EPIGRAMMATUM LIBER. I. In Proditionem Bombardicam. CUM simul in regem nuper satrapasque Britannos Sulphureo curru, flammivolisque rotis: II. In eandem. SICCINE tentasti cœlo donasse Iäcobum, Ille quidem sine te consortia serus adivit Sic potius fœdos in cœlum pelle cucullos, Et quot habet brutos Roma profana Deos: Namque hac aut alia nisi quemque adjuveris arte, Crede mihi, cœli vix bene scandet iter. 6. Elijah. See note on Par. Reg. ii. 17. 2. Quæ septemgemino Bellua 5 5 10 monte lates?] The Pope, called in the theological language of the times The Beast. III. In eandem. PURGATOREM animæ derisit Iäcobus ignem, Et sine quo superum non adeunda domus. Movit et horrificum cornua dena minax. Et si stelligeras unquam penetraveris arces, IV. In eandem. QUEM modo Roma suis devoverat impia diris, Hunc, vice mutata, jam tollere gestit ad astra, Et cupit ad superos evehere usque Deos. V. In inventorem bombardæ. IAPETIONIDEM laudavit cæca vetustas, 1. derisit Iacobus ignem,] Compare the quantity of Iacobus in Epigr. ii. 1. and In Quintum Novembris, 1. E. 4. Et trifidum fulmen surripuisse Jovi.] This thought was 5 10 afterwards transferred to the -They shall fear we have disarm'd 1 VI. Ad Leonoram Romæ canentem.* ANGELUS unicuique suus, sic credite gentes, Obtigit æthereis ales ab ordinibus. * Adriana of Mantua, for her beauty surnamed the Fair, and her daughter Leonora Baroni, the lady whom Milton celebrates in these three Latin Epigrams, were esteemed by their contemporaries the finest singers in the world. Giovanni Battista Doni, in his book de præstantia Musica veleris, published in 1647, speaking of the merit of some modern vocal performers, declares that Adriana, or her daughter Leonora, would suffer injury by being compared to the ancient Sappho. B. ii. p. 57. There is a volume of Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish poems in praise of Leonora, printed at Rome, [probably at Bracciano. Todd.] entitled Applausi poetici alle glorie della Signora Leonora Baroni. Nicius Erythreus, in his Pinacotheca, calls this collection the Theatrum of that exquisite Songstress Eleonora Baroni, " in quo, " omnes hic Romæ quotquot " ingenio et poeticæ facultatis "laude præstant, carminibus, cum Etrusce tum Latine scri M. Maugars, Prior of S. Peter de Mac at Paris, king's interpreter of the English language, and in his time a capital practitioner on the viol, has left this eulogy on Leonora and her mother, at the end of his judicious Discours sur la Musique d' Italia, printed with the life of Malherbe, and other treatises, at Paris, 1672. 12mo. "Leonora "has fine parts, and a happy "judgment in distinguishing good from bad music: she "understands it perfectly well, "and even composes, which "makes her absolute mistress of "what she sings, and gives her "the most exact pronunciation " and expression of the sense of "the words. She does not "pretend to beauty, yet she is "far from being disagreeable, "nor is she a coquet. She sings "with an air of confident and "liberal modesty, and with a "pleasing gravity. Her voice "reaches a large compass of notes, is just, clear, and melo"dious; and she softens "raises it without constraint or or grimace. Her raptures and sighs are not too tender; her "looks have nothing impudent, nor do her gestures betray any thing beyond the reserve of a "modest girl. In passing from 66 one song to another, she "shews sometimes the divisions "of the enharmonic and chro"matic species with so much 66 air and sweetness, that every "hearer is ravished with that Quid mirum, Leonora, tibi si gloria major? Nam tua præsentem vox sonat ipsa Deum. Aut Deus, aut vacui certe mens tertia cœli Per tua secreto guttura serpit agens; Serpit agens, facilisque docet mortalia corda Sensim immortali assuescere posse sono. Quod si cuncta quidem Deus est, per cunctaque fusus, In te una loquitur, cætera mutus habet. "delicate and difficult mode of "singing. She has no need of any person to assist her with a "theorbo or viol, one of which " is required to make her singing "complete; for she plays per"fectly well herself on both "those instruments. In short, "I have been so fortunate as to "hear her sing several times "above thirty different airs, "with second and third stanzas "of her own composition. But "I must, not forget, that one "day she did me the particular "favour to sing with her mother "and her sister: her mother played upon the lute, her "sister upon the harp, and " herself upon the theorbo. This "concert, composed of three fine "voices, and of three different " instruments, so powerfully cap"tivated my senses, and threw "me into such raptures, that I "forgot my mortality, et crus "etre deja parmi les anges, jouis"sant des contentemens des bien" heureux." See Bayle, Dict. Baroni. Hawkins, Hist. Mus. iv. 5 10 196. To the excellence of the Et te Pieria sensisset voce canentem When Milton was at Rome, he was introduced to the concerts of Cardinal Barberini, afterwards Pope Urban the Eighth, where he heard Leonora sing and her mother play. It was the fashion for all the ingenious strangers who visited Rome, to leave some verses on Leonora. See the Canzone, supr. p. 329. and Sonn. iv. Pietro Della Valle, who wrote about 1640, a very judicious Discourse on the music of his own times, speaks of the fanciful and masterly style in which Leonora touched the arch-lute to her own accompaniments. At the same time, he celebrates her sister Caterine, and their mother Adriana. See the works of Battista Doni, vol. ii. at Florence, 1763. 1. Angelus unicuique, &c.] See note on Comus, v. 658. VII. Ad eandem. ALTERA Torquatum cepit Leonora poetam, Et te Pieria sensisset voce canentem 1. Altera Torquatum cepit Leonora] In the Life of Tasso, by G. Battista Manso, mention is made of three different ladies of the name of Leonora, of whom Tasso is there said to have been successively enamoured. Gier. Lib. edit. Haym, Lond. 4to. 1724. p. 23. The first was Leonora of Este, sister of Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, at whose court Tasso resided. The Countess San Vitale was the second Leonora, to whom Tasso was said to be much attached, p. 26. Manso relates, that the third Leonora was a young lady in the service of the princess of Este, who was very beautiful, and to whom Tasso paid great attention, p. 27. He addressed many very elegant love-verses to each of these three different ladies; but as the pieces addressed to Leonora princess of Este have more passion than gal lantry, it may justly be inferred, notwithstanding the pains he too're to conceal his affection, th wishe was the real favourite of hahi art. Among the many re 5 10 marks that have been made on the Gierusalemme Liberata of Tasso, I do not remember to have seen it observed, that this great poet probably took the hint of his fine subject, from a book very popular in his time, written by the celebrated Benedetto Accolti, and entitled, De Bello a Christianis contra Barbaros gesto, pro Christi Sepulchro et Judæa recuperandis, lib. iv. Venetiis per Bern. Venetum de Vitalibus, 1532. 4to. It is dedicated to Pietro de Medici. Dr. J. Warton. This allusion to Tasso's Leonora, and the turn which it takes, are inimitably beautiful. 7. For the story of Pentheus, a king of Thebes, see Euripides's Bacchæ, where he sees two suns, &c. v. 916. Theocritus, Idyll. xxvi. Virgil, Æn. iv. 469. But Milton, in torsisset lumina, alludes to the rage of Pentheus in Ovid, Metam. iii. 577. Aspicit hunc oculis Pentheus, quos |