As once we did, till disproportion'd sin Jarr'd against nature's chime, and with harsh din To their great Lord, whose love their motion sway'd In first obedience, and their state of good. O may we soon again renew that song, And keep in tune with heav'n, till God ere long To live with him, and sing in endless morn of light. 18. Noise is in a good sense music. So in Ps. xlvii. 5. "God is gone up with a merry noise, and the Lord with the sound of the trump." Noise is sometimes literally synonimous with music. As in Shakespeare, "Sneak's noise." And in Chapman's All Fools, 1605. Reed's Old Pl. iv. 187. -You must get us music too, Compare also the ode on Christ's 19. till disproportion'd sin Jarr'd against nature's chime, &c.] So in P. L. xi. 55. 20 25 -giving to the world Again his first and tuneful planetting. See ode on the Nativity, st. xii. xiii. T. Warton. 23. In perfect diapason,] Concord through all the tones, dia warwy. Plin. lib. ii. sect. 20. Ita septem tonos effici, quam diapason harmoniam vocant, hoc est, universitatem concentus. Richardson. 28. To live with him, and sing &c.] In the manuscript the last line stands thus, To live and sing with him in endless morn of light. VIII. An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester *. THIS rich marble doth inter The honour'd wife of Winchester, A Viscount's daughter, an Earl's heir, More than she could own from earth. After so short time of breath, 5 To house with darkness, and with death. 10 Yet had the number of her days Been as complete as was her praise, * This Lady was Jane, daughter of Thomas Lord Viscount Savage, of Rock-Savage in the county of Chester, who by marriage became the heir of Lord Darcy Earl of Rivers; and was the wife of John Marquis of Winchester, and the mother of Charles first Duke of Bolton. She died in childbed of a second son in the twenty-third year of her age, and Milton made these verses at Cambridge, as appears by the sequel. 4. Besides what her virtues fair, &c.] In Howell's entertaining letters there is one to this lady which may justify our author's 15 panegyric. It is dated Mar. 15, 1626. He says, he assisted her in learning Spanish: and that nature and the graces exhausted all their treasure and skill in framing this exact model of "female perfection." He adds, "I return you here the Sonnet your Grace pleased to send me "lately, rendered into Spanish, " and fitted for the same ayre it "had in English both for ca"dence and feete, &c." Howell's Letters, vol. i. sect. 4. Let. xiv. p. 180. T. Warton. 15. Her high birth, and her The virgin quire for her request The God that sits at marriage feast; But with a scarce well-lighted flame; And now with second hope she goes, Her husband was a conspicuous loyalist in the reign of Charles I. His magnificent castle of Basing in Hampshire withstood an obstinate siege of two years against the rebels, and when taken was levelled to the ground, because in every window was flourished Aymez Loyauté. He died in 1674, and was buried at Englefield in Berkshire; where, on his monument, is an admirable Epitaph by Dryden. It is remarkable, that husband and wife should have severally received the honour of an epitaph from two such poets as Dryden and Milton. Jonson also wrote a pathetic poem, entitled, An Elegie on the Lady Anne Pawlett, Marchioness of Winton; Underw. vol. vii. 17. But Jane appears in the text of the poem, with the circumstance of her being the daughter of Lord Savage. She therefore must have been our author's Marchioness. Compare Cartwright's poems, p. 193. There VOL. III. 20 25 are two old portraits of this lady and her husband at the Duke of Bolton's at Hakewood, Hants. T. Warton. 19. He at their invoking came But with a scarce well-lighted flame ;] From Övid, Met. x. 4. Adfuit ille quidem; sed nec solemnia verba, Nec lætos vultus, nec felix attulit omen. Fax quoque, quam tenuit, lacrimoso Jortin. 22. -Ɑ cypress bud] An emblem of a funeral: and it is called in Virgil feralis, Æn. vi. 216. and in Horace funebris, Epod. v. 18. and in Spenser the cypress funeral. Faery Queen, b. i. cant. i. st. 8. 28. Atropos for Lucina came ;] One of the Fates instead of the goddess who brings the birth to light. C C And with remorseless cruelty Spoil'd at once both fruit and tree: The hapless babe before his birth So have I seen some tender slip, Gentle Lady, may thy grave Peace and quiet ever have; 41. But the fair blossom hangs the head, &c.] Mr. Bowle compares this and the five following verses with what Antonio Bruni says of the rose, Le Tre Gratie, p. 221. Ma nata a pena, o filli, Ch' l'imperlano il seno, Le lagrime dolenti. T. Warton. 30 335 40 45 50 That to give the world increase, Short'ned hast thy own life's lease. Here, besides the sorrowing And some flowers, and some bays 55 55 For thy hearse, to strow the ways, Sent thee from the banks of Came, Devoted to thy virtuous name; 60 Whilst thou, bright Saint, high sitt'st in glory, Next her much like to thee in story, That fair Syrian shepherdess, Who after years of barrenness, The highly favour'd Joseph bore To him that serv'd for her before, 55. Here be tears of perfect I have been told that there was 65 70 wrote Comus. He might probably therefore write this elegy in consequence of his acquaintance with the Egerton family. Mr. Bowle remarks, that her death was celebrated by Sir John Beaumont, and Sir William Davenant. See Beaumont's Poems, 1629. p. 159. T. Warton. 63. That fair Syrian shepherdess, &c.] Rachel, the daughter of Laban the Syrian, kept her father's sheep, Gen. xxix. 9. and after her first son, Joseph, died in child-bed of her second son, Benjamin, xxxv. 18. |