keep you in expectation :-'twas Sir William "Davenant obtained his remiffion, in return for "his own life procured by Milton's intereft, when "himself was under condemnation, anno 1650 a life was owing to Milton (Davenant's) and " 'twas paid nobly; Milton's for Davenant's, at Davenant's interceffion.-It will now be expect"ed I fhould declare what authority I have for "this ftory;-my firft anfwer is, Mr. Pope told "it me. Whence had he it? From Mr. Better"ton-Sir William was his patron-Betterton was prentice to a bookfeller, John Holden, the fame "who printed Davenant's Gondibert. There Sir "William faw him, and, perfuading his mafter to ઃઃ part with him, brought him firft on the stage. "Betterton then may be well allowed to know this "tranfaction from the fountain head." On this interefting anecdote Johnson makes the following remark: "Here is a reciprocation of ge"nerofity and gratitude fo pleafing, that the tale "makes its own way to credit, but if help were "wanted I know not where to find it; the danger "of Davenant is certain from his own relation, but "of his escape there in no account." This paffage of the critical biographer affords a fingular proof, that he is fometimes as inaccurate in narration as he is defective in fentiment. Impreffed as I am with the cleareft conviction of his repeated endeavours to depreciate the character of Milton, I will not fuppofe that Johnfon could defignedly fupprefs an evidence of the poet's generofity, which, while he is speaking of it in terms of admiration, he he still endeavours to render problematical; yet certain it is, that of Milton's protection of Davenant a very obvious evidence exists in Antony Wood, who fays, under the article Davenant," he was carried prifoner to the Isle of Wight, anno 1650, and "afterwards to the Tower of London, in order to "be tried for his life in the High Court of Jus "tice, anno 1651; but upon the mediation of John Milton, and others, especially two godly al "dermen of York (to whom he had fhewn great 86 66 civility when they had been taken prisoners in "the north by fome of the forces under William Marquis of Newcastle) he was faved, and had liberty allowed him as a prifoner at large." ८८ Thus far the pleafing story is fufficiently proved to the honour of Milton. That Davenant endeavoured to return the favour is highly probable, from the amiable tenderness and benevolent activity of his character. Perhaps this probability may feem a little ftrengthened by the following verfes of Davenant, in a poem addressed to the king on his happy return: Your clemency has taught us to believe If Davenant was in any degree instrumental to the fecurity of Milton, it is probable that he served him rather from gratitude than affection, as no two writers of the time were more different from each other in their religious and political opinions. That the poet-laureat of Charles was utterly uncon fcious of those ineftimable poetic powers, which the blind fecretary of the republic was providentially referved to difplay, we may infer from a very remarkable couplet, towards the close of a fecond poem, addreffed by Davenant to the King, where, fpeaking of Homer, he ventures to affert that Heav'n ne'er made but one, who, being blind, Was fit to be a painter of the mind.. It is however very poffible that Davenant might doubly conduce to the production of Paradife Loft; firft, as one of thofe who exerted their influence to fecure the author from molestation; and secondly, as affording by his Gondibert an incentive to the genius of Milton to fhew how infinitely he could furpass a poem which Hobbs (whofe opinions he defpifcd) had extravagantly extolled as the most exqulfite production of the epic mufe. In Aubrey's manufcript anecdotes of Milton it is faid, that he began his Paradife Loft about two years before the return of the king, and finished it about three years after that event; the account appears the more probable, as the following lines in the commcement of the feventh book pathetically allude to his prefent fituation: More fafe I fing with mortal voice unchang'd To hoarfe or mute, though fall'n on evil days, On evil days though fall'n and evil tongues, How peculiarly affecting are these beautiful verses, when the hiftory of the poet fuggefts that he probably wrote them while he was concealed in an obfcure corner of the city, that refounded with the triumphant roar of his intoxicated enemies, among whom drunkennefs arofe to fuch extravagance, that even the festive royalifts found it neceffary to iffue a proclamation, which forbade the drinking of healths. How poignant at this time must have been the perfonal and patriotic feelings of Milton, who had paffed his life in animating himfelf and his country to habits of temperance, truth, and public virtue, yet had the mortification of finding that country, fo dear to him, now doubly dif graced; firft, by the hypocrify and treacherous ambition of republicans, to whofe pretended virtues he had given too eafy credit; and now, by the mean licentious fervility of royalists, whose more open though not more dangerous vices his upright and and high-toned spirit had ever held in abhorrence, For his country he had every thing to apprehend from the blind infatuation with which the parliament had rejected the patriotic fuggeftion of Hale (afterwards the illuftrious chief justice) to establish conftitutional limitations to the power of the king at the critical period of his reception. The neglect of this measure contributed not a little to fubfequent evils, and the reign of Charles the Second was in truth deformed with all the public mifery and difgrace which Milton had predicted, when he argued on the idea of his re-admiffion. For his own perfon, the literary champion of the people had no lefs to dread from the barbarity of public vengeance, or from the private dagger of fome overheated royalift, who, like the affaffins of Doriflaus in Holland, and of Afcham in Spain, might think it meritorious to feize any opportunity of destroying a fervant of the English republic. When royal government, restored to itself, could yet defcend to authorise a mean and execrable indignity against the dead body of a man so magnanimous and fo innocent as Blake, it was furely natural, and by no means unbecoming the fpirit of Milton, to speak as he does, in the preceding verfes, of evil days and evil tongues, of darknefs and of danger. "This darknefs (fays Johnfon) had his eyes been "better employed, had undoubtedly deserved com"paffion." What! had Milton no title to compaffion for his perfonal calamity, because he had nobly facrificed his fight to what he esteemed an important difcharge of his public duty?-Oh egre |