Mother of a hundred Gods?

Juno dares not give her odds:

Who had thought this clime had held

A deity fo unparallel'd?

As they come forward, the Genius of the wood appears, and turning toward them, fpeaks.

GENIUS.

TAY gentle Swains, for though in this disguise,

STA

I fee bright honour sparkle in your eyes ;

Of famous Arcady ye are, and sprung
Of that renowned flood, fo often fung,
Divine Alphéus, who by secret sluce
Stole under feas to meet his Arethufe;
And ye, the breathing roses of the wood,
Fair filver-buskin'd Nymphs, as great and good;
I know, this quest of yours, and free intent,
Was all in honour and devotion meant
To the great mistress of yon princely fhrine,
Whom with low reverence I adore as mine;

30

35

23. Give her odds.] Too lightly expreffed for the occafion. H.

30. Divine Alphéus, who by fecret fluce

Stole under feas to meet his Arethufe.] Literally from Virgil, EN. iii. 694.

34.

-Alpheum, fama eft, huc Elidis amnem
OCCULTAS egiffe VIAS SUBTER MARE, qui nunc
Qre, Arethufa, tuo, &c.-

This queft.-] Inquiry, fearch. PARAD. L. ii. 830. "To search with wandering QUEST." And ix. 414. The devil "forth was come, and on his QUEST." Ode F. INF. v. 18. “There ended was his QUEST." COM. v. 321. "You may be fafe till further QUEST."

And

And with all helpful fervice will comply
To further this night's glad folemnity;

And lead ye where ye may more near behold

40

What shallow-fearching Fame hath left untold;
Which I full oft amidst these shades alone
Have fat to wonder at, and gaze upon :
For know, by lot from Jove I am the Power
Of this fair wood, and live in oaken bower,
To nurse the saplings tall, and curl the grove
With ringlets quaint, and wanton windings wove.

44.

45

By lot.-] Allotment. Coм. v. 20. "Took in by LOT.” And curl the grove.] So Drayton, POLYOLB. S. vii. vol. ii. p. 786. Of a grove on a hill.

46.

Where the her CURLED head unto the eye may shew.

Again, ibid. p. 789.

Banks crown'd with CURLED groves.

Again, ibid. S. xii. vol. iii. p. 905.

Her CURLED head fo high, that forests far and near,

&C2

Again, ibid. S. xy. vol. iii. p. 948.

Greeting each CURLED grove.

And in a line which perhaps Jonson remembered, ibid. S. xxxiii, vol. iii. p. 1111.

Where Sherwood her cURL'D front into the cold doth fhove. And Jonfon, again, TO SIR R. WROTH, edit. 1616. p. 822. Along'ft the CURLED woods, and painted meades. In Browne's INNER TEMPLE MASQUE, p. 130. edit. Davies. She without ftormes the sturdy oakes can teare,

And turne their rootes where late their CURL'D tops werè.

And in his B. PASTORALS, B. i. S. iv.

P. 78.

And trees that on the hill-fide comely grew

Did nod their CURLED heads.

And a tree has "fpreading armes and CURLED top," ibid. B. ii, S. iv. p, 106. Compare Note on PARAD. REG. . 295.

47. With ringlets quaint.] QUAINT is here in the fenfe of Shakespeare, MIDS. N. DR. A. ii. S. i.

And the QUAINT mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable.

And

And all my plants I fave from nightly ill
Of noisome winds, and blafting vapours chill:
And from the boughs brufh off the evil dew,
And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue,
Or what the crofs dire-looking planet fmites,
Or hurtful worm with canker'd venom bites.
When evening gray doth rife, I fetch my round

48. And all my plants I fave from nightly ill,

50

Of noifome winds, and blafting vapours chill.] This is the office of a kindred fpirit in Coмus, fuppofed to dwell in RURAL SHRINE, as our Genius of the grove at Harefield, in OAKEN BOWER. COM. v. 269.

Forbidding every bleak untimely fog

To touch the PROSPEROUS growth of this tall wood. 50. And from the boughs brush off the evil dew.] The expreffion and idea are Shakesperian, but in a different fenfe and application. Caliban fays, TEMP. A. i. S. iv.

AS WICKED DEW as e'er my mother BRUSH'D,
With raven's feather, from unwholfom fen, &c.

Compare PARAD. L. B. v. 429.

From off the ground each morn

We BRUSH mellifluous dews.

The phrase hung on the mind of Gray,

BRUSHING with hafty steps the DEW AWAY.

51. And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue,

And what the cross dire-looking planet fmites.] Compare Shakespeare, JUL. CES. A. i. S. iii.

Have bar'd my bosom to the thunder-stone,

And when the CROSS BLUE lightning feem'd to open
The breaft of heaven, &c.-

And KING LEAR, A. iv. S. vii. In the quarto copies.
To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?

54.

In the most terrible and nimble ftroke

Of quick CROSS lightning?

I fetch my round

Over the mount, and all this hallow'd ground.] So in Cr BELINE, A. i. S. ii.

I'll FETCH A TURN about the garden, pitying

The pangs of barr'd affections.

And in ACTS APOST. C. xxviii. v. 13. "We FET a compass.”

But the phrafe is ftill in use.

Over

56

Over the mount, and all this hallow'd ground;
And early, ere the odorous breath of morn
Awakes the flumb'ring leaves, or taffel'd horn
Shakes the high thicket, hafte I all about,
Number my ranks, and visit every sprout
With puiffant words, and murmurs made to bless.
But elfe, in deep of night when drowsiness
Hath lock'd up mortal sense, then listen I

58.

Hafte I all about,

61

Number my ranks, and vifit every sprout.] So the magician Ifmeno, when he configns the inchanted foreft to his demons, GIER. LIB. C. xiii. 8.

Prendete in guardia questa filva, e QUESTO

PIANTE, che NUMERATE a voi consegno.

Poets are magicians. What they create they command. The bufinefs of one imaginary being is easily transferred to another: from a bad to a good demon.

To the celeftial Syrens harmony,

That fit upon the nine infolded spheres ] This is Plato's fyftem. Fate, or NECESSITY, holds a spindle of adamant: and, with her three daughters, Lachefis, Clotho, and Atropos, who handle the vital web wound about the spindle, fhe conducts or turns the heavenly bodies. Nine Mufes, or Syrens, fit on the fummit of the spheres; which, in their revolutions produce the most ravishing musical harmony. To this harmony, the three daughters of Neceffity perpetually fing in correfpondent tones. In the mean time, the adamantine fpindle, which is placed in the lap or on the knees of Neceffity, and on which the fate of men and gods is wound, is alfo revolved. This mufic of the fpheres, proceeding from the rapid motion of the heavens, is fo loud, various, and fweet, as to exceed all aptitude or proportion of the human ear, and therefore is not heard by men. Moreover, this spherical mufic confists of eight unifonous melodies: the ninth is a concentration of all the reft, or a diapafon of all thofe eight melodies; which diapafon, or CONCENTUS, the nine Sirens fing or address to the supreme being, This last circumstance, while it juftifies a doubtful reading, illuftrates or rather explains a paffage in these lines, AT A SOLEMN MUSIC, v. 6.

That

To the celestial Sirens harmony,

That fit upon the nine infolded spheres,

And fing to those that hold the vital shears,
And turn the adamantin fpindle round,

On which the fate of Gods and men is wound.

65

Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie,
To lull the daughters of Neceffity,

And keep unsteddy Nature to her law,

70

And the low world in measur'd motion draw

After the heavenly tune, which none can hear

That undisturbed fong of PURE CONCENT,

Aye fung before the faphire-colour'd throne,
TO HIM that fits thereon.

Milton, full of these Platonic ideas, has here a reference to this
confummate or CONCENTUAL Song of the ninth sphere, which is
UNDISTURBED and PURE, that is, unallayed and perfect. The
Platonism is here, however, in fome degree chriftianised.

These notions are to be found in the tenth Book of Plato's REPUBLIC, in his Timæus, and other parts of his works; but they cannot be well understood or digefted without the affistance of Proclus, who yet has partly clouded the system with new refinements. Hence we are to interpret Spenfer in the Platonic HYMNE in HONOUR OF BEAUTIE.

For Love is a CELESTIALL HARMONIE

Of likewife hearts, composed of STARRES CONCENT.

72. After the heavenly tune, which none can hear

Of human mold, with grofs unpurged ear.] I do not recollect this reafon in Plato, the SOMNIUM SCIPIONIS, or Macrobius. But our author, in an academic Prolufion on the MUSIC OF THE SPHERES, having explained Plato's theory, affigns a fimilar reafon. " Quod autem nos hanc MINIME audiamus harmoniam, fane in CAUSA videtur effe, furacis Promethei audacia, quæ "tot mala hominibus invexit, et fimul hanc felicitatem nobis "abftulit, qua nec unquam frui licebit, dum fceleribus coo"perti belluinis, cupiditatibus obrutefcimus.-At fi pura, fi nivea geftaremus pectora,- tum quidem fuaviffima illa ftellarum circumeutium mufica perfonarent aures noftræ et opplerentur." PROSE-WOKKS, vol. ii. 588. See OBSERVAT. on Spenser's F.Q. ii. 32. On the fame principle, the airy mufic which the waking poet hears in IL PENSEROSO, was fent only "by some spirit to "" MORTALS GOOD. v. 153. And in his profe-works, he mentions VOL. I. thofe