seems

task;

ve years, in

five

have

time to Cambridge. And it may be conjectured | bought and begun with servitude and forsweara from the willingness with which he has perpet- ing."

PA) Wood , uated the memory of his exile, that its cause These expressions are, I find, applied, to the was such as gave him no shame. *f*1634 on the top 3's subscription of the Articles;

; but it He took both the usual degrees; that of more probable that they relate to canonical bachelor in 1628, and that of master in 1632 ; obedience. I know, not any of the Articles but he left the University with no kindness for which seem to thwart his opinions : but the its institution, alienated either by the injudicious thoughts of obedience, whether canonical or severity of his governors, or his own captious civil, raised his indignation. perverseness. The cause cannot now be known His unwillingness to engage in the ministry, but the effect appears in his writings. His perhaps not yet advanced to a settled resolution scheme of education, inscribed to Hartlib, sue of declining it, appears in a letter to one of his persedes all academical instruction, being nin, friends, who had reproved his suspended and tended to comprise the whole time which mena dilatory life, which he seems to haye imputed usually spend in diterature, from their entrance to an insatiable curiosity, and fantastic luxury opon grammar, still they proceed, as it is called, of various knowledge. To this he writes a cool

a masters of arts.” And in his discourse non and plausible answer, in which he endeavours the likeliest way to remove hirelings out of the to persuade him, that the delay proceeds not church;! the ingeniously proposes, that if the from the delights of desultory study, but from profits of the lands forfeited by the act før su the desire of obtaining more fitness for his perstitious uses should be applied to such acader and that he goes on, “not taking thought of mies all over the land, where languages and arts being late, so it gives advantage to be more may be taught togetheri ; so that youth may be fit."

USIKIL RI SC 9 at once brought up to a competeney of learning When he left the University, he returned to and an honest trade, by, which means, such of his them as had the gift, being enabled to support inghamshire, with

father, then residing he lived in Buckthemselves without tithes) by the latters may, which time he is said to

ve read all the Greek by the help of the former, become swarthy and Latin writers. With what limitations this preachersa!".0909 yij moi 1917.940, 271,1931 universality is to be understood, who shall in91 One of his objections to academical edacation, form us ? as it was then condacted,ris, that men designed It might be supposed, that he who read so for orders in the church were permitted to act much should have done nothing else; but Milplayggat writhing and unboning their clergy ton found time to write the mask of “ Comus," limbs to all the antic and dishonest gestures of which was presented at Ludlow, then the reTrincalos, * o buffoons, and bawds, prostituting sidence of the Lord President of Wales, in the shame of that ministry which they had, sor 1834; and had the honour of being acted by the were near having, to the eyes of the courtiers Earl of Bridgewater's sons and daughter, The and court ladies, their grooms and madenoi- fiction is derived from Homer's Circe;" but selles. 91 i 109 Silture babes 201400

This is sufficiently peevish in a man who, when he mentions his exile from the college, re

It has nevertheless, its foundation in reality. lates, with great luxuriance, the compensation The Earl of Bridgewater being President of Wales which the pleasures of the theatre afford him. in Shropshire, at which time Lord Brackly and Mt.

in the year 1634, had his residence at Ludlow Castle, Plays were therefore only criminals when they Egextog, his sons, and Lady Alice Egerton, hia were acted by academicsorix** 1071 .. 15 Vis daughter, passing through a place called the Hay; citHe went to the University with a design of wood forest, or Haywood, in Herefordshire, were entering into the church, but in time altered benighted, and the lady for

a short time lost;

this his mind ;for he declared, that whoever became accident

at being related to their father, upon their at clergyman must subscribe slave, and take an

arrival at his castle, Milton, at the request of his oath withal, which, unless he took with a con- fiziend, Henry Lawes, who taught music in the fami

ly, wrote this mask. Lawes set it to music, and it science that could not retch, he must straight

was acted on Michaelmas night; the two brothers, perjure himself-He thought it better to prefer the young lady, and Lawes himself bearing each a a blameless silence before the office of speaking, part in the representation. 7113615til buio $31]

The Lady Alice Egerton, became afterwards the TOT DIJADIV 1 OJ

wife of the Earl of Carbury, who, at his seat called # By the meption of this name, he evidently re- Golden-grove, in Caermarthenshire, barboured. Die fers to Albemazor, acted at Cambridge in 1614. 1.- Jeremy Taylor in the time of the usurpation, same time. 0% plays were performed at the Among the Doctor's sermons is one on her death in Omar

practice was then very frequent, which her character is finely portrayed. Her sister, Tast dramatic performance at either University Lady Mary, was given in marriage to Lord Herbert, was a The Grateful Fait, nhwritten Uy Christopher of Cherbury. Smart, Tana represented at Pembroke College, Cam- a Notwithstanding Dr. Johnson's assertion, that bridges about 1747. R. bis! }). I go bem? the fiction is derived from Homer's Circe, it may be

noramus and

Thelma

34 29

It i

Charles. "T

King wa

318 to 2191261

this is

; for, w

a few days,

mother set

to

we never can refuse to any modern the liberty bIt appears in all his writings that he had the of borrowing from Homer :

plusual concomitant of great abilities, a lofty and

steady confidence in himself, perhaps not with a quo ceu fonte perenni Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis.

Quand out some contempt of others; for scarcely any

JIH' man ever wrote so much, and praised $0 few. His next production was “ Lycidas,viban of his praise he was very frugał z as he set its elegy, written in 1637, on the death of Mr. value high and considered his mention ofja King, the son of Sir John King, secretary for name as a security against the waste of time; Ireland in the time of Elizabeth, 'James, and and a certain preservative from oblivion.yti'r9798

was much a favourite at Cam- At Florence he could not, indeed a complain bridge, and many of the Wits joined to do that his merit wanted.distinctions. Carla

Dati honour to his memory." Milton's acquaintance presented him with an encomiastic inscription, with the Italian writers ma

may be discovered by in the tumid lapidary style ; and Francini wrote a mixture of longer and shorter versés, accord him an ode, of which the first stanza tis only ing to the rules of Tuscan poetry, and his ma-empty noise ;' the rest are perhåps too diffuse on lignity to the

some lines which are commoni topics: but the last is natural and interpreted as

extermination.

on beautifuluopib du di buf. He is supposed about time to have writ

- From Florence he went to Siennage and from ten his « Arcades; while he lived at Hor- Sienna to Rome, where he was again received ton, he used sometimes to steal from his studies with kindness

' by the learned andd the great which he spent at "Harefield, the Holstenius, the keeper of the Vatican Library, house of the Countess Dowager of Derby, who had resided three years at Oxford, introwhere the “ Arcades" made part of a dramatic duced him to Cardinal Barberinizdandi hef at a entertainment.

musical entertainment, waited for him at the He began now to grow weary of the country, doot

, and led him by the hand into the assema and had some purpose of taking chambers in bly. Here Selvaggi praised him tin sa distiek, the Inns of Court, when there for which much value. v. The Italians were gainers by this

death of his and Salsilt in' a tetrastio;tneither of themof set him at liberty he obtained his father's consent, and Sir Henry literary commerce ; for the encomiums:with Wotton's directions; with the celebrated pre-which Milton repaid Satsilkij though not secure cept of prudence, i vensieri stretti, ed il viso, sciol- against a stern grammariany turn the balanes to; " thoughts close, and Tooks loose" nie som indisputably in Milton's favburdt ni 219b10 107, In '1638 he left England,"and went first to of these Italian testimonies, poor as they aréz Paris; where, by the favour of Lord Senda? he was proud enough to publish thienal before

his more,' he had the opportunity of visiting Groti- poems ; though he says, he cannotabe suspected us, then residing at the French'court as ambas- but to have known that they were said nonetan sador from Christiana of Sweden. From Paris de se, quam supra sere sdi 03 cghvol. 1590 9199 he hasted into Italy, of which he had with pår EAT Rome, as at Florence, hestayed only two ticular diligence studied the language and litera-months ; a time indeed sufficient, if he desired ture; and though he seems to have intended a

only to ramble with an vexplainer of its anvery quick perambulation of the country, stayed tiquities, or to view palaces and count pictures; two months at Florence, where he found his but certainly too short for the contemplation of way into the acaderies, and produced his com learning, policy, or manners Tassle sat doidw positions with such applause as appears to have

From Rome he passed on to Naples, in comexalted him in his own opinion, and confirmed pany of a hermit, a companion from whom little kim in the pe, that, by labour and intense introduction to Manso, Marquis of: Villas who

"intense could be expected ; yet to bim Miltoprowed his study, which,” says he, I take to be my portion in this life, joined with a strong propensity had been before the patron of Tasso, b-Mayso of nature," he might - leave something so writ.

was enough delighted with his accomplishments ten to aftertimes, as they should not willingly to honour him with a sorry distich, in which he let it die od :dgis 2015 toimint 69198 25W

commends him for every sthing but his religion, do ya 190 ligpit and be vhsl 981

and Milton, in return, addressed him i inaa La

tin poem, which must have raised a high opino conjectured,'' that it was rather taken from the ion of English elegance and literature. Comus of Erycius Puteanus, in which, under the His purpose was now to have visited Sicily Action of a dream, the characters

of Comus and his and Greece; but, hearing of the differences beattendants are delineated, and the delights of sensul tween the King and parliament, he thought It alists' exposed and reprobated. This little tract was published at Louvain in 1611, and afterwards at Ox

proper to hasten home, rather than pass his life ford' 'id' 1634, the very year in which Miltons in foreign, amusements, while his countrymen "Comus" was written.-H.

were contending for their rights, He therefore Milton evidently was indebted to the old Wives came back to Rome, though the merchants in Tale of George Peele for the plan of "Comus".R. formed him of plots laid against him by the

hope,

«

Josults, for the liberty of his conversations on re- | ism in a private boarding school. This is the ligion. He had sense enough to judge that there period of his life from which all his biographers was no danger, and therefore kept on his way, seem inclined to shrink. They are unwilling and acted as before, neither obtruding nor shun- that Milton should be degraded to a school-mas. ning controversy. He had perhaps given some ter; but, since it cannot be denied that he offence by visiting Galileo, then a prisoner in taught boys, one finds out that he taught for the Inquisition for philosophical heresy; and at nothing, and another that his motive was only Naples he was told by Manso, that, by his declar- zeal for the propagation of learning and virtue; ations on religious questions, he had excluded and all tell what they do not know to be true, himself from some distinctions which he should only to excuse an act which no wise man will otherwise have paid him. But such conduct, consider as in itself disgraceful. His father was though it did not please, was yet sufficiently alive; his allowance was not ample; and he safe; and Milton stayed two months more at supplied its deficiencies by an honest and useful Rome, and went on to Florence without moles- employment. tation.

It is told that in the art of education he perFrom Florence he visited Lucca. He after- formed wonders; and a formidable list is given wards went to Venice ; and, having sent away of the authors, Greek and Latin, that were read a collection of music and other books, travelled in Aldersgate-street by youth between ten and to Geneva, which he probably considered as the fifteen or sixteen years of age. Those who tell metropolis of orthodoxy.

or receive these stories should consider, that noHere he reposed as in a congenial element, and body can be taught faster than he can learn. became acquainted with John Diodati and Fre- The speed of the horseman must be limited by derick Spanheim, two learned professors of di- the power of the horse. Every inan that has vinity. From Geneva, he passed through France; ever undertaken to instruct others can tell what and came home, after an absence of a year and slow advances he has been able to make, and three months.

how much patience it requires to recal vagrant At his return he heard of the death of his inattention, to stimulate sluggish indifference, friend Charles Diodati ; a man whom it is rea- and to rectify absurd misapprehension. sonable to suppose of great merit, since he was

The purpose of Milton, as it seems, was to thought by Milton worthy of a poem, entitled teach something more solid than the common “ Epitaphium Damonis,” written with the literature of schools, by reading those authors common but childish imitation of pastoral life.

that treat of physical subjects ; such as the He now hired a lodging at the house of one Georgic and astronomical treatises of the ancients. Russel, a tailor in St. Bride's church-yard, and This was a scheme of improvement which seems undertook the education of John and Edward to have busied many literature projectors of that Philips, his sister's sons. Fiading his rooms

age. Cowley, who had more means than Miltoo little, he took a house and garden in Alders- tou of knowing what was wanting to the emgate-street, * which was not then so much bellishments of life, formed the same plan of out of the world as it is now; and chose his education in his imaginary college. dwelling at the upper end of a passage, that But the truth is, that the knowledge of exterhe might avoid the noise of the street. Here nal nature, and the sciences which that knowhe received more boys to be boarded and in- ledge requires or includes, are not the great or structed.

the frequent business of the human mind. Let not our veneration for Milton forbid us Whether we provide for action or conversation, to look with some degree of merriment on great whether we wish to be useful or pleasing, the promises and small performance, on the man first requisite is the religious and moral knowwho hastens home, because his countrymen are ledge of right and wrong; the next is an accontending for their liberty, and, when he reach- quaintance with the history of mankind, and es the scene of action, vapours away his patriot- with those examples which may be said to em* This is inaccurately expressed : Philips, and Dr. body truth, and prove by events the reasonable

ness of opinions. Prudence and justice are vire Newton after him, say a garden-house, i.e. a house

tues and excellences of all times and of all places situated in a garden, and of which there were, especially in the north suburbs of London, very many,

we are perpetually moralists, but we are

geomLot few else. The term is technical, and frequently etricians only by chance. Our intercourse with occurs in the Athen. and Fast. Oxon. The meaning intellectual nature is necessary; our speculations thereof may be collected from the article, Thomas upon matter are voluntary, and at leisure. Parnaby, the famous schoolmaster, of whom the au- Physiological learning is of such rare emergence, thor says, that he taught in Goldsmith's-rents, in that one may know another half his life, with. Cripplegate parish, behind Redcross-street, where

out being able to estimate his skill in hydrostatwere large gardens and handsome houses. Milton's house in Jewin-street was also a garden-house, as

tics or astronomy; but his moral and prudential were indeed most of his dwellings after his settle character immediately appears. ment in London.-H.

Those authors, therefore, are to be read and

if

be deduced

ss of man

1

his ha exultation, but

powers:lence

he yet knows country. “ This,” says

man

to

1

in

measure

schools that supply most axloms of prudence, this Answer & Confutation was attempted by most principles of moral truth, and most mate the learned Usher; and to the Confutation Mil. rials for conversation; and these purposes are ton published a reply, entitled, “ Of Prelatical best served by, poets, orators, and historians. Episcopacy, and whether it

may Let me not be censured for this digression as from the Apostolical Times, by virtue of those pedantic or paradoxical ; for, if I have Milton Testimonies which are alleged to that

purpose against me, I have Socrates on my side. It was in some late Treatises, one whereof goes

under lais labour to turn philosophy from the study of the Name of James, Lord Bishop of Armagh.' nature to speculations upon life; but the innova

I have transcribed this t

title to show, by his tors whom I oppose are turning off attention contemptuous mention of Usher, that he had from life to nature. They seem to think that we now adopted the puritanical savageness vare placed here to watch the growth of plants, ners. His next work was, « The Reason

of or the motions of the stars : Socrates was rather Church Government urged against Prelacy, by of opinion, that what we had to learn was, how Mr. John Milton, 1642. * " In this book he disto do good, and avoid evil.

covers,

not with ostentatious
with calm
ith ca

of his "OTTI TO Bv fígagasan xaxbyt' ayalóvrt rítuated.

and promises to undertake on

not what, that may be of Of institutions we may judge by their effects. use and honour to From this wonder working academy, I do not

do not hes that seternal Spirite that can enrich with all

" is to be obtained know that there ever

I proceeded any very eminent for knowledge : its only genuine pro

utterance and knowledge, a

and sends out his seduct, I believe, is a small history of poetry, raphim with the hallowed fire of His altar, to written in Latin by his nephew Philips, o

of which touch

and purify the lips of whom he plenses. perhaps none of my readers has ever heard. To this must be

ust be added, "Industrious and select That in his school, as

every thing which he undertook, he laboured with great di- seemly

8 else Jean Band genes arts and insight into all

and affairstilt which ligence, there is no reason for doubting One in some

be compassed, I refuse not to part of his method deserves general imitation.

9. sustain this expectation.

on."20 From a promise Hke

n reli- | this, at once fervid, pious, and rational, might sion Every Sunday was spent upon theology; be expected the “ Paradise Lostopa in poskusi of which he dictated she short

He published the same year

the sathe fear two more system, gathered

e pamphfrom the writers that were then fashionable in lets, upon the same question.

berobne of his the Dutch universities.

tagonists, who affirms that he was avotnited mode of hard stud He set his pupils an example of

at het

yurithe answers in general

study out of the University, and diet: only now and then he al

he allowed terms. ci The fellows of the college wherein I himself to pass a day of festivity and indulgence spent some

some years, "at they parting, after had with some gay gentieinen of Gray's Inn. taken two degrees, as

as the manner is, signified He now began to engage in of the times, and lent his

that I LAs for the common flames of contention.

he published a treatise of Reformation, in two books, against that I should esteemd or disesteem myself the the established church; ; being willing to

more for

too simple is the answerer, if he the puritans, who were, he says, “ inferior to the prelates in learning."

Stop think who

could normall practice' were Hall, bishop of Norwich, had published an

and her
sister

f long time vomited, that the Humble Remonstrance, in

Torser stuff she strong episco

in her stomach, , pacy; to which, in 1641, five ministers,t of but the better cover 'kecking at, and is whose names the first letters made the celebrat- queasy; she

queasy. she vomits now out of sickness; but ed word Smectymnuus, gave their Answer, or

be well enimento

by strong physic. University, in the time Johnson did not here allude to Philipa's wa Thea of her better health, and my younger judgment, trum Poetarum,” as has been ignorantly supposed, I never greatly admired, but now much less. but (as he bimself informed Mr. Malone) to another This is surely the language of a man who

work by the same author, entitled, “Tractatulus de thinks that he has been injuredi 9 He proceeds * Carmine dramatis, Poetarum Veterum præsertim in to describe the course of his conduct, and the .* Choris tragicis et veteris Comodido Cui subjtingi- ftrain of his thoughts ; and, because he has been i ter compendiose enumeratio poetarum (saltem quo. suspected of incontinence, gives san 'account of totum fame maxim emituit), quitempore Dantis 4. Augini, usquead hunc ætatem claruerunt,

&chis own purity; that if I be justly charged," -J.B.

says hegot' with this crime, it may come upon + Stephen Marshall, Edmund Cålamy, Thomas me with tenfold shame.'il yo teor boobga 97, Young, Matthew Newcomen, William Spurstow.-R. The style of his piece is rougb, and such per

*

haps was that of his antagon st. This rough, famous assembly at Westminster, procured that ness he justifies by great examples in a long di- the author should be called before the Lords; gression. Sometimes he tries to be humorous : “ but that House,” says Wood, “ whether ap“ Lest I should take him for some chaplain in proving the doctrine, or not favouring his achand, some squire of the body to his prelate, one cusers, did soon dismiss him.” who serves not at the altar only, but at the There seems not to have been much written court-cupboard, he will bestow on us a pretty against him, nor any thing by any writer of emimodel of himself; and sets me out half a dozen

nence. The antagonist that appeared is styled phthisical mottoes, wherever he had them, hop- by him, A serving man turned solicitor. Howel, ping short in the measure of convulsion fits ; in in his Letters, mentions the new doctrine with which labour the agony of his wit having escaped contempt ;t and it was, I suppose, thought narrowly, instead of well-sized periods, he greets

more worthy of derision than of confutation. us with a quantity of thumbring poesies. And He complains of this neglect in two sonnets, of thus ends this section, or rather dissection, of which the first is contemptible, and the second himself.” Such is the controversial merriment

not excellent. of Milton; his gloomy seriousness is yet more

From this time it is observed, that he became offensive. Such is his malignity, that hell grows

an enemy to the presbyterians, whom he had darker at his frown.

favoured before. He that changes his party by His father, after Reading was taken by Essex, his humour, is not more virtuous than he that came to reside in his house; and his school in- changes it by his interest ; he loves himself creased. At Whitsuntide, in his thirty-fifth rather than truth. year, he married Mary, the daughter of Mr.

His wife and her relations now found that Powell, a justice of the peace in Oxfordshire. Milton was not an unresisting sufferer of inHe brought her to town with him, and expected juries; and perceiving that he had begun to put all the advantages of a conjugal life.

The lady, however, seems not much to have delighted in his doctrine in practice, by courting a young the pleasures of spare diet and hard study; for, of one Doctor Davis, who was however not

woman of great accomplishments, the daughter as Philips relates, “ having for a month led a philosophic life, after having been used at home ready to comply, they resolved to endeavour a

re-union. He went sometimes to the house of to a great house, and much company and joviality, her friends, possibly by her own desire, St. Martin's le-Grand, and at one of his usual

one Blackborough, his relation, in the lane of made earnest suit to have her company the remaining part of the summer; which was grant, another room, and implore forgiveness on her

visits was surprised to see his wife come from ed upon a promise of her return at Michaelmas.”

Milton was too busy to much miss his wife ; knees. He resisted her intreaties for a while : he pursued his studies; and now and then visit

“ but partly,” says Philips, “ his own generous od the Lady Margaret Leigh, whom he has men

nature, more inclinable to reconciliation than to tioned in one of his sonnets. At last Michael- perseverance in anger or revenge, and partly the mas arrived ; but the lady had no inclination to strong intercession of friends on both sides, soon return to the sullen gloom of her husband's ha- brought him to an act of oblivion and a firm bitation, and therefore very willingly forgot her league of peace.” It were injurious to omit,

that Milton afterwards received her father and promise. He sent her a letter, but had no an.

It swer: he sent more with the same success.

her brothers in his own house, when they were could be alleged that letters miscarry; he there- distressed, with other royalists. fore despatched a messenger, being by this time

He published about the same time his Areopatoo avgry to go himself. His messenger was

gitica, a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Libersent back with some contempt. The family of ty of unlicensed Printing. The danger of such

unbounded liberty, and the danger of bounding the Lady were cavaliers.

goIn a man, whose opinion of his own merit it, have produced a problem in the science of was like Milton's, less provocation than this vernment, which human understanding seems might have raised violent resentment.

hitherto unable to solve. If nothing may be

Milton soon determined to repudiate her for disobedi- published but what civil authority shall have ence; and, being one of those who could easily previously approved, power must always be the find arguments to justify inclination, published standard of truth : if every dreamer of innova(in 1644) “ The Doctrine and Discipline of Di- tions may propagate his projects, there can be vorce ;" which was followed by “ The Judgment of Martin Bucer, concerning Divorce ;" and the next year, his Tetrachordon, “ Exposition of Milton's name, by Bishop Hall, in his Cases

• It was animadverted upon, but without any men. tions upon the four chief Places of Scripture of Conscience Decaie, 4, Case 2.-J. B. which treat of Marriage.”

+ He terms the anthor of it a shallow brain'd puppy; This innovation was opposed, as might be ex- and thus refers to it in his index, “ Of a noddy wbo pected, by the clergy, who, then holding their | wrote a book about winning.”–J. B.