friend Heinfius, that he had obtained a very particular account of the author from a relation of his. own, the learned Junius, who wrote the elaborate and interesting hiftory of ancient painting, refided in England, and particularly cultivated the intimacy of Milton. Indeed, when we reflect on the poet's uncommon tenderness towards his parents, and all the advantages of his early life, both at home and abroad, we have every reason to believe, that his manners were fingularly pleasing. He was fond of refined female fociety, and appears to have been very fortunate in two female friends of diftinction, the Lady Margaret Ley, whofe fociety confoled him when he was mortified by the desertion of his firft wife, and the no less accomplished Lady Ranelagh, who had placed her fon under his care, and who probably affifted him, when he was a widower and blind, with friendly directions for the management of his female infants. A paffage in one of his letters to her fon fuggests this idea; for he condoles with his young correfpondent, then at the Univerfity, on the lofs. they would both sustain by the long abfence of his most excellent mother, paffing at that time into Ireland; "her departure muft grieve us both," fays Milton," for to me alfo fhe fupplied the place of every friend *;" an expreffion full of tendernefs and regret, highly honourable to the lady, and a pleafing memorial of that fenfibility and gratitude, which I am perfuaded we fhould have feen most * Nam et mihi omnium neceffitudinum loco fuit. eminent eminent in the character of Milton, if his English letters had been fortunately preferved, particularly his letters to this interesting lady, whose merits are commemorated in an eloquent fermon, preached by bishop Burnet, on the death of her brother, that mild and accomplished model of virtue and of learning, Robert Boyle. Lady Ranelagh must have been one of the most exemplary and engaging characters that ever exifted, fince we find fhe was the darling fifter of this illuftrious philofopher, and the favourite friend of a poet ftill more illuftrious, Four of Milton's Latin letters are addreffed to her fon, and they blend with moral precepts to the young student respectful and affectionate praise of his mother *. In the Latin correspondence of Milton we have fome veftiges of his fentiments concerning the authors of antiquity; and it is remarkable, that in a deliberate opinion on the merits of Salluftt, he prefers *In the quarto edition of Boyle there are a few letters from his favourite fifter, Lady Ranelagh; one very interesting. in which he speaks of the poet Waller; but she does not mention the name of Milton in the whole collection. Her fou (the first and laft Earl of Ranelagh) who was in his childhood a difciple of the great poet, proved a man of talents, bufinefs, and pleasure. De Salluftio quod fcribis, dicam libere; quoniam ita vis plane ut dicam quod fentio, Salluftium cuivis Latino hiftorico me quidem anteferre; quæ etiam conftans fere antiquorum fententia fuit. Habet fuas laudes tuus Tacitus, fed eas meo quidem judicio maximas, quod Salluftium nervis omnibus fit imitatus. prefers him to all the Roman hiftorians. Milton, however, did not form himself as a writer on any Roman model: being very early moft anxious to excel in literature, he wifely attached himself to those prime examples of literary perfection, the Greeks; among the poets he particularly delighted in Euripides and Homer; his favourites in profe feem to have been Plato and Demofthenes; the first peculiarly fit to give richness, purity, and luftre to the fancy; the second, to invigorate the understand nam ut imitatus. Cum hæc tecum coram differerem perfeciffe videor quantum ex eo quod fcribis conjicio, ut de illo cordatiffimo fcriptore ipfe jam idem prope fentias: adeòque ex me quæris, cum is in exordio belli Catilinarii perdifficile effe dixerit historiam fcribere, propterea quod facta dictis exequanda funt qua potiffimum ratione id affequi hiftoriarum fcriptorem posse existimem. Ego vero fic exiftimo; qui geftas res dignas digne fcripferit, eum animo non minus magno rerumque ufu præditum fcribere oportere quam is qui eas gefferit: ut vel maximas pari animo comprehendere atque metiri poffit, et comprehenfas fermone puro atque cafto diftin&te gravitèrque narrare: ornate non admodum laboro; hiftoricum enim, non oratorem requiro. Crebras etiam fententias, et judicia de rebus geftis interjecta prolixe nollem, ne, interrupta rerum ferie, quod politici fcriptoris munus eft hiftoricus invadat ; qui fi in confiliis explicandis, factifque enarrandis, non fuum ingenium aut conjecturam, fed veritatem potiffimum fequitur, fuarum profecto partium fatagit. Addiderim et illud Salluftianum, qua in re ipfe Catonem maxime laudavit, poffe multa paucis abfolvere; id quod fine acerrimo judicio, atque etiam temperantiâ quâdam neminem poffe arbitror. Sunt multi in quibus vel fermonis elegantiam. vel congeftarum rerum copiam non defideres, qui brevitatem cum copia conjunxerit, id eft, qui multa paucis abfolverit, princeps meo judicio eft Salluftius.-Profe Works, vol. 2. p. 582. ing, and infpire the fervid energy of public virtue. It is a very just remark of Lord Monboddo, that even the poetical fpeeches in Paradife Loft derive their confummate propriety and eloquence from the fond and enlightened attention with which the poet had studied the moft perfect orator of Athens: the ftudies of Milton, however, were very extenfive; he appears to have been familiar not only with all the best authors of antiquity, but with thofe of every refined language in Europe; Italian, French, Spanish, and Portugueze. Great erudition has been often supposed to operate as an incumbrance on the finer faculties of the mind; but let us observe to its credit, the fublimeft of poets was alfo the most learned of Italian literature he was particularly fond, as we may collect from one of his letters to a profeffor of that language, and from the ease and fpirit of his Italian verfes. To the honour of modern Italy it may be faid, that fhe had a confiderable share in forming the genius of Milton. Taffo, her brighteft ornament, he found a character highly worthy of his affectionate emulation, both as à poet and as a man; this accomplished perfonage had, indeed, ended his illuftrious and troubled life feveral years before Milton visited his country; but he was yet living in the memory of his ardent friend Manfo, and through the medium of Manfo's converfation his various excellencies made, I am perfuaded, a forcible and permanent impreffion on the heart and fancy of our youthful countryman. It was hardly the example of Triffino, as Johnson fuppofes, that tempted Milton to his bold experi P In ment ment of blank verfe; for Triffino's epic poem is a very heavy performance, and had funk into fuch oblivion in Italy, that the literary friend and biographer of Taffo confiders that greater poet as the first person who enriched the Italian language with valuable blank verfe: "our early works of that kind," fays Manfo, " ઃઃ are translations from the Latin, and those not fuccessful." The poem in blank verfe, for which this amiable biographer applauds his friend, is an extenfive work, in feven books, on the Seven Days of the Creation, a subject that has engaged the poets of many countries. The performance of Taffo was begun at the houfe of his friend Manfo, and at the fuggeftion of a lady, the accomplished mother of the Marquis. As this poem is formed from the Bible, and full of religious enthufiafm, it probably influenced the Englifh vifitor of Manfo in his choice of blank verfe. Taffo was a voluminous author, and we have reason to believe that Milton was familiar with all his compofitions, as the exquifite eulogy on connubial affection, in the Paradife Loft, is founded on a profe compofition in favour of marriage, addreffed by the Italian poet to one of his relations *; but Milton, *Taffo begins this interefting discourse, by informing his kinfman Ercole, that he firft heard the news of his having taken a wife, and then was furprised by reading a compofition of his, in which he inveighs not only against the ladies, but against matrimony. The poet, with great politeness and fpirit, affumes the defence of both, and in the clofe of a learned and eloquent panegyric, indulges his heart and fancy in a very animated and beautiful addrefs to wedded love, which Milton has copied with his ufual dignity and fweetnefs of expreffion. who |