in love, we often prefer our opposites. One of the most money-loving men we ever knew, was devotedly fondof Horace! Milton, as is well known, has references in both his prose and poetry to books of chivalry, and he once meditated a poem on the subject of Arthur. Hence his biographers in general have taken occasion to assert that he was deeply read in the old romances of the cycles of Arthur and Charlemagne, and of the Amadises, Palmerins, and others of Spain. We doubt however if his reading was so extensive; at least it is not proved by the following passage of the Apology for Smectymnuus, on which the critics seem to rest. I betook me among those lofty fables and romances which recount in solemn cantos the deeds of knighthood, founded by our victorious kings, and from hence had in renown all over Christendom. There I read it in the oath of every knight, that he should defend to the expense of his best blood the honour and chastity of virgin or matron. We may observe that Milton, who never uses his words at random, employs that of cantos in speaking of these romances; from which it is quite evident that it was poems he had chiefly in view, and these could only be the Orlando Innamorato and Furioso, and the Faerie Queen-more especially this last, and possibly the Amadigi and some others of the romantic poems of Italy. The only prose romance that it appears certain that he read, was the Mort d'Arthur; for there is an evident reference to it in Paradise Regained, and which proves what an enduring impression it had made on his memory. *It has however never, we believe, been observed *In one of his Academic Prolusions we meet the following passage: "Nec validissimi illi regis Arthorii pugiles igniti et flammigerantis castelli incantimenta vicerunt facilius et dissiparunt." We cannot tell that he seems also to have read in his early days another English romance, namely, the Seven Champions of Christendom; for the following passage in The Reason of Church Government, seems derived from that romance, rather than from the last cantos of the Legend of Holiness in the Faerie Queen. More like that huge dragon of Egypt, breathing out waste and desolation to the land, unless he were daily fattened with virgin's blood.* Him our old patron St. George by his matchless valour slew, as the Prelate of the Garter that reads his collect can tell. And if our princes and knights will imitate the fame of that old champion, as by their order of knighthood solemnly taken they vow, far be it that they should uphold and side with this English dragon; but rather, to do as indeed their oaths bind them, they should make it their knightly adventure to pursue and vanquish this mighty sail-winged monster that menaces to swallow up the land, unless her bottomless gorge may be satisfied with the blood of the King's daughter, the Church; and may, as she was wont, fill her dark and infamous den with the bones of the saints. where he got this; for we recollect nothing of the kind in the Mort d'Arthur, and we have not the book in our possession. "If he be not every day appeased with the body of a true virgin." -Seven Champions. + His flaggy wings, when forth he did display, Were like two sails.-F. Q. i. 11, 10. WRITINGS OF MILTON. I. VERSE. THE Writings of Milton are now to come under consideration. These are both in English and in Latin: of the former we will treat in some detail, while on the latter we will content ourselves with making merely a few observations. As we have no English prose of Milton's of so early a date as the greater part of his poetry anterior to Paradise Lost, we will commence with an account of his earlier poems. In treating of Milton's poetry, we will not venture, in imitation of Johnson and others, to erect ourselves into critics and sit in judgement on it, pronouncing authoritatively on the merits and demerits of the pieces that come under consideration. For this purpose a mind nearly equal to the poet's own would be required; and few, we apprehend, can lay claim with justice to a possession of such eminence. For our own part, we frankly declare that, conscious of our immense inferiority to the poet in mental power, we would not presume to sit in judgement on what bears the stamp of his own approval; for it should always be remembered that these poems were |