Sav'd with care from winter's nip,
The pride of her carnation train,
Pluck'd up by some unheedy swain,
Who only thought to crop the flower
New shot up from vernal shower;
But the fair blossom hangs the head
Side-ways, as on a dying bed,
And those pearls of dew, she wears,
Prove to be presaging tears,
Which the sad morn had let fall
On her hastening funeral.

Gentle Lady, may thy grave

Peace and quiet ever have;

40

45

Rem. Def. A gardener is to "cut his hedges, prune his trees, look to his tender slips, and pluck the weeds that hinder their growth." Pr.-W. i. 95. T. WARTON.

Ver. 36. Sav'd with care from winter's nip,] Compare Sams. Agon. v. 1576.

"the first-born bloom of spring,

Nipt with the lagging rear of winter's frost."

TODD.

Ver. 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 apena, o filli,

"Cade languisce e more:

"Le tenere rugiade,

"Ch' l' imperlano il seno,

"Son ne suo i funerali

"Le lagrime dolenti." T. WARton.

Ver. 47. Gentle Lady, may thy grave

Peace and quiet ever have ;] So in the obsequies

of Fidele, in Cymbeline, A. iv. S. 2.

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Quiet consummation have,

"And renowned be thy grave!" T. WARTON.

After this thy travel sore
Sweet rest seize thee evermore,

That, to give the world encrease,
Shorten'd hast thy own life's lease.
Here, besides the sorrowing

That thy noble house doth bring,
Here be tears of perfect moan
Wept for thee in Helicon ;

And some flowers, and some bays,
For thy herse, to strew the ways,
Sent thee from the banks of Came,
Devoted to thy virtuous name;

50

55

60

Ver. 55. Here be tears] See Notes on Lycidas, v. 14. The

tears allude to other Verses also on the occasion.

See the two

"Re

Ver. 59. Sent thee from the banks of Came,] Came is Milton's Camus regularly anglicised. "Next Camus reverend sire." Lycid. v. 103. "Cami remeare paludes." El. i. 89. visere Camum." Ibid. 11. I have been told, that there was a Cambridge-collection of verses on her death, among which Milton's elegiack ode first appeared. But I have never seen it, and I rather think this was not the case. At least we are sure, that Milton was now a student at Cambridge. Our marchioness was the daughter of Thomas lord viscount Savage, of Rock-Savage in Cheshire; and it is natural to suppose, that her family was well acquainted with the family of Lord Bridgewater, belonging to the same county, for whom Milton wrote the Mask of Comus. It is therefore not improbable, that Milton wrote this elegy, another poetical favour, in consequence of his acquaintance with the Egerton family. And afterwards we find some. of that family intermarrying with this of the marquis of Winchester. Dugd. Baron. ii. 377. 445. The accomplished lady, here celebrated, died in child-bed of a second son in her twenty-third year, and was the mother of Charles the first duke of Bolton. Mr. Bowle

Whilst thou, bright Saint, high sitst 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,

And at her next birth, much like thee,
Through pangs fled to felicity,

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remarks, that her death was celebrated by Sir John Beaumont, and Sir W. Davenant. See Beaumont's Poems, 1629. p. 159. Davenant's Works. T. WARTON.

In a volume of manuscript poems in the British Museum this Epitaph occurs, with the date 1631, and at the bottom "Jo. Milton of Chr. Coll. Cambr." This, it has been remarked, seems to clear up Mr. Warton's doubt; the date and additions to the name serving to shew that there had been a Cambridge-collection of verses on the death of this accomplished lady. See the Topographer, 1789. vol. i. p. 425.—I may further observe, that there is an Elegy on this occasion at the end of “ La Dance Machabre, or Death's Duell, by W. Colman, 12mo. page 68, entitled An Elegie vpon the Ladie Marchionesse of Winchester, daughter to the right honourable Thomas Lord Sauage," &c. consisting of twenty lines. It begins with the allusion to other funeral verses, and apparently to a custom of affixing such poems to the pall or herse:

"Instruct my pen with an immortall verse,

"Whilst holy TEARES enamell thy sad herse,

"Sweet Saint on earth, in Heauen no lesse we know !

Thy beauty here, there goodnesse makes thee so." See also ver. 58. And the note, Eleg. ii. 22. TODD.

Ver. 63. That fair Syrian shepherdess,] Rachel. See Gen. xxix. 9. xxxv. 18. T. WARTON.

Ver. 68. Through pangs fled to felicity,] We cannot too much admire the beauty of this line. I wish it had closed the poem; which it would have done with singular effect. What

Far within the bosom bright

Of blazing Majesty and Light:

There with thee, new welcome Saint,

Like fortunes may her soul acquaint,
With thee there clad in radiant sheen,
No Marchioness, but now a Queen*.

70

follows serves only to weaken it; and the last verse is an eminent instance of the bathos, where the "Saint clad in radiant sheen" sinks into a Marchioness and a Queen. But Milton seldom closes his little poems well. DUNSTER.

Milton might have in mind, (although he has destroyed the climax which it is reported to exhibit,) the last message of Anne Boleyn to Henry the eighth; thanking him for his advancing her, first to be a Marchioness; then to be a Queen; and now, when he could raise her no higher on earth, for sending her to be a Saint in Heaven. TODD.

* There is a pleasing vein of lyrick sweetness and ease in Milton's use of this metre, which is that of L'Allegro and Il Penseroso. He has used it with equal success in Comus's festive song, and the last speech of the Spirit, in Comus, 93, 922. From these specimens, we may justly wish that he had used it more frequently. Perhaps in Comus's Song it has a peculiar propriety it has certainly a happy effect. T. WARTon.

SONG

ON

MAY MORNING.

Now the bright Morning-star, day's harbinger,
Comes dancing from the east, and leads, with her

Ver. 1. Now the bright Morning-star, day's harbinger,] So Shakspeare, Mids. N. Dr. A. iii. S. ult.

"And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger." T. WARTON. The "bright morning-star" is adopted by Henry More in his Poems, ed. Cambridge, 1647. p. 307.

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They deck themselves like the bright morning-star."

Spenser, in his Epithalamion, says, "I see,

"the bright evening-star, with golden crest,

"Appear out of the East." TODD.

Ver. 2. Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her &c.] So Spenser, in Astrophel, st. iv.

"As sommers lark that with her song doth greet

"The dancing day, forth coming from the east."

And in the Faerie Queene, i. v. 2.

"At last, the golden orientall gate

"Of greatest heaven gan to open fayre;

"And Phoebus, fresh as brydegroome to his mate,
"Came dauncing forth, shaking his deawie hayre."

And Peele, David and Bethsabe, edit. 1599.

"As when the sun, attir'd in glistring robe,

"Comes dancing from his oriental gate," &c.

And Niccols, in his poem The Cuckow, 1607. Of the east. Through which the daies bright king came dancing out." And in the context he calls the cock, "Daies harbinger." And G. Fletcher, as Mr. Bowle observes, in Christ's Vict. C. i. 82.

"A starre comes dancing up the orient." T. WARTON.