Et poteras, ægro spirans sub corde, quietem VIII. Ad eandem. CREDULA quid liquidam Sirena Neapoli jactas, Claraque Parthenopes fana Acheloïados; Illic Romulidum studiis ornata secundis, IX. In SALMasii HundrEDAM.* QUIS expedivit Salmasio suam Hundredam, 1, 2. Parthenope's tomb was at Naples: she was one of the Sirens. She is called Parthenope Acheloias, in Silius Italicus, xii. 35. See Comus, v. 878. By the songs of Sirens sweet, By dead Parthenope's dear tomb, &c. Chalcidicus is elsewhere explained. See Epitaph. Damon. v. 182. I need not enlarge on the grotto of Pausilipo, near Naples. *This Epigram is in the Defensio against Salmasius, Prose Works, ii. 296. 1. Salmasius, in his Defence of the King, had aukwardly at 5 tempted to turn some of our forensic appellations into Latin; such as, the county court, sheriff's turn, the hundred of a county, &c. 4. King Charles the Second, now in exile, and sheltered in Holland, gave Salmasius, who was a professor at Leyden, one hundred Jacobuses to write his Defence, 1649. Wood asserts that Salmasius had no reward for his book. He says, that at Leyden the king sent Doctor Morley, afwards bishop, to the apologist, with his thanks, "but not with a purse of gold, as Johr lil"ton the impudent lyer repo 1." Ath. Oxon. ii. 770. Quod si dolosi spes refulserit nummi, Ipse, Antichristi modo qui primatum Papæ Cantabit ultro Cardinalitium melos. X. In Salmasium.* GAUDETE scombri, et quicquid est piscium salo, Vobis cucullos, præferentes Claudii 6. This topic of ridicule, drawn from the poverty of the exiled king, is severely reprobated by Dr. Johnson, as what "might be "expected from the savageness "of Milton." Life of Addison. Oldmixon, he adds, had meanness enough to delight in bilking an alderman of London, who had more money than the Pretender. 8. Will change his note: after affronting the pope, will sing the pope's praises with the most obsequious adulation of a cardinal. See the prologue to Persius's Satires. *This is in the Defensio secunda, ut supr. ii. 322. It is there introduced with the following ridicule on Morus, the subject of the next Epigram, for 5 5 10 having predicted the wonders to be worked by Salmasius's new edition, or rather reply. "Tu "igitur, ut pisciculus ille ante"ambulo, præcurris Balænam "Salmasii." Mr. Steevens observes, that this is an idea analogous to Falstaffe's, "Here do I "walk before thee, &c." although reversed as to the imagery. 7. Claudius Salmasius. Milton sneers at a circumstance which was true: Salmasius was really of an ancient and noble family. 9. Cubito mungentium, a cant appellation among the Romans for fishmongers. It was said to Horace, of his father, by way of laughing at his low birth, " Quo"ties ego vidi patrem tuum "cubito emungentem ?" Sueton. Vit. Horat. p. 525. Lips. 1748. XI. GALLI ex concubitu gravidam te, Pontia, Mori, Horace's father was a seller of Salmasius's Reply was posthumous, and did not appear till after the Restoration: and his Defensio had no second edition. From Milton's Defensio Secunda, ut supr. ii. 320. And his Responsio to Morus's Supplement, ibid. ii. 383. This distich was occasioned by a report, that Morus had debauched a favourite waiting maid of the wife of Salmasius, Milton's antagonist. See Burman's Syllog. Epist. iii. 307. Milton pretends that he picked it up by accident, and that it was written at Leyden. It appeared first, as I think, in the Mercurius Politicus, a sort of newspaper published at London once a week in two sheets in quarto, and commencing in June, 1649, by Marchmont Nedham, a virulent but versatile party scribbler, who sometimes libelled the republicans, and sometimes the royalists with an equal degree of scurrility, and who is called by Wood a great crony of Milton. These papers, in or after the year 1654, perhaps at the instigation of our author, contain many pasquinades on Morus. Bayle, in the article Morus, cites a Letter from Tanaquil Faber. Where Faber, so late as 1658, under the words calumniola and rumusculi, alludes to some of Morus's gallantries: perhaps to this epigram, which served to keep them alive, and was still very popular. Morus laid himself open to Milton's humour, in asserting that he mistook the true spelling of the girl's name," Bon"tiam, fateor, aliud apud me manuscriptum habet. Sed pri"ma utrobique litera, quæ sola "variat, ejusdem fere apud vos potestatis est. Alterum ego nomen, ut notius et elegantius, "salvo criticorum jure, præpo"sui." Autor. prose, &c. ut supr. ii. 383. And she is called Bontia in a citation of this Epigram in a letter of N. Heinsius, dated 1653. Syllog. ut supr. iii. 307. M. Colomies says, that Milton wrote, among other things against Morus, "un sanglant "distique Latin dans la gazete "de Londres, qui couroit alors "toutes les semaines." Bibl. Chois. A La Rochelle, 1682. p. 19. 12mo. Morus was strongly suspected to have written Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad Cælum, in 1652, an appendix to Salmasius against the king's murder. But the book was really written by Peter du Moulin the younger. Morus was only the publisher, except that he wrote a Dedication to Charles the Second. Afterwards Salmasius and Morus had an irreconcileable quarrel about the division of sixty copies, which the printer had agreed to give to the one or the other. Burman's Syllog. Epist. iii. 648. Du Moulin actually owns the Regii Sanguinis Clamor, in his Reply to a Person of Honour, &c. Lond. 1675. 4to. p. 10, 45. "I had such a jea"lousie to see that traytor [Mil"ton] praised for his language, "that I writ against him Clamor, "&c." A curious Letter in Thurloe's State Papers, relating to this business, has been overlooked, from Bourdeaux, the French ambassador in England, to Morus, dated Aug. 7, 1654. "Sir, at my arrival here, I found "Milton's book so publick, that "I perceived it was impossible "to suppress it. This man [Mil"ton] hath been told, that you "were not the author of the "book which he refuted; to "which he answered, that he "was at least assured, that you "had caused it to be imprinted: "that you had writ the Preface, "and, he believes, some of the verses that are in it: and that, "that is enough to justify him "for setting upon you. He doth "also add, he is very angry that " he did not know several things "which he hath heard since, "being far worse, as he says, "than any he put forth in his "book; but he doth reserve "them for another, if so be you "answer this. I am very sorry "for this quarrel which will have a long sequence, as I perceive; "for after you have answered "this, you may be sure he will reply with a more bloody one: "for your adversary hath met 66 "with somebody here, who hath "told him strange stories of you." Vol. ii. p. 529. See also a Letter of intelligence from the Hague to Thurloe, dated July 3, 1654. Ibid. p. 394. "They "have here two or three copies "of Milton against the famous "Professour Morus, who doth "all he can to suppress the book. "Madam de Saumaise [Salma"sius's wife] hath a great many "letters of Morus, which she "hath ordered to be printed to "render him so much the more "ridiculous. He saith now, that "he is not the authour of the "Preface [Dedication] to the "Clamor: but we know very "well to the contrary. One "Ulack [the printer of the Cla"mor] a printer, is reprinting "Milton's book, with an apology "for himself: but Ulack holds "it for an honour to be reckoned 66 on that side of Salmasius and "Morus.-Morus doth all he can "to persuade him from printing "it." Salmasius's wife, said to have been a scold, and called Juno by his brother-critics, was highly indignant at Morus's familiarity with her femme de chambre, and threatened him with a prosecution, which I believe was carried into execution. See Syllog. ut supr. iii. 324. This distich is inconsistent with our author's usual delicacy. But revenge too naturally seeks gratification at the expence of propriety. And the same apology must be made for a few other obscene ambiguities on the name of More, in the prose part of our author's two Replies to More. I take this opportunity of observ ing, that Fenton, in a Miscellany that he published, called the Oxford Miscellany, and Cambridge XII. Apologus de Rustico et Hero.* Mota solo assueto, protenus aret iners. Parva licet, grato dona tulisse animo! Possem ego avaritiam frænare, gulamque voracem: XIII. Ad CHRISTINAM SUECORUM REGINAM, nomine CROMWELLI." BELLIPOTENS virgo, septem regina trionum, Poems, has printed a very loose 5 10 I should rather think they were These lines are simple and sinewy. They present Cromwell in a new and pleasing light, and throw an air of amiable dignity on his rough and obstinate character. They are too great a compliment to Christina, who *This piece first appeared in was contemptible both as a queen the edition 1673. These verses were sent to Christina, Queen of Sweden, with Cromwell's picture, and are by some ascribed to Andrew Marvell, as by others to Milton: but and a woman. The uncrowned Cromwell had no reason to approach a princess with so much reverence, who had renounced her crown. The frolics of other whimsical modern queens have been often only romantic. The |