no more-

That strain again ;-it had a dying fall!
O, it came o'er my ear, like the fweet fouth,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour.-Enough!
'Tis not fo fweet now, as it was before.
O fpirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou!
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the fea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch foever,
But falls into abatement and low price,

Even

ing the fweets of flowers, is very common in the best Italian poets." It may be, S. took the thought from them

himself; for he was no less converfant in the works of the Italian poets than Milton. W. obferves, that amongst the beauties of this charming fimilitude, its exact propriety is not the leaft. For as the fouth wind, while blowing over a violet bank, wafts away the odour of the flowers, it, at the fame time, communicates its own sweetness to it. So the foft affecting mufic here described, though it takes away the natural, fweet, tranquility of the mind, yet at the fame time it communicates a new pleasure to it. Cr, it may allude to another property of mufic, where the fame ftrains have the power to excite pain or pleasure, as the state is in which it finds the hearer. Hence Milton makes the felf-fame strains of Orpheus proper to excite both the affections of mirth and melancholy, juft as the mind is then difpofed. If to mirth, he calls for fuch mufic,

That Orpheus' felf may heave his head,
From golden flumbers on a bed
Of heapt Elyfian fowers, and hear
Such ftrains as would have won the ear
Of Pluto, to have quite fet free
His half-regain'd Euridice.
If to melancholy,

Or bid the foul of Orpheus fing
Such notes as, warbled to the ftring,
Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek;
And made hell grant what love did seek.

L' Allegro.

Il Penferofo.

Even in a minute; fo full of fhapes in fancy,
That it alone is high fantastical. (2)

Love, in reference to Hunting.

O, when my eyes did fee Olivia first, Methought the purg'd the air of peftilence; That inftant was I turn'd into a hart, (3) And my defires, like fell and cruel hounds, E'er fince purfue me.

Natural Affection akin to Love.

(4) O, fhe, that hath a heart of that fine frame, To pay this debt of love but to a brother, How will the love, when the rich golden shaft

Hath

(2) High fantaftical] Means no more, fays St. than fantaftical to the height. W. propofes light, i. e. called fantaftical.

(3) Into a bart.] The duke makes this fpeech on being alked, If he would go hunt the hart? And he alludes to the ftory of Acteon, by which S. feems to think men cautioned against too great familiarity with forbidden beauty. Acteon, who faw Diana naked, and was torn to pieces by his hounds, represents a man, who indulging his eyes, or his imagination, with the view of a woman he cannot gain, has his heart torn with inceffant longing. An interpretation far more elegant and natural than that of Sir Francis Bacon, who in his Wifdom of the Ancients, fuppofes this story to warn us against enquiring into the fecrets of princes, by fhewing, that thofe who know that which for reafons of ftate is to be concealed, will be detected and destroyed by their own fervants. J.

(4)

-Hic parvæ confuetudinis

Caufa, hujus mortem fert tam familaritèr :
Quid fi ipfe amaffet? Quid mihi hic facit patri?
Ter. And. A. 1. v. 83.

"He on account of a small acquaintance only, lays her death very much to heart: what, if he had been in love with her? What will he do, when I his father am dead ?”

1

Hath kill'd the flock of all affections elfe
That live in her; when liver, brain and heart,
These fovereign thrones, are (5) all fupply'd, and fill'd
(Her sweet perfections) with one self-fame king!

SCENE II. Defcription of Sebastian's Escape.

-I (6) faw your brother, Moft provident in peril, bind himself (Courage and hope both teaching him the practice) To a ftrong maft, that liv'd upon the fea; Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back, I faw him hold acquaintance with the waves, So long as I could fee.

Actions of the Great always talked of.

You know

What great ones do, the lefs will prattle of.

Outward

(5) Are all, &c.] Perhaps this fhould be read, -Are all fupply'd, and fill'd Her fweet perfections with one, &c.

i. e. "when liver, &c. thofe fovereign thrones, are all fupplied, and her sweet perfections filled with," &c. the verbs belonging to each noun being applicable to all. S's dif tinction (Mrs. G. obferves) of the three thrones, is admirable: these are truly the feats of the three affections of love; the heart for paffion, the mind for esteem, and the liver for jealoufy: if Horace's anatomy is to be credited:

Difficile bile tumet Fecur.

(6) I, &c.] Compare this with a fimilar paffage in the Tempeft, Act 2. and another in Julius Cafar, A&t 1. which will ferve to fhew S's fertility and extent of genius on the fame fubject.

Outward Appearance a Token of inward Worth.

There is fair behaviour in thee, captain;
And, though that nature with a beauteous wall
Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee
I will believe, thou haft a mind that fuits
With this thy fair and outward character.

SCENE III. Care an Enemy to Life.

Sir Toby. What a plague means my niece, to take the death of her brother thus? I am fure, care's an enemy to life.

Sir Toby's Recommendation of Ague-Cheek.

Sir Toby. He plays o' the viol-de-gambo, (7) and speaks three or four different languages word for word without book, and hath all the good gifts of nature.

SCENE

(7) He plays o' the viol-de-gambo.] The viol-de-gambo feems in our author's time, to have been a very fashionable inftrument. In The Return from Parnaffus, 1606, it is mentioned with its proper derivation.

Her viol-de-gambo is her beft content,

For 'twixt her legs fhe holds her instrument.

See Steevens. The reader will find much more in this hu morous scene respecting Sir Andrew: he fays of himself,

"Methinks fometimes I have no more wit than a Chriftian, or an ordinary man has; but I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit."

Sir Toby fays,

What is thy excellence in a galliard, knight?
Sir Andrew. Faith, I can cut a caper.
Sir Toby. And I can cut the mutton to't.

Sir Toby. Why dost thou not go to church in a galliard, and come home in a coranto? My very walk fhould

be

SCENE IV. A beautiful Boy.

Dear lad, (8) believe it;

For they shall yet bely thy happy years,
That fay, thou art a man; Diana's lip
Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe

Is

be a jig I would not fo much as make water, but in a fink-a-pace. What dost thou mean? Is it a world to hide virtues in ?" ̈

(8) Dear lad, &c.] Alas! what kind of grief can thy years know?

Thy brows and cheeks are fmooth as waters be,
When no breath troubles them: believe me, boy,
Care feeks out wrinkled brows, and hollow eyes,
And builds himself caves to abide in them.

Philafter, A&t 2.

The lady, in Comus, fpeaking of her brothers, fays,
Their unrazor'd lips were smooth as Hebe's.
When Comus, telling her he had seen 'em, goes on most
beautifully,

Their port was more than human, as they stood,
I took it for a fairy vision,

Or fome gay creatures of the element,

That in the colours of the rainbow live,

And play i' th' plighted clouds.

Spenfer, defcribing an angel, B. 2. c. 8. f. 5. fpeaksof him thus;

Besides his head there fat a fair young man,
Of wond'rous beauty and of fresheft
Whose tender bud to bloffom new began,

years,

And flourish fair above his equal peers:
His fnowy front curled with golden hairs,

Like Phoebus' face adorn'd with funny rays,
Divinely fhone; and two fharp winged fhears

Decked with diverfe plumes, like painted jays,
Were fixed at his back to cut his airy ways.

The reader, if he thinks proper, may be agreeably amufed by comparing this with Milton's celebrated defcription of Raphael, B. 5. v. 277.