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exact at least as thofe of other poets, though now and then the reader is fhifted off with what he can.

get.

"O how transform'd!

"How much unlike that Hector, who return'd
"Clad in Achilles' spoils!

And again :

"From thence a thousand leffer poets /prung,

"Like petty princes from the fall of Rome."

Sometimes the weight of rhyme is laid upon a word too feeble to fuftain it:

Troy confounded falls

"From all her glories: if it might have flood
By any power, by this right hand it fhou'd.

"And though my outward ftate misfortune hath
"Depreft thus low, it cannot reach my faith."

"Thus by his fraud and our own faith o'ercome, -
"A feigned tear destroys us, against whom

"Tydides nor Achilles could prevail,

"Nor ten years conflict, nor a thousand fail."

He is not very careful to vary the ends of his verfes: in one paffage the word die rhimes three couplets

in fix.

Most of these petty faults are in his first productions, when he was lefs skilful, or at least lefs dexterous in the ufe of words; and though they had been more frequent they could only have leffened the grace, not the ftrength of his compofition. He is one of the writers that improved our tafte, and advanced our language, and whom we ought therefore to read with gratitude, though, having done much, he left much to do.

VOL. II.

G

MILTON.

MILTON.

HE Life of Milton has been already written in

TH

fo many forms, and with fuch minute enquiry, that I might perhaps more properly have contented myfelf with the addition of a few notes to Mr. Fenton's elegant Abridgement, but that a new narrative was thought neceflary to the uniformity of this edition.

JOHN MILTON was by birth a gentleman, defcended from the proprietors of Milton near Thame in Oxfordshire, one of whom forfeited his eftate in the times of York and Lancafter. Which fide he took I know not; his defcendant inherited no veneration for the White Rofe.

His grandfather John was keeper of the foreft of Shotover, a zealous papift, who diinherited his fon, because he had forfaken the religion of his ancestors.

His father, John, who was the fon difinherited, had recourfe for his fupport to the profeffion of a fcrivener.

He

He was a man eminent for his skill in musick *, many of his compositions being still to be found; and his reputation in his profeffion was fuch, that he grew rich, and retired to an eftate. He had probably more than common literature, as his fon addreffes him in one of his most elaborate Latin poems. He married a gentlewoman of the name of Cafton, a Welsh family, by whom he had two fons, John the poet, and Christopher who studied the law, and adhered, as the law taught him, to the King's party, for which he was awhile perfecuted; but having, by his brother's intereft, obtained permiffion to live in quiet, he fupported himself fo honourably by chamber-practice, that foon after the acceffion of King James, he was knighted and made a Judge; but, his constitution being too weak for business, he retired before any difreputable compliances became neceffary+.

He had likewise a daughter Anne, whom he married with a confiderable fortune to Edward Philips, who came from Shrewsbury, and rofe in the Crown-office to be fecondary: by him the had two fons, John and Edward, who were educated by the poet, and from whom

* Indeed fo eminent as to rank among the firft practical compofers in his time. Philips, mentioned in the next page, fays, that for a compofition of his he was prefented by a Polish prince with a gold medal and chain. An anthem of his compoling may be seen in "The General History of the Science and Practice of "Mulic, 4to." 1776, vol. III. page 369.

† As a judge he was not eminent; not a fingle dictum of his is recorded in any report book of his time; nor does his name appear, fave among those of the other judges to the allowance of Carter's, and another voluine or two of contemporary reports.

It is from the latter of thefe two perfons alone, that we derive the particulars of Milton's domeftic manners, and these are exhibited

G 2

whom is derived the only authentick account of his domeftic manners.

John, the poet, was born in his father's houfe, at the Spread-Eagle in Bread-ftreet, Dec. 9, 1608, between fix and seven in the morning. His father appears to have been very folicitous about his education; for he was inftructed at first by private tuition under the care of Thomas Young, who was afterwards chaplain to the English merchants at Hamburgh; and of whom we have reafon to think well, fince his fcholar confidered him as worthy of an epiftolary Elegy.

He was then fent to St. Paul's Scool, under the care of Mr. Gill; and removed, in the beginning of his

hibited in a life of him prefixed to a tranflation of his "State Let"ters, 1694, 12mo." The two perfons abovementioned were men of literature, and are noticed by Wood. Edward, after having been a ftudent of Magdalen hall, Oxford, became tutor to the fon of Mr. John Evelyn, of Say's court, and after that to the fons of fundry perfons of quality, and alfo to Ifabella, the daughter of lord Arlington, afterwards duchefs of Grafton; but at length he took up the trade of a writer and tranflator of books for a livelihood. Among other works he compiled a Dictionary, entitled, "A "new World of Words," which, till the publication of Bailey's, might be deemed the best in our language: he was also the continuator of Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle" to the refloration of Charles II. and, having the ufe of the duke of Albemarle's papers, has related the occurrences of that great event, but in a way that gave great offence to bifhop Nicolton, who, with his ufual afperity, alerts that ambition and flattery carried him beyond truth and his c›py. He appears to have been a friend to the royal cause; but his brother John inherited the political, though not the religious principles of his uncle: he wrote "Maronides, or two

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Looks of Vigl temilated into burlefque verfe," pamphlets, and sundry that is of fall account at this day, and is thus defcribed by Wood: A man of very loofe principles, atheistical, forfakes his wife and children, makes no provifion for them." Athen. Oxon. 2d edit. vol. I. 1116, et leq.

fixteenth

fixteenth year, to Chrift's College in Cambridge, where he entered a fizar, Feb. 12, 1624.

He was at this time eminently skilled in the Latin tongue; and he himself, by annexing the dates to his first compofitions, a boast of which the learned Politian had given him an example, feems to commend the earliness of his own proficiency to the notice of pofterity. But the products of his vernal fertility have been furpaffed by many, and particularly by his contemporary Cowley. Of the powers of the mind it is difficult to form an estimate: many have excelled Milton in their first effays, who never rofe to works like Paradife Loft.

At fifteen, a date which he uses till he is fixteen, he tranflated or verfified two Pfalms, 114 and 136, which he thought worthy of the publick eye; but they raise no great expectations: they would in any numerous school have obtained praise, but not excited wonder.

Many of his elegies appear to have been written in his eighteenth year, by which it appears that he had then read the Roman authors with very nice difcernment. I once heard Mr. Hampton, the tranflator of Polybius, remark what I think is true, that Milton was the first Englishman who, after the revival of letters, wrote Latin verses with claffick elegance. If any exceptions can be made, they are very few: Haddon and Afcham, the pride of Elizabeth's reign, however they may have fucceeded in profe, no fooner attempt verfes than they provoke derifion. If we produced any thing worthy of notice before the elegies of Milton, it was perhaps Alabafter's Roxana.

Of these exercises which the rules of the University required, fome were published by him in his maturer years. They had been undoubtedly applauded; for

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