that he had too free a spirit to be limited and confined; that he was for comprehending all fciences, but profeffing none. His conduct, however, on these occafions is a proof of the fincerity with: which he had refolved to deliver his fentiments.

"For me, I have determined to lay up as the best treasure and folace of a good old age, if God vouchsafe it me, the honeft liberty of free speech from my youth."

d

Having taken the degree of M.A. in 1632, he left the university, and retired to his father's house in the country; who had now quitted bufinefs, and lived at an estate which he had purchased at Horton near Colnebrooke, in Buckinghamshire. Here he refided five years; in which time he not only, as he himself informs us, read over the Greek and Latin authors, particularly the hiftorians, but is alfo be lieved to have written his Arcades, Comus, L'Allegro and Il Penferofo, and Lycidas. The pleasant retreat in the country excited his most poetick feelings; and he proved himself able, in his pictures of rural life, to rival the works of Nature which he contemplated with delight. In the neighbourhood of Horton the Countefs Dowager of Derby refided; and the Arcades was

• Profe-Works, vol. i. p. 220. edit. 1698.

He was admitted to the fame degree at Oxford in 1635. See Wood, Fafti, vol. i. p. 262.

P

performed by her grand-children at this feat, called Harefield-place. It seems to me, that Milton intended a compliment to his fair neigh

с

bour, (for fair fhe was,) in his L'Allegro :

"Towers and battlements it fees

Bofom'd high in tufted trees,
"Where perhaps fome Beauty lies,
“The Cynosure of neighbouring eyes.”

f

The woody fcenery of Harefield, and the perfonal accomplishments of the Countess, are not unfavourable to this fuppofition; which, if admitted, tends to confirm the opinion, that L'Allegro and Il Penferofo were composed at Horton.

The Mafk of Comus, and Lycidas, were certainly produced under the roof of his father. It may be observed that, after his retirement to private ftudy, he paid great attention, like his mafter Spenfer, to the Italian fchool of poetry. Dr. Johnfon obferves, that "his acquaintance with the Italian writers may be difcovered by the mixture of longer and fhorter verfes in Lycidas, according to the rules of Tuscan poetry." In Comus the sweet rhythm and cadence of the Italian language is no lefs obfervable. Of these poems, as of his other works, the reader will

See the preliminary Notes to Arcades, in the fifth volume of this edition, pp. 147, 148. and Arcades, ver. 14, &c. znala

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See Lyfons's Middlefex, 1800. Harefield, p. 1080p I

find critical opinions in their respective places. I must here obferve that the houfe, in which Milton drew fuch enchanting scenes, was about

ten years fince pulled down; and that, during his refidence at Horton, he had occafionally taken lodgings in London, in order to cultivate mufick and mathematicks, to meet his friends from Cambridge, and to indulge his paffion for

books.

:.

On the death of his mother in 1637, he prevailed with his father to permit him to visit the continent. This permiffion Mr. Hayley supposes to have been" the more readily granted, as one of his motives for vifiting Italy was to form a collection of Italian mufick.". His nephew Philips indeed relates, that, while at Venice, he shipped a parcel of curious and rare books which he had collected in his travels; particularly a cheft or two of choice mufick-books of the best masters flourishing about that time in Italy. Having obtained fome directions for his travels from Sir Henry Wotton, to whom he had communicated his earnest defire of seeing

As I have been obligingly informed by letter from the prefent Rector of Horton.

See Sir Henry Wotton's Letter to him, and the Notes, in the fifth volume of this edition,. p. 177, &c. A romantick cir. cumftance of Milton's juvenility has been publickly mentioned, which has been fuppofed to have formed the first impulse of his Italian journey. In the General Evening Pofts in the Spring of

foreign countries, he went in 1638, attended with a fingle fervant, to Paris; where, by the favour of Lord Scudamore, he was introduced

1789 it is fuppofed to have appeared; in which, however, I have not been fo fortunate as to discover it. Poffibly in fome other pub. lick Paper it may be found. The reader will be highly gratified in finding the anecdote clothed in the following elegant drefs:

"In fultry noon when youthful MILTON lay,

"Supinely ftretch'd beneath the poplar fhade,
"Lur'd by his Form, a fair Italian Maid

Steals from her loitering chariot, to furvey "The flumbering charms, that all her foul betray. "Then, as coy fears th' admiring gaze upbraid, "Starts; and thefe lines, with hurried pen pourtray'd, "Slides in his half-clos'd hand ;-and freeds away.→

Ye eyes, ye human ftars!-if, thus conceal'd

By Sleep's foft veil, ye agitate my heart,

Ah! what had been its conflict if reveal'd

Your rays had fhone!'- Bright Nymph, thy ftrains impart. "Hopes, that impel the graceful Bard to rove, "Seeking thro' Tufcan Vales his vifionary Love, "He found her not; yet much the Poet found, "To fwell Imagination's golden ftore,

"On Arno's bank, and on that bloomy fhore, "Warbling Parthenope; in the wide bound, Where Rome's forlorn Campania ftretches round "Her ruin'd towers and temples;-claffick lore "Breathing fublimer fpirit from the power "Of local confcioufnefs.-Thrice happy wound, "Given by his fleeping graces, as the Fair

Hung over them enamour'd,' the defire

"Thy fond refult infpir'd, that wing'd him there,

"Where breath'd each Roman and each Tuscan Lyre,

"Might haply fan the emulative flame,

"That rofe o'er DANTE's fong, and rivall'd MARO'S " "fame."

Original Sonnets &c. by Anna Seward, 1799, p. 76,

to Grotius. Of this interview, although the numerous letters of Grotius afford no trace, Milton's nephew gives the following account; Grotius took the vifit kindly, and gave him entertainment fuitable to his worth and the high commendations he had heard of him.

Having been prefented, by Lord Scudamore, with letters of recommendation to the English merchants in the feveral places through which he intended to travel, he went, after staying a few days in Paris, directly to Nice, where he embarked for Genoa. From Genoa he proceeded to Leghorn, Pifa, and Florence. The delights of Florence detained him there two months. His compofitions and converfation were fo much admired, that he was a moft welcome gueft in the academies, (as in Italy the meetings of the most polite and ingenious perfons are denominated,) held in that city. He has affectionately recorded the names of thefe Italian friends;

Tui enim Jacobe Gaddi, Carole Dati, Frefcobalde, Cultelline, Bommatthære, Clementille, Francine, aliorumque plurium memoriam apud me femper gratam, atque jucundam, nulla dies delebit." Defenf. fec. Profe-Works, vol. iii. p. 96. edit. 1698.

It is to one of these friends that he profeffes his love of the Ita lian language. "Ego certè iftis utrifque linguis [Greek and Latin] non extremis tantummodò labris madidus; fed, fiquis alius, quantum per annos licuit, poculis majoribus prolutus, poffum tamen nonnunquam ad illum Dantem, et Petrarcam, aliofque veftros complufculos, libentèr et cupidè comeffatum ire." Epift. B. Bom. mathaa. Profe-Works, vol. iii. p. 325. ed. 1698.