Ad JOANNEM MILTONUM. And with full hand supplies their need. Let us therefore warble forth That his mansion hath on high For his mercies aye endure, JOANNIS MILTONI LONDINENSIS РОЕМАТА. QUORUM PLERAQUE INTRA ANNUM ÆTATIS Hæc quæ sequuntur de authore testimonia tametsi ipse intelligebat non tam de se quàm supra se esse dicta, eò quòd præclaro ingenio viri, nec non amici, ita ferè solent laudare, ut omnia suis potiùs virtutibus, quàm veritati congruentia, nimis cupidè affingant, noluit tamen horum egregiam in se voluntatem non esse notam ; cùm alii præsertim ut id faceret magnoperè suaderent. Dum enim nimiæ laudis invidiam totis ab se viribis amolitur, sibique quod plus æquo est non attributum esse mavult, judicium interim hominum cordatorum atune illustrium quin summo sibi honori ducat, negare non potest. Joannes Baptista Mansus, Marchio Villensis, Neapolitanus, ad JOANNEM MILTONIUM Anglum. Ur mens, forma, decor, facies mos, si pietas sic, Non Anglus, verùm herclè Angelus, ipse fores. Ad JOANNEM MILTONEM Anglum triplici poeseos laurea coronandum, Græcâ nimirum, Latina, atque Hetrusc, Epigramma Joannis Salsilli Romani. CEDE, Meles; cedat depressâ Mincius urnâ ; ERGIMI all' Etra ò Clio Perche di stelle intreccierò corona La Fronde eterna in Pindo, e in Elicona, Non puo del tempo edace Furar dalle memorie eccelso onore, Del Ocean profondo Cinta dagli ampi gorghi Anglia resiede Però che il suo valor l' umano eccede : Ch' hanno a region del sovruman tra noi. Alla virtù sbandita Danno ne i petti lor fido ricetto, Perche in lei san trovar gioia, e diletto; Lungi dal Patrio lido Spinse Zeusi l' industre ardente brama; Cosi l' Ape Ingegnosa Tra con industria il suo liquor pregiato Dal giglio e dalla rosa, E quanti vaghi fiori ornano il prato ; Formano un dolce suon diverse Chorde, Fan varie voci melodia concorde. I più profondi arcani Ch' occulta la natura è in cielo e in terra Troppo avara tal' hor gli chiude, e serra, Non batta il Tempo l' ale, Fermisi immoto, e in un fermin si gl' anni, Scorron di troppo ingiuriosi a i darni ; Dammi tua dolce Cetra Se vuoi ch' io dica del tuo dolce canto, Di farti huomo celeste ottiene il vanto, Tento spiegar tuo merto alto, e preclaro E ad ammirar, non a lodarlo imparo ; Del sig. ANTONIO FRANCINI, gentilhuomo JOANNI MILTONI. LONDINENSI: Juveni patriâ, virtutibus, eximio; VIRO, qui multae peregrinatione, studio cuncta orbis terrarum loca, perspexit; ut novus Ulysses omnia ubique ab omnibus apprehenderet: Illi, in cujus virtutibus evulgandis ora Fama non sufficiant, nec hominum stupor in laudandis satis est, reverentiæ at amoris ergo hoc ejus meritis debitum admirationis tributum offert Cu rolus Datus Patricius Florentinus, Tanto homini servus, tantæ virtutis amator PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE LATIN VERSES. Milton is said to be the first Englishman, who after the restoration of letters wrote Latin verses with classic elegance. But we must at least except some of the hendecasyllables and epigrams of Leland, one of our first literary reformers, from this hasty determination. In the elegies, Ovid was professedly Milton's model for language and versification. They are not, however, a perpetual and uniform tissue of Ovidian phraseology. With Ovid in view, he has an original manner and character of his own, which exhibit a remarkable perspicuity, a native facility and fluency. Nor does his observation, of Roman models oppress or destroy our great poet's inherent powers of invention and sentiment. I value these pieces as much for their fancy and genius, as for their style and expres sion. That Ovid among the Latin poets was Milton's favourite, appears not only from his elegiac but his hexametric poetry. The versification of our author's hexameters has yet a different structure from that of the Metamorphoses: Milton's is more clear, intelligible, and flowing; less desultory, less familiar, and less embarrassed with a frequent recurrence of periods. Ovid is at once rapid and abrupt. He wants dignity: he has too much conversation in his manner of telling a story. Prolixity of paragraph, and length of sentence, are peculiar to Milton. This is seen, not only in some of his exordial invocations in the Paradise Lost, and in many of the religious addresses of a like cast in the prose-works, but in his long verse. It is to be wished that, in his Latin com Polyglotto, in cujus ore linguæ jam deperditæ sic reviviscunt, ut idiomata omnia sint in ejus laudibus infacunda; et jure ea percallet, ut ad-positions of all sorts, he had been more attenmirationes et plausus populorum ab propriâ sapientiâ excitatos intelligat : Illi, cujus animi dotes corporisque sensus ad admirationem commovent, et per ipsam motum cuique auferent; cujus opera ad plausus hortantur, sed venustate vocem laudatoribus adimunt, tive to the simplicity of Lucretius, Virgil, and Tibullus. But Dr. Johnson, unjustly I think, prefers the Latin poetry of May and Cowley to that of Milton, and thinks May to be the first of the three. May is certainly a sonorous versifier, and was sufficiently accomplished in poetical declamation for the continuation of Lucan's Pharsalia. Cui in memoriâ totus orbis ; in intellectu sa- May is scarcely an author in point. His skill is pientia; in voluntate ardor gloriæ; in ore elo- in parody; and he was confined to the peculiarities of an archetype, which, it may be presumed, quentia; harmonicos cœlestium sphærarum sonitus, astronomiâ duce, audienti; characteres he thought excellent. As to Cowley when commirabilium naturæ per quos Dei magnitudo de-pared with Milton, the same critic observes, scribitur, magistrâ philosophiâ, legenti; antiquitatum latebras vetustatis excidia, eruditionis ambages, comite assiduâ autorum lectione, Exquirenti, restauranti, percurrenti. Milton is generally content to express the thoughts of the ancients in their language: Cowley, without much loss of purity or elegance, accommodates the diction of Rome to his own conceptions.-The advantage seems to lie on the side of Cowley." But what are these concep- Hic sociatorum sacra constellatio vatum, Again, Temporis ingreditur penetralia celsa futuri, Implumesque videt nidis cœlestibus annos. And, to be short, we have the Plusquam visus aquilinus of lovers, Natio verborum, Exuit vitam acriam, Menti auditur symphonia dulcis, Natura archiva, Omnes symmetria sensus congerit, Condit aromatica prohibetque putescere laude. Again, where Aliquid is personified, Monogramma exordia mundi. It may be said, that Cowley is here translating from his own English Davideis. But I will bring examples from his original Latin poems. In praise of the spring. At mare immensum oceanusque Lucis Hinc inexhausto per utrumque mundum It Milton's Latin poems may be justly considered as legitimate classical compositions, and are never disgraced with such language and such imagery. Cowley's Latinity, dictated by an irregular and unrestrained imagination, presents a mode of diction half Latin and half English. is not so much that Cowley wanted a knowledge of the Latin style, but that he suffered that knowledge to be perverted and corrupted by false and extravagant thoughts. Milton was a more perfect scholar than Cowley, and his mind was more deeply tinctured with the excellencies of ancient literature. He was a more just thinker, and therefore a more just writer. In a word, he had more taste, and more poetry, and consequently more propriety. If a fondness for the Italian writers has sometimes infected his English poetry with false ornaments, his Latin verses, both in diction and sentiment, are at least free from those depravations. Some of Milton's Latin poems were written in his first year at Cambridge, when he was only seventeen: they must be allowed to be very correct and manly performances for a youth of that age. And considered in that view, they discover an extraordinary copiousness and command of ancient fable and history. I cannot but add, that Gray resembles Milton in many instances. And in the same poem in a party worthy of the Among others, in their youth they were both strongly attached to the cultivation of Latin poeWARTON pastoral pencil of Watteau. Et resonet toto musica verna libro; &c. Hauserunt avide Chocolatam Flora venus try. que. Of the Fraxinella, Tu tres metropoles humani corporis armis tuis. He calls the Lychnis, Candelabrum ingens. ELEGIARUM LIBER. ELEG. I. AD CAROLUM DEODATUM.' Pertulitet voces nuncia charta tuas ; Cupid is Arbiter forme criticus. Ovid is Anti-TANDEM, chare, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ, quarius ingens. An ill smell is shunned Olfactus tetricitate sui. And in the same page, is nugatoria pestis. But all his faults are conspicuously and collectively exemplified in these stanzas, among others, of his Hymn on Light. Pulchra de nigro soboles parente, Risus O terræ sacer et polorum, Te bibens arcus Jovis ebriosus Lumine caudam. Lucidum trudis properanter agmen : Pertulit, occiduâ Devæ Cestrensis ab orâ Pectus amans nostri, támque fidele caput, Charles Deodate was one of Milton's most intimate friends. He was an excellent scholar, and practised physic in Cheshire. He was educated with our author at St. Paul's school in London ; and from thence was sent to Trinity college Oxford, where he was entered Feb. 7, in the year 1621, at thirteen years of age. Lib. Matric. Univ. Oxon. sub ann. He was born in London and the name of his father, in Medicina Doetoris, was Theodore. Ibid. Nuda nec arva placent, nmbrásque negantia Quot tibi, conspicua formáque auroque, puellæ molles : Quàm malè Phœbicolis convenit ille locus ! Nec duri libet usque minas perferre Magistri, Cæteraque ingenio non subeunda meo. Si sit hoc exilium patrios adiisse penates, Et vacuum curis otia grata sequi, Non ego vel profugi nomen sortémve recuso, . Lætus et exilii conditione fruor. O, utinam vates nunquam graviora tulisset' Non tunc Ionio quicquam cessisset Homero, Detonat inculto barbara verba foro; Quid sit amor nescit, dum quoque nescit, amat. Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragoedia sceptrum Quassat, et effusis crinibus ora rotat, Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit ; Aut luit incestos aula Creontis avos. Sed neque sub tecto semper, nec in urbe, latemus; Irrita nec nobis tempora veris eunt. Atque faces, quotquot volvit uterque polus! Et quæcunque vagum cepit amica Jovem. Cedite, Achæmeniæ turritâ fronte puellæ, Et quot Susa colunt, Memnoniámque Ninon ; Gloria virginibus debetur prima Britannis ; Per medias radiant turba videnda vias. Creditur huc geminis venisse invecta columbis Alma pharetrigero milite cincta Venus; Huic Cnidon, et riguas Simoentis flumine valles, Huic Paphon, et roseam post habitura Cypron Ast ego, dum pueri sinit indulgentia cæci, Moenia quàm subitò linquere fausta paro ; Et vitare procul malefidæ infamia Circes Atria, divini Molyos usus ope. Stat quoque juncosas Cami remeare paludes, Atque iterum raucæ murmur adire Scholæ, Interea fidi parvum cape munus amici, Paucáque in alternos verba coacta modos. ELEG. II. Anno Etatis 17. In obitum Præconis Academici Cantabrigiensis". TE, qui, conspicuus baculo fulgente, solebas Palladium toties ore ciere gregem; Ultima præconum, præconem te quoque sæva Mors rapit, officio nec favet ipsa suo. Candidiora licèt fuerint tibi tempora plumis, Sub quibus accipimus delituisse Jovem ; Alipes, æthereâ missus ab arce Patris : Turba quidem est telis ista petenda tuis. Et madeant lachrymis nigra feretra tuis. Fundat et ipsa modos querebunda Elgëia tristes, Personet et totis nænia mæsta Scholis. ELEG. III. Anno Ætatis 17. In obitum Prasulis Wintoniensis". MOESTUS eram, et tacitus, nullo comitante, sede- Dira sepulchrali Mors metuenda face; Pulsavitque auro gravidos et jaspide muros, Nec metuit satrapum steinere falce greges. The person here commemorated, is Richard Ridding, one of the university-beadles, and a master of arts of Saint John's College, Cambridge. He signed a testamentary codicil, Sept. 23, 1626, proved the eighth day of November Túque urbs Daraaniis, Londinum, structa co- following. From Registr. Testam. Cantabr. WARTON. 'Lancelot Andrews, bishop of Winchester, had been originally master of Pembroke-hall in Cambridge; but long before Milton's time. He died at Winchester-House in Southwark, Sept. 21, 1626. Tunc memini clarique ducis, fatrisque verendi, E memini Heroum, quos vidit ad æthera raptos, "Mors fera, Tartareo diva secunda Jovi, Et crocus, et pulchræ Cypridi sacra rosa ? Quid juvat humanâ tingere cæde manus? Heu! nequit ingenium visa referre meum. Illic punicea radiabant omnia luce, Ut matutino cùm juga solę rubent. Ac veluti cùm pandit opes Thaumantia proles, Non dea tam variis ornavit floribus hortos Alcinoi, Zephyro Chloris amata levi. Infula divinum cinxerat alba caput. Pura triumphali personat æthra tuba. [iutat, At mihi cum tenebris aurea pulsa quies. Flebam turbatos Cephaleiâ pellice somuos; Talia contingant somnia sæpe mihi! ELEG. IV. Anno Etatis 18. Ad Thomam Junium præceptorem suum, apud mercatores Anglicos Hamburgæ agentes, Pastoris nuunere fungentem'. CURRE per immensum subitò, mea litera, pontum, I, pete Teutonicos læve per æquor agros; Segnes rumpe moras, et nil, precor, obstet eunti Ditis ad Hamburgæ monia flecte gradum, Præsul, Christicolas pascere doctus oves: Ille quidem est animæ plusquam pars altera nostræ ; Dimidio vitæ vivere cogor ego. Hei mihi! quot pelagi, quot montes interjecti, Vade igitur,cursúque Eurum præverte sonorum; Mulcentem gremio pignora chara suo: Forsitan aut veterum prælarga volumina patrum Versantem, aut veri Biblia sacra Dei ; Cœlestive animas saturantem rore tenelias, Grande salutiferæ religionis opus. Utque solet, multam sit dicere cura salutem, Dicere quam decuit, si modò adesset, herum. Hæc quoque, paulùm oculos in humum defixa inodestos, Verba verecundo sis memor loqui: Ast ego quid volui manifestum tollere crimen, English merchants at Hamburgh, was Milton's private preceptor, before he was sent to Saint Paul's school. This Thomas Young was doctor Thomas Young a member of the Assembly of Divines, where he was a constant attendant, and one of the authors of the book called Smectymnnuus, defended by Milton; and who from a London preachership in Duke's Place was preferred by the parliament to the mastership of Jesus College in Cambridge. |