"The cheerful lark, mounting from early bed, Browne had been beforehand with them both in one of his Pastorals: "Here danc'd no nymph, no early-rising larke Sung up the ploughman and his drowsie mate." Vol. II. Book II. Song 1. p. 28. Compare Drayton's Description of Elysium from p. 1445 to 1448, Oldys's edit. vol. IV. with Milton, from 240 to 268, Par. Lost. book IV. Dr. J. Warton has observed on Mr. T. Warton's edition of Milton's Minor Poems, p. 159, that our great Bard has coined many beautiful compound epithets. Among many that he instances, he mentions love-darting eyes: Milton no doubt, has enriched our language with some epithets of the kind of his own coinage; but in general he had recourse to Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas, a very fertile storehouse for materials of this kind, and he might there probably. have found love-darting, as it there occurs: "Whoso beholds her sweet love-darting eyn." P. 186, ed. 1641. I will lay before the reader many epithets of much merit extracted from the before-mentioned Translator. "Honeysteeped, style," 64; "figure-flowing pen," 124; "soulecharm image," 124; "Heaven-tuned harp," 124; "rosecrowned Zephyrus," 123; "forest-haunting heards," 123; "opal-coloured morn," 121; " ghastly-grim," applied to Death, 50; "bright-brown clouds," 127; "milde-eyd Mercy," 141; "bane-breath'd serpent," 133; "manytowred crest,' ," 128: but I have already enumerated more than perhaps are necessary. Peck also had been beforehand with Dr. W. on this particular in Milton; see pp. 117, 18, 19, of his Memoirs. But I think our divine Bard is under higher obligations to Sylvester than for an occasional epithet. From a very exuberant description of Sleep, his cell, attendants, &c. the following is transcribed: "In midst of all this cave so dark and deep, Oblivion lies hard by her drowsie brother, Confusedly about the silent bed Fantastick swarms of Dreams there hovered. They made no noyse, but right resemble may This page as follows: Hence vain deluding joys Dwell in some idle brain, And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As the gay motes that people the sun-beams, Or likest hovering dreams The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train. When Milton wrote, part huge of bulk Il. Pens. Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gate, Stretch'd like a promontory, sleeps or swims, And seems a moving land. P. Lost, b. VII. 410. he had the following lines of Sylvester before him: "When on the surges I perceive from far, And when in combat these fell monsters cross P. 40. Dr. Young has borrowed Milton's term "to tempest" (which was suggested by Du Bartas)" "those too strong Tumultuous rise and tempest human life." Night 7. Mr. Warton, in a note p. 186, vol. II. " History of English Poetry," says, that Milton, when he mentions the swan, the cock, and the peacock, together, Par. Lost, b. VII. 438, had his eye upon a passage in Douglas, a fine old Scotch poet: but I am inclined to believe him mistaken, and rather to have had his eye on a passage in Du Bartas, who mentions the crane, peacock, and cock, together: the crested cock, whose clarion sounds MILTON. "There the fair peacock, beautifully brave, Milton had just before mentioned the crane. 1786, May and June. 1787, Dec. T. C. O. XC. Parallel Passages in Authors of Note: MR. URBAN, THE following miscellaneous observations are much at your service. C. T. O. MALLET, who is by no means despicable as a minor poet, deserves more credit for his Edwin and Emma than for any other of his works. He seems to have had Shakspeare in his eye in the following stanza: "Nor let the pride of great ones scorn That sun which bids their diamond blaze See Shakspeare's Winter's Tale, scenë 7. Ed. and Em. "The self-same sun that shines upon his court The following passage from Daniel, which forms a part of a very beautiful and pathetic speech of Richard, during his confinement at Pomfret, is not unlike a passage in Shak speare. See King Lear, scene.5. 1 "Thou sitt'st at home, safe by thy quiet fire, See Shakspeare,→→ LXVI. Book iii. Civil Wars. "let's away to prison: We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage; At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news, and we'll talk with them too, Who loses, and who wins; who's in, who's out, &c. &c." M. Drayton, in the following passage, reminds us of a most spirited description in Shakspeare's Henry IV. Prince Edward all in gold, as he great Jove had been, The Mountfords all in plumes, like ostriches were seen. Page 342. fol, edit. -all furnish'd, all in arms, All plum'd like estridges, and with the wind Shakspeare. Drayton, in a passage where he personifies the Peak of Derbyshire, has the following idea, which reminds us of a very sublime passage in Shakspeare that becomes ridiculous from a single vulgar expression, as has been before remarked by Dr. Johnson, in his Rambler: O ye, my lovely joys, my darlings, in whose eyes See Macbeth-where he talks of the blanket of the night. Spenser seems to have suggested the leading idea in that well-known song in Cymbeline, beginning Hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings; without the hyperbole of heaven's gate Wake now my love, awake; for it is time; And Phoebus' gins to shew his glorious head; The merry lark her mattins sings aloft, |