At mihi quid tandem fiet modò? quis mihi fidus Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. Molle pyrum, et nucibus strepitat focus, et malus Auster Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat agni. Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. 1 The idea in this line is beautifully conceived and expressed. The broken and agitated shadows of the shaking wood are placed in strong representation before our eyes; and we are reminded not only of our author's "chequered shade," but of a fine expansion of the same image in the Task. The reader will thank me perhaps for giving him the entire passage. How airy and how light the graceful arch, Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. Mopsus ad hæc, nam me redeuntem forte notârat, (Et callebat avium linguas, et sidera Mopsus,) "Thyrsi, quid hoc?" dixit, " quæ te coquit improba bilis? "Aut te perdit amor, aut te malè fascinat astrum: "Saturni grave sæpe fait pastoribus astrum, 66 Intimaque obliquo figit præcordia plumbo." Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. Mirantur nymphæ, et "quid te, Thyrsi, futurum est? "Quid tibi vis?" aiunt; "non hæc solet esse juventæ "Nubila frons, oculique truces, vultusque severi; "Illa choros, lususque leves, et semper amorem "Jure petit: bis ille miser qui serus amavit." Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. Venit Hyas, Dryopeque, et filia Baucidis Ægle, Docta modos citharæque sciens, sed perdita fastu; Venit Idumanii Chloris vicina fluenti: " Shadow and sunshine intermingling quick; TASK, Book I. Avium, cannot with any authorised license be contracted into a dissyllable. " The river Chelmer in Essex is called Iduminium fluentum near its influx into Black-water bay. WARTON. Nil me blanditiæ, nil me solantia verba, Ite domum impasti, domino jam not vacat, agni. Nec magis hunc alio quisquam secernit amicum Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. P • Doctor Parr has suggested to me, (and his suggestions on subjects of philological disquisition are always of moment) that "futurum," without an adjunct, never means future time, but a future event; and that Milton in this place is consequently wrong in his latinity. P The allusion is to the first eclogue of Virgil, in which the poet describes himself, under the name of Tityrus, as allured from his farm and native Mantua by the beauty and grandeur of Rome. Possem tot maria alta, tot interponere montes, Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. Hic Charis, atque Lepos; et Thuscus tu quoque Damon, O ego quantus eram, gelidi cùm stratus ad Arni Et studiis noti, Lydorum sanguinis ambo. Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. "Heus bone! numquid agis? nisi te quid fortè retardat, Of Carlo Dati and Antonio Francini, two of our author's warm friends and panegyrists at Florence, we have spoken in the preceding part of our narrative. The Lydian origin of the Tuscans is known to every reader of Horace, without any reference to more recondite authorities. The Colne is a river of Buckinghamshire which flows near Horton, the residence of Milton's father. The town of Coln "Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gramina, succos, Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. brook derives its name from this river, or rather rivulet. By Cassibelauni jugera we are to understand, as Mr. Warton informs me, Verulam, or St. Albans. In the fabulous history of Britain, Brutus, the grandson of Æneas, leads a colony of Trojans to this island, which he conquers and civilizes. He had previously married Inogen, the daughter of some Grecian king, called Pandrasus. Rutupium is Richborough on the coast of Kent. Armorica (or Bretagne) in France was conquered and occupied by the Britons, at the time, as it is generally supposed, when they were pressed by the Saxons. But we have no accounts of this emigration and conquest: and many ascribe the first British settlements in Armorica to the soldiers who followed Maximus from our Island; and who, after the defeat of their leader by Theodosius, in the 388th year of the Christian æra, established themselves in this maritime province of Gaul; where their numbers were increased by successive emigrations of their countrymen at different periods and under the impulse of various motives. * Uther Pendragon, being changed by the magic of Merlin into the likeness of Gorlois, prince of Cornwall, got possession of his wife, lögerne's bed; and Arthur was the offspring of the trespass. |