goes on, not taking thought of being late, fo it give advantage to be more fit.

When he left the university, he returned to his father, then refiding at Horton in Buckinghamshire, with whom he lived five years; in which time he is faid to have read all the Greek and Latin writers. With what limitations this univerfality is to be underftood, who fhall inform us?

It might be fuppofed that he who read fo much should have done nothing else; but Milton found time to write the Mafque of Comus, which was prefented at Ludlow, then the refidence of the Lord Prefident of Wales, in 1634; and had the honour of being acted by the Earl of Bridgewater's fons and daughter. The fiction is derived from Homer's Circe; but we never can refufe to any modern the liberty of borrowing from Homer:

-a quo ceu fonte perenni

Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis.

His next production was Lycidas, an elegy, written in 1637, on the death of Mr. King,

the

the fon of Sir John King, fecretary for Ireland in the time of Elizabeth, James, and Charles. King was much a favourite at Cambridge, and many of the wits joined to do honour to his memory. Milton's acquaintance with the Italian writers may be discovered by a mixture of longer and shorter verfes, according to the rules of Tuscan poetry, and his malignity to the Church by fome lines which are interpreted as threatening its extermination,

He is fuppofed about this time to have written his Arcades; for while he lived at Horton he used fometimes to steal from his ftudies a few days, which he spent at Harefield, the house of the countess dowager of Derby, where the Arcades made part of a dramatick entertainment,

He began now to grow weary of the country; and had fome purpose of taking chambers in the Inns of Court, when the death of his mother fet him at liberty to travel, for which he obtained his father's confent, and Sir Henry Wotton's directions, with the celebrated precept of prudence, i penfieri ftretti,

1

ed il vifo fciolto; "thoughts close, and looks "loofe."

In 1638 he left England, and went first to Paris; where, by the favour of Lord Scudamore, he had the opportunity of visiting Grotius, then refiding at the French court as ambaffador from Christina of Sweden. From Paris he hafted into Italy, of which he had with particular diligence ftudied the language and literature; and, though he seems to have intended a very quick perambulation of the country, ftaid two months at Florence; where he found his way into the academies, and produced his compofitions with fuch applause as appears to have exalted him in his own opinion, and confirmed him in the hope, that, "by labour and intense study, which,' says he, “I take to be my portion in this

life, joined with a strong propenfity of na"ture, he might leave fomething fo written "to after-times, as they should not willingly "let it die."

It appears, in all his writings, that he had the ufual concomitant of great abili ties, a lofty and steady confidence in himself,

perhaps

perhaps not without fome contempt of others; for scarcely any man ever wrote fo much, and praised fo few. Of his praise he was very frugal; as he fet its value high, and confidered his mention of a name as a fecurity against the waste of time, and a certain prefervative from oblivion.

At Florence he could not indeed complain that his merit wanted distinction. Carlo Dati prefented him with an encomiaftick infcription, in the tumid lapidary style; and Francini wrote him an ode, of which the first stanza is only empty noife; the rest are perhaps too diffuse on common topicks; but the laft is natural and beautiful.

From Florence he went to Sienna, and from Sienna to Rome, where he was again received with kindness by the Learned and the Great. Holftenius, the keeper of the Vatican Library, who had refided three years at Oxford, introduced him to Cardinal Barberini; and he, at a musical entertainment, waited for him at the door, and led him by the hand into the affembly. Here Selvaggi praised him in a distich, and Sal

filli in a tetraftick; neither of them of much

value. The Italians were gainers by this literary commerce; for the encomiums with which Milton repaid Salfilli, though not fecure against a stern grammarian, turn the balance indifputably in Milton's favour.

Of thefe Italian teftimonies, poor as they are, he was proud enough to publish them before his poems; though he fays, he cannot be fufpected but to have known that they were faid non tam de fe, quam fupra fe.

At Rome, as at Florence, he ftaid only two months; a time indeed fufficient, if he defired only to ramble with an explainer of its antiquities, or to view palaces and count pictures; but certainly too fhort for the contemplation of learning, policy, or man

ners.

From Rome he paffed on to Naples, in company of a hermit; a companion from whom little could be expected, yet to him Milton owed his introduction to Manfo mar quis of Villa, who had been before the patron of Taffo. Manfo was enough delighted with