To the first edition of the author's poems, printed in 1645, was prefixed the following advertisement of THE STATIONER TO THE READER. It is not any private respect of gain, gentle Reader, for the slightest pamphlet is now-a-days more vendible than the works of learnedest men; but it is the love I have to our own language, that hath made me diligent to collect and set forth such pieces both in prose and verse, as may renew the wonted honour and esteem of our English tongue: and it is the worth of these both English and Latin poems, not the flourish of any prefixed encomiums that can invite thee to buy them, though these are not without the highest commendations and applause of the learnedest Academics, both domestic and foreign; and amongst those of our own country, the unparalleled attestation of that renowned Provost of Eton, Sir Henry Wotton. I know not thy palate how it relishes such dainties, nor how harmonious thy soul is; perhaps more trivial airs may please thee better. But howsoever thy opinion is spent upon these, that encouragement I have already received from the most ingenious men in their clear and courteous entertainment of Mr. Waller's late choice pieces, hath once more made me adventure into the world, presenting it with these ever-green, and not to be blasted laurels. The Author's more peculiar excellency in these studies was too well known to conceal his papers, or to keep me from attempting to solicit them from him. Let the event guide itself which way it will, I shall deserve of the age, by bringing into the light as true a birth, as the Muses have brought forth since our famous Spenser wrote; whose poems in these English ones are as rarely imitated as sweetly excelled. Reader, if thou art eagle-eyed to censure their worth, I am not fearful to expose them to thy exactest perusal. Thine to command, HUMPH. MOSELEY. POEMS ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. I. Anno ætatis 17. On the death of a fair infant, dying of a cough. I. O FAIREST flow'r no sooner blown but blasted, Summer's chief honour, if thou hadst out-lasted That did thy cheek envermeil, thought to kiss, This elegy was not inserted in the first edition of the author's poems printed in 1645, but was added in the second edition printed in 1673. It was composed in the year 1625, that being the seventeenth year of Milton's age. In some editions the title runs thus, On the death of a fair infant, a nephew of his, dying of a cough: but the sequel 5 shews plainly that the child was not a nephew, but a niece, and consequently a daughter of his sister Philips, and probably her first child. 5. For he being amorous on that lovely dye &c.] In Romeo and Juliet, Affliction and Death turn paramours. T. Warton. 6. thought to kiss, > II. For since grim Aquilo his charioteer Of long-uncoupled bed, and childless eld, 10 Which 'mongst the wanton Gods a foul reproach was held. III. So mounting up in icy-pearled car, Through middle empire of the freezing air 15 Copied probably from this verse in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, He thought to kiss him, and hath kill'd him so. 8. For since grim Aquilo &c.] Boreas or Aquilo carried off by force Orithyia daughter of Erectheus king of Athens, Ovid, Met. vi. fab. 9. as she crossed over the river Ilissus, (as Apollodorus says, lib. 3.) that is, she was drowned in a high wind crossing that river. Richardson, 12. —th' infámous blot childless eld, &c.] The author probably pronounced infamous with the middle syllable long as it is in Latin. Eld is old age, a word used in innumerable places of Spenser and our old writers. And in saying that long-uncoupled bed and childless eld was held a reproach among the wanton Gods, the poet seems to allude particularly to the case of Pluto, as reported by Claudian. De Rapt. Pros. i. 32. Dux Erebi quondam tumidas exarsit in iras Prælia moturus superis, quod solus egeret Connubii, sterilesque diu consumeret annos, Impatiens nescire torum, nullasque mariti Illecebras, nec dulce patris cognos cere nomen. 15. So mounting up in icypearled car] We should rather read ice-ypearled. And so in the Mask, v. 890. rush-yfringed. Otherwise we have two epithets instead of one, with a weaker sense. Milton himself affords an instance in the Ode on The Nativity, v. 155. Yet first to those ychain'd in sleep. Of the prefixture of y, in a concatenated epithet there is an example in the Epitaph on Shakespeare, v. 4. Under a star-ypointing pyramid. There ended was his quest, there ceas'd his care. But all unwares with his cold-kind embrace Unhous'd thy virgin soul from her fair biding place. IV. Yet art thou not inglorious in thy fate; But then transform'd him to a purple flower; Alack that so to change thee Winter had no power. V. Yet can I not persuade me thou art dead, Or that thy corse corrupts in earth's dark womb, Hid from the world in a low delved tomb; Resolve me then, oh Soul most surely blest, 23. For so Apollo, &c.] Apollo slew Hyacinthus by accident playing at quoits, and afterwards changed him into a flower of the same name. See Ovid, Met. x. fab. 6. 29. Yet can I not persuade me thou art dead,] So in Lycidas, v. 165. Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead. 20 25 30 35 And in Spenser's Astrophel, st. 48. Ah no! it is not dead, ne can it die, But lives for aye in blissful Paradise, &c, The fine periphrasis for grave Already to their wormy beds are gone. |