There is perhaps nothing in "Lycidas" which has so commended itself to the
memory and lips of men, as that exquisite strain of tender regret and
pathetic despondency in which occur the lines--
"Fame is the spur which the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of noble mind)
To scorn delights, and live laborious days."
It is with no desire to impair our admiration of these noble lines that I
would ask, if that graceful glorifying of Fame as "the last infirmity of
noble minds" was not suggested by the profound remark of Tacitus, in his
character of the stoical republican, Helvidius Priscus (_Hist._, l. iv. c.
6.):
"Erant, quibus appetentior famæ videretur, quando etiam sapientibus
cupido gloriæ novissima exuitur."
The great Englishman has condensed and intensified the expression of the
concise and earnest Roman. This is one of those delightful obligations
which repay themselves: Milton has more than returned the favour of the
borrowed thought by lending it a heightened expression.