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Thou haft not mift one thought that could be fit,
And all that was improper doft omit;
So that no room is here for writers left,
But to detect their ignorance, or theft.

THAT majefty which through thy work doth reign,
Draws the devout, deterring the profane.
And Things divine, thou treat'ft of in such state
As them preferves, and thee, inviolate.
At once delight and horror on us seise,
Thou fing' with fo much gravity and eafe;
And above human flight doft foar aloft
With plume fo ftrong, fo equal, and fo foft.
The bird nam'd from that paradise you fing,
So never flags, but always keeps on wing.
WHERE Couldst thou words of fuch a compass find?
Whence furnish such a vast expanse of mind?
Just Heav'n thee like TIRESIAS to requite,
Rewards with prophecy thy lofs of fight.

WELL might'ft thou fcorn thy readers to allure
With tinkling rhime, of thy own fenfe fecure:
While the TOWN-BAYS writes all the while and spells,
And like a pack-horfe, tires without his bells:
Their fancies like our bushy points appear,
The poetsdag them, we for fashion wear.
I too tranfported by the mode offend,

And while I meant to praife theè, must commend.
Thy
In number, weight, and measure, needs not rhime.

e created like thy theme fublime,

ANDREW MARVEL.

[i]

THE

LIFE

OF

JOHN MILTON.

FR

ROM a family, and town of his name in Oxfordîhire, our author derived his descent; but he was born at London in the year 1608. The publisher* of his works in profe, on whose veracity fome part of this narrative must entirely depend, dates his birth two years earlier than this: but contradicting himself afterwards in his own computation, I reduce it to the time that monfieur Bayle hath affign'd; and for the fame reafon which prevailed with him to affignit. His father John Milton, by profeffion a scriviner, lived in a reputable manner on a competent eftate, entirely his own acquifition; having been early difinherited by his parents for renouncing the communion of the church of Rome, to which they were zealously devoted. By his wife Sarah Cafton he had likewife one daughter, named Anna; and another fon, Chriftopher, whom he trained to the practice of the common law; who in the great rebellion adhered to the royal caufe: and in the reign of king James 11. by too eafy a compliance with the doctrines of the court, both religious and civil, he attained to the dignity of being made a judge of the common pleas; of which he died divested not long after the Revolution.

BUT JOHN, the fubje& of the prefent effay, was the favourite of his father's hopes, who, to cultivate the great genius which early difplayed itfelf, was at the expence of a domeftic tutor: whofe care and capacity his pupil gratefully celebrated in an excellent Latin An. Ætat. 12. elegy; the fourth in the prefent collection. At his initiation he is faid to have applied himself to letters with fuch indefatigable industry, that he rarely was prevailed with to quit his ftudies before midnight; which not only made him frequently fubject to fevere pains in his head; but likewife occafioned that weakness in his eyes, which terminated in a total privation of fight. From a domeftic education he was removed to St. Paul's school, to complete his acquaintance with the claffics, under the care of Dr. Gill and after a fhort ftay there, was tranfplanted to Chrift's college in ÇamAn. Etat. 15. bridge, where he diftinguished himself in all kinds of academical exercifes. Of this fociety he continued a member till he commenced master of arts; and then leaving the univerfity, he returned to his father; who had quitted the An. Etat. 23. town, and lived at Horton in Buckinghamshire; where he purfued his ftudies with unparalleled affiduity and fuccefs.

AFTER fome years spent in this ftudious retirement, his mother died: and then he prevailed with his father to gratify an inclination he had long entertained, of feeing foreign countries. Sir Henry Wotton, at that time provoft of Eaton college, gave An. Etat. 30. him a letter of advice for the direction of his travels but by not obferving an excellent maxim in it, he incurred great danger by difputing against the fuperftition of Rome, within the verge of * I penfiere ftretti, ed il viso sciolto.

*

the vatican. Having employed his curiofity about * two years in France and Italy, on the news of a civil war breaking out in England, he returned; without taking a furvey of Greece and Sicily, as, at his setting out, the scheme was projected. At Paris the lord viscount Scudamore, ambaffador from king Charles I. at the court of France, introduced him to the acquaintance of Grotius; who at that time, was honoured with the fame character there by Chriftina queen of Sweden. In Rome, Genoa, Florence, and other cities of Italy, he contracted a familiarity with those who were of highest reputation for wit and learning: feveral of whom gave him very obliging teftimonies of their friendship, and efteem, which are printed before his Latin poems. The first of them was written by Manfo, marquis of Villa, a great patron of Taffo, by whom he is celebrated in his ‡ poem on the conqueft of Jerufalem. It is highly probable that to his converfation with this noble Neapolitan, we owe the firft design which MILTON conceived, of writing an epic poem ; and it appears, by fome Latin verfes addreffed to the marquis with the title of Manfus, that he intended to fix on king Arthur for his hero: but Arthur was reserved to another destiny !

RETURNING from his travels he found England on the point of being involved in blood and An. Etat. 33. confufion. It feems wonderful that one

* Et jam his viridi surgebat culmus arista,
Et totidem flavas numerabant horrea meffes,-
Nec dum aderat Thyrfis: paftorem fcilicet illum
Dulcis amor mufe Thufca retinebat in urbe.

Epitaph, Dam.

of fo warm, and daring a fpirit, as his certainly was, should be restrained from the camp in those unnatural commotions. I fuppofe we may impute it wholly to the great deference he paid to paternal authority, that he retired to lodgings provided for him in the city: which being commodious for the reception of his fifter's fons, and fome other young gentlemen, he undertook their education; and is faid to have formed them on the fame plan which he afterwards published, in á fhort tractate inscribed to his friend Mr. HARTLIE. In this philofophical course he continued without a

wife to the year 1643; when he marAn. Etat. 35. ried Mary the daughter of Richard Powell of Foreft-hill in Oxfordshire; a gentleman of eftate and reputation in that county; and of principles fo very opposite to his fon-in-law, that the marriage is more to be wondered at, than the feparation which enfued, in little more than a month after she had cohabited with him in London. Her defertion provoked him both to write feveral treatifes concerning the doctrine, and difcipline, of divorce; and alfo to make his addreffes to a young lady of great wit and beauty; but before he had engaged her affections to conclude the marriage-treaty, at a vifit to one of his relations. he found his wife proftrate before him, imploring forgiveness and reconciliation. It is not to be doubted but an interview of that nature, fo little expected, must wonderfully affect him: and perhaps the impreffions it made on his imagination contributed much to the painting of that pathetic fcene in PARADISE LOST*, in which Eve addreffed herself to Adam for pardon and peace. At the interceffion of his friends who were prefent, after a fhort reluctance, he generously facrificed all his refentment to her tears.

* Book X. ver. 909,