it. As a shepherd he would have no business there, so far away from home and for such an object. Ll. 46-49 may be applied either way, but seem to convey the idea of a student's rather than of a shepherd's fireside. The 'Attic salt' of 1. 56 admits of only one application. Ll. 113 foll. describe Milton's actual journey to Italy, which has nothing to do with his assumed pastoral character. (Compare the parallel instance of Gallus, in Virgil's 10th Eclogue, see p. 23 of this Introduction.) In N. 126-138 the accidental circumstance of Diodati's Tuscan origin is mentioned in the middle of an imaginary description of Tuscan swains, among whom the actual names of Dati and Francini occur, not under a classical designation (like Lycidas and Menalcas, l. 132), but just slightly Latinised. Ll. 162-178. Here the poet is confused with the shepherd -the intention of the real Milton to write a real British epic being stated partly in plain language, partly under a pastoral figure (168-171). L. 181. The name of Manso, Milton's Neapolitan host, is introduced with scarcely any disguise, and the description of the chased goblets which follows, though probably real (see note ad loc.), is at any rate not drawn from the circumstances of bucolic life. Ll. 209-219. The pastoral imagery now entirely disappears; the name Diodatus is substituted for that of Damon, and his present state of bliss among the saints in heaven is described in Scriptural language, which is in the last line curiously varied by a Pagan but not distinctively pastoral metaphor-bacchantur '-' orgia '-' thyrso.' The scene is laid in England, as appears from the mention of the Chelmer (l. 90 note) and of the Colne (l. 149), but the associations are necessarily classical, owing to the form in which the poem is cast. Those who adopt what we have endeavoured to represent as the right view of the requirements of a modern pastoral will not blame Milton for this, but will transfer their D2 censure to the Roman poet, who by blending Sicilian with Italian scenery originated the confusion. Still the introduction of lions and wolves in Il. 41, 42 would better have been avoided, though a similar mistake is made by Virgil in his 5th Eclogue (1. 26) without equal excuse for it. The Epitaphium Damonis has been rendered into English by Symmons (about 1804) in the Life of Milton appended to his edition of the Prose Works; also by Langhorne (1760), as far as 1. 138; and again by Cowper. A new translation into English hexameters is given by Professor Masson, in the second volume of his Life of Milton, which, by the courtesy of the author, I am enabled to reprint entire. Of detached pieces of criticism on the Lycidas the following are given by Todd in his edition of Milton's poetical works : 1. Peck's Explanatory and Critical Notes, &c., printed with his New Memoirs of Milton (1740). 2. Remarks in Dr. Johnson's Lives of the Poets (Life of Milton) (1781). 3. Critical Essay on Lycidas by John Scott (1785). 4. Cursory Remarks on some ancient English Poets, particularly Milton, by P. Neve (1789). To these we need only add the complete account and examination of this poem and the Epitaphium Damonis in vols. i. and ii. of Professor Masson's Life of Milton (1859 and 1871). The Lycidas was translated into Latin by William Hogg (Hogæus) in 1694, and into Greek by Plumptre, Canon of Worcester, in 1797. Both these translations have been made use of in the notes to this edition; the former is reprinted at the end of the volume. As might be expected, the poem has found many imitators. The first 'imitations, or rather open plagiarisms from Milton' (as Warton says), were made in 1647 by Robert Baron in a poetical romance, entitled the Cyprian Academy (see Todd, Appendix to vol. vi.). Into this he transferred whole lines and phrases from nearly all Milton's early poems, then lately published; and from Lycidas was borrowed the greater part of the floral description in 11. 135-151. Samuel Boyse, in his Vision of Patience (1741), laments the death of a Mr. Cumming, lost at sea, under the name 'Lycidas, but does not otherwise imitate Milton's monody. In 1760 Robert Lloyd published the Tears and Triumph of Parnassus, containing an ode on the death of the king (George II.), in which occur the lines we have quoted on 1. 75, beginning, 'Where were the Muses,' &c. In the same note reference is made to a similar passage from Lord Lyttleton's monody on the death of his wife. Michael Bruce, in Daphnis (a monody on Mr. Arnot), has these lines : So may I snatch his lays, who to the lyre and further on Where were the Muses, when the leaden hand But quickly by the envious sisters shorn ; The metre is arranged in long and short lines at irregular intervals, like those in the Lycidas. We may also notice a monody on the death of Queen Adelaide by Julian Fane, among the Cambridge Prize Poems for 1850, which is closely modelled (as the heading intimates) upon that of Milton. A few extracts are subjoined as examples of the imitation : For she no more upon the dawning day ... Shall bend her wistful eyes for ever closed .... Last reverend Camus, as he footed slow, &c. Besides these and more of the same kind, we have detached expressions undique decerpta, such as 'melt with ruth,' 'but not And still the woodland rings, and still speaking of the youthful glow of life as compared to a laughing leaping rill. Among the various editions of Milton's poems, which include the Lycidas, we select the following : 1. The Cambridge Verses of 1638, already referred to (p. 2). The English poems succeed the Latin, and are separately entitled Obsequies to the Memorie of Mr. Edward King, Anno Domini 1638.' The Lycidas is dated J. M., November 1637, in the MS. preserved in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. It has no title in this first edition. 2. Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin, composed at several times, collected and republished in 1645. Here the heading, 'In this Monody,' &c., is for the first time prefixed. 3. Poems, &c., upon several Occasions (1673, the year before Milton died). This is a reprint of the former, with some additions, and containing the Hartlib Tractate on Education. 4. Successive editions for Tonson (1695-1747). 5. Baskerville's Poetical Works of Milton (1758-1760). 6. Newton's editions (1752-1790). Of these Keightley observes in his own preface that they are 'the first English instance of a Variorum edition, from MS. notes by Jortin, Warburton, Thyer, Peck, Sympson, &c. Very respectable for those times, when criticism was imperfect, and knowledge of earlier English literature and language slender.' 7. Warton's editions of the smaller poems, except the Paradise Regained, with notes (1785 and 1791). 8. Hayley's Poetical Works of Milton (1794-1797). 9. Todd's Poetical Works, &c., with the Principal Notes of various Commentators (1801, 1809, 1826). Here the substance of Warton's notes is reproduced, with many additions by the editor; they consist of a mass of materials, for the most part undigested and ill-arranged, and are chiefly useful for their collection of parallel passages, though these (as Masson truly remarks, vol. i. p. 534) 'are pushed to the verge of the ridiculous-interesting only as illustrations of similarity of thought and expression among poets of a particular age.' 10. Keightley's Poetical Works, &c. (1859). The poems are arranged chronologically, the spelling is modernised, except in the case of a few words, such as 'sovran,' 'highth,' &c., and the punctuation carefully amended. There are no introductions to the separate pieces, the references in the notes are given with the initials of those editors who first observed them, though many of these, as Keightley tells us in his preface, were noticed by himself independently. For the notes he claims the especial merit of terseness and compression, and consequently fails to give us the arguments on both sides in many disputed passages, presenting merely his own conclusions or those of others, without examination in detail, and often without any reasons whatever. II. English Poems by John Milton, edited by R. C. Browne, King's College, London (1870). This edition comprises much useful information within a small space, but does not profess to enter upon a detailed investigation of mooted points. The introduction has a great deal of original matter, well considered and clearly expressed. The editor frequently adopts the conclusions of Mr. Keightley, to whom he specially acknowledges his obligation in a short preface prefixed to the notes. A new and complete edition of Milton is promised by Professor Masson, and is expected shortly to appear. |