we must recollect that they are but few and unimportant, while they are well compensated by a vigour of expression, a beauty of allusion, a fertility of imagery, and a truly poetical conception. Though Milton has formed his taste on the best models, and drawn his language from the purest sources, his poems are not faded transcripts, or slavish imitations of the ancients.3 35 I know not where the scholars of the continent could have gone for more beautiful specimens of modern poetry than his First Elegy, and the Address to his Father; and has Lucretius himself ever clothed the bare and meagre form of metaphysical speculations in a robe of greater brilliancy, or adorned it with more dazzling jewels of poetry than in the following lines? who, that reads the argument, could have anticipated the change it underwent as it passed through the poet's mind. skill. mus.' DE IDEA PLATONICA QUEMADMODUM Dicite, sacrorum præsides nemorum deæ, Memoria mater, quæque in immenso procul Monumenta servans, et ratas leges Jovis, a commentator on the Latin poets of finer taste or happier Bentley over and over again calls him 'elegantissi'Solertissimo ingenio-et critica et poetica laude nobilis.' Burman Pierson (that admirable scholar), Wakefield, and others, bear the strongest testimony to his taste and skill. De Puy says, 'Heinsius delicatulas veneres, et lepores cum singulari virtute et doctrina conjunxit.' v. Puteani Vitam, p. 140, 4to. His Latin poems are elegant and correct, but very inferior to Milton's in fertility of invention, and poetical feeling. 35 The poets of Great Britain who have excelled in the composition of Latin verse might be thus arranged: Buchanan, Milton, T. May, Gray; and in the second order, Addison, V. Bourne, and Anstey. Cowley possessed a facility of versification, but his poetry is neither classical in its conception, nor correct in its execution. Coelique fastos, atque ephemeridas deûm, Seu sempiternus ille siderum comes In 1674, the last year of his laborious and honourable life, he published his familiar letters in Latin; to which he added some clever and pleasing academical exercises; and his long and splendid list of contributions to literature ended with a translation of the Latin declaration of the Poles in favour of John the Third. Some doubts, however, have been entertained as to this translation having proceeded from the pen of Milton; but as they turn entirely on the internal evidence of the style, they can admit of no perfect solution.36 Milton had long been a sufferer by the gout, which had now, with the advance of age, greatly enfeebled his constitution. Considering that his life was about to close,87 he informed his brother 36 Milton left in MS. a brief History of Moscovia, and of the other less known countries, lying eastward of Russia as far as Cathay, printed in 1688. On his tract concerning the militia, 1642, 4to. unnoticed by the biographers, see Todd's Life, (first ed.) p. 127. In a collection of poems by C. Gildon, 1692, 12mo, p. 92, is Julii Mazarini Cardinalis epitaphium, auctore Joanne Milton. v. State Poems, i. 56. Mr. Godwin, in his Life of Philips, p. 190, has mentioned a poem attributed to Milton, in State Poems, 1697, in which is-Noah be d-d.' 87He would be very cheerful even in his goute fitts, and sing: He died of the goute struck in, the 9 or 10 November, 1674, as appears by his "Apothecaries' books." Aubrey, Lett. iii. 449. Christopher that he wished to dictate to him the distribution of his property. He died by a quiet and silent expiration, on Sunday the 8th of November,88 at his house in Bunhill Fields, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. He was buried next his father in the chancel of St. Giles, Cripplegate, attended, as Toland informs us, by all his learned and great friends in London, not without a friendly concourse of the vulgar.' The original stone laid upon the grave of Milton was removed not many years after his interment; and no memorial of the Poet's fame existed in the church in which he was buried,89 till by Mr. Whitbread's munificence, a marble bust, and tablet, recording the date of his birth and death were erected in the middle aisle. To the author of Paradise Lost a similar tribute of respect was paid in 1737, by Mr. Auditor Benson; and his monument, adorned with a bust, was placed at the expense of that gentleman in Westminster Abbey. Thus was Milton's wish, though late, fulfilled: 'Ille meos artus liventi morte solutos When the inscription, written by Atterbury, to the memory of John Philips, was exhibited to Dr. Spratt, then Dean of Westminster, he refused to admit it, because the Poet was said to be 'soli Miltono secundus.' This anecdote was related to Johnson by Dr. Gregory. Such has been the 88 Johnson says, about the 10th of November, and Mr. Hayley on the 15th; but Mr. Todd has ascertained the exact date from a reference to the register of St. Giles's, Cripplegate. 89 On the disinterment of the supposed coffin and corpse of Milton in August, 1790, see the Pamphlet of P. Neve, Esq. and Todd's Life, p. 139. See also Appendix. change of opinion, he added, that I have seen erected in the church the statue of that man, whose name I once knew considered as a pollution of its walls. Milton, in his youth, is said to have been eminently handsome. He was called the Lady of his college.40 His complexion was fresh and fair.41 His hair, which was of a light brown, was parted in front, and hung down upon his shoulders. He was of a moderate stature, or rather below the middle size. His eyes were of a grayish colour; and when he was totally deprived of sight, he says that they did not betray the loss. His voice เ 40 Salmasius says 'Tu quem olim Itali pro fœminâ habuerunt.' Salmas. Resp. p. 23, in his Prolusiones Acad. p. 132, he says of himself, A quibusdam audivi, nuper domina,' &c. 41 On the portraits of Milton consult Todd's Life (second ed.), p. 235-240; to which I add, that I once saw a portrait of Milton at Lord Braybrooke's, Audley-End, in the galley (with a beard); that I also saw one of him, when young, at Lord Townshend's at Rainham, but many years (such years!!) have passed, and I cannot recollect any particulars. Charles Lamb, Esq. possesses an original portrait, left by his brother, and accidently bought in London. Could a portrait of Milton be in worthier hands?-Consult also T. Warton's Milton, p. 331. As regards his portrait by W. Marshall, prefixed to his Poems (and which Salmasius did not dislike), he says, in his Defensio contra Morum, Tu effigiem mihi dissimilimam præfixam Poematibus vidisti. Ego vero si impulsu et ambitione librarii, me imperito Sculptori, proptereà quod in urbe alius eo tempore belli non erat, in fabri scalpendum permisi, id me neglexisse potius eam rem arguebat, cujus tu mihi nimium cultum objicis.' v. Prose Works, v. p. 303; but Morus had drawn a different conclusion. 'An deformitatem tibi vitio verterem, qui bellum etiam credidi maxime, postquam, tuis præfixam Poematibus comptulam iconem illam vidi?' Salmasius reproaches him with the loss of his beauty. Malo isto magnam partem tuæ pulchritudinis deperiisse, pro eo ac debeo, doleo: nam in oculis maxime viget ac valet formadecus, quid Itali nunc dicerent, si te viderent cum ista tua fæda lippitudine.' Salmas. Resp. p. 15. I have heard that an original portrait of Milton (about thirty years of age) has been discovered by Mr. R. Lemon of the State Paper Office. and ear were musical. He was vigorous and active, delighting in the exercise of the sword. Of his figure in his declining days, the following sketch has been left by Richardson.-An ancient clergyman of Dorsetshire, Dr. Wright, found John Milton in a small chamber hung with rusty green, sitting in an elbow chair, and dressed neatly in black; pale, but not cadaverous; his hands and fingers gouty, and with chalk-stones. He used also to sit in a gray coarse cloth coat, at the door of his house near Bunhill Fields, in warm sunny weather, to enjoy the fresh air. And so, as well as in his room, he received the visits of people of distinguished parts, as well as quality.42 His domestic habits were those of a severe and temperate student. He drank little wine, and fed without any luxurious delicacy of choice. In his youth, he studied till midnight; but warned by the early decay of sight, and his disordered health, he afterwards changed his hours, and rested in bed 48 from nine till four in summer, and five in the winter months. If at these hours he was not disposed to rise, he had a person by his bedside to read to him.44 When he had risen, he had a chapter in the Hebrew Bible read to him, and then studied till twelve. He then took some exercise for an hour in his garden, dined, 42 Richardson's Life of Milton, 1734, p. iv. 48 The bed on which Milton died was given by Mr. Hollis to Akenside the poet, who was delighted with the present. See Hollis's Memoirs, p. 112. 44 Milton had taught his two younger daughters to pronounce exactly the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, and French, without understanding the meaning of the languages. This at length became so irksome, that, on their expressing their uneasiness, they were sent out to learn embroidery, &c. Elwood, Ed. Philips, and Skinner read to him. He used to say, in his daughters' hearing that one tongue was enough for a woman. v. Philips' Life, p. 42. |