Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

so in Naples, because in my religion I had disdained all disguise*.

Pleasing and honorable as the civilities were that our young countryman received from this Nestor of Italy, he has amply repaid them in a poem, which, to the honor of English gratitude and English genius, we may justly pronounce superior to the compliments bestowed on this engaging character by the two celebrated poets, who wrote in his own language, and were peculiarly attached to them.

Of the five sonnets, indeed, that Tasso addressed to his courteous and liberal friend,

* Neapolim perrexi: illic per eremitam quendam, quîcum Româ iter feceram, ad Joannem Batistam Mansum, Marchionem Villensem, virum nobilissimum atque gravissimum (ad quem Torquatus Tassus, insignis poeta Italus, de amicitia scripsit) sum introductus; codemque usus, quamdiu illic fui, sane amicissimo; qui et ipse me per urbis loca et proregis aulum circumduxit, et visendi gratiâ haud semel ipse ad hospittium venit: discendenti seriò excusavit se, tametsi multò plura detulisse mihi officia maxime cupiebat, non potuisse illâ in urbe, propterea quod nolebam in religione esse tectior.-Defensio Secunda.

two are very beautiful; but even these are surpassed, both in energy and tenderness, by the following conclusion of a poem, inscribed to Manso, by Milton.

Diis dilecte senex, te Jupiter æquus oportet Nascentem, et miti lustrarit lumine Phœbus, Atlantisque nepos; neque enim, nisi charus ab ortu Diis superis, poterit magno favisse poetæ: Hinc longæva tibi lento sub flore senectus Vernat, et Æsonios lucratur vivida fusos; Nondum deciduos servans tibi frontis honores, Ingeniumque vigens, et adultum mentis acumen. O mihi sic mea sors talem concedat amicum, Phœbæos decorasse viros qui tam bene norit, Siquando indigenas revocabo in carmina reges, Arturumque etiam sub terris bella moventem! Aut dicam invictæ sociali fœdere mensæ Magnanimos heroas; et O modo spiritus adsit, Frangam Saxonicas Britonum sub marte phalanges! Tandem ubi non tacitæ permensus tempora vitæ, Annorumque satur, cineri sua jura relinquam, Ile mihi lecto madidis astaret ocellis, Astanti sat erit si dicam sim tibi curæ: Ille meos artus, liventi morte solutos, Curaret parvâ componi molliter urnâ;

Forsitan et nostros ducat de marmore vultus,

Nectens aut Paphia myrti aut Parnasside lauri

Fronde comas; at ego securâ pace quiescam.

Tum quoque, si qua fides, si præmia certa bonorum,
Ipse ego cœlicolum semotus in æthera divum,

Quo labor et mens pura vehunt, atque ignea virtus,
Secreti hæc aliquâ mundi de parte videbo,
Quantum fata sinunt: et tota mente serenum
Ridens, purpureo suffundar lumine vultus,
Et simul ætherio plaudam mihi lætus olympo.

Well may we think, O dear to all above,
Thy birth distinguish'd by the smile of Jove,
And that Apollo shed his kindliest power,
And Maia's son, on that propitious hour;
Since only minds so born can comprehend
A poet's worth, or yield that worth a friend:
Hence on thy yet unfaded cheek appears
The lingering freshness of thy greener years;
Hence in thy front and features we admire
Nature unwither'd, and a mind entire.
O might so true a friend to me belong,
So skill'd to grace the votaries of song,
Should I recall hereafter into rhyme
The kings and heroes of my native clime,
Arthur the chief, who even now prepares
In subterraneous being future wars,
With all his martial knights to be restor❜d,
Each to his seat around the fed'ral board;

And O! if spirit fail me not, disperse
Our Saxon plunderers in triumphant verse
Then after all, when with the past content,
A life I finish, not in silence spent,

Should he, kind mourner, o'er my death bed
I shall but need to say " be still my friend!'
He, faithful to my dust, with kind concern,
Shall place it gently in a modest urn;
He too, perhaps, shall bid the marble breath
To honor me, and with the graceful wreath,
Or of Parnassus, or the Paphian Isle,
Shall bind my brows-but I shall rest the w
Then also, if the fruits of faith endure,
And virtue's promis'd recompence be sure,
Borne to those seats, to which the blest aspi
By purity of soul and virtuous fire,
These rites, as fate permits, I shall survey
With eyes illumin'd by celestial day,
And, every cloud from my pure spirit driven
Joy in the bright beatitude of heaven.

The preceeding verses have var claims to attention; they exhibit a li picture of the literary project that occu the mind of Milton at this period; they cibly prove with what vehemence of d

he panted for poetical immortality, and for the superior rewards of a laborious life, devoted to piety and virtue.

His acquaintance with Manso may be regarded as the most fortunate incident of his foreign excursion. Nothing could have a greater tendency to preserve and call forth the seeds of poetic enterprize in the mind of the young traveller, than his familiarity with this eminent and engaging personage, the bosom friend of Tasso; the friend who had cherished that great and afflicted poet under his roof in a season of his mental calamity, had restored his health, re-animated his fancy, and given a religious turn to the latest efforts of his majestic muse. The very life of Tasso, which this noble biographer had written with the copious and minute fidelity of personal knowledge, and with the ardour of affectionate enthusiasm, might be sufficient to give new energy to Milton's early passion for poetical renown: his conversation had, probably, a still greater tendency to produce this effect. Circumstances remote, and apparently of little moment, have often a mar

« AnteriorContinuar »