Effay, "Delcctus Auctorum Sacrorum Miltono Facem Prælucentiumm," in two volumes; of which the first contained " Andrææ Ramfæi Poemata Sacra," & Hugonis Grotii Adamus Exul, Tragedia:" the second, " Jacobi Masenii Sarcotidos Libri tres," - ” — “ Odorici Valmaranæ Dæmonomachiæ Liber unus," - " Cafparis Barlæi Paradifus," & "* Frederici Taubmanni Bellum Angelicum: Libri tres." But, as Mr. Hayley finely obferves, Milton by the force and opulence of his own fancy was exempted from the inclination, and the necessity, of bor In 1752, and 1753. ■ From the Edinburg. edit. of 1633. • From the edition of Cologne, 1644. The fourth and fifth books are printed in Barbou's edition of the Sarcotis, printed at Paris, in 1781: to which are prefixed two Letters "Aux RR. PP. Jefuites Auteurs des Memoires de Trevoux, Où l'on compare le PARADIS PERDU de Milton avec le Poème intitulé SARCOTIS du R. P. Jacques Masenius, Jésuite Allemand." The liberal writer of the Article, Mafenius, in the Nouveau Dift. Hift. à Caen, 1785, confiders the pretended obligations of Milton to Masenius too trifing to be mentioned. 9 From the Vienna edit. 1627. See Dr. Newton's Note on Par. Loft, B. v. 689. This is a tranflation from the Paradise of Catfius, originally written in Dutch. It is an epithalamium on the nuptials of Adam and Eve; and Mr. Hayley pronounces it to be spirited and graceful. Many of Catfius's Dutch poems were tranflated into Latin verse à Cafpare Barlæo, et Cornelio Boyo, and first published in their new dress at Dordrecht in 1643. • This poem, confifting of two books, and a fragment of a third, Mr. Hayley says, was originally printed in 1604.... rowing and retailing the ideas of other poets; but, rich as he was in his own proper fund, he chose to be perfectly acquainted not only with the wealth, but even with the poverty, of others.” Indeed I may venture to strengthen this obfervation by Milton's own words, in which he seems to promife the production of fome great poetical work. " Neither do I think it shame to covenant with any knowing reader, that for fome few years yet I may go on trust with him towards the payment of what I am now indebted, as being a work not to be rais'd from the heat of youth, or the vapours of wine; like that which flows at waste from the pen of some vulgar amorift, or the trencher fury of fome riming parafite; nor to be obtain'd by the invocation of Dame Memory and her Siren Daughters, but by devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit, who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and fends out his Seraphim, with the hallow'd fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases; to this must be added industrious and select reading, steady obfervation, infight into all feemly and generous arts and affairs." Mr. Hayley therefore may be justified in his opinion, that Milton read, in different languages, authors of every class ; " and I doubt not," he adds, "but he had perused every poem collected by Lauder, * Of Reformation, &c. B. ii. Profe-Works, vol. 1. p. 223. edit. 1698. This was first published in 1641. though fome of them hardly afford ground enough for a conjecture, that he remembered any passage they contain, in the course of his nobler compofition." V. We are next presented with the following information of a learned and ingenious traveller, well known to the literary world by his eminent services in the cause of Chriftianity. " " During my short stay at Duffeldorf, I became acquainted with a baron de Harold, an Irishman, who is colonel of the regiment of Koningsfeld, &c.But my reason for mentioning the baron, was to inform you, that he is now employed in tranflating, into English verse, a Latin poem, entitled The Chriftiad, written by Robert Clarke, a Carthufian monk, of the convent of Nieuport near Oftend; from which he afferts that our great poet has borrowed largely. The poem, which is on the Paffion of Chrift, in seventeen books, contains, indeed, many ideas and descriptions, strikingly fimilar to those of Milton in his Paradise Lost. But, unless the baron can produce an edition previous to that which he pofsesses, which was printed at Bruges in 1678, it will be difficult to convict Milton of plagiarifm in this instance; for Johnnson, if I recollect ■ Letters during the course of a tour through Germany in 1791 and 1792, by Robert Gray, M. A. published in 1794, PP. 19-21. ! |