If this passage may be compared with Tasso's elegant description of
Armida's garden, Milton's _pleasant grove_ may vie with both.[141] He
is, however, under obligations to the sylvan scene of Spenser before us.
Mr. J.C. Walker, to whom the literature of Ireland and of Italy is highly
indebted, has mentioned to me his surprise that the writers on modern
gardening should have overlooked the beautiful pastoral description in
this and the two following stanzas.[142] It is worthy a place, he adds,
in the Eden of Milton. Spenser, on this occasion, lost sight of the
"trim gardens" of Italy and England, and drew from the treasures of his
own rich imagination. TODD.
_And fast beside these trickled softly downe.
A gentle stream, &c._
Compare the following stanza in the continuation of the _Orlando
Innamorato_, by Nilcolo degli Agostinti, Lib. iv, C. 9.
"Ivi e un mormorio assai soave, e basso,
Che ogniun che l'ode lo fa addornientare,
L'acqua, ch'io dissi gia per entro un sasso
E parea che dicesse nel sonare.
Vatti riposa, ormai sei stanco, e lasso,
E gli augeletti, che s'udian cantare,
Ne la dolce armonia par che ogn'un dica,
Deh vien, e dormi ne la piaggia, aprica,"
Spenser's obligations to this poem seem to have escaped the notice of
his commentators. J.C. WALKER.
[042] The oak was dedicated to Jupiter, and the poplar to Hercules.
[043] _Sicker_, surely; Chaucer spells it _siker_.
[044] _Yode_, went.
[045] _Tabreret_, a tabourer.
[046] _Tho_, then
[047] _Attone_, at once--with him.
[048] Cato being present on one occasion at the floral games, the people
out of respect to him, forbore to call for the usual exposures; when
informed of this he withdrew, that the spectators might not be deprived
of their usual entertainment.
[049] What is the reason that an easterly wind is every where
unwholesome and disagreeable? I am not sufficiently scientific to answer
this question. Pope takes care to notice the fitness of the easterly
wind for the _Cave of Spleen_.
No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows,
The dreaded east is all the wind that blows.
_Rape of the Lock_.
[050] One sweet scene of early pleasures in my native land I have
commemorated in the following sonnet:--