vincit." DUNSTER. Ver. 262. Chorus or Iambick,] The two conftituent parts of the ancient tragedy were the dialogue, written chiefly in the Iambick meafure, and the chorus, which confifted of various measures. The character, here given by our author of the ancient tragedy, is very just and noble; and the English reader cannot form a better idea of it in its highest beauty and perfection, than by reading our author's Samfon Agonistes. NEWTON, Ver. 263. with delight receiv'd In brief fententious precepts,] This defcription particularly applies to Euripides, who, next to Homer, was Milton's favourite Greek author. Euripides is defcribed by Quinctilian, "fententiis denfus, et in iis, quæ a fapientibus tradita funt, pœne ipfis par." L. x. C. 1. And Aulus Gellius, (L. xi. C. 4.) citing fome verfes from the Hecuba of Euripides, terms them "verbis fententia, brevitate infignes illuftréfque." Ariftotle, where he treats of fentences (Rhetoric. L. ii. C. 22.), takes al Of fate, and chance, and change in human life, 265 High actions and high paffions best describing : moft all his examples from Euripides. The abundance of moral precepts introduced by the Greek tragick poets in their pieces, and the delight with which they were received, are admirably accounted for by an eminent and excellent writer, Bp. Hurd, in his note on Horace's Art of Poetry, v. 219. Sylvefter, in his Du Bartas, complimenting Daniel, edit. 1621, p. 82, calls him "fharp-conceited, brief, "Civil, fententious, for pure accents chief:" See Headly's Specimens of old Eng. Poetry, vol. ii. 190. DUNSTER. Ver. 265. Of fate, and chance, and change in human life,] The arguments most frequently selected by the Greek tragick writers, (and indeed by their epick poets alfo,) were the accomplishment of fome oracle, or some supposed decree of fate. · Aids d'ÉTEREIETO Ben. Iliad, i. 5. But the incidents are intermediate circumftances which led to the deftined event, according to their fyftem, depended on fortune, or chance. Fate and chance then. furnished the fubject and incidents of their dramas; while the catastrophe produced the peripetia, or change of fortune. The hiftory of Edipus, one of their principal dramatick fubjects, was here perhaps in our author's mind. The fate of Edipus was foretold before his birth; the wonderful incidents, that, in fpite of every guarded precaution, led to the accomplishment of it, depended apparently on chance; the peripetia, or change of fortune, produced by the difcovery of the oracle being fo completely fulfilled, is truly affecting. Change in human life might here perhaps not merely refer to the pathetick catastrophes of the Greek tragedy, as it fometimes formed the entire argument of their pieces; of which the Edipus Coloneus is an inftance. DUNSTER. Ver. 266. High actions and high paffions best defcribing:] High actions refer to fate and chance, the arguments and incidents of tragedy; high paffions to the peripetia, or change of fortune, which included the wábos, or affecting part. High actions are the nadai węážeis of Ariftotle, who, fpeaking of the tragick poets as diftinguifhed from the writers of comedy, fays, oi μèr osμrótepos ΤΑΣ ΚΑΛΑΣ ἐμιμέντο ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ. High actions and high pafions |