of two books, and a fragment of a third, originally printed in 1604.

Lauder, in publishing this collection of curious Latin verse, has occafionally feafoned it with remarks of his own, both in Latin and English -the tenor of them has a great tendency to confirm the apology, with which Johnson excused the implicit and hafty credit that he gave to the grofs forgeries of the impoftor: "He "thought the man too frantic to be fraudulent." The language used by Lauder, in the publication I am speaking of, fhows indeed that the contemptuous abhorrence, which this unhappy scholar had conceived of Milton, really bordered upon infanity. Without pointing to any particular inftances of plagiarism, he bestows on the poet the extraordinary title of the arch felon; and inferts a fingular epigram, written by a fervile foreigner, to prove Milton an atheift. Not contented with reviling the great author himself, he extends the virulent attack to his nephew Philips, whom he accuses of having favored, by a suspicious filence, the fecret practice of his uncle, in rifling the treasures of others,

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lips (fays Lauder) every where in his "Theatrum Poetarum,' either wholly paffes over in "filence fuch authors as Milton was most obliged 66 to, or, if he chances to mention them, does it "in the moft flight and fuperficial manner ima ginable."

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the hint in an Italian tragedy. Voltaire tells a wild, unauthorized ftory of a farce feen by "Milton in Italy, which opened thus: 'Let the rainbow be the fiddle-ftick of the fiddle • of heaven"."

The critic was perfectly right in relinquishing his former idea concerning the Adamus Exul of Grotius; but, in his remark on Voltaire, he fhows how dangerous it is to cenfure any writer for what he says concerning books, which the cenfurer has no opportunity of examining. Voltaire, indeed, from his predominant paffion for ridicule, and from the rafh vivacity, that often led him to speak too confidently of various works from a very flight inspection of their contents, is no more to be followed implicitly in points of criticism, than he is on the more important article of religion: but his opinions in literature are generally worth examination, as he poffeffed no common degree of taste, a perpetual thirst for universal knowledge, and though not the most intimate, yet, perhaps, the moft extensive acquaintance with literary works and literary men that was ever acquired by any individual.

When Voltaire vifited England in the early part of his life, and was engaged in foliciting a subscription for his Henriade, which firft appeared under the title of "The League," he published, in our language, an Effay on Epic Poetry, a work which, though written under fuch difadvantage, poffeffes the peculiar vivacity of this

of

extraordinary writer, and is indeed fo curious a specimen of his verfatile talents, that although it has been fuperfeded by a French compofition greater extent, under the fame title, it ought, I think, to have found a place in that fignal monument to the name of Voltaire, the edition of his works in ninety-two volumes.

As my reader may be gratified in seeing the English ftyle of this celebrated foreigner, I will transcribe, without abridgment, what he says of Andreini :

"Milton, as he was travelling through Italy "in his youth, faw at Florence a comedy called "Adamo, writ by one Andreini, a player, and "dedicated to Mary de Medicis, Queen of France. "The subject of the play was the Fall of Man; "the actors, God, the devils, the angels, Adam, "Eve, the Serpent, Death, and the feven mor"tal fins that topic, fo improper for a drama, "but fo fuitable to the abfurd genius of the Ita"lian ftage (as it was at that time) was handled "in a manner entirely conformable to the extravagance of the defign. The scene opens "with a chorus of angels, and a cherubim thus "speaks for the reft: Let the rainbow be the "fiddle-ftick of the fiddle of the heavens ! let "the planets be the notes of our mufic! let time "beat carefully the meafure, and the winds "make the fharps, &c. Thus the play begins,

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and every scene rifes above the laft in profufion of impertinence.

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Milton pierced through the abfurdity of that "performance to the hidden majefty of the fubject, which, being altogether unfit for the "ftage, yet might be (for the genius of Milton, "and for his only) the foundation of an epic 66 poem.

"He took from that ridiculous trifle the first "hint of the nobleft work, which human imagination has ever attempted, and which he "executed more than twenty years after.

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"In the like manner, Pythagoras owed the "invention of mufic to the noife of the hammer of a Blacksmith; and thus, in our days, "Sir Ifaac Newton, walking in his garden, had "the first thought of his fyftem of gravitation upon feeing an apple falling from a tree.

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It was thus that, in the year 1727, Voltaire, then ftudying in England, and collecting all poffible information concerning our great epic poet, accounted for the origin of Paradife Loft. Rolli, another foreign ftudent in epic poetry, who refided at that time in London, and was engaged in tranflating Milton into Italian verse, published some severe cenfures, in English, on the English effay of Voltaire, to vindicate both Taffo and Milton from certain ftrictures of farcaftic raillery, which the volatile Frenchman had lavished upon both. Voltaire, indeed, has fallen himself into the very inconfiftency, which he

mentions as unaccountable in Dryden; I mean the inconfiftency of fometimes praifing Milton with fuch admiration as approaches to idolatry, and fometimes reproving him with fuch keennefs of ridicule as borders on contempt. In the courfe of this difcuffion we may find, perhaps, a mode of accounting for the inconfiftency both of Dryden and Voltaire; let us attend at prefent to what the latter has faid of Andreini!--If the Adamo of this author really gave birth to the divine poem of Milton, the Italian dramatift whatever rank he might hold in his own country, has a fingular claim to our attention and regard. Johnson indeed calls the report of Voltaire a wild and unauthorized story; and Rolli afferts, in reply to it, that if Milton faw the Italian Drama, it must have been at Milan, as the Adamo, in his opinion, was a performance too contemptible to be endured at Florence. "Adreini (fays the critic of Italy) was a firoller (un istrione) of the worst age of the Italian letters." Notwithstanding thefe terms of contempt, which one of his countrymen has bestowed upon Andreini, he appears to me highly worthy of our notice; (for although in uniting, like Shakfpeare and Moliere, the two different arts of writing and of acting plays, he difcovered not fuch extraordinary powers as have juftly immortalized thofe idols of the theatre) he was yet endowed with one quality, not only uncommon, but fuch as might render him, if I may hazard