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SONNET TO

CHARLES LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER,

ON HIS PUBLICATION OF

MILTON DE DOCTRINA CHRISTIANA.

As one whose footsteps by some ancient stream,
Tibur, or old Ilissus, chance upturn,

Of time forgotten, sculptur'd trunk or urn,
Work of the Phidian chisel, as may seem
Inimitable; straight as from a dream
Waketh, nor hasteneth onward, till he learn,
Wondering, each grace, each beauty:-so did burn
My heart, when first by thee disclos'd, the gleam
It caught of Milton's page, by envious crime.
Forgotten or deform'd. Oh! well hast thou
And fitliest, paid the debt, though late, that prime
And holy song1 requiting, by old time
Remember'd, which twin-lustre sheds e'en now
On thee and elder WINTON's mitred brow.

J. M.

Benhall, Nov. 1831.

1 See Miltoni Eleg. in Obitum Præs. Wintoniensis.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

ON being requested to compose a brief Memoir of the Life of Milton, adapted to the edition to which it was to be attached, I naturally searched for information among the former biographers of the Poet.

Though the present Life is too contracted in its plan, and, perhaps, too slender in its materials, to pretend to rank among the laboured, and established biographies of Milton, yet I must observe that in the arrangement of the subject, in the opinions delivered, or the inferences drawn, it is dependent on none that has preceded it. I have consulted all the former writers for information, without copying them; and I have attended respectfully to their reasoning without servilely adhering to it. After being indebted to them for the necessary facts, and for occasional expressions, the remainder of the narrative has been the result of my own inquiries, and formed from the conclusions of my own judgment. To the poetry of Milton from my earliest youth down to the commencing autumn of my life, I have ever looked with a reverence and love not easily to be surpassed; for the sentiments adopted and avowed by him on the great and complicated questions of

civil liberty and political rights, I have, as becomes my situation, and is suitable to the habits of my mind, expressed myself with that temperance of opinion and moderation of language which can alone expect to conciliate attention, or to command respect.

The account of Milton by his nephew Edward Philips, though less copious and instructive than might be expected, is interesting and valuable. It supplies us with many facts respecting the Poet's manner of life, his circumstances, and opinions. It was written by a person who had been educated in his youth by Milton, who had subsequently lived in habits of daily intimacy with him, and to whom Milton had mentioned many facts relating to himself.

The biography by Toland was composed not

E. Philips mentioned Milton's name in his Theatrum Poetarum, 1675. An. Wood, in 1691, gave an account of Milton in his Fast. Oxon. for A. D. 1635, part i. fol. 480, ed. Bliss. Langbaine also gave some mention of him in 1691. The Life of Milton in the Biographia Britannica (A.D. 1760,) was by Dr. Nicholls.

2 I heard some particulars,' says Toland, 'from a person that had been once his amanuensis, which were confirmed to me by his daughter, now dwelling in London, and by a letter written to me at my desire by his last wife, who is still alive. I perused the papers of one of his nephews, learned what I could in discourse with the other, and lastly consulted such of his acquaintance as, after the best inquiry, I was able to discover.' Life, p. 9. Toland's Life was published in 1698 with Milton's prose works; separately in 1699: and by Mr. T. Hollis in 1761.

many years after the death of the Poet; and he enriched his materials with communications from members of Milton's family. The book is written in a grave and manly style, with high admiration of its subject; and it abounds with judicious reflections on the events of the time. This work, together with those of Philips and of Wood, has formed the basis of all the subsequent biography.

man,

Next, I believe, in order of time, appeared the -life written by the elder Richardson, the painter. He was an ingenious, inquisitive, and amiable but a singularly quaint and mannered writer. To him we are indebted for some further particulars of the Poet's life, for the most part gathered from the communications of Pope, or from the descendants of Milton's family.

Doctor Birch, who was remarkable for his industrious, and indefatigable researches, added considerably to the amount of our information; and he first gratified the curiosity of the learned by an account of the manuscripts of Milton existing at Cambridge,3 and by transcripts of the variations which they exhibited from the established text.

Johnson's biographical memoir, and the criti

3 The variations in the Cambridge MSS. were imperfectly and incorrectly printed by Dr. Birch, and were given by T. Warton from a more minute and careful examination of the manuscript. See his edition of Milton's Poems (2nd ed.), p. 578. A very few have escaped even him. Peck's new Life of Milton was published in 1740, an abstract of its contents will be seen in a note in this Life, p. xvi.

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