line bears some analogy to that produced by an unresolved discord in harmony. Nevertheless so artistic is the whole metrical arrangement of this charming monody that the sensations experienced by the most fastidious reader can never be otherwise than agreeable, and to the judgment of such we confidently leave the decision of the question, whether (as Dr. Johnson will have it) the diction is harsh, the rhymes uncertain, and the numbers unpleasing.' LYCIDAS. YET Once more, O ye laurels, and once more 1] 'Once more, amid my various occupations, do I return to poetry, that I may offer a tribute to the memory of my deceased friend.' It seems better to understand the allusion thus than to restrict it (as Peck and Newton have done) to 'poems on like occasions' with that of the Lycidas, such as the Ode on the Death of a Fair Infant, the Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, and the four Latin Elegies of 1626. Since the production of Comus in 1634, the poet's pen had been unemployed, and we know from his letter to Diodati of Sept. 23, 1637, that he was now studying ancient and mediæval history, in preparation for his Italian tour, which took place in the following spring. Warton properly observes that the plants specified in this and the next line are not peculiar to elegy, but symbolical of general poetry.' As evergreens they are also emblems of immortality, which is perhaps the leading idea intended to be conveyed. Cf. Drayton, 6th Pastoral Eclogue:— 6 But bay and myrtle, which is ever new, In spight of winter flourishing and green.' There seems to be no sufficient ground for the distinction which Newton draws between the laurel, myrtle, and ivy, as representing the poetic talent of the deceased, his ripeness for love, and his learning (Hor. Od. I. i. 29) respectively. Drayton, however, in his 3rd Eclogue, speaks of 'bays that poets do adorn, And myrtle of chaste lovers worn.' 2 brown] dark and sombre (It. bruno); the pulla myrtus of Hor. Od. I. xxv. 18. ivy never sere] Cf. Sylvester, Du Bartas, 70, 'immortal bays never unleaved.' Sere (O. E. searian, akin to Enpós) occurs only twice elsewhere in Milton, P. L. x. 1071 and Psalm ii. 27. Cf. Macbeth, v. 3, 'the sear the yellow leaf;' Spenser, Ecl. i. 37, 'My lustfull leaf is dry and sere,' where it is explained in the Glossary as an antiquated word, like guerdon, forlorn, and others, which have now returned into use. Newton's statement that there are more obsolete words in this than in any other of I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, Milton's poems' may well be dis- 3-8] Those who imagine an allusion to the untimely death of Mr. King in the premature gathering of the laurels, &c., seem to overlook the fact that these plants represent, not the lost friend, but the verses offered to his memory. The metaphor by which an early death is compared to the plucking of unripe fruit (as in Cic. De Senectute, 'Quasi poma ex arboribus,' &c., quoted by Dunster) has therefore no application here, the reference being obviously to the poet's efforts in verse, which were, in his own opinion, yet 'harsh and crude,' but whose time of maturity a pious duty compelled him to forestall. Six years previously, in the Sonnet written at the age of twenty-three, he had expressed his resolution not to hasten the time of his 'inward ripeness ;' and in the accompanying letter he says, 'I take no thought of being late, so it give advantage to be more fit.' Shatter is 5] Cf. P. L. x. 1066. a modern softening of scatter, like shave and scab, sharp and scarp, Shipton and Skipton, &c. mellowing] (mollis) would strictly apply to fruit, not to leaves or flowers. But the sense probably is, 'before the advancing year, which ripens the fruit, causes your leaves to fall.' Keightley remarks that 'these plants all shed their leaves during the year, but gradually.' Cf. Marlowe, Tamburlaine, act ii. sc. I, 'And fall like mellowed fruit with shakes of death.' 6] Plumptre's translation (1797), πικρὰ ἀναγκαία, λυπρὸν χρῆμ', ἀλλὰ 5 ποθεινόν, probably gives the right sense of this line, i.e. an occasion sad in itself, but concerned about a dear object (Spens. F. Q. I. i. 53). But dear may mean 'important,' from its primary sense of 'costly' (O. E. deore, G. theuer), an interpretation which is slightly favoured by the occurrence of the word with the same meaning and connexion in Sidney's Arcadia, where Time is addressed as 'the father of occasion deare.' Hence arose the peculiar use of 'dear' in a sense apparently contradictory to its usual one, as in Shakspere's 'dearest foe,' 'dear peril,' &c., which is to be explained, not (as Horne Tooke supposes) from derian, 'to hurt,' but by a natural transition from the original notion of importance into that of strong interest or emotion, whether of love or hatred. (See Dyce's Glossary to Shakspere, pp. 119, 120.) The position of the noun between the two epithets is very common in Milton. Out of numberless instances which occur, Peck quotes P. L. v. 3, 'temperate vapours bland;' ix. 1003, 'mortal sin original.' Cf. also 1. 4 supra, Arcades, 49, 51, to which may be added 'the two-topt mount divine' of the supposed Miltonic Epitaph-an expression which Dean Stanley in his letter to Prof. Morley (Introd. to King and Commons, p. xxxii.) pronounced to be 'Milton all over.' This order of words is imitated from the Greek (cf. Hes. Theog. 811, χάλκεος οὐδὸς ἀστεμφής ; Eur. Phan. 234, νιφόβολον ὄρος ἱρόν). In Latin the adjectives are usually placed together, either with a conjunction, as 'Fatalis incestusque judex,' Hor. Od. Compels me to disturb your season due; III. iii. 19, or without one, as 'do- 7 compels] instead of compel, the bitter constraint' and 'sad occasion' being so nearly identical as to form one idea. Cf. Hor. Od. I. xvii. 12, 'dis pietas mea Et musa cordi est. But, even without any such connexion of meaning, the Elizabethan writers and their immediate successors commonly made the verb agree in number with the nearest preceding noun. Many instances occur in the Bible, e.g. Prov. i. 27 (where Luther's version also has 'Angst und Noth kommt'), ib. ii. 6; Luke v. 10. Paul Bayne, in one of his Letters (circ. 1600), says, 'You will be desirous of knowing how my wife and her place agreeth;' Bacon, Essay on Masques, observes that double masques. addeth state and variety,' where no singular noun precedes the verb. Even Mr. Tennyson, in a recent volume of Poems, has the construction, should know what God and man is.' But many verbs apparently singular are really examples of the Northern plural in -s, -e.g. Shakspere, Coriolanus, iv. I, 'fortune's blows. craves a noble cunning,' &c. &c. James I. constantly uses this form in his letters to Queen Elizabeth, as 'my articles desyris,' 'your subjectis preferis,' &c. "I 8 ere his prime] Being only twenty-five years old. 9] Milton probably had in his mind Spenser's Astrophel, 7, 8. There is a similar repetition of the name, with marked effect, in the ode on Death of a Fair Infant, E ΙΟ 26. The present line is imitated by Samuel Boyse (1741) in his Vision of Patience, Young Lycidas the learned and the good.' peer] i. e. equal,' from par. Milton has used the word only twice elsewhere in this original sense, in P. L. i. 39, v. 812, though he often applies it to the rebel angels as a title of nobility-e.g. 'the grand infernal peers,' &c.which is also its usual meaning in Shakspere. With the present passage cf. P. Fletcher, Pisc. Ecl. vi. I, A fisher boy that never knew his peer;' Cowley, Death of Hervey, 'My sweet companion and my gentle peer.' This is another of the words (see note on sere, l. 2) explained as obsolete in the Glossary to the Shepheard's Kalendar; it must have been familiar in the 14th century, as Wicklif, in his translation of Matt. xi. 16, has 'children that crien unto her peeris,' i.e. 'fellows.' For the history of the word see Du Cange, Glossarium, s. v. Pares. 10] Peck compares Virg. E. x. 3, 'neget quis carmina Gallo?' he knew to sing] Cf. Comus, 87. These and similar expressions are evidently intended as imitations of the Latin and Greek verb-noun infinitive-e.g. canere callebat, dew ἠπίστατο, &c. In Spenser's Ruines of Time Occurs the well-known passage 'Not to have been dipped in Lethe's lake Could save the son of Thetis from to die. (Cf. Eur. Alcestis, 11, dv daveîv èppuσάμην.) But this construction is unnecessary and even inaccurate in |