274 ODE ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament; From haunted spring and dale Edged with poplar pale The parting Genius is with sighing sent; With flower-inwoven tresses torn The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. In consecrated earth And on the holy hearth The Lars and Lemurés moan with midnight plaint; In urns, and altars round A drear and dying sound Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint; And the chill marble seems to sweat, While each peculiar Power foregoes his wonted seat. Peor and Baalim Forsake their temples dim, With that twice-batter'd god of Palestine; Heaven's queen and mother both, Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine; The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn, In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn. And sullen Moloch, fled, Hath left in shadows dread His burning idol all of blackest hue; In vain with cymbals' ring They call the grisly king, In dismal dance about the furnace blue; The brutish gods of Nile as fast Isis, and Orus, and the dog Anubis, haste. Nor is Osiris seen In Memphian grove, or green, ODE ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. 275 Trampling the unshower'd grass with lowings loud; Within his sacred chest; Nought but profoundest hell can be his shroud; The sable stoléd sorcerers bear his worshipt ark. He feels from Juda's land The dreaded infant's hand; The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn; Longer dare abide, Nor Typhon huge ending in snaky twine: Our Babe, to show his Godhead true, Can in his swaddling bands control the damnéd crew. So, when the sun in bed Curtain'd with cloudy red Pillows his chin upon an orient wave, The flocking shadows pale Troop to the infernal jail, Each fetter'd ghost slips to his several grave; And the yellow-skirted fays Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze. But see, the Virgin blest Hath laid her Babe to rest; Time is, our tedious song should here have ending: Heaven's youngest-teeméd star Hath fixed her polish'd car, Her sleeping Lord with hand-maid lamp attending: And all about the courtly stable Bright-harness'd angels sit in order serviceable. F. Milton. NOTES. Page 3. "LOVE-LONGING." One of the very few English love-songs extant of so early a period. Campbell, selecting it as a specimen of thirteenth century versification, observes that "such a stanza would not disgrace the lyric poetry of a refined age." Line 4. wex-wax. L. 5. in sleep I slake-am deprived of sleep. Page 3. "RONDEAU"-G. Chaucer. This little ballad was printed for the first time by Bishop Percy (see 'Reliques') from a MS. in the Pepysian Library. "The versification," he remarks, "is of that species which the French call Rondeau; very naturally Englished by our honest countrymen, Round O. Though so early adopted by them, our ancestors had not the honour of inventing it. Chaucer picked it up, along with other better things, among the neighbouring nations.' Line 1. sle-slay. L. 3. wendeth-goeth. L. 4. helen-heal. L. 8 quene-Queen. L. 11. pleyn-complain. L. 12. cheyne-chain. L. 14. soth-sooth. L. 14. fayn-feign. L. 18. peyn—pain. L. 20. ben-be. L. 20. lene-lean. L. 21. fre-free. L. 21. bene-boon. L. 23. fors-force. L. 25. sclat-state. L. 26. clene-clean. L. 27. For ever mo-for evermore. L. 27. mene-means. Page 5. "To Life's Pilgrim"-G. Chaucer. The original contains three verses, of which the second is here omitted; the poem being given merely as a specimen of early versification. Stanza I. Line 1. press-crowd. L. 3. hoardtreasure. L. 3. climbing tickleness—means that advancement is beset with uncertainty. L. 4. preise-praise. L. 5. Savor-desire. L. 6. Rede-counsel. L. 7. 'tis no drede-there is no cause for fear. Stanza II. L. 1. That thee is sent receive in buxomness-that which is sent to thee, receive cheerfully. L. 6. Weivith thy lust-subdue thy desires. L. 6. ghost-spirit. Page 5. "TO MAISTREs Margarete"-7. Skelton. There is a musical lilt in the versification of this little complimentary poem rarely found in the productions of this period. Skelton was author of the famous "Boke of Colin Clout" and of some of the early moralities. Southey says, alluding to his political and satirical writings, "the power, the strangeness, the volubility of his language, the intrepidity of his satire, and the perfect originality of his manner, render Skelton one of the most extraordinary poets of any age or country." The present poem was addressed to one Mistress Margaret Hussey. Verse 2. Line 3. fayre Isiphill-fair Isabel, probably some amous beauty of the day. L. 5. Swete Pomaunder-a ball of perfumes used in the toilette of a sixteenth century belle; from the French pomme d'ambre. L. 10. Erst ere. Page 7. "My Swete Swetyng." Tempo Henry VIII; author unknown. Pigsnye" is a term of endearment derived from the old Saxon word piga, or girl. Page 8. "A CAROL OF SPRING"-H. Howard, Earl of Surrey. Line 1. soo te-sweet. L. 11. mings-mixes. Page 8. "MADRIGAL"-James I. (of Scotland). From the beautiful poem entitled "The King's Quair," (i. e. The King's Book) in which he describes his captivity in Windsor Castle and his passion for the Lady Jane Beaufort, whom he afterwards married. James I. perished by assassination in the fortyfourth year of his age. A.D. 1473. Page 10. "THE PASSIOnate ShepheRD"-C. Marlowe. This elegant little poem belongs to that school of Euphuistic Pastoral of which Sir P. Sidney's Arcadia is the most elaborate specimen. Mr. Palgrave observes that "it would be ludicrous to criticise it on the ground of the unshepherdlike or unreal character of some images suggested."-Notes to Golden Treasury. Page 13. "SAMELA"-fancies is here conjecturally substituted for "fancy"-Line 11. Page 14. "TO HIS LADY "-T. Carew. An exquisite specimen of the Elizabethan school of love-poetry: an elaborate and ornate school founded on the still more elaborate and ornate style of Petrarch and his contemporaries. Page 18. "THE LOVER GROWETH OLD"- W. Shakespeare. The necessity of maintaining a uniform plan has compelled the Editor to prefix titles to this and the two following Sonnets, as well as to others by the same immortal hand. These titles, such as they are, are offered reluctantly, and with diffidence. Page 22. "THE NIGHTINGALE"-R. Barnefield. The motif of this charming little poem (set to music in later days by Sir Henry Bishop) is founded on an old Greek legend related by Ovid-Met. vi. 565. Pandion, King of Attica, having appealed for military aid to Tereus, King of the Thracians in Daulis, bestowed upon this ally the hand of his daughter Procne, who became the mother of a son named Itys, or Itylus. Tereus, however, wearied of Procne, and having fallen in love with her sister Philomena, or Philomela, concealed Procne and spread the report of her death. Philomela, however, discovered his treachery; but having been deprived of her tongue by Tereus, in the fear that she should betray him, conveyed the truth to Procne by means of certain words woven into the pattern of a peplum. Procne, in her despair and rage, then slew her young son; served up his flesh to Tereus in a dish; and fled with Philomela. Being pursued by Tereus, the sisters prayed to the gods to change them into birds; and Procne was accordingly transformed into a swallow, and Philomela into a nightingale. The story, however, is told somewhat differently by Pausanias and others, who maintain that the sisters wept themselves to death in Attica, whither they escaped, and that Tereus killed himself in Megara. The cry "Tereu, tereu!" is an ingenious invention of the poet, and besides being an adaptation of the name of Tereus, is curiously like one of the notes of the nightingale. See "Itylus," by A. C. Swinburne, in our "Poetry-Book of Modern Poets." Page 24. sorrow. "THE LOVER'S APPEAL"-Sir T. Wyatt. Line 4. Grame "TO THE MOON"-Sir P. Sidney. marred by the awkward inversion in the last line. "do they there call ungratefulness, virtue?" This beautiful Sonnet is Page 28. "To HIS LUTE"-W. Drummond. Line 4. ramage, the woodsong, or wild-song of an untamed bird; from the French ramage. See Richardson's Dictionary. In this charming Sonnet we find the germ of an idea afterwards developed by Shelley in his Lines sent with a guitar. Page 30. "LAMENT FOR ASTROPHEL"-E. Spenser. This poem (entitled in Spenser's collected works "The Dolefull Lay of Clorinda") has by some critics been attributed to Mary Countess of Pembroke, sister to Sir Philip Sidney. The poem, however, bears the impress of Spenser's hand throughout. See particularly the seventh and eighth verses, closely imitated by Shelley in his "Adonais" more than two hundred and forty years later. The Editor has ventured to omit six verses which form no part of the Lament, and serve only to link the poem with others which precede and follow it. Astrophel is the pastoral name given by the poet to his friend Sir Philip Sidney, who died of a wound received at the Battle of Zutphen, Oct. 17th, 1586. Page 33. "THE SHEPHERD'S ELEGY"-W. Browne. Written in memory of his friend Mr. Thomas Manwood. This elegy is supposed to have suggested to Milton the form of his Lycidas. Page 35. "LYCIDAS"-J. Milton. The Lycidas in memory of whom this elegy was penned, was one Mr. Edward King (a college friend of the poet), who was drowned in 1637 between Chester and the coast of Ireland. "The material structure of this glorious poem," says Mr. Palgrave, “is partly derived from Italian models." Line 15. "The sisters of the sacred wellthe Muses, whose favorite haunt was supposed to be the fountain of Helicon on Mount Parnassus. L. 36. Damoetas, an allusion to some friend, figured under a pastoral name. L. 54. Mona-the isle of Anglesea, formerly densely wooded, and a chief residence (according to Selden) of the Druids. L. 55. Deva-the river Dee, long the ancient boundary between England and Wales, and the scene of numerous traditions. This river, and the neighbouring island are introduced because near the scene of the shipwreck. L. 58. The Muse herself that Orpheus bore. Orpheus was son of the Muse Calliope. He was torn to pieces by the Thracian women, who flung his head into the Hebrus, a river of Thrace, whence it was carried out to sea. His fate was thus indicated by Milton in allusion to that of his lost friend. L. 68 and 69. Amaryllis and Neæra-fanciful names for imaginary shepherdesses. L. 75. The blind Fury— Atropos, the Fate who severs the thread of human life. L. 85. O fountain Arethuse-a fountain in the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse. The nymph of this fountain is reckoned by Virgil (Eclogue IV.) among the nymphs of Sicily, and as the one who inspired pastoral poetry. Mincius-named in the next line, is an Italian stream which flows through the Lake of Garda and joins the Po near Mantua. L. 96. Hippotades-a name for Eolus; see the Odyssey of |