ELEG. IV. Anno Etatis 18. Ad Thomam Junium præceptorem fuum, apud mercatores Anglicos Hamburga agentes, Paftoris munere fungentem*. per immenfum fubito, mea litera, pontum, Urre per I, pete Teutonicos læve per æquor agros; Segnes rumpe moras, et nil, precor, obftet eunti, Et feftinantis nil remoretur iter. Thomas Young, now paftor of the church of English merchants at Hamburgh, was Milton's private preceptor, before he was fent to Saint Paul's fchool. Aubrey in his manufcript Life, calls him, "a puritan in Effex who cutt his haire fhort." Under such an instructor, Milton probably firft imbibed the principles of puritanifm: and as a puritan tutor was employed to educate the fon, we may fairly guess at the perfuafions or inclinations of the father. Befides, it is faid that our author's grandfather, who lived at Halton, five miles east of Oxford, and was one of the rangers of Shotover-forest, difinherited his fon for being a proteftant: and, as converts are apt to go to excels, I fufpect the fon embraced the oppofite extreme. The first and fourth of Milton's Familiar Epiftles, both very respectful and affectionate, are to this Thomas Young. See PROSE WORKS, ii. 565. 567. In the first, dated, at London, inter urbana diverticula, Mar. 26, 1625. he fays he had refolved to fend Young an Epistle in verfe: but thought proper at the fame time to send one in profe. The Elegy now before us, is this Epiftle in verfe. In the fecond, dated from Cambridge, Jul. 21, 1628, he fays, "Rus tuum accerfitus, fimul ac ver adoverit, libenter adveniam, ad capeffendas anni, tuique non minus "colloquii, delicias; et ab urbano ftrepitu fubducam me paulifper." Whatever were Young's religious inftructions, our author profeffes to have received from this learned mafter his first introduction to the Atudy of poetry. v. 29. Primus ego Aonios, illo præeunte, receffus Yet these couplets may imply only, a first acquaintance with the Ipfe ego Sicanio frænantem carcere ventos Eolon, et virides follicitabo Deos, 5 This Thomas Young, who appears to have returned to England in or before the year 1628, was doctor Thomas Young a Member of the Affembly of Divines, where he was a conftant attendant, and one of the authors of the book called SMECTYMNUUS, defended by Milton; and who from a London preachership in Duke's Place was preferred by the parliament to the mastership of Jefus College in Cambridge, Neale's HIST. PUR. iii. 122. 59. Clarke a calvinistic biographer, attefts that he was "a man of great learning, of much "prudence and piety, and of great ability and fidelity in the work "of the miniftry". Livès, p. 194. I have a Sermon by Young, intitled HOPE'S INCOURAGEMENT, Of a comfortable length, preached before the Houfe of Commons, on a Faft-day, Feb. 28, 1644. Printed by order of the Houfe, Lond. 1644. 4to. At the foot of the Dedication he ftyles himself, "Thomas "Young, Sancti Evangelii in comitatu Suffolcienfi minifter." Another of his publications, as I apprehend, is a learned work in Latin called DIES DOMINICA, on the obfervation of Sunday. Printed, Anno 1639. No place. 4to. Bishop Barlow fays in the Bodleian copy of this book, in a Latin note, that it was written by Dom. Defter Young, as he had been informed in 1658, by N. Bernard, chaplain to archbishop Usher. He adds "Quis fuerit præditus D. Younge, mibi non certo conftat." The Dedication to the Reformed Church, is fubfcribed, THEOPHILUS PHILO-KVRIACES, Loncardienfis. The laft word I cannot decypher. I learn the following particulars from a manuscript Hiftory of Jefus College. He was a native of Scotland. He was admitted Mafter of the College by the earl of Manchester in perfon, Apr. 12, 1644. He was ejected from the Mastership for refufing the Engagement. He died and was buried at Stow-market in Suffolk, where he had been Vicar thirty years. 66 1. Curre per immenfum fubito, mea litera, pontum, &c.] One of Ovid's epiftolary Elegies begins in this manner, where the poet's addrefs is to his own epiftle. TRIST. iii. vii. 1. Vade falutatum fubito pererata Perillam, Litera, &c. And Milton, like Ovid, proceeds in telling his Epiftle what to fay. In this strain, among other circumstances, Milton informs his Epiftle, v. 41. Invenies dulci cum conjuge forte fedentem, Forfitan aut veterum prælarga volumina patrum So Cæruleamque fuis comitatam Dorida Nymphis, 10 Vecta quibus Colchis fugit ab ore viri; Aut queis Triptolemus Scythicas devenit in oras, Gratus Eleufina miffus ab urbe puer. Atque ubi Germanas flavere videbis arenas, So Ovid, v. 3. 5. Aut illam invenies dulci cum matre fedentem, Aut inter libros Pieridafque fuas, &c. Frænantem carcere ventos *15 Eolon. -] I take this opportunity, of illustrating or of correcting what I have faid on Hippotades another name of this deity, in a Note on LYCID. V. 96. Ovid affords thefe additional inftances. "HIPPOTADE regnum." METAM. xiv. 86. Again, "Eolon Hip"POTADEN, frenantem carcere ventos." Ibid. 224. In the last inftance, we have an hemistic of Milton's text. Our author's wishes of speed to his Epiftle, are expreffed and exhibited under a great and beautiful variety of poetical fictions and allufions. 10. "Take the fwift car of Medea, in which fhe fled from her "husband." 11. Aut queis Triptolemus, &c.] Triptolemus was carried from Eleufis in Greece, into Scythia, and the most uncultivated regions of the globe, on winged ferpents, to teach mankind the ufe of wheat. Here is a manifeft imitation of Ovid, who in the fame manner wishes at once, both for the chariots of Medea and Triptolemus, that in an inftant he may revifit his friends. TRIST. iii. viii. 1. Nunc ego Triptolemi cuperem confcendere currus, Quos habuit, fugiens arce, Corinthe, tua, &c. Compare METAM. B. v. 645. feq. 15. Dicitur occifo quæ ducere nomen ab Hama.] Krantzius, a Gothic geographer, fays, that the city of Hamburgh in Saxony took its name from Cimbrica quem fertur clava dediffe neci. Vivit ibi antiquæ clarus pietatis honore Præful, Chrifticolas pafcere doctus oves; Ille quidem eft animæ plufquam pars altera noftræ, Dimidio vitæ vivere cogor ego. Hei mihi quot pelagi, quot montes interjecti, Me faciunt alia parte carere mei! 20 Charior ille mihi, quam tu doctiffime Graium from Hama a puiffant Saxon champion, who was killed on the spot where that city ftands by Starchater a Danish giant. SAXONIA, Lib.i. c. xi. p. 12. edit. Wechel. 1575. fol. The Cimbrica clava is the club of the Dane. In defcribing Hamburgh, this romantic tale could not escape Milton. 21. Hei mihi, quot pelagi, &c.] Homer, IL. i. 155. Επειὴ μάλα πολλά μεταξύ Ούρια τε σκιόεντα, θάλασσά τε ηχήττα. Etfi valde multi interje&i funt But I believe under a fimilar fentiment, he copied his favourite elegiac bard, TRIST. iv. vii, 21. Innumeri montes inter me teque, viæque, Fluminaque, at campi, nec freta pauca jacent. 23. Dearer than Socrates to Alcibiades, who was the fon of Clinias, and has this appellation in Ovid's IBIS, "Cliniadæque modo," &c. v. 635. Alcibiades, the fon of Clinias, was antiently defcended from Euryfaces, a fon of the Telamonian Ajax. 25. Aristotle preceptor to Alexander the Great. 27. Qualis Amyntorides, qualis Philyreus beros, &c.] Phænix the fon of Amyntor, and Chiron, both inftructors of Achilles." "AMYN"TORIDES Myrmidonum regi, talis et ille mihi. Primus ego Aonios illo præunte receffus Luftrabam, et bifidi facra vireta jugi, Pieriofque haufi latices, Clioque favente, Caftalio fparfi læta ter ora mero. Flammeus at fignum ter viderat arietis Æthon, Aut linguæ dulces aure bibiffe fonos. Vade igitur, curfuque Eurum præverte fonorum, Quam fit opus monitis res docet, ipfa vides. Invenies dulci cum conjuge forte fedentem, Mulcentem gremio pignora chara fuo. Forfitan aut veterum prælarga volumina patrum Verfantem, aut veri biblia facra Dei, 30 35 41 "TORIDES Phænix," occurs in Ovid, ART. AMATOR. i. 337. And AMYNTORIDES, fimply, in the IBIS, V. 261. We find "Philyreius "heros" for Chiron, METAM. ii. 676. And FAST. B. v. 391. See also ART. AMATOR. i. 11. The inftances are, of the love of scholars to their mafters in antient story. 32. See CoмUS, 911. feq. Thus I fprinkle on thy breaft, &c. 33. Ethon, one of Ovid's steeds of the fun, had three times paffed over the Sign Aries, illuminating his fleece with new gold and there had been two fprings and two winters. I prefume, he means five years. Young therefore ceafed to be Milton's tutor, at least went abroad, when Milton was about thirteen, in 1621, Cœleftive |