And Tasso, in describing his hero Godfrey, says, Heaven
Gli empie d'onor la faccia, e vi riduce
Di Giovinezza il bel purpureo lume.
Both Gray and Tasso copied Virgil, where Venus gives to her son Æneas—
—— Lumenque Juventæ
Purpureum.
Dryden has omitted the purple light in his version, nor is it given by Pitt; but Dryden expresses the general idea by
—— With hands divine,
Had formed his curling locks and made his temples shine,
And given his rolling eys a sparkling grace.
It is probable that Milton has given us his idea of what was meant by this purple light, when applied to the human countenance, in the felicitous expression of
CELESTIAL ROSY-RED.
Gray appears to me to be indebted to Milton for a hint for the opening of his Elegy: as in the first line he had Dante and Milton in his mind, he perhaps might also in the following passage have recollected a congenial one in Comus, which he altered. Milton, describing the evening, marks it out by
—— What time the laboured ox
In his loose traces from the furrow came,
And the swinkt hedger at his supper sat.