Io che in riva del Arno Tento spiegar tuo merto alto, e preclaro E ad ammirar, non a lodarlo imparo ; Del fig. ANTONIO FRANCINI, gentilhuomo Fiorentino. * Dr. Johnfon thinks, that, after much tumid and trite panegyrick, the concluding stanza of this Ode is natural and beautiful. T. WARTON. JOANNI MILTONI LONDINENSI: Juveni patriâ, virtutibus, eximio; VIRO, qui multa peregrinatione, ftudio cunéta, orbis terrarum loca, perfpexit; ut novus Ulyffes omnia ubique ab omnibus apprehenderet: Polyglotto, in cujus ore linguæ jam deperditæ fic revivifcunt, ut idiomata omnia fint in ejus laudibus infacunda; et jure ea percallet, ut admirationes et plaufus populorum ab propriâ fapientiâ excitatos intelligat : Illi, cujus animi dotes corporifque fenfus ad admirationem commovent, et per ipfam motum cuique auferunt; cujus opera ad plaufus hortantur, fed venuftate vocem laudatoribus adimunt. Cui in memoriâ totus orbis; in intellectu fapientia; in voluntate ardor gloriæ; in ore eloquentia; harmonicos cœleftium fphærarum fonitus, aftronomiâ duce, audienti; characteres mirabilium naturæ per quos Dei magnitudo defcribitur, magiftrâ philofophiâ, legenti; antiquitatum latebras, vetuftatis excidia, eruditionis ambages, comite affiduâ autorum lectione, Exquirenti, reftauranti, percurrenti. * Venuftate] Vaftitate. Edit. 1645. 168 Illi, in cujus virtutibus evulgandis ora Famæ non fufficiant, nec hominum ftupor in laudandis fatis eft, reverentiæ et amoris ergo hoc ejus meritis debitum admirationis tributum offert CAROLUS DATUS Patricius Florentinus, Tanto homini fervus, tantæ virtutis amator. * Carlo Dati, one of Milton's literary friends at Florence. See Epitaph. Damon. v. 137. Tickell and Fenton, who might have been taught better by Tonson's previous editions, read, Carolus Deodatus, as if it was our author's friend Charles Deodate. See the first Note on the first Elegy. T. WARTon. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE LATIN VERSES. MILTON is faid to be the first Englishman, who after the restoration of letters wrote Latin verfes with claffick elegance. But we must at least except fome of the hendecafyllables and epigrams of Leland, one of our firft literary reformers, from this hafty determination. In the Elegies, Ovid was profeffedly Milton's model for language and verfification. They are not, however, a perpetual and uniform tiffue of Ovidian phrafeology. With Ovid in view, he has an original manner and character of his own, which exhibit a remarkable perfpicuity of contexture, a native facility and fluency. Nor does his obfervation of Roman models opprefs or deftroy our great poet's inherent powers of invention and sentiment. I value these pieces as much for their fancy and genius, as for their style and expreffion. That Ovid among the Latin poets was Milton's favourite, appears not only from his elegiack but his hexametrick poetry. The verfification of our author's hexameters has yet a different ftructure from that of the Metamorphofes: Milton's is more clear, intelligible, and flowing; lefs defultory, lefs familiar, and lefs embarraffed with a frequent recurrence of periods. Ovid is at once rapid and abrupt. He wants dignity: he has too much converfation in his manner of telling a story. Prolixity of paragraph, and length of fentence, are peculiar to Milton. This is feen, not only in fome of his exordial invocations in the Paradife Loft, and in many of the religious addreffes of a like caft in the profe works, but in his long verfe. It is to be wifhed that, in his Latin compofitions of all forts, he had been more attentive to the fimplicity 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 fonorous verfifier, and was fufficiently accomplished in poetical declamation for the continuation of Lucan's Pharfalia. But May is fcarcely an author in point. His fkill is in parody; and he was confined to the peculiarities of an archetype, which, it may be prefumed, he thought excellent. As to Cowley when compared with Milton, the fame critick obferves, "Milton is generally content to exprefs the thoughts of the ancients in their language: Cowley, without much lofs of purity or elegance, accommodates the diction of Rome to his own conceptions.-The advantage feems to lie on the fide of Cowley." But what are thefe conceptions? Metaphyfical conceits, all the unnatural extravagancies of his English poetry; fuch as will not bear to be clothed in the Latin language, much |