MANSU S*. Joannes Baptifta Manfus, Marchio Villenfis, vir ingenii laude, tum literarum ftudio, nec non et bellica virtute, apud Italos clarus in primis eft. Ad quem Torquati Taffi Dialogus extat de Amicitia fcriptus ; erat enim Taffi amiciffimus; ab quo etiam inter Campaniæ principes celebratur, in illo poemate cui titulus GERUSALEMME CONQUISTATA, lib.20. Fra cavalier magnanimi, è cortesi, Is authorem Neapoli commorantem fumma benevolentia profecutus eft, multaque ei detulit bumanitatis of ficia. Ad hunc itaque hofpes ille antequam ab ea urbe difcederet, ut ne ingratum fe oftenderet, hoc carmen mifit. HR EC quoque, Manfe, tuæ meditantur carmina laudi Pierides, tibi, Manfe, choro notiffime Phœbi; Quandoquidem ille alium haud æquo eft dignatus honore, At Naples Milton was introduced to Giovanni Battista Manfo, marquis of Villa. See PROSE-WORKS, vol. ii. 332. Milton at leaving Naples fent this poem to Manfo. He was a nobleman of diftinguished rank and fortune, had fupported a military character with high reputation, of unblemished morals, a polite scholar, a celebrated writer, and an univerfal patron. It was among his chief honours, that he had been Γεραλή Σραὴλ ὅτε παιδες, ὅτ ̓ ἀγλαὰ φῦλ ̓ Ἰακώβο 5 * Whoever will carefully compare this Pfalm with Duport's ver fion, will find this of Milton far fuperiour; for in Duport's verfion are many folecifms. "Quod INFORTUNIUM, fays Dawes very can"didly, in cæteros itidem quofque, qui a fæculis recentioribus Græce * fcribere tentarunt, cadere dicendum eft.” MISCELLAN. P. 1. Dr. J. WARTON, In my new arrangement, I ought to have placed this piece under the TRANSLATIONS. But being in a learned language, and not in English, I judged it beft it should remain here. Milton fent it to his friend Alexander Gill, in return for an elegant copy of hendecafyllables. "Mitto itaque quod non plane meum eft, fed et vatis etiam "illius vere divini, cujus hanc oden altera ætatis feptimana, nullo * certo animi propofito, fed fubito nefcio quo impetu, ante lucis ex“ ortum, ad Græci carminis heroici legem, in leitulo fere concinna"bam." He adds, " It is the first and only thing I have ever wrote in * Greek, fince I left your fchool; for, as you know, I am now fond "of compofing in Latin or English. They in the prefent age who "write in Greek, are finging to the deaf. Farewell, and on Tuesday "next expect me in London among the bookfellers." EPIST. FAM. Dec. 4, 1634. PROSE WORKS, ii. 567. He was now therefore twentyeight years old. In the Poftfcript to Bucer on Divorce, he thus expreffes his averfion to tranflation. "Me who never could delight in με long citations, much less in whole traductions: whether it be natural "difpofition or educarion in me, or that my mother bore me a fpeaker of what God made mine own, and not a Tranflator.” PROSE-WORKS, vol. i. 293. It was once propofed to Milton to hflate Homer. 66 Βαιότερα Βαιότερα δ' ἅμα πάσαι ἀνασκίρτησαν ἐρίπναι, IO 15 20 Philofophus ad regem quendam, qui eum ignotum et infontem inter reos forte captum infcius damnaverat, τὴν ἐπὶ θανάτῳ πορευόμεν@, hæc fubito mifit. Ὦ ἄνα, εἰ ὀλέσης με τὸν ἔννομον, ἐδέ τιν ̓ ἀνδρῶν Δεινὸν ὅλως δράσαντα, σοφώτατον ἴσθι κάρτον Ρηϊδίως ἀφέλοιο, τὸ δὲ ἕτερον αὖθι νοήσεις, Μαψιδίως δ' δ' έπειτα τιὸν πρὸς θυμὸν ὀδυρή, Ταὸν δ ̓ ἐκ πόλιος περιώνυμον ἄλκαρ ὀλέσσας. 4. In edition 1645, thus, Μαψ αὕτως δ' αρ' ἔπειτα χρόνια μάλα πολλὸν ὀδύξη, The paflage was altered, as at prefent, in edition 1673. In Effigiei Ejus Sculptorem. Αμαθε γεγράφθαι χειρὶ τήνδε μὲν εἰκόνα Φαίης τάχ ̓ ἂν, πρὸς εἶδος αυτοφυές βλέπων. Τὸν δ ̓ ἐκτυπωτὸν ἐκ ἐπιγνότες φίλοι Γελάτε φαύλος δυσμίμημα ζωγράφος *. • This infcription, a fatire on the engraver, but happily concealed in an unknown tongue, is placed at the bottom of Milton's print, prefixed to Mofeley's edition of thefe poems, 1645. The print is in an oval: at the angles of the page are the Mufes Melpomene, Erato, Urania, and Clio; and in a back-ground a landfchape with Shepherds, evidently in allufion to LYCIDAS and L'ALLEGRO. Conscious of the comeliness of his perfon, from which he afterwards delineated Adam, Milton could not help expreffing his refentment at so palpable a diffimilitude. Salmafius, in his DEFENSIO REGIA, calls it comptulam imaginem, and declares that it gave him no difadvantageous idea of the figure of his antagonist. But Alexander More having laughed at this print, Milton replies in his DEFENSIO PRO SE, "Tu effigiem "mei diffimillimam, prefixam poematibus vidifti. Ego vero, fi impulfu et ambitione librarii me imperito fcalptori, propterea quod in urbe "alius eo belli tempore non erat, infabre scalpendum permifi, id me neglexiffe potius eam rem arguebat, cujus tu mihi nimium cultum "objicis." PROSE-WORKS, vol. ii. 367. Round it is inscribed JOHANNIS MILTONI ANGLI EFFIGIES ANNO ÆTATIS VIGESSIMO PRIMO. There was therefore fome drawing or painting of Milton in 1629, from which this engraving was made in 1645, eo belli tempore, when the civil war was now begun. The engraver is William Marshall; who from the year 1634, was often employed by Moseley t, Milton's book feller, to engrave heads for books of poetry. One of thefe heads was of Shakespeare, to his Poems in 1640. Marshall's manner has fometimes a neatness and a delicacy difcernible through much laboured hardness. In the year 1670, there was another plate of Milton by Faithorne, from a drawing in crayons by Faithorne, prefixed to his HISTORY OF BRITAIN, with this legend, "Gul. "Faithorne ad vivum delin. et fculpfit. Joannis Miltoni effigies "Etat. 62. 1670. It is also prefixed to our author's PROSE-WORKS, in three volumes, 1698. This is not in Faithorne's beft manner. Between the two prints, hitherto mentioned, allowing for the great + Among fir A. Cokain's Epigrams, there is one to Mofeley, on his edition of B. and Fletcher, B. ii. 35. difference difference of years, there is very little if any refemblance. This laft was copied by W. Dolle, before Milton's Logic, 1672. Afterwards by Robert White; and next by Vertue, one of his chief works, in 1725. There are four or five original pictures of our author. The firft, a half length with a laced ruff, is by Cornelius Janfen, in 1618, when he was only a boy of ten years old. It had belonged to Milton's widow, his third wife, who lived in Chefhire. This was in the poffeffion of Mr. Thomas Hollis, having been purchafed at Mr. Charles Stanhope's fale for thirty one guineas, in June, 1760. Lord Harrington wishing to have the lot returned, Mr. Hollis replied, "his lordship's whole eftate fhould not repurchase it." It was engraved by J. B. Cipriani, in 1760. Mr. Stanhope bought it of the executors of Milton's widow for twenty guineas. Another, which had also belonged to Milton's widow, is in the poffeffion of the Onflow family. This, which is not at all like Faithorne's crayon-drawing, and by fome is fufpected not to be a portrait of Milton, has been more than once engraved by Vertue: who in his firft plate of it, dated 1731, and in others, makes the age twenty one. This has been alfo engraved by Houbraken in 1741, and by Cipriani. The ruff is much in the neat ftyle of painting ruffs, about and before 1628. The picture is handfomer than the engravings. This portrait is men. tioned in Aubrey's manufcript Life of Milton, 1681, as then belonging to the widow. And he fays, "MEM. Write his name in red letters "on bis pictures which his widowe bas, to preferve them." Vertue, in a Letter to Mr. Chriftian in the British Museum, about 1720, propofes to ask Prior the poet, whether there had not been a picture of Milton in the late lord Dorfet's Collection. The duchefs of Portland has a miniature of his head, when young: the face has a ftern thoughtfulness, and, to ufe his own expreffion, is fevere in youthful beauty. Before Peck's NEW MEMOIRS of Milton, printed 1740, is a pretended head of Milton in exquifite mezzotinto, done by the fecond J. Faber: which is characteristically unlike any other reprefentation of our author I remember to have feen. It is from a painting given to Peck by fir John Meres of Kirkby-Belers in Leicestershire. But Peck himself knew that he was impofing upon the public. For having asked Vertue whether he thought it a picture of Milton, and Vertue peremptorily answering in the negative, Peck replied, "I'll have a fcraping from it, however; and let pofterity fettle the difference." Befides, in this picture the left hand is on a book, lettered PARADISE LOST. But Peck fuppofes the age about twenty five, when Milton had never thought of that poem or fubject. Peck mentions a head done by Milton himself on board: but it does not appear to be authenticated. The Richardfons, and next the Tonfons, had the admirable crayon-drawing above mentioned, done by Faithorne, the beit likeness extant, and for which Milton fate at the age of fixty two, About the year 1725, Vertue carried this drawing, with other reputed engravings and paintings of Milton, to Milton's favourite daughter Deborah, a very fenfible woman, who died the wife of Abraham Zzz Clarke |