4. Reckon'd I am with them that pass Down to the dismal pit; I am a man, but weak alas! And for that name unfit. 5. From life discharg'd and parted quite Them, from thy hand deliver'd o'er, Where thickest darkness hovers round, In horrid deeps to mourn. 7. Thy wrath, from which no shelter saves, Full sore doth press on me ; Thou break'st upon me all thy waves, 8. Thou dost my friends from me estrange, And mak'st me odious, Me to them odious, for they change, And I here pent up thus. 9. Through sorrow, and affliction great, My hands to thee I spread. 10. Wilt thou do wonders on the dead? Shall the deceas'd arise, And praise thee from their loathsome bed 11. Shall they thy loving kindness tell. Thy faithfulness unfold? 12. In darkness can thy mighty hand Of dark oblivion? 13. But I to thee, O Lord, do cry, Ere yet my life be spent ; And up to thee my prayer doth hie, Each morn, and thee prevent. 14. Why wilt thou, Lord, my soul forsake, And hide thy face from me, 15. That am already bruis'd, and shake 16. Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow; 18. Lover and friend thou hast remov'd, And sever'd from me far: hey fly me now whom I have lov'd, T And as in darkness are. APARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV. For his, &c. But full soon they did devour This and the following Psalm were done by the The tawny king with all his power, Author at fifteen years old. WHEN the blest seed of Terah's faithful son, After long toil, their liberty had won ; For his, &c. His chosen people he did bless In the wasteful wilderness. For his, &c. Ad JOANNEM MILTONUM. And with full hand supplies their need, Let us therefore warble forth That his mansion hath on high JOANNIS MILTONI. LONDINENSIS POEMATA. QUORUM PLERAQUE INTRA ANNUM ÆTATIS Hæc quæ sequuntur de authore testimonia' tametsi ipse intelligebat non tam de se quam 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 atuue 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, Græci nimirum, Latina, atque Hetrusca, Epigramma Joannis Salsitli Romani, CEDE, Meles; cedat depressâ Mincius urnå; Sebetus Tassum desinat usque loqui; At Thamesis victor cunctis ferat altior undas, Nam per te, Milto, par tribus unus erit. 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; Spinse Zeusi l' industre ardente brama; Cosi l' Ape Ingegnosa E quanti vaghi fiori ornano il prato ; Di bella gloria amante I più profondi arcani Ch' occulta la natura e 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 danni ; 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 patria, virtutibus, eximio; VIRO, qui multae peregrinatione, studio cuncta orbis terrarum loca, perspexit; ut novus Ulysses omnia ubique ab omnibus apprehenderet: Polyglotto, in cujus ore linguæ jam deperdite sic reviviscunt, ut idiomata omnia sint in ejus laudibus infacunda; et jure ea percallet, ut admirationes 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. 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, whơ 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 sentiI value these pieces as much for their fancy and genius, as for their style and expression. ment. 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 compositions of all sorts, he had been more attentive to the simplicity of Lucretius, Virgil, and Tibullus. 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. May is scarcely an author in point. His skill is in parody; and he was confined to the peculia rities of an archetype, which, it may be presumed, As to Cowley when comhe thought excellent. But Cui in memoriâ totus orbis ; in intellectu sapientia; in voluntate ardor gloriæ; in ore eloharmonicos cœlestium sphærarum soquentia ; nitus, astronomiâ duce, audienti; characteres mirabilium naturæ per quos Dei magnitudo de-pared with Milton, the same critic observes, "Milton is generally content to express the scribitur, magistrâ philosophiâ, legenti; antiquitatum latebras vetustatis excidia, eruditionis am- thoughts of the ancients in their language: Cowley, without much loss of purity or elegance, bages, comite assiduâ autorum lectione, accommodates the diction of Rome to his own conceptions. The advantage seems to lie on the Exquirenti, restauranti, percurrenti. At cur nitor in arduum? At mare immensum oceanusque Lucis, Jugitèr cælo fluit empyræo; Hinc inexhausto per utrumque mundum Funditur ore. 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. It 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 ancient fable and history. I cannot but add, an extraordinary copiousness and command of that Gray resembles Milton in many instances. strongly attached to the cultivation of Latin poetry. WARTON. And in the same poem in a party worthy of the Among others, in their youth they were both pastoral pencil of Watteau. Hauserunt avide Chocolatam Flora venus que. Of the Fraxinella, Tu tres metropoles humani corporis armis Propugnas, uterum, cor, cerebrumque, tuis. He calls the Lychnis, Candelabrum ingens. Cupid is Arbiter forme criticus. Ovid is Antiquarius 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 Lucidum trudis properanter agmen : ELEGIARUM LIBER. ELEG. I. AD CAROLUM DEODATUM.' TANDEM, chare, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ, Multùin, crede, juvat terras aliuisse remotas Pectus amans nostrî, 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 Docturis, was Theodore. Ibid. Nuda nec arva placent, nmbrásque negantia | Quot tibi, conspicuæ formáque auroque, puellæ molles: Quàm malè Phœbicolis convenit ille locus! Non ego vel profugi nomen sortémve recuso, O, utinam vates nunquam graviora tulisset Neve foret victo laus tibi prima, Maro. Et vocat ad plausus garrula scena suos. Detonat inculto barbara verba foro; Sæpe vafer gnato succurrit servus amanti, Et nasum rigidi fallit ubique patris ; Sæpe novos illic virgo mirata calores Quid sit amor nescit, dum quoque nescit, amat. Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragedia sceptrum Et dolet, et specto, juvat et spectâsse dolendo, Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit ; Aut luit incestos aula Creontis avos. Sed neque sub tecto semper, nec in urbe, late mus ; Irrita nec nobis tempora veris eunt. Atque faces, quotquot volvit uterque polus! Et quæcunque vagum cepit amica Jovem. Et quot Susa colunt, Memnoniámque Ninon ; Gloria virginibus debetur prima Britannis; Per medias radiant turba videnda vias, Stat quoque juncosas Cami remeare paludes, ELEG. II. Anno ætatis 17. In obitum Præconis Academici Cantabrigiensis". 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 mosta Scholis. ELEG. III. Anno Etatis 17. In obitum Prasulis Wintoniensis". MOESTUS eram, et tacitus, nullo comitante, sede- Tira sepulchrali Mors metuenda face; 1 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. lonis, Turrigerum latè conspicienda caput, Tu nimium felix intra tua monia claudis Quicquid formosi pendulus orbis habet Non tibi tot cælo scintillant astra sereno, Endymioneæ turba ministra deæ, 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. |