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Illi in cujus virtutibus evulgandis ora Famæ non sufficiant, nec hominum stupor in laudandis satis est, reverentiæ et amoris ergo hoc ejus meritis debitum admirationis tributum offert CAROLUS DATUS Patricius Florentinus,

Tanto homini servus, tantæ virtutis amator.

Carlo Dati, one of Milton's literary friends at Florence. See Epitaph. Damon. v. 137.

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ELEGIARUM LIBER.

ELEG. I. Ad CAROLUM DEODATUM.* TANDEM, chare, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ, Pertulit et voces nuncia charta tuas ;

Charles Deodate was one of Milton's most intimate friends. He was an excellent scholar, and practised physic in Cheshire. He was educated with our author at Saint Paul's School in London; and from thence was sent to Trinity College, Oxford, where he was entered Feb. 7, in the year 1621, at thirteen years of age. Lib. Matric. Univ. Oxon. sub ann. He was born in London, and the name of his father, "in Medicina Doctoris," was Theodore. Ibid. He was a fellow collegian there with Alexander Gill, another of Milton's intimate friends, who was successively Usher and Master of Saint Paul's School. Deodate, while Bachelor of Arts, gave to Trinity College Library, Zuinglius's Theatrum Vitæ humanæ, in three volumes. He has a copy of Alcaics extant in an Oxford collection on the death of Camden, called Camdeni Insignia, Oxon. 1624. He left the College, when he was a Gentleman Commoner, in 1628, having taken the degree of Master of Arts. Lib. Caution. Coll. Trin. Toland says, that he had in his possession two

Greek letters, very well written, from Deodate to Milton. Two of Milton's familiar Latin letters, in the utmost freedom of friendship, are to Deodate. Epist. Fam. Prose Works, vol. ii. 567, 568. Both dated from London, 1637. But the best, certainly the most pleasing evidences of their intimacy, and of Deodate's admirable character, are our author's first and sixth Elegies, the fourth Sonnet, and the Epitaphium Damonis. And it is highly probable, that Deodate is the simple shepherd lad in Comus, who is skilled in plants, and loved to hear Thyrsis sing, v. 619. seq. He died in the year 1638. See the first note, Epitaph. Damon.

This Elegy was written about the year 1627, in answer to a letter out of Cheshire from Deodate: and Milton seems pleased to reflect, that he is affectionately remembered at so great a distance, v. 5.

Multum, crede, juvat terras aluisse

remotas

Pectus amans nostri, tamque fidele caput.

Our author was now residing with his father, a scrivener in

Pertulit, occidua Deva Cestrensis ab ora
Vergivium prono qua petit amne salum.

Bread street, who had not yet
retired from business to Horton
near Colnebrook.

I have mentioned Alexander Gill in this note. He was made Usher of St. Paul's School about the year 1619, where Milton was his favourite scholar. He was admitted at fifteen a Commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1612. Here at length he took the degree of Doctor in Divinity, about 1629. His brothers George and Nathaniel were both of the same College, and on the foundation. In a book given to the Library there, by their father, its author, called the Sacred Philosophie of the Holy Scripture, 1635, I find this inscription written by Alexander. "Ex dono "authoris Artium Magistri olim "Collegii Corporis Christi a "lumni, Patris Alexandri Georgii "et Nathanaelis Gillorum, qui omnes in hoc Studiosorum vi"vario literis operam dedere. "Tertio Kal. Junias, 1635." This Alexander gave to the said Library the old folio edition of Spenser's Faerie Queene, Drayton's Polyolbion by Selden, and Bourdelotius's Lucian, all having poetical mottos from the classics in his own hand-writing, which shew his taste and track of reading. In the Lucian, are the Arms of the Gills, elegantly tricked with a pen, and coloured, by Alexander Gill. From Saint Paul's School, of which from the Ushership he was appointed Master in 1635, on the death and in the room of his father, he sent Milton's friend Deodate to Trinity College, Oxford. He

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continued Master five years only, and died in 1642. Three of Milton's familiar Latin Letters to this Alexander Gill are remaining, replete with the strongest testimonies of esteem and friendship. Wood says, " he was "accounted one of the best Latin "poets in the nation." Ath. Oxon. ii. 22. Milton pays him high compliments on the excellence of his Latin poetry: and among many other expressions of the warmest approbation calls his verses, "Carmina sane gran"dia, et majestatem vere poeti"cam, Virgilianumque ubique

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ingenium, referentia," &c. See Prose Works, ii. 565, 566, 567. Two are dated in 1628, and the last, 1634. Most of his Latin poetry is published in a small volume, entitled, Poetici Conatus, 1632. 12mo. But he has other pieces extant, both in Latin and English. Wood had seen others in manuscript. In the church of St. Mary Magdalene at Oxford, I have often seen a long prose Latin epitaph written by Gill to the memory of one of his old College friends Richard Pates, Master of Arts, which shews the writer's uncommon skill in pure latinity. He was not only concerned with Saint Paul's School, but was an assistant to Thomas Farnabic, the school-master of Edward King, Milton's Lycidas. He is said to have been removed from Saint Paul's School for his excessive severity. The last circumstance we learn from a satire of the times, "Verses to be re"printed with a second edition "of Gondibert, 1653." p. 54, 57.

Multum, crede, juvat terras aluisse remotas
Pectus amans nostri, tamque fidele caput,
Quodque mihi lepidum tellus longinqua sodalem
Debet, at unde brevi reddere jussa velit.
Me tenet urbs reflua quam Thamesis alluit unda,
Meque nec invitum patria dulcis habet.
Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum,
Nec dudum vetiti me laris angit amor.
Nuda nec arva placent, umbrasque negantia molles,

Alexander Gill here mentioned, Milton's friend, seems to be some times confounded with his father, whose name was also Alexander, who was also Master of Saint Paul's, and whose Logonomia, published in 1621, an ingenious but futile scheme to reform and fix the English language, is well known to our critical lexicographers.

4. Vergivium] Drayton has "these rough Vergivian seas," Polyolb. s. i. p. 656. vol. ii. The Irish sea. Again, "Vergivian "deepe." Ibid. s. vi. vol. ii. p. 766. And in other places. Camden's Britannia has lately familiarized the Latin name.

9. Me tenet urbs reflua quam Thamesis alluit unda,] To have pointed out London by only calling it the city washed by the Thames, would have been a general and a trite allusion. But this allusion by being combined with the peculiar circumstance of the reflux of the tide, becomes new, poetical, and appropriated. The adjective reflua is at once descriptive and distinctive. Ovid has "refluum mare." Met.vii. 267. Et quas oceani refluum mare lavit

arenas.

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12. Nec dudum vetiti me laris angit amor.] The words vetiti laris, and afterwards exilium, will not suffer us to determine otherwise, than that Milton was sentenced to undergo a temporary removal or rustication from Cambridge. I will not suppose for any immoral irregularity. Dr. Bainbridge, the master, is reported to have been a very active disciplinarian: and this lover of liberty, we may presume, was as little disposed to submission and conformity in a college as in a state. When reprimanded and admonished, the pride of his temper, impatient of any sort of reproof, naturally broke forth into expressions of contumely and contempt against his governor. Hence he was punished. See the next note. He appears to have lived in friendship with the Fellows of the College. Apol. Smectymn. Prose Works, prose, vol. i. 108. Milton, in his takes frequent opportunities of depreciating the conduct and customs of the academical life. In one place he pleases himself with ridiculing the ceremonies of a College-audit.

See

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