Non puo del tempo edace Del ocean profondo Cinta dagli ampi gorghi Anglia resiede Però che il suo valor l' umana eccede : Ch' hanno a ragion 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 Spinse Zeusi l' industre ardente brama; Cosi l' ape ingegnosa Trae con industria il suo liquor pregiato E quanti vaghi fiori ornano il prato; Di bella gloria amante Milton dal ciel natio per varie parti Fabro quasi divino Sol virtù rintracciando il tuo pensiero Chi di nobil valor calca il sentiero ; Quanti nacquero in Flora O in lei del parlar Tosco appreser l' arte, Il mondo fatta eterna in dotte carte, Volesti ricercar per tuo tesoro, E parlasti con lor nell' opre loro. Nell' altera Babelle Per te il parlar confuse Giove in vano, Di se stessa trofeo cadde su 'l piano : Ch' Ode oltr' all' Anglia il suo più degno idioma Spagna, Francia, Toscana, e Grecia, e Roma. I più profondi arcani Ch' occulta la natura e in cielo e in terra Ch' à ingegni sovrumani Troppo avaro 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, Io che in riva del Arno Tento spiegar tuo merto alto e preclaro, E ad ammirar, non a lodarlo imparo ; Del Sig. ANTONIO FRANCINI, Gentilhuomo Fiorentino. JOANNI MILTONI LONDINENSI : Juveni patria virtutibus eximio; Viro, qui multa 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 propria sapientia excitatos intelligat : Illi, cujus animi dotes corporisque sensus ad admirationem commovent, et per ipsam motum cuique auferunt; cujus opera ad plausus hortantur, sed venustate * vocem laudatoribus adimunt: Cui in memoria totus orbis; in intellectu sapientia ; in voluntate ardor gloriæ ; in ore eloquentia; harmonicos cœlestium sphærarum sonitus, astronomia duce, audienti; characteres mirabilium naturæ, per quos Dei magnitudo describitur, magistra philosophia, legenti; antiquitatum latebras, vetustatis excidia, eruditionis ambages, comite assidua auctorum lectione, Exquirenti, restauranti, percurrenti: At cur nitor in arduum? Illi, in cujus virtutibus evulgandis ora Famse non sufficiant, nec hominum stupor in laudandis satis est; reverentiæ et amoris ergo hoc ejus meritis debitum admirationis tributum offert CAROLUS DATUS+, Patricius Florentinus, Tanto homini servus, tantæ virtutis amator. * In the edition 1645, it stood "vastitate." † Carlo Dati, one of Milton's literary friends at Florence. See "Epitaph. Damon." v. 137.T. WARTON, 29.3 ART OBSERTATIONS ON THE LATIN TERSES Errors sauda e fe foss Eurissimar wiha after the restoration of letters, wruen verser vui cщини енридиe: we must at least except some of the merolaеванс естаme of one of our first iterary reformers, from ine mes COIL 21 the Lepus was preniessedy Mihot's model for language and versificaTot they are 10, however, a регрес issue of Ovian phraseology. Vmnew le mas atrammer and character of his own, which exning a zene scury of ennexure, a native facility and fluency. Nor Quesne tevatoot of 30m поден проеess or destres our great poet's inherent powers of inventor and sentmen: 1 vane these pieces as much for their fancy aumiere and expressi Tucit among the Lacan poets was Mon's favourite, appears not only from hs eegue iis meezy. The versification of our author's bexameters tus vex & Different sarunze from of the Metamorshoses: Miton's is more ceaz me.irine, ant fowing less destitev, less familiar, and less embarrassed vt a frecen zeurrenee if periods. Croc is at once rapid and abrupt he wants Gency: he has net carrers in his manner of telling a story. Prolixity if man, and enrt of semente, are peeti ar to Miton: this is seen, not only In some of Lis скага пations in the Paradise Lost," and in many of the zeligonus actresses of a like cast in the Prose Works, but in his long verse. It is ms of all sorts, he had been more attentive Dr.comsy think prefers the Latin poetry of May and Cowley to that sứ Mism and this May to be the first of the three. May is certainly a sormus meriter, and was sufficiently accemplished in poeticai declamation for The crema Lucas Para bat May is scarcely an author in point: 2015rody and he was refined to the peculiarities of an archetype, which is quay be presumed, he thought excellent. As to Cowiey when compared wish Man, the same erite observes, Moton is generally content to express the thoughts of the apments in their language: Cowley, without much loss of purity or eвeдалое, modates the Setice of Rome to his own conceptions. The advantage seems to be re the side of Cowley." But what are these conceptions! Metaphysical concerts; a the natural extravagances 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 pare Latinity. Miton's Latin poerns 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. It 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 tinetured with the excellences 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 dietion 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 an extraordinary copiousness and command of ancient fable and history. I cannot but add, that Gray resembles Milton in many instances: among others, in their youth they were both strongly attached to the cultivation of Latin poetry.ー T. WARTON. ELEGIARUM LIBER. ELEG. I. AD CAROLUM DEODATUM. TANDEM, care, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ, Pectus amans nostri, tamque fidele caput, Non ego vel profugi nomen sortemve recuso, 5 10 15 20 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, and from thence was sent to Trinity college, Oxford, where he was entered February 7, 1621, at thirteen years of age. He was a fellow-collegian there with Alexander Gill, another of Milton's intimate friends, who was successively usher and master of St. Paul's school. Deodate has a copy of Alcaics extant in an Oxford collection on the death of Camden, called "Camdeni Insignia." He left the college, when he was a gentlemancommoner, in 1628, having taken the degree of master of arts. Toland says, that he had in his possession two Greek letters, very well written, from Deodate to Milton. Two of Milton's familiar Latin letters, in the utmost freedom of friendship, are to Deodate: both dated from London, 1637. But the best, certainly the most pleasing evidences of their intimacy, and of Deodate's admirable character, are our author's first and sixth Elegies, the fourth Sonnet, and the "Epitaphium Damonis:" and it is highly probable, that Deodate is the "simple shepherd lad," in "Comus," who is skilled in plants, and loved to hear Thyrsis sing, v. 619. seq. He died in the year 1638. This Elegy was written about the year 1627, in answer to a letter out of Cheshire from Deodate.-T. WARTON. The Irish Sea. - T. WARTON. b Vergivium. Me tenet urbs reflua quam Thamesis alluit unda. To have pointed out London, by only calling it the city washed by the Thames, would have been a general and a trite allusion: but this allusion being combined with the peculiar circumstance of the reflux of the tide, becomes new, poetical, and appropriate. The adjective reflua is at once descriptive and distinctive. Ovid has "refluum mare," "Metam." vii. 267.-T. WARTON. O, utinam vates nunquam graviora tulisset Et totum rapiunt me, mea vita, libri: Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit; Sed neque sub tecto semper, nec in urbe, latemus; Irrita nec nobis tempora veris eunt. Atque faces, quotquot volvit uterque polus! d Excipit hinc fessum sinuosi pompa theatri, &c. The theatre, as Mr. Warton observes, seems to have been a favourite amusement of Milton's youth. See "L'Allegro," v. 131.-TODD. • Sive decennali fæcundus lite patronus He probably means the play of "Ignoramus."-T. WARTON. By the youth in the first couplet, he perhaps intends Shakspeare's "Romeo; " in the second, either "Hamlet," or "Richard III." He then draws his illustrations from the ancient tragedians. The allusions, however, to Shakspeare's incidents do not exactly correspond. In the first instance, Romeo was not torn from joys "untasted:" although puer " and " abrupto amore" are much in point. The allusions are loose, or resulting from memory, or not intended to tally minutely. -T. WARTON. 8 Atque suburbani nobilis umbra loci. Some country-house of Milton's father very near London is here intended, of which we have now no notices. -T. WARTON. 1 |