'Stridenti miserum stipula disperdere carmen. 'Sed ventis nebulisque tument, sensimque putrescunt 145 'Clam discerpit oves avidamque immergit in alvum. Nunc, Alphæe, tuos iterum convertere cursus Undique gemmantes oculos conferte, virenti Nectareos quicunque bibunt in cespite succos; Huc rosa, jucundi quæ dicta est primula veris, 150 155 160 Quæ moritur, si spreta jacet, pulcherque hyacinthus; 165 170 175 Solarique animos ficta sub imagine nostros; Æquora vasta, trahuntque tuum retrahuntque cadaver. 180 Sive ultra æstiferis ferventes Hebridas undis, Nunc pecorum placidi fletus inhibete magistri. Sic Lycidas primum ima petit, dein ardua scandit, 185 190 195 200 205 Nunc pecorum placidi Lycidam lugere magistri 215 Talia concinuit peregrinus carmina pastor Quercubus alticomis fluviorum et lenibus undis, Dum croceis Aurora rotis invecta redibat; 220 Mutabatque sonos relegens, orisque recursu 225 NOTES. In l. 75 the English has end misprinted for tend. 1.92 Qy. Jovis? but Jove is clearly printed. 7. 213, Now Lycidas the shepherds weep no more in the English. EPITAPHIUM DAMONIS. Argumentum. THYRSIS et DAMON, ejusdem viciniæ pastores, eadem studia sequuti, a pueritia amici erant, ut qui plurimum. Thyrsis animi causa profectus peregre de obitu Damonis nuncium accepit. Demum postea reversus, et rem ita esse comperto, se suamque solitudinem hoc carmine deplorat. Damonis autem sub persona hic intelligitur Carolus Deodatus ex urbe Hetruriæ Luca paterno genere oriundus, cætera Anglus; ingenio, doctrina, clarissimisque cæteris virtutibus, dum viveret, juvenis egregius. HIMERIDES nymphæ (nam vos et Daphnin et Hylan, Dicite Sicelicum Thamesina per oppida carmen : Fluminaque, fontesque vagos, nemorumque recessus ; i Himerides] of Himera in Sicily. Symmons, in his Life of Milton (appended to the Prose Works), aptly observes that Warton should not call it 'the famous bucolic river of Theocritus,' since none of his scenes are laid there, and the river is only mentioned twice in the Idylls (v. 124; vii. 74). Hylan] The first syllable is short, as appears from Theocr. Id. vii. ; Virg. E. vi. 43, G. iii. 6. Milton himself has 'raptus Hylas' in Eleg. vii. 24. Possibly he may have been thinking of Hylæus in Virg. G. ii. 457. Daphnis, Hylas, and Bion are lamented in Theocr. i. 13, and Moschus, Id. iii., respectively. 3] Virg. G. ii. 176, 'Ascræumque cano Romana per oppida car 5 men. 'Thamesina' fixes the locality to Horton and its neighbourhood, where the Colne (7. 149) joins the Thames. 4 Thyrsis] (who of course represents Milton himself) is also the name of the attendant Spirit in Comus. It is adopted from Theocr. Id. i. (l. c.). 5 exercuit antra] something like 'exercere diem' in Virg. Æn. x. 808. The notion is that of keeping the caves hard at work in echoing his lamentations. Cf. 7. 8 and note. 6 fluminaque fontesque] an obvious imitation of Virg. Æn. iii. 91, 'liminaque laurusque dei.' It is doubtful whether this instance justifies the licence of the present line, Virgil's practice being confined to those cases in which the next word |