that he did. I mention this on the authority of a gentleman, whofe information indeed will highly intereft our curiofity, but at the fame time excite our forrow.

t

"Milton married a daughter of Juftice Powell, (of Sandford in the vicinity of Oxford,) and lived in a house at Foreft Hill, about three miles from Sandford; where, the late laureate Warton told me, Milton wrote a great part of his Paradife Lojt. Warton found a number of papers of Milton's own writing in that house, and also many of Justice Powell's ; which the late Mr. Crewe (father to the late Viscountess Falmouth) permitted him to take, and make what ufe of them he thought proper. The late Mr. Mickle tranflated part of Camoens's Lufiad in the fame houfe, he being at the time I vifited him a lodger in that houfe. Mr. Mickle married the daughter of Mr. Tomkins a farmer, the tenant to Mr. Crewe. The time I allude to of vifiting my worthy friend Mickle was in 1772 and 1773. And my converfations, had with Mr. Warton and Mr. Crewe, were from 1781 to 1786."

Our forrow cannot but be excited, when it is added that of Milton's papers no regular account appears to have been taken, and no defcription has been given. The biographers of Warton and Mickle will be confulted in vain on this fubject.

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A pretended romantick circumstance in Milton's younger days has been publickly mentioned, which has been fuppofed to have formed the firft impulfe of his Italian journey. In the General Evening Poft

a Thomas B. Richards, Efq. One of the Sub-Commissioners under the prefent Record Commiffion for England.

b See Mr. Warton's Notes on the Nuncupative Will of Milton, fubjoined to this account of the Life and Writings of the poet.

The Rev. R. Mant's Life of T. Warton, and the Rev. J. Sim's Life of W. J. Mickle, prefixed to the Poetical Works of those authors.

in the Spring of 1789 it is fupposed to have ap peared; in which, or in any other journal, however, I had not been fo fortunate, before the firft edition of this account was published, as to difcover it. The anecdote has fince been obligingly tranfmitted to me, exactly as it appeared in a News-paper, (the Italian citation only being here corrected,) of which the date does not appear; and for which I am indebted, through my friend Mr. Bindley, to M. Whish, Efq.

Believing that the following real circumftance has been but little noticed, we fubmit the particulars of it, as not uninterefting, to the attention of our readers :-It is well known that, in the bloom of youth, and when he pursued his ftudies at Cambridge, this poet was extremely beautiful. Wandering, one day, during the fummer, far beyond the precincts of the University, into the country, he became fo heated and fatigued, that, reclining himself at the foot of a tree to reft, he fhortly fell asleep. Before he awoke, two ladies, who were foreigners, paffed by in a carriage. Agreeably astonished at the loveliness of his appearance, they alighted, and having admired him (as they thought) unperceived, for fome time, the youngest, who was very handfome, drew a pencil from her pocket, and having written fome lines upon a piece of Immepaper, put it with her trembling hand into his own. diately afterwards they proceeded on their journey. his acquaintances, who were in fearch of him, had observed this filent adventure, but at too great a diftance to discover that the highly-favoured party in it was our illuftrious bard. Approaching nearer, they faw their friend, to whom, being awakened, they mentioned what had happened. Milton opened the paper, and, with furprize, read thefe verfes from Guarini: [Madrigal. xii. ed. 1598.]

Some of

Aperti che farete ?"

"Ye eyes! ye human ftars! ye authors of my livelieft pangs! If thus, when fhut, ye wound me, what must have proved the consequence had ye been open?" Eager, from this moment, to find out the fair incognita, Milton travelled, but in vain, through every part of Italy. His poetick fervour became inceffantly more and more heated by the idea which he had formed of his unknown admirer; and it is, in fome degree, to her that his own times, the prefent times, and the latest pofterity must feel themselves indebted for several of the most impaflioned and charming compofitions of the Paradife Loft."

The preceding highly coloured relation, however, is not fingular. My friend Mr. Walker points out to me a counterpart in the following Extract from the Preface to Poéfies de Marguerite-Eleanore Clotilde, depuis Madame de Surville, Poëte Francois du XV. Siecle. Paris, 1803.

"Juftine de Lévis fe promenoit dans une forêt avec deux de fes parentes; elles apperçurent un jeune chevalier endormi. Sa beauté frappe les trois jeunes amies; Juftine furtout en reçut une impreffion qui ne s'effaça jamais. Elle ne put s'empêcher de dépofe fes tallettes auprès du bel inconnu, aprés y avoir écrit quatre vers Italiens qui fermoient une espece de déclaration elle s'éloigna enfuite avec fes compagnes. On peut juger de l'etonnement du chevalier lorqu'à fon réveil il trouva ces tablettes et lut ce qu'elles contenoient. Louis de Puytendre (c'etoit fon nom) ne s'occupa plus que de la recherche de l'inconnue: il parcourut inutilement l'Italie entire; il eut diverfes aventures, &c."

Though credence will hardly be granted to the anecdote refpecting Milton, obligation is due to him who published it; inafmuch as the publication occafioned it to be 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 fpeeds away.-
Ye eyes, ye human ftars!-if, thus conceal'd

By fleep'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 through Tuscan 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 stretches round
Her ruin'd towers and temples;--claffick lore
Breathing fublimer spirit 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. On the death of his mother in 1637, he prevailed with his father to permit him to vifit the continent. This permiffion Mr. Hayley fuppofes 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 Phillips indeed relates, that, while at Venice, he fhipped 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 flourithing about that time in Italy. Having obtained fome directions for his travels from

Sir Henry Wotton, to whom he had communicated his earneft defire of feeing foreign countries, he went in 1638, attended with a fingle fervant, to Paris; where, by the favour of Lord Scudamore, he was introduced 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 suitable 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 procceded 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 most welcome guest 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 these Italian friends;

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See Sir Henry Wotton's Letter to him, and the Notes prefixed to Comus in this edition.

e "Tai enim Jacobe Gaddi, Carole Dati, Frefcobalde, Cultelline, Bommatthæe, 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 Italian 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