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SOME ACCOUNT OF THE

LIFE OF MILTON,

JOHN MILTON, fon of John and Sarah Milton, was born on the 9th of December 2 1608, at the house of his father, who was then an eminent scrivener in London, and lived at the fign of the Spread Eagle (which was the armorial ensign of the family) in Bread-street, The ancestry of the poet was highly refpectable. His father was educated as a gentleman, and became ab member of Christ Church, Oxford; in which society, as it may be prefumed, he imbibed his attachment to the doctrines of the Reformation, and abjured the errours of Popery; in confequence of which, his father, who was a bigotted papist, disinherited him. The student therefore chose, for his support, the profeffion already mentioned; in the practice of which he became so successful as to be enabled to give his children the advantages of polished education, and at

* " The xxth daye of December 1608 was baptized John, the Ionne of John Mylton, scrivenor." Extract from the Register of All-hallows, Bread-Strect.

See the Note on Ad Patrem, vol. vi. p. 333.

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length to retire with comfort into the country. The grandfather of the poet was under-ranger or keeper of the foreft of Shotover, near Halton in Oxfordshire; and probably resided at the village of Milton in that neighbourhood, where the family of Milton, in remoter times, were diftinguished for their opulence; till, one of them having taken the unfortunate side in the civil wars of York and Lancaster, the estate was sequestered; and the proprietor was left with nothing but what he held by his wife. There is a tradition that the poet had once resided in this village, while he was Secretary to Cromwell.

The mother of Milton is faid by Wood, from Aubrey, to have been a Bradshaw; defcended • from a family of that name in Lancashire. Peck relates, that he was informed " she was a

In the Registers of Milton, as I have been obligingly informed by letter from the Rev. Mr. Jones, there are however no entries of the name of Milton.

Philips, Milton's nephew, fays that the family refided at Milton near Abingdon in Oxfordshire, as appeared by the monuments then to be feen in Milton church. But that Milton is in Berkshire; and Dr. Newton fearched in vain for the monuments said to exist in that church.

The information of Wood is most probably correct, that they fived at Milton near Halton and Thame.

Philips's Life of Milton, 1694. p. iv.

• Communicated to me by letter from Milton.

Fasti Ox. vol. i. p. 262, &c. chiefly taken, as Mr. Wartor has observed, from Aubrey's manuscript Life of Milton, preferved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

& Memoirs of Milton, 1740. p. 1.

Haughton of Haughton-tower" in the fame county. But Philips, her grandson, whose authority it is most reasonable to admit, à affirms, in his Life of Milton, that she was a Caston, of a genteel family derived originally from Wales. Milton himself has recorded, with becoming reference to the respectability of his defcent, the great esteem in which she was held for her virtues, more particularly for her charity.

His father was particularly distinguished for his musical abilities. He is faid to have been "a* voluminous composer, and equal in science, if not in genius, to the best musicians of his age." Sir John Hawkins and Dr. Burney, in their Histories of Musick, have each selected a specimen of his skill. He has been mentioned also by Mr. Warton, as the author of " A fixefold Politician. Together with a fixe-fold precept of Policy. Lond. 1609." But Mr. Hayley agrees with Dr. Farmer and Mr. Reed in assigning that work rather to John Melton, author of the Astrologaster, than to the father of our poet. Of his attachment to literature, however, the Latin verses of his fon, addressed to him with no less elegance than gratitude, are an unequivocal proof.

h Life of Milton, p. v.

i " Londini sum natus, genere honesto, patre viro integerrimo, matre probatiffimâ, et eleemofynis per viciniam potissimùm notâ." Defens. fec. vol. iii. p. 95. edit. fol. 1698.

* Dr. Burney's Hift. of Musick, vol. iii. p. 134.

1 See the Note on ver. 66. Ad Patrem, vol. vi. p. 337

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The care, with which Milton was educated, shows the difcernment of his father. The bloom of genius was fondly noticed, and wifely encouraged. He was so happy, fays Dr. Newton, as to share the advantages both of private and publick education. He was at first instructed, by private tuition, under Thomas Young, whom Aubrey calls a puritan in Effex who cutt his haire short;" 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 master of Jesus 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 Janfen, drawn when he was only ten years

mSee the Notes at the beginning of the fourth Elegy, vol. vi. p. 199. If Milton imbibed from this instructor, as Mr. Warton supposes, the principles of puritanism, it may be curious to remark that he never adopted from him the outward symbol of the fect. Milton preferved his "clustering locks" throughout the reign of the sound-heads. Wood, defcribing the Seekers who came to preach at Oxford in 1647, affords a proper commentary on Young's cutting his hair short. The generality of them had mortified countenances, puling voices, and eyes commonly, when in difcourse, lifted up, with hands lying on their breasts. They moftly had fort hair, which at this time was commonly called the Committee cut, &c." Fafti Ox. vol. ii. p. 61.

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