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fo happy, fays Dr. Newton, as to fhare the advantages both of private and publick education. He was at first inftructed, by private tuition, under › Thomas Young, whom Aubrey calls "a puritan in Effex who cutt his haire fhort;" who, having quitted his country on account of his religious opinions, became Chaplain to the English merchants at Hamburgh; but afterwards returned, and during the ufurpation of Cromwell was mafter of Jefus College, Cambridge. Of the pupil's affection for his early tutor, his fourth elegy, and two Latin epiftles, are publick teftimonies. Mr. Hayley confiders the portrait of Milton by Cornelius Jansen, drawn when he was only ten years old, at which age Aubrey affirms "he was a poet," as having been executed in order to operate as a powerful incentive to the future exertion of the infant author. This fuppofition is very probable: And, as the portrait was drawn by a painter then rifing into fame, and whofe price for a

See the Notes at the beginning of Milton's fourth Elegy. If Milton imbibed from this inftructer, as Mr. Warton fuppofes, the principles of puritanifm, it may be curious to remark that he never adopted from him the outward symbol of the fect. Milton preferved his "cluftering locks" throughout the reign of the round-heads. Wood, defcribing the Seekers who came to preach at Oxford in 1647, affords a proper commentary on Young's cutting his hair fhort. "The generality of them had mortified countenances, puling voices, and eyes commonly, when in difcourfe, lifted up, with hands lying on their breasts. They moftly had short hair, which at this time was commonly called the Committee cut, &c." Fafti. Ox. vol, ii. p. 61.

Jansen's first works in England are faid to be dated about 1618; the year, in which the young poet's portrait was drawn, See Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, Works, vol. iii. p. 149. edit. 1798.

head was five broad pieces, the mark of encouragement was rendered more handsome and more confpicuous.

From the tuition of Mr. Young, Milton was removed to St. Paul's School, under the care of' Alexander Gill, who at that time was the mafter; to whose fon, who was then usher and afterwards mafter, and with whom Milton was a favourite scholar, are addreffed, in friendship, three of the poet's Latin epiftles. There is no register of admiffions into St. Paul's School fo far back as the beginning of the feventeenth century. But, as Milton's domestick preceptor quitted England in 1623, it is probable that he was then admitted into that feminary; at which time he was in his fifteenth year. He had already studied with uncommon avidity; but at the fame time with such inattention to his health, feldom retiring from his books before midnight, that the fource of his blindness may be traced to his early paffion for letters. In his twelfth year, as he tells us, this literary devotion

See the first Note on the first Elegy.

As I found, upon inquiry of the Rev. Dr. Roberts, the prefent Head-Mafter.

"Pater me puerulum humaniorum literarum ftudiis destinavit; quas ita avidè arripui, ut ab anno ætatis duodecimo vix unquam ante mediam noctam à lucubrationibus cubitum difcederem; quæ prima oculorum pernicies fuit quorum ad naturalem debilitatem accefferant et crebi capitis dolores; quæ omnia cùm difcendi impetum non retardarent, et in ludo literario, et fub aliis domi magiftris erudiendum quotidiè curavit." Def. Sec. ut fupr. Aubrey alfo relates, that "when Milton went to schoole, and when he was very younge, he studied very hard, and fate up very late, commonly til twelve or one o'clock; and his father ordered the maid to fett up for him." MS. Ashmol. Muf. ut fupr. His early reading was in poetical books. See the Notes on the

began; from which he was not to be deterred either by the natural debility of his eyes, or by his frequent head-aches. The union of genius and application in the fame perfon was never more confpicuous.

In 1623 he produced his firft poetical attempts, the Tranflations of the 114th and 136th Pfalms, to which, as to fome other juvenile productions, he has annexed the date of his age. It has been uncandidly fuppofed, that he intended, by this method, to obtrude the earlinefs of his own proficiency on the notice of pofterity. Dr. Johnson calls it a boaft, of which Politian has given him an example." Milton and Politian have followed claffical authority. Lucan" thus fpeaks of himself:

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"Eft mihi, crede, meis animus conftantior annis,
"Quamvis nunc juvenile decus mihi pingere malas
Cœperit, et nondum vicefima venerit æftas."

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But who will deny, that in thefe Tranflations the dawning of real genius may be difcerned; or that his Ode, On the death of a fair Infant, written foon after, difplays, as a poetical compofition, the vigour and judgement of maturer life, and affects, by its fenfibility, the feeling mind! The verfes also, At a Vacation Exercife in the College, written at the age of nineteen, have been repeatedly and juftly noticed as containing indications of the future bard,

Tranflations of the 114th and 136th Pfalms in the seventh volume of this edition. Humphry Lownes, a printer, living in the fame street with his father, fupplied him at leaft with Spenfer and Sylvefter's Du Bartas.

"Lucanus de feipfo, in Panegyrico ad Calpurnium Pifonem. Epigr. & Poem. Vet. Paris, 1590, p. 121.

"whose genius was equal to a fubject that carried him beyond the limits of the world."

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Few readers will be inclined to admit that Cowley and other poets have furpaffed, in "products of vernal fertility," the efforts of Milton. Few will regard, without averfion, the unfair comparison of Milton's juvenile effufions with those of Chatterton. Milton, as he is the most learned of modern poets, may perhaps retain his princely rank alfo in the lift of those who have written valuable pieces at as early or an earlier age; and Politian, Taffo, Cowley, Metaftafio, Voltaire, and Pope, may bow to him, "as to fuperiour Spirits is due."

In the 17th year of his age, distinguished as a claffical fcholar, and converfant in feveral languages, he was fent, from St. Paul's School, to Cambridge; and was admitted a Penfioner at Chrift College on the 12th of February, 1624-5, under the tuition of Mr. William Chappel, afterwards Bishop of Cork and Rofs in Ireland. Here he attracted particular notice by his academical exercifes, as well as by feveral copies of verfes, both Latin and English, upon occafional fubjects. He neglected indeed no part of literature, although his chief object feems to have been the cultivation of his poetical abilities. "This good hap I had from a careful education," he fays; 66 to be inured and feafoned betimes with the best

* In the Biograph. Brit. vol. iv. p. 591. edit. Kippis.

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Johannes Milton, Londinenfis, filius Johannis, inftitutus fuit in Literarum elementis fub Magro. Gill, Gymnafii Paulini Præfecto, admiffus eft Penfionarius Minor Feb. 12°. 1624, sub Mr. Chappell, folvitque pro Ingr. 0. 10. 8." Extract from the College Regifter.

and eleganteft authors of the learned tongues; and thereto brought an ear that could measure a just cadence, and scan without articulating; rather nice and humourous in what was tolerable, than patient to read every drawling verfifier."

To his eminent kill, at this time, in the Latin tongue Dr. Johnfon affords his tribute of commendation. "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 nice difcernment. I once heard Mr. Hampton, the tranflator of Polybius, remark, what I think is true, that Milton was the first Englishman who, after the revival of letters, wrote Latin verfes with claffick elegance." Milton's Latin exercises, which he recited publickly, are alfo marked with characteristick animation. From fome remarkable paffages in thefe, as Mr. Hayley obferves, it appears "that he was first an object of partial feverity, and afterwards of general admiration, in his college. He had differed in opinion concerning a plan of academical ftudies with some persons of authority in his College, and thus excited their displeasure. He speaks of them as highly incenfed against him; but expreffes, with the most liberal fenfibility, his furprise, delight, and gratitude, in finding that his enemies forgot their animofity to honour him with unexpected applaufe."

But incidents unfavourable to the character of Milton, while a ftudent at Cambridge, have been pofitively afferted to be contained in his own words; and the poet has been fummoned to prove his own flavoll banishment in the following verfes, in

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