That strain again ;-—it had a dying fall!
0, it came o'er my ear, like the lweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour.-Enough! no more
'Tis not so sweet now, as it was before.
O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou !
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch foever,
But falls into abatement and low price,

Even

Cr, it

ing the sweets 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 conversant in the works of the Italian poets than Milton. W. obferves, that amongst the beauties of this charming similitude, its exact propriety is not the least. For as the south wind, while blowing over a violet bank, wafts away the odour of the flowers, it, at the same time, communicates its own sweetness to it. So the soft affecting music here described, though it takes away the natural, sweet, tranquility of the mind, yet at the fame time it communicates a new pleasure to it. may

allude to another property of music, where the same 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, just as the mind is then disposed. If to mirth, he calls for such music,

That Orpheus' self may heave his head,
From golden Numbers on a bed
Of heapt Elysian Powers, and hear
Such strains as would have won the ear
Of Pluto, to have quite set free
His half-regain’d Euridice.

L'Allegro. If to melancholy,

Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing
Such notes as, warbled to the 1tring,
Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek ;
And made hell grant what love did seek.

Il Penserojo.

Even in a minute ; so full of Mapes in-fancy,
That it alone is high fantastical. (2)

Love, in reference to Hunting
O, when my eyes did see Olivia first,
Methought she purg'd the air of pestilence ;
That initant was I turn’d into a hart, (3)
And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E'er fince pursue me.

Natural Affection akin to Love.
(4) O, she, 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 fantastical] Means no more, says St. than fantastical to the height. W. proposes light, i. e. called fantastical.

(3) Into a bart.] The duke makes this speech on being aiked, If be would go hunt the hart? And he alludes to the story of Asteon, by which S. seems to think men cautioned against too great familiarity with forbidden beauty. A&teon, who saw 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 incessant longing. An interpretation far more elegant and natural than that of Sir Francis Bacon, who in his Wisdom of the Ancients, supposes this story to warn us against enquiring into the secrets of princes, by Thewing, that those who know that which for reasons of ftate is to be concealed, will be detected and destroyed by their own servants. J. (4)

-Hic parvæ consuetudinis
Causâ, hujus mortem fert tam familaritèr :
Quid fi ipse amâfet? Quid mihi hic facit fatri?

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 ?".

Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else
That live in her; when liver, brain and heart,
These sovereign thrones, are (5) all supply'd, and fill'd
(Her sweet perfections) with one self-fame king !
Scene II. Description of Sebastian's Escape.

-I (6) faw your brother,
Most provident in peril, bind himself
(Courage and hope both teaching him the practice)
To a strong mast, that liv'd upon the fea;
Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,
I saw 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 less will prattle of.

Outward

e.

(5) Are all, &c.] Perhaps this should be read,

-Are all supply'd, and fillid Her sweet perfections with one, &c. i. “ when liver, &c. those fovereign thrones, are all supplied, and her sweet perfections filled with,” &c. the verbs belonging to each noun being applicable to all. S's diftinction (Mrs. G. observes) of the three thrones, is admirable: these are truly the seats of the three affections of love; the heart for passion, the mind for esteem, and the liver for jealousy: if Horace's anatomy is to be credited :

Difficile bile tumet Jecur. (6) I, &c.] Compare this with a similar paffage in the Tempest, Act 2. and another in Julius Cæsar, A&t 1. which will serve to shew S’s fertility and extent of genius on the same subject.

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 hast a mind that suits
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 sure, 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 seems in our author's time, to have been a very fashionable instrument. In The Return from Parnasus, 1606, it is mentioned with its

proper

derivation.
Her viol-de-gambo is her best content,

For 'twixt her legs she holds her instrument. See Steevens. The reader will find much more in this hu, morous scene respecting Sir Andrew : he says of himself,

66 Methinks sometimes 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 says,

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 should

be

Scene IV. A beautiful Boy. -
Dear lad, (8) believe it ;
For they shall yet bely thy happy years,
That say, thou art a man; Diana's lip
Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe

IS

years know?

be a jig: I would not so 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

Thy brows and cheeks are smooth as waters be,
When no breath troubles them: believe me, boy,
Care seeks out wrinkled brows, and hollow

eyes,
And builds himself caves to abide in them.

Philasler, Act 2. The lady, in Comus, speaking of her brothers, says,

Their unrazor'd lips were smooth as Hebe's. When Comus, telling her he had seen 'em, goes on molts beautifully,

Their port was more than human, as they stood,
I took it for a fairy vision,
Or some gay creatures of the element,
That in the colours of the rainbow live,

And play i'th' plighted clouds.
Spenser, describing an angel, B. 2. c. 8. f. 5. speaks
of him thus;
Besides his head there sat a fair

young man,
Of wond'rous beauty and of freshest years,
Whose tender bud to blossom new began,

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

Like Phæbus' face adorn'd with sunny rays,
Divinely Mone; and two sharp winged shears

Decked with diverse plumes, like painted jays,

Were fixed at his back to cut his airy ways. The reader, if he thinks proper, may be agreeably amused by comparing this with Milton's celebrated description of Raphael, B. 5. v. 277.