The boast at the end of this Stanza is like that of Cato, in Lucan, Lib. II. 286.

CANTO XI. 18.

This simile is taken from a beautiful one in Homer, Il. A. 422. E. 87, &c. and in Virg. Æn. 305, &c.

aut rapidus montano flumine torrens Sternit agros, fternit fata læta, boumque labores, Precipitesque trahit sylvas; stupet inscius alto Accipiens fonitum faxi de vertice Pastor.

See likewise Æn. XII. 523.

STAN Z. XXXII.

“ Like as a fire, the which in hollow cave,” &c.

ignis,
Qui furtim pingui primùm fub cortice tectus
Robora comprendit, frondesque elapfus in altas
Ingentem Cælo fonitum dedit: inde fecutus
Per ramos victor, perque alta cacumina regnat,
Et totum involvit flammis Nemus, et ruit atram
Ad Cælum piceâ craffus Caligine nubem.

Virg. Georg. II. 303.

CANTO

CANTO XII, 39, 41.

Mercury's rod is described by Horace in the same manner as here.

17:

Tu pias lætis animas reponis
Sedibus ; Virgâque levem coërces
Aureâ turbam, superis Deorum

Gratus, et imis. Lib. I. Od. x,
Tu potes Tigres comitesque Sylvas
Ducere, et rivos celeres morari.
Celit immanis tibi blandienti

Janitor aula
Cerberus, &c.

Lib. III. Od. XI. 13.

The manner of expression in the beginning of this Stanza has great beauty; and is borrowed from the Greeks, who use the same very commonly. Thus, particularly, Theocritus in his first Idyllium, speaking of the old fisherman graven on the cup, fays, l. 41.

Ο πρέσβυς, κάμνονλι το καρίερον ανδρί έoικώς •
Φαίης κεν γυίων νίν όσον θένος έλλοπιεύειν
Αι δε δι ωθήκανει κατ' αυχένα πάντοθεν ίνες,
Και πολιώ ωερ έoυσι. το δε θένος άξιον άβας.

Thomson has a beautiful passage like this ir" his Seasons. Summer, v. 1311, &c.

See Ariosto, P. III. There is a pretty poem in Bourne, called, if I remember right, The Wreath; where this thought is well expressed :

.“ And, as you fade,

Remind the maid,
That years, like days, must end."

REMARKS

R E M A R

M A R K S

THAT I may not pass abruptly from Spenser to Milton, I say, purely for the sake of introduction and connection,

That Milton, the favourite poet of this nation, has been, and I suppose will be, the subject of essays, dissertations, notes, &c.

That I have a mind to thrust myself in amongst those, who have laboured on this celebrated author;

Me quoque principibus permixtum That I shall offer a few remarks upon him; and so take a final leave of the English poets *.

* It appears however, that he did not so closely keep to his purpose as here intended. The prospect of a new and valuable

edition

X 2

or Typhon, whom the den By ancient Tarsus held. Typhon is the same with Typhoëus. That the den of Typhoëus was in Cilicia, of which Țarsus was a celebrated city, we are told by Pindar and Pomponius Mela. Iam much mistaken, if Milton did not make use of Farnaby's note on Ovid, Me:. V. 347. to which I refer the reader. He took antient Tarsus perhaps from Nonnus :

Ταρσος αειδομενη πρωίοπολις: which is quoted in Lloyd's Dictionary.

v. 276.
~~- on the perilous edge
Of battle, &c.

edition of our great Epick Bard again called forth his critical at. tention ; and hence, from his friend Dr. Newton's publication of Milcon, we have been enabled to make some considerable addition to our Author's Remarks; resuming such only for this work, as were found there inserted under the name Jortin. For Dr. Newton's Testimonies, as taken from his two prefaces to the poems of Milton, See the Advertisement prefixed to this volume.

Perhaps