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prifoner of it. On his arrival at Rome on February the 10th, 1632, that illustrious philosopher had furrendered himself to Urban, who ordered him to be confined for his philofophical heresy in the palace of the Trinità de' Monti. Here he remained five months. Having retracted his opinion, he was dismissed from Rome; and the house of Monfignor Piccolomini in Sienna was affigned to him as his prifon. About the beginning of December, in 1633, he was liberated; and returned to the village of Belloguardo near Florence, whence he went to Arcetri, where, it is probable, he received the visit of the English bard. Milton himself has informed us that he had really seen Galileo; and Rolli, in his Life of the poet, * confiders some ideas in the Paradife Loft, approaching towards the Newtonian philosophy, to have been caught at Florence from Galileo or his disciples.

From Florence he passed through Sienna to Rome, where he also stayed two months; feasting, as Dr. Newton well observes, both his eyes and his mind, and delighted with the fine paintings, and sculptures, and other rarities and antiquities, of the city. It has been judicioufly

- " In Firenze certamente egli apprese dagli Scritti e dalle Mafsfime del Galileo invalorite già ne' di lui Seguaci, quelle Nozioni filosofiche sparse poi nel Poema, che tanto fi uniformano al Sistema del Cavalier Newton." Vita, &c. 1735.

conjectured, that several of the immortal works of the finest painters and statuaries may be traced in Milton's poetry. They are supposed by Mr. Hayley to have had confiderable influence in attaching his imagination to our first parents. " He had most probably contemplated them," the elegant writer continues, " not only in the colours of Michael Angelo, who decorated Rome with his picture of the creation, but in the marble of Bandinelli, who had executed two large statues of Adam and Eve, which, though they were far from fatisfying the taste of connoiffeurs, might stimulate even by their imperfections the genius of a poet." The description of the creation in the third book of Paradise Loft, (line 708, 719,) is supposed by "Mr. Walker to be copied from the same subject as treated by Raphael in the gallery of the Vatican, called "la Bibbia di Raffaello." There are indeed several interesting pictures relating to Adam and Eve in the Florence collection, together with "the fall of Lucifer" supposed to be the work of Michael Angelo, which Milton might have also seen. Mr. Dunster ingenioufly ° conjectures the Paradise Regained to have been en-/ riched by the suggestions of Salvator Rosa's masterly painting of The Temptation. The genius

• Hist. Mem. on Italian Tragedy, p. 166,

• Addition to his edit. of Par. Reg. 1800.

of Milton seems to have resembled more particularly that of Michael Angelo. It is worthy of notice, as it shows a strong coincidence of tafte in the poet and the painter, that Michael Angelo was particularly struck with Dante; and that he is faid to have P sketched with a pen, on the margin of his copy of the Inferno, every striking scene of the terrible and the pathetick; but this valuable curiosity was unfortunately lost in a shipwreck. The learned author of Tableaux tirés de

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l'Iliade, de l'Odyssée d' Homere, et de l' Eneide de Virgile," was never more mistaken than in supposing the Paradise Loft incapable of fupplying an artist with scenes as graceful and fublime as can be met with in the poems of the Grecian and Roman bards: for, in the words of Mr. Hayley, there is no charm exhibited by painting, which Milton's poetry has failed to equal, as far as analogy between the different arts can extend. Indeed the numerous exercises for the painter's skill, which Milton's works afford, have, in later times, commanded due attention; and Fuseli, by his happy sketches from such originals, has taught us how to admire poetry and painting " breathing united force."

At Rome Milton was honoured with the acquaintance of several learned men; more efpecially with that of Holstenius, keeper of the Va

See " A Sketch of the Lives and Writings of Dante and Petrarch, 1790." p. 31,

tican library. By him he was introduced to Cardinal Barberini, the 9 patron Cardinal of the English; who, at an entertainment of musick, performed at his own expence, waited for him at the door, and condescended to lead him into the assembly. Milton did not forget the extraordinary civilities of this accomplished Cardinal. In thanking Holstenius afterwards for all his favours to him, he adds "De cætero, novo beneficio devinxeris, fi * Eminentiffimum Cardinalem quantâ potest obfervantiâ meo nomine falutes, cujus magnæ virtutes, rectique studium, ad provehendas item omnes artes liberales egregiè comparatum, femper mihi ob oculos versatur." At Rome alfo, Selvaggi and Salfilli praised the attainments of Milton in those verses, which are prefixed to his Latin poetry.

I learn from the manufcript of Dr. Bargrave, (preferved in the Library of Canterbury Cathedral,) of which an ample account is given in my Note on Milton's Epigram to Christina, Queen of Sweden, that, "at Rome, euery forraigne Nation hath some Cardinall or other to be their peculiar Gardian: when I was 4 feuerall times at Rome," says Dr. Bargrave, "this Cardinall Barberini was Gardian to the Inglish." He adds, "When I was at Rome with the Earle of Chesterfield, then under my tuition, 1650, at a yeare of Jubile, this Cardinall (formerly kinde to me) would not admitt my lord or myselfe to any audience, though, in eleuen months time, tryed feuerall times: and I heard that it was, because that we had recommendatory letters from our Queen Mother to Cardi. nall Capponius, and another from the Dutchess of Sauoy to Cardinall Penzirolo; and no letters to him, who was the English (I fay REBELLS) Protector; and that we visited them before him."

'Lit. Lucæ Holstenio, dat. Florent. Mart. 30. 1639, ProfeWorks, vol. iii. p. 327. edit. 1698.

• Milton, it may be observed, is careful not to omit the title first applied to the Cardinals by Barberini: fince whose time, Dr. Bargrave relates, "the title of Padrone continueth to the Pope's chiefe Nephew, and the title of Eminenza to all the Cardinalls.. Indeed the authority which Urban VIII. gave to Francifco [Barberini, his eldest Nephew,] was not ordinary; for he thought it not enough to giue the powre, except he gave it the vanety and

He next removed to Naples, in company with a hermit; to whom Milton owed his introduction to the patron of Tasso, Manso, marquis of Villa, a nobleman diftinguished by his virtue and his learning. To this eminent person he was obliged in many important instances; and, as a testimony of gratitude, he presented to him, at his departure from Naples, his beautiful eclogue, entitled Manfus; which Dr. Johnson acknowledges must have raised in the noble Italian an high opinion of English elegance and literature.

title of Padrone, that is, Master and Lord, a title never heard of before at Rome. But Urban had nothing in his mouth but the Cardinall Padrone: Where is the Cardinall Padrone? Call the Cardinall Padrone: Speake to the Cardinall Padrone: Nothing was heard of but the Cardinall Padrone; which the embassadors of Princes did not like, saying they had no Padrone but the Pope himselfe. However theire [the Barberinis'] ambition stayed not at this title: they tooke exceptions of the quality of Illustrissimo, with which hitherto the Cardinalls had binn content for so many ages. The title of Excellency belonging to soveraine Princes in Italy, they strove to find out fomething that should not be in. feriour to it; and, canvasing many titles, at length they pitched upon Eminency, which the Princes hearing of, they took upon themselves the title of Highness." MS. as before.

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