MILT ON. THE Life of Milton has been already written in fo many forms, and with fuch minute enquiry, that I might perhaps more properly have contented myself with the addition of a few notes to Mr. Fenton's elegant Abridgement, but that a new narrative was thought neceffary to the uniformity of this edition. JOHN MILTON was by birth a gentleman, defcended from the proprietors of Milton near Thame in Oxfordshire, one of whom forfeited his eftate in the times of York and Lancaster. Which fide he took I know not; his defcendant inherited no veneration for the White Rofe. His grandfather John was keeper of the foreft of Shotover, a zealous papist, who difinherited his fon because he had forfaken the religion of his ancestors. His father, John, who was the fon difinherited, had recourfe for his fupport to the profeffion of a fcrivener. He was a man eminent for his fkill in mufick, many of his compofitions being ftill to be found; and his reputation in his profeffion was fuch, that he grew rich, and retired to an eftate. He had probably more than common literature, as his fon addreffes him in one of his most elaborate Latin poems. He married a gentlewoman of the name of Cafton, a Welfh family, by whom he had two fons, John the poet, and Chriftopher who ftudied the law, and adhered, as the law taught him, to the King's party, for which he was awhile perfecuted; but having, by his brother's intereft, obtained permiffion to live in quiet, he fupported himfelf fo honourably by chamber practice, that, foon after the acceffion of King James, he was knighted, and made a Judge; but, his conflitution being too weak for bufinefs, he retired before any difreputable compliances became neceffary. He had likewife a daughter Anne, whom he married with a confiderable fortune to Edward Philips, who came from Shrewsbury, and rofe in the Crown office to be fecondary: by him she had two fons, John and Edward, who were educated by the poet, and from whom is derived the only authentic account of his domeftic manners. John, the poet, was born in his father's houfe, at the Spread-Eagle in Bread-street, Dec. 9, 1608, between fix and feven in the morning. His father appears to have been very folicitous about his education; for he was inftructed at first by private tuition under the care of Thomas Young, who was afterwards chaplain to the English merchants at Hamburgh, and of whom we have reafon to think well, fince his fcholar confidered him as worthy of an epistolary elegy. He was then fent to St. Paul's School, under · the care of Mr. Gill; and removed, in the beginning of his fixteenth year, to Chrift's College in Cambridge, where he entered a fizar*, Feb. 12, 1624. He was at this time eminently skilled in the Latin tongue; and he himfelf, by annexing the: dates to his first compofitions, a boast of which the learned Politian had given him an example, feems to commend the earlinefs of his own proficiency to the notice of pofterity. But the products of his vernal fertility have been furpaffed by many, and par ticularly by his contemporary Cowley. Of the powers of the mind it is difficult to form an estimate many have excelled Milton in their firft effays, who never rofe to works like Paradife Loft. At fifteen, a date which he ufes till he is fixteen, he tranflated or verfified two Pfalms, 114 and 136, which he thought worthy of the public eye; but they raife no great expectations; they would in a any numerous fchool have obtained praife, but not excited wonder. Many of his elegies appear to have been written in his eighteenth year, by which it appears that he had then read the Roman authors with very nice difcernment. I once heard Mr. Hampton, the tranflator of Polybius, remark, what I think is true, that Milton was the firft Englishman who, after the revival of letters, wrote Latin verfes with claffic elegance. If any exceptions can be: made, they are very few; Haddon and Afchan, Milton was ad * In this affertion Dr. Johnfon was mistaken. mitted a penfioner, and not a fizar, as will appear by the following extract from the College Regifter: "Johannes Milton Londi"nenfis, filius Johannis, inftitutus fuit in literarum Elementis fub "Mag'ro Gill Gymnafii Paulini præfecto, admiffus eft Penfionarius "Minor, Feb. 12, 1624, fub Mro. Chappell, folvitq. pro Ingr.. £0. 10. od R. 66 E 5 the the pride of Elizabeth's reign, however they have fucceeded in profe, no fooner attempt verfes than they provoke derifion. If we produced any thing worthy of notice before the elegies of Milton, it was perhaps Alabafter's Roxana *. Of the exercifes, which the rules of the Univerfity required, fome were published by him in his maturer years. They had been undoubtedly applauded; for they were fuch as few can form: yet there is reason to fufpect that he was regarded in his college with no great fondnefs. That he obtained no fellowship is certain; but the unkindness with which he was treated was not merely negative. I am ashamed to relate what I fear is true, that Milton was one of the laft ftudents in either university that suffered the publick indignity of corporal correction. It was, in the violence of controverfial hoftility, objected to him, that he was expelled: this he fteadily denies, and it was apparently not true; but it seems plain from his own verfes to Diodati, that he had incurred Ruftication; a temporary dif miffion into the country, with perhaps the lofs of a term. Me tenet urbs refluâ quam Thamefis alluit undâ, Non ego vel profugi nomen fortemve recufo, * Published 1632. R. I cannot find any meaning but this, which even kindness and reverence can give to the term, vetiti laris, "a habitation from which he is excluded;" or how exile can be otherwife interpreted. He declares yet more, that he is weary of enduring the threats of a rigorous mafter, and fomething else, which a temper like his cannot undergo. What was more than threat was probably punishment. This poem, which mentions his exile, proves likewife that it was not perpetual; for it concludes with a refolution of returning fome time to Cambridge. And it may be conjectured, from the willingness with which he has perpetuated the memory of his exile, that its caufe was fuch as gave him no fhame. He took both the ufual degrees; that of Batche lor in 1628, and that of Mafter in 1632; but he left the univerfity with no kindness for its inftitution, alienated either by the injudicious feverity of his governors, or his own captious perverfeness. The caufe cannot be known, but the effect appears in his writings. His fcheme of education, infcribed to Hartlib, fuperfedes all academical inftruction, being intended to comprife the whole time which men ufually spend in literature, from their entrance upon grammar, till they proceed, as it is called, mafters of arts. And in his Difcourfe on the likelieft Way to remove Hirelings out of the Church, he ingenuously propofes, that the profits of the lands forfeited by the act for fuperftitious ufes, fhould be applied to fuch academies all over the land where languages and arts may be taught together; fo that youth may be at once brought up, to a competency of learning and an honeft trade, by which means fuch of them as had the gift, being enabled to fupport themselves (without tithes) by E 6 the |