fessed member of any particular sect among Christians, he frequented none of their assemblies, nor made use of their peculiar rites in his family.' (Toland, Life of Milton, p. 151.) Johnson's strictures are based solely on this statement of Toland's. Milton gives his views on this question in his treatise of Christian Doctrine, Bk. i. chap. xxix; Bk. ii. chaps. iv, vii. 1. 28. 'Sir Robert Howard was a great admirer of Milton to his dying day; and being his particular acquaintance would tell many pleasant stories of him, as that he himself having demanded of him once what made him side with the Republicans? Milton answered, among other reasons, because theirs was the most frugal government; for that the trappings of a monarchy might set up an ordinary commonwealth.' (Toland, Life of Milton, p. 139.) Johnson might have found Milton's better reasons in the‘Ready and Easy Way to establish a free Commonwealth.' Milton declares a free Commonwealth to be, 'not only held by wisest men in all ages the noblest, the manliest, the equallest, the justest government, the most agreeable to all due liberty, and proportioned equality, both human, civil, and Christian, `but also (I may say it with greatest probability) plainly commended, or rather enjoined by our Saviour himself, to all Christians, not without remarkable disallowance, and the brand of gentilism upon kingship. . . . A king must be adored like a demigod, with a dissolute and haughty court about him, of vast expense and luxury, masks, and revels, to the debauching of our prime gentry both male and female; not in their pastimes only, but in earnest, by the loose employments of court service, which will be then thought honourable.' (Prose Works, ii. 116, ed. 1848.) P. 54, 1. 14. Milton's views may be gathered from Paradise Lost, iv. 295–311, 635-638; viii. 540-559; ix. 1182–1186; x. 145-156, 867-908; xi. 614-636; Samson Agonistes, 1010-1060. Some of these utterances are of course dramatic; others Milton's biographers have taken to represent the opinions and experiences of the author himself. 1. 23. See note to p. 2, l. 16. The date of Anne Milton's death is uncertain. Of her two children by Phillips, Edward Phillips is last heard of, 1696, and John Phillips in 1706. By her marriage with Thomas Agar she had two daughters, of whom Mary, the elder, died young, and Anne, the second, married David Moore, of Sayes House, Chertsey. Descendants of Anne Moore are said to be still living. (Masson, vi. 763–775.) 1. 27. This daughter seems to have been the last living descendant of Sir Christopher Milton. She died in 1769. (Masson, vi. 761–3.) 1. 30. The name of the husband of Anne Milton is unknown, and the date of her death uncertain. She died some time before October 1678. (Masson, vi. 750.) 1. 30. Mary Milton died before 1694. (Masson, vi. 751.) 1. 32. An account of Deborah Clark and her descendants is given by Masson (vi. 751-761). The story of her power of repeating lines from Homer rests on the authority of Professor Ward of Gresham College, and was reported by him to Birch. (Life of Milton, 1738, p. 61.) P. 55, l. 16. 'Mr. Addison was desirous to see her once, and desired she would bring with her testimonials of being Milton's daughter; but as soon as she came into the room he told her she needed none, her face having much of the ' likeness of the pictures he had seen of him.' Letter of George Vertue, August 21, 1721. (Masson, i. 277; Cunningham, p. 137.) Addison died in 1719. 1. 17. A fund appears to have been raised for the benefit of Mrs. Clark. 'I was in London,' says Voltaire, 'when it became known that a daughter of blind Milton was still alive, old and in poverty, and in a quarter of an hour she was rich.' Richardson speaks of her as 'nobly relieved' for her father's sake. This appears to have taken place about 1727, a few months before her death. (Masson, vi. 754.) 1. 21. Caleb Clark died parish-clerk of Fort St. George (Madras) in 1710. All trace of his family ceases in 1727. 1. 24. Mrs. Foster died childless in May 1754. 1. 28. Thomas Birch derived some information from Mrs. Foster for the life of Milton prefixed to his edition of Milton's Prose Works (1738), and some more details were gleaned from the same source by Newton. P. 56, 1. 9. See Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. Hill, i. 227. The receipts at the theatre were £147 14s. 6d., but the expenses to be deducted amounted to £80. The sum was made up to £130 by subscriptions. (Masson, vi. 760.) 1. 17. Johnson refers to 'The Passion,' at the end of the eighth stanza of which Milton adds: 'This subject the author finding to be above the years he had when he wrote it, and nothing satisfied with what was begun, left it unfinished.' 1. 20. No doubt, as Cunningham suggests, Baretti. 1. 24. Pattison's judgment is precisely the reverse of that of Johnson. '] 'Milton's Latin verses are distinguished from most Neo-latin verse by being a vehicle of real emotion. His technical skill is said to have been surpassed by others; but that in which he stands alone is, that in these exercises of imitative art he is able to remain himself, and to give utterance to genuine passion.' (Milton, p. 41.) Landor devotes several pages to a detailed criticism of Milton's Latin poems. (Works, iv. 517-525.) P. 57, 1. 6. See note on p. 27, 1. 8. 1. 13. Warton, in his 'Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope,' remarks on the neglect of Milton's minor poems, and draws special attention to Milton's Nativity Ode as not sufficiently read or admired. He concludes, 'I have dwelt chiefly on this ode as much less celebrated than L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, which are now universally known, but which by a strange fatality lay in a sort of obscurity, the private enjoyment of a few curious readers, till they were set to admirable music by Mr. Handel. And indeed this volume of Milton's miscellaneous poems has not till very lately met with suitable regard. Shall I offend any rational admirer of Pope by remarking that these juvenile descriptive poems of Milton, as well as his Latin elegies, are in a strain far more exalted than any the former author can boast? Let me add at the same time, what justice obliges me to add, that they are far more incorrect.' (Ed. 1762, p. 39.) 1. 17. Paradise Lost, iv. 343. Hannah More notes in her diary a conversation with Dr. Johnson in 1781, 'I praised Lycidas, which he absolutely abused, adding "if Milton had K not written the Paradise Lost, he would have only ranked among the minor poets. He was a Phidias that could cut a Colossus out of a rock, but could not cut heads out of cherry stones.' (Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. Hill, iv. 99, note 1.) is 1. 30. Johnson disliked pastorals in general. In his Life. of Shenstone he writes: 'The four parts of his “Pastoral Ballad" demand particular notice. I cannot but regret that it is pastoral; an intelligent reader acquainted with the scenes of real life, sickens at the mention of the crook, the pipe, the sheep, and the kids, which it is not necessary to bring forward to notice, for the poet's art is selection, and he ought to shew the beauties without the grossness of the country life.' (Lives of the Poets, iv. 311.) Johnson's judgment on 'Lycidas' very similar to his judgment on Hammond's elegies. 'The truth is, these elegies have neither passion, nature, nor manners. Where there is fiction there is no passion; he that describes himself as a shepherd, and his Neaera or Delia as a shepherdess, and talks of goats and lambs, feels no passion. He that courts his mistress with Roman imagery deserves to lose her, for she may with good reason suspect his sincerity.' (Ibid. iii. 158.) In the life of Ambrose Phillips, Johnson gives a sketch of the history of pastoral poetry (Ibid. iv. 272-4). He seems to except the pastorals of Ambrose Phillips and Gay from his general censure. P. 58, 1. 2. Cowley's poem on the death of Mr. William Hervey (Poems, ed. 1700, p. 13): He was my friend, the truest friend on earth, A strong and mighty influence joined our birth; For much above myself I loved them too. Say, for you saw us, ye immortal lights, We spent them not in toys, or lusts, or wine, Wit, eloquence, and poetry; Arts which I loved, for they, my friend, were thine. Ye fields of Cambridge, our dear Cambridge, say, Was there a tree about which did not know And into darksome shades combine; Dark as the grave wherein my friend is laid.' 1. 9. Batten, to fatten, to feed. Cf. Hamlet, iii. 4: 'Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed And batten on this moor?' Pastoral 1. 28. Johnson's censure is too indiscriminate. imagery and phraseology are throughout transparent poetical fictions. The shepherd is never a real feeder of sheep. In the first part of Lycidas he is a poet, as King was; in lines 113131 he is a religious teacher, as King was destined to be. The defect lies not in the blending of truths and fictions, real shepherds and ecclesiastical pastors, but in the use of the figure of the shepherd, first in its classical, afterwards in its scriptural sense. There is the same mixture of classical and scriptural allegory in the introduction of the gaoler of the winds followed by the door-keeper of heaven. But while many lines in Lycidas are suggested by the laments for Daphnis in Virgil and Theocritus, the denunciation of the corrupted clergy is directly inspired by Zechariah's similar denunciation of the false prophets of his day. Milton's 'two-handed engine at the door' has its prototype and explanation in the sword which is to smite the worthless shepherd. (Zechariah, xi. 17.) P. 59, 1. 12. The question of the fidelity of Milton's descriptions of natural scenery, and of his attitude towards nature in these poems is discussed by Pattison, Milton, pp. 23-29. The versification is criticised by Gray, 'Observations on English Metre'; Works, ed. Gosse, i. 333. P. 60, 1. 14. L'Allegro, 134. |