That in the various bustle of resort

Were all-to ruffled ", and sometimes impair'd.
He, that has light within his own clear breast,
May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day':
But he, that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;
Himself is his own dungeon".

'Tis most true,

Sec. Br.
That musing meditation most affects
The pensive secresy of desert cell,

Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds,
And sits as safe as in a senate-house *;
For who would rob a hermit of his weeds,
His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,
Or do his gray hairs any violence?
But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree

Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard
Of dragon watch with unenchanted eye1,

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wings," is to smoothe, or set them in order, when ruffled: for this is the leading idea. Spenser, "Faer. Qu." 11. iii. 36:

She 'gins her feathers foule disfigured
Proudly to prune.-T. WARTON.

u Were all-to ruffled.

"All-to," or

So read as in editions 1637, 1645, and 1673. Not too, nimis. "al-to," is entirely. See Tyrwhitt's Glossary, Chaucer, v. To. And Upton's Glossary, Spenser, v. All. Various instances occur in Chaucer and Spenser, and in later writers. The corruption, supposed to be an emendation, “all too ruffled," began with Tickell (who had no knowledge of our old language), and has been continued by Fenton, and Dr. Newton. Tonson has the true reading, in 1695, and 1705.-T. WARTON.

See Judges ix. 53:-" And a certain woman cast a piece of a mill-stone upon Abimelech's head, and all-to brake his skull:" for so it should be printed. Some editions of the Bible corruptly read, "all to break," placing the verb improperly in the infinitive mood.-TODD.

He, that has light within his own clear breast,
May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day.

So, in his 'Prose Works,' i. 217, edit. 1698:-"The actions of just and pious men do not darken in their middle course; but Solomon tells us, they are as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."-TODD.

"Himself is his own dungeon.

In 'Samson Agonistes,' v. 155, the Chorus apply this solemn and forcible expression to the captive and afflicted hero:

Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!)

The dungeon of thyself.-TODD.

And sits as safe as in a senate-house.

Not many years after this was written, Milton's friends showed that the safety of a senate-house was not inviolable; but, when the people turn legislators, what place is safe from the tumults of innovation, and the insults of disobedience?-T. WARTON.

But beauty, &c.

These sentiments are heightened from the "Faithful Shepherdess," a. i. s. 1 :

Can such beauty be

Safe in its own guard, and not drawe the eye

Of him that passeth on, to greedy gaze, &c.-T. WARTON.

* With unenchanted eye.

:

That is, which cannot be enchanted. Here is more flattery; but certainly such as

To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit,
From the rash hand of bold Incontinence.
You may as well spread out the unsunn'd heaps
Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den,
And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope
Danger will wink on opportunity,
And let a single helpless maiden pass
Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste.
Of night, or loneliness, it recks me not;

a

I fear the dread events that dog them both,
Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person
Of our unowned sister.

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was justly due, and which no poet in similar circumstances could resist the opportunity, or rather the temptation, of paying.-T. WARTON.

When the Christian religion supplanted the pagan worship, such was the attachment even of zealous converts to the old-established days of jubilee and joy in honour of the gods and goddesses of Olympus, that it was found necessary to do something of the sort for the Christian cause; and accordingly a long line of saints, male and female, took possession of the set times of heathen jubilee, and reigned in the stead of Diana and Apollo. In like manner, the domestic mythology of the pagans yielded to that of the Christian; and the deeds which the infernal gods wrought of old were now accomplished by their successor Satan. Instead of a dragon being placed as a sentinel over concealed treasure of any kind, one of the inferior fiends was reluctantly compelled to perform the office: the corsairs in latter times carried this much farther, and, it is said, slew a prisoner over their treasure-chest, and commanded his spirit to keep watch and ward. When Dalswinton castle was stormed and taken by Robert Bruce, Comyn, who was very rich, caused his strong-box to be sunk in one of the deepest pools in the Nith, which in those days ran close by the castle walls. Times of peace returned, and a diver was employed to search for the gold; but when he descended to the bottom of the pool, he found, it is said, a fiend seated on the lid of the treasure-chest, who not only seemed disposed to contest the matter, but, as our version of the legend avers, actually held a human victim under each paw, and with his mouth gaped wistfully for a third. Two divers, it seems, had tried the adventure before, and failed; nor did the third and last succeed.-C.

And let a single helpless maiden pass, &c.

Rosalind argues in the same manner, in “As you Like it,” a. i. s. 3 :—

Alas! what danger will it be to us,

Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!

Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.-T. WARTON.

b Yet, where an equal poise, &c.

"Boni animi proprium est in dubiis meliora supponere, donec probetur in contrarium," Mat. Paris, "Hist." p. 774.-BowLE.

And gladly banish squint suspicion.

Alluding probably, in the epithet, to Spenser's description of Suspicion, in his Mask of Cupid, "Faerie Queene," III. xii. 15:

For he was foul, ill-favoured, and grim,

Under his eye-brows looking still ascaunce.—THYER.

As you may imagine; she has a hidden strength,
Which you remember not.
Sec. Br.
What hidden strength,
Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that?

El. Br. I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength,
Which, if Heaven gave it, may be term'd her own:
'Tis Chastity, my brother, Chastity:
She, that has that, is clad in complete steel;
And like a quiver'd nymph with arrows keen",
May trace huge forests, and unharbour'd heaths,
Infamous hills', and sandy perilous wilds,
Where, through the sacred rays of Chastity",
No savage, fierce bandite, or mountaineer",
Will dare to soil her virgin purity:
Yea, there, where very desolation dwells,

By grots and caverns shagg'd with horrid shades,
She may pass on with unblench'd' majesty,
Be it not done in pride, or in presumption.
Some say, no evil thing that walks by night
In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen*,

And, like a quiver'd nymph with arrows keen.

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I make no doubt but Milton in this passage had his eye upon Spenser's Belphoebe, whose character, arms, and manner of life perfectly correspond with this description.-THYER.

e

May trace huge forests, &c.

Shakspeare's Oberon, as Mr. Bowle observes, would breed his child-knight to "trace the forests wild," "Midsummer Night's Dream," a. ii. s. 3. In Jonson's Masques," a fairy says, vol. v. 206 :

Only we are free to trace

All his grounds, as he to chase.-T. WARTON.

Infamous hills.

Horace, Od. 1. iii. 20:-"Infames scopulos," as Dr. Newton observes. P. Fletcher, in his "Pisc. Ecl." published in 1633, has "infamous woods and downs."-TODD. Where, through the sacred rays of Chastity, &c.

See Fletcher, "Faithful Shepherdess," a. i. s. 1.-T. WARTON.

h Mountaineer.

A mountaineer seems to have conveyed the idea of something very savage and ferocious. In the "Tempest," a. iii. s. 3 :

Who would believe that there were mountaineers
Dewlapp'd like bulls ?

In "Cymbeline," a. iv. s. 3 :

Who call'd me traitor, mountaineer.-T. WARTON.

i Unblench'd.

Unblinded, unconfounded.-WARTON.

iSome say, no evil thing that walks by night.

Milton had Shakspeare in his head, "Hamlet," a. i. s. 1 :

Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated-
But then, they say, no spirit walks abroad.

Another superstition is ushered in with the same form in 'Paradise Lost,' b. x. 575. And the same form occurs in the description of the physical effects of Adam's fall, b. x. 668.-T. WARTON.

In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, &c.

Milton here had his eye on the "Faithful Shepherdess," a. i. He has borrowed the sentiment, but raised and improved the diction: