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 Them, from thy hand deliver'd o'er, Where thickest darkness hovers round, 7. Thy wrath, from which no shelter saves, Full sore doth press on me ; Thou break'st upon me all thy waves, 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, My hands to thee I spread. 19. Wilt thou do wonders on the dead? And praise thee from their loathsome bed 11. Shall they thy loving kindness tell. Thy faithfulness unfold? 12. In darkness can thy mighty hand 13. But I to thee, O Lord, do cry, 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 16. Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow; 18. Lover and friend thou hast remov'd, hey fly me now whom I have lov'd, A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV. This and the following Psalm were done by the WHEN the blest seed of Terah's faithful son, JOANNIS MILTONI LONDINENSIS POEMATA. QUORUM FLERAQUE INTRA ANNUM ÆTATIS Hæc quæ sequuntur de authore testimonia tametsi ipse intelligebat non tam de se quàm 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 a:tributum esse mavult, judicium interim hominum cordatorum atune 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 poescos laurea coronandum, Græca nimirum, Latina, atque Hetrusca, Epigramma Joannis Salsilli Romani. CEDE, Meles; cedat depressâ Mincius urnâ; GRECIA Mæonidem, jactet sibi Roma Maro nem, Anglia Miltonum jactat utrique parem. Selvaggi. Al Signor Gio. Miltoni Nobile Inglese. ODE. ERGIMI all' Etra ò Clio Perche di stelle intreccierò corona La Fronde eterna in Pindo, e in Elicona, Non puo del tempo edace Furar dalle memorie eccelso onore, 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, Perche in lei san trovar gioia, e diletto; Lungi dal Patrio lido Ch' udio d'Helena il grido Con aurea tromba rimbombar la fama, Cosi P' 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. I più profondi arcani Ch' occulta la natura e in cielo e in terra Troppo avara tal' hor gli chiude, e serra, Non batta il Tempo l' ale, Fermisi immoto, e in un fermin si gl' anni, Scorron di troppo ingiuriosi a i danni ; Dammi tua dolce Cetra Se vuoi ch' io dica del tuo dolce canto, Di farti huomo celeste ottiene il vanto, Tento spiegar tuo merto alto, e preclaro E ad ammirar, non a lodarlo imparo ; Del sig. ANTONIO FRANCINI, gentilhuomo JOANNI MILTONI. LONDINENSI: Florentino. Juveni patriâ, 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 deperditæ 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 Crolus Datus Patricius Florentinus, Tanto homini servus, tantæ virtutis amator PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE LATIN VERSES. Milton is said to be the first Englishman, who after the restoration of letters wrote Latin verses with classic elegance. But we must at least ex▾ cept 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 sentiment. I value these pieces as much for their fancy and genius, as for their style and expres sion. 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 com positions of all sorts, he had been more attentive to the simplicity of Lucretius, Virgil, and Tibullus. But 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. Cui in memoriâ totus orbis ; in intellectu sa- May is scarcely an author in point. His skill is pientia; in voluntate ardor gloriæ; in ore elo-in parody; and he was confined to the peculiaquentia; harmonicos cœlestium sphærarum sorities of an archetype, which, it may be presumed, nitus, astronomiâ duce, audienti; characteres he thought excellent. As to Cowley when commirabilium naturæ per quos Dei magnitudo de-pared with Milton, the same critic observes, scribitur, magistrâ philosophiâ, legenti; antiquitatum latebras vetustatis excidia, eruditionis ambages, comite assiduâ autorum lectione, Exquirenti, restauranti, percurrenti, Milton is generally content to express the thoughts of the ancients in their language: Cowley, without much loss of purity or elegance, accommodates the diction of Rome to his own conceptions.-The advantage seems to lie on the side of Cowley." But what are these conceptions? Metaphysical conceits, all the unnatural extravagancies of his English poetry; such as will not bear to be clothed in the Latin language; much less are capable of admitting any degree of pure Latinity. I will give a few instances, out of a great multitude, from the Davideis. Hic sociatorum sacra constellatio vatum, Again, Temporis ingreditur penetralia celsa fu turi, Implumesque videt nidis cœlestibus annos. And, to be short, we have the Plusquam visus aquilinus of lovers, Natio verborum, Exuit vitam aeriam, Menti auditur symphonia dulcis, Naturæ archiva, Omnes symmetria sensus congerit, Condit aromatica prohibetque putescere laude. Again, where Aliquid is personified, Monogramma exordia mundi. It may be said, that Cowley is here translating from his own English Davideis. But I will bring examples from his original Latin poems. In praise of the spring. At mare immensum oceanusque Lucis Hinc inexhausto per utrumque mundum It 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. 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 Undique laudis odor dulcissimus halet, ancient fable and history. I cannot but add, an extraordinary copiousness and command of Et resonet toto musica verna libro ; &c. that Gray resembles Milton in many instances. And in the same poem in a party worthy of the Among others, in their youth they were both pastoral pencil of Watteau. strongly attached to the cultivation of Latin poetry. WARTON. 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. ELEGIARUM LIBER. ELEG. I. AD CAROLUM DEODATUM. Cupid is Arbiter formæ criticus. Ovid is Anti-TANDEM, chare, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ, quarius 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, Massa severa ! Risus O terræ sacer et polorum, Te bibens arcus Jovis ebriosus Lucidum trudis properanter agmen : Pertulit et voces nuncia charta tuas ; Pectus amans nostrî, támque fidele caput, '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 Dos toris, was Theodore. Ibid. Nuda nec arva placent, nmbrásque negantia Quot tibi, conspicuæ formáque aurðque, puellæ molles: Quàm malè Phœbicolis convenit ille locus! Non ego vel profugi nomen sortémve recuso, O, utinam vates nunquam graviora tulisset Et vocat ad plausus garrula scena suos. 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 amat. nescit, Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragoedia sceptrum Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit ; Sed neque sub tecto semper, nec in urbe, late mus; Irrita nec nobis tempora veris eunt. Et quæcunque vagum cepit amica Jovem. Et quot Susa colunt, Memuoniámque Ninon ; Gloria virginibus debetur prima Britannis ; Per medias radiant turba videnda vias. Monia quàm subitò linquere fausta paro Stat quoque juncosas Cami remeare paludes, ELEG. II. Anno Etatis 17. In obitum Præconis Academici Cantabrigiensis1. Alipes, æthereâ missus ab arce Patris: Turba quidem est telis ista petenda tuis. ELEG. III. Anno Etatis 17. In obitum Prasulis Wintoniensis. MOESTUS eram, et tacitus, nullo comitante, sede- Dira sepulchrali Mors metuenda face; 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 moenia claudis Quicquid formosi pendulus orbis habet Non tibi tot cœlo 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. |