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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
Among the dead to sleep;
And like the slain in bloody fight,
That in the grave lie deep.
Whom thou rememberest no more,
Dust never more regard,

Them, from thy hand deliver'd o'er,
Death's hideous house hath barr'd.
6. Thou in the lowest pit profound
Hast set me all forlorn,

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,
And all thy waves break me.

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,
Mine eye grows dim and dead;
Lord, all the day I thee entreat,

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
With pale and hollow eyes?

11. Shall they thy loving kindness tell.
On whom the grave hath hold?
Or they, who in perdition dwell,

Thy faithfulness unfold?

12. In darkness can thy mighty hand
Or wonderous acts be known?
Thy justice in the gloomy land

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
With terrour sent from thee?
Bruis'd and afflicted, and so low
As ready to expire;
While I thy terrours undergo,
Astonish'd with thine ire.

16. Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow;
Thy threatenings cut me through :
17. All day they round about me go,
Like waves they me pursue.

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.

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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.

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Ad JOANNEM MILTONUM.

And with full hand supplies their need,
For his, &c.

Let us therefore warble forth
His mighty majesty and worth.
For his, &c.

That his mansion hath on high
Above the reach of mortal eye.
For his mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.

JOANNIS MILTONI.

LONDINENSIS

POEMATA.

QUORUM PLERAQUE INTRA ANNUM ÆTATIS
VIGESIMUM CONSCRIPSIT.

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.

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ERGIMI all' Etra ò Clio

Perche di stelle intreccierò corona
Non più del Biondo Dio

La Fronde eterna in Pindo, e in Elicona,
Diensi a merto maggior, maggiori i fregi,
A' celeste virtù celesti pregi.

Non puo del tempo edace
Rimaner preda, eterno alto valore
Non puo l'oblio rapace

Furar dalle memorie eccelso onore,
Su l'arco di mia cetra un dardo forte
Virtù m' adatti, e ferirò la morte.

Del Ocean profondo

Cinta dagli ampi gorghi Anglia resiede
Separata del mondo,

Però che il suo valor l' umano eccede :
Questa feconda sà produrre Eroi,

Ch' hanno a region del sovruman tra noi.

Alla virtù sbandita

Danno ne i petti lor fido ricetto,
Quella gli è sol gradita,

Perche in lei san trovar gioia, e diletto;
Ridillo tu, Giovanni, e mostra in tanto.
Con tua vera virtù, vero il mio Canto.

Spinse Zeusi l' industre ardente brama;
Lungi dal Patrio lido
Ch' udio d'Helena il grido
Con aurea tromba rimbombar la fama,
E per poterla effigiare al paro
Dalle più belle Idee trasse il più raro.

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.

Di bella gloria amante
Milton dal Ciel natio per varie parti
Le peregrine piante
Volgesti a ricercar scienze, ed arti;
Del Gallo regnator vedesti i Regni,
E dell' Italia ancor gl' Eroi più degni.

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I più profondi arcani

Ch' occulta la natura e in cielo e in terra
Ch' à Ingegni sovrumani

Troppo avara tal' hor gli chiude, e serra,
Chiaramente conosci, e giungi al fine
Della moral virtude al gran confine.

Non batta il Tempo l' ale,

Fermisi immoto, e in un fermin si gl' anni,
Che di virtù immortale

Scorron di troppo ingiuriosi a i danni ;
Che s'opre degne di Poema e storia
Furon gia, l'hai presenti alla memoria.

Dammi tua dolce Cetra

Se vuoi ch' io dica del tuo dolce canto,
Ch' inalzandoti all' Etra

Di farti huomo celeste ottiene il vanto,
Il Tamigi il dirà che gl' e concesso
Per te suo cigno pareggiar Permesso.
Io che in riva del Arno

Tento spiegar tuo merto alto, e preclaro
So che fatico indarno,

E ad ammirar, non a lodarlo imparo;
Freno dunque la lingua, e ascolto il core
Che ti prende a lodar con lo stupore.

Del sig. ANTONIO FRANCINI, gentilhuomo
Florentino.

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?

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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,
Quem Chaos fertur peperisse primam,
Cujus ob formam bene risit ofim
Massa severa !

Risus O terræ sacer et polorum,
Aureus vere pluvius Tonantis,
Quæque de cœlo fluis inquieto
Gloria rivo!-

Te bibens arcus Jovis ebriosus
Mille formosos revomit colores,
Pavo cœlestis, variamque pascit
Lumine caudam.

Lucidum trudis properanter agmen :
Sed resistentuir super ora rerum
Lenitèr stagnas, liquidoque inundas
Cuncta colore:

ELEGIARUM

LIBER.

ELEG. I. AD CAROLUM DEODATUM.'

TANDEM, chare, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ,
Pertulit et voces nuncia charta tuas ;
Pertulit, occiduâ Deva Cestrensis ab orå

Multùin, crede, juvat terras aliuisse remotas
Vergivium prono quà petit amne salum.

Pectus amans nostrî, támque fidele caput,
Quódque mihi lepidum tellus longinqua sodalem
Debet, at unde brevi reddere jussa velit.
Me tenet urbs refluâ quam Thamesis alluit undâ,
Méque nec invitum patria dulcis habet.
Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum,
Nec dudum vetiti me laris angit amor.

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!
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
Ille Tomitano flebilis exul agro ;
Non tunc lonio quicquam cessisset Homero,

Neve foret victo laus tibi prima, Maro.
Tempora nam licet hic placidis dare libera Musis,
Et totum rapiunt me, mea vita, libri.
Excipit hinc fessum sinuosi pompa theatri,

Et vocat ad plausus garrula scena suos.
Seu catus auditur senior, seu prodigus hæres,
Seu procus, aut positâ casside miles adest,
Sive decennali fœcundus lite patronus

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
Quassat, et effusis crinibus ora rotat,

Et dolet, et specto, juvat et spectâsse dolendo,
Interdum et lacrymis dulcis amaror inest:
Seu puer infelix indelibata reliquit

Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit ;
Seu ferus è tenebris iterat Styga criminis ultor,
Conscia funereo pectora torre movens :
Seu mæret Pelopeia domus, seu nobilis Ili,

Aut luit incestos aula Creontis avos.

Sed neque sub tecto semper, nec in urbe, late

mus ;

Irrita nec nobis tempora veris eunt.
Nos quoque lucus habet vicinâ consitus ulmo,
Atque suburbani nobilis umbra loci.
Sæpius hic, blandas spirantia sidera flammas,
Virgineos videas præteriisse choros.
Ah quoties dignæ stupui miracula formæ,
Quæ possit senium vel reparare Jovis !
Ah quoties vidi superantia lumina gemmas,

Atque faces, quotquot volvit uterque polus!
Colláque bis vivi Pelopis quæ brachia vincant,
Quæque fluit puro nectare tincta via !
Et decus eximium froutis, tremulósque capillos,
Aurea quæ fallax retia tendit Amor!
Pellacésque genas, ad quas hyacinthina sordet
Purpura, et ipse tui floris, Adoni, rubor !
Cedite, laudatæ toties Heroides olim,

Et quæcunque vagum cepit amica Jovem.
Cedite, Achæmeniæ turritâ fronte puellæ,

Et quot Susa colunt, Memnoniámque Ninon ;
Vos etiam Danaæ fasces submittite Nymphæ,
Et vos Iliacæ, Romuleæque nurus :
Nec Pompeianas Tarpëia Musa columnas
Jactet, et Ausoniis plena theatra stolis.

Gloria virginibus debetur prima Britannis;
Extera, sat tibi sit, fœmina, posse sequi.

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,
Monia 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 ætatis 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 ;
O dignus tamen Hæmonio juvenescere succo,
Dignus in Esonios vivere posse dies;
Dignus, quem Stygiis medicâ revocaret ab undis
Arte Coronides, sæpe rogante deâ.
Tu si jussus eras acies accire togatas,
Et celer à Phabo nuntius ire tuo;
Talis in Iliacâ stabat Cyllenius aulâ

Alipes, æthereâ missus ab arce Patris :
Talis et Eurybates ante ora furentis Achillei
Rettulit Atridæ jussa severa ducis.
Magna sepulchrorum regina, satelles Averni,
Sæva nimis Musis, Palladi sæva nimis,
Quin illos rapias qui pondus inutile terræ ;

Turba quidem est telis ista petenda tuis.
Vestibus hunc igitur pullis, Academia, luge,

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-
Hærebántque animo tristia plura meo: [bam;
Protinus en! subiit funestæ cladis imago,
Fecit in Angliaco quam Libitina solo;
Dum procerum ingressa est splendentes marmore
turres,

Tira sepulchrali Mors metuenda face;
Pulsavitque auro gravidos et jaspide muros,
Nec metuit satrapum steinere falce greges.

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.

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