MILT O N. 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 on 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 Lancafter. Which fide he took I know not; his defcendant inherited no veneration for the White Rose. His grandfather John was keeper of the foreft of Shotover, a zealous papift, who difinherited his fon, because he had forfaken the religion of his ancestors. His father, John, who was the son 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 still 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 moft elaborate Latin poems. He married a gentlewoman of the name of Cafton, a Welth 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 a while perfecuted, but having, by his brother's intereft, obtained permiffion to live in quiet, he supported himself fo honourably by chamber-practice, that, foon after the acceffion of King James, he was knighted and made a judge; but, his conftitution being too weak for business, he retired before any difreputable compliances became neceffary. He had likewife a daughter Anne, whom he mar ried with a confiderable fortune to Edward Philips, who came from Shrewsbury, and rofe in the Crownoffice to be fecondary: by him fhe 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 educa tion; 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 epiftolary 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 himself, 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 particularly by his contemporary Cowley. Of the powers of the mind. it is difficult to form an eftimate: many have excelled Milton in their firft effays, who never rofe to works like Paradife Loft. At fifteen, a date which he uses till he is fixteen, he tranflated or verfified two Pfalms, 114 and 136, which he thought worthy of the publick eye; but they raise no great expectations: they would in any numerous school 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 translator of Polybius, remark, what I think is true, that * In this affertion Dr. Johnson was mistaken. Milton was admitted a penfioner, and not a fizar, as will appear by the following extract from the College Regifter: "Johannes Milton "Londinenfis, filius Johannis, inftitutus fuit in literarum ele"mentis fub Mag'ro Gill Gymnatii Paulini præfecto, admiffus eft Penfionarius Minor Feb. 12, 1624, fub M'ro Chappell, folvitq. "pro Ingr. £.o. 10s od." R. 66 Milton was the firft Englishman who, after the revival of Letters, wrote Latin verfes with claffick elegance. If any exceptions can be made, they are very few Haddon and Afcham, the pride of Elizabeth's reign, however they have fucceeded in profe, no fooner attempt verfe than they provoke derifion. If we produced any thing worthy of notice before the elegies of Milton, it was perhaps Alabaster'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 perform; yet there is reafon 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 afhamed to relate what I fear is true, that Milton was one of the laft ftudents in either univerfity that fuffered the publick indignity of corporal correction. It was, in the violence of controversial hoftility, objected to him, that he was expelled: this he steadily denies, and it was apparently not true; but it feems plain, from his own verses to Diodati, that he had incurred Ruftication, a temporary difmiffion into the country, with perhaps the lofs of a term. Me tenet urbs refluâ quam Thamesis alluit undâ, Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revifere Camum, * Published 1632. R. G 4 Nec Nec duri libet ufque minas perferre magiftri, Non ego vel profugi nomen fortemye recufo, I cannot find any meaning but this, which even kindness and reverence can give the term, vetiti laris, "a habitation from which he is excluded ;" or how exile can be otherwise interpreted. He declares yet more, that he is weary of enduring the threats of a rigorous mafier, and fomething elfe, 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 Batchelor 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 perverfenefs. The cause cannot now be known, but the effect appears in his writings. His fcheme of education, infcribed to Hb, fuperfedes all academical instruction, 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 Hirclings out of the Church, he inge niously |