unjustly denied to Milton, the power of moving with facility in the fetters of rhyme: this power is ftill more confpicuous in the poem he wrote at the age of feventeen, on the death of his fifter's child; a compofition peculiarly entitled to the notice of thofe, who love to contemplate the early dawn of poetical genius. In this performance, puerile as it is in every fenfe of the word, the intelligent reader may yet difcern, as in the bud, all the striking characteristics of Milton; his affectionate fenfibility, his fuperior imagination, and all that native tendency to devotional enthusiasm, Which fets the heart on fire, To fpurn the fordid world, and unto Heav'n afpire. Admirably trained as the youth of the poet was to acquire academical honour by the union of industry and talents, he feems to have experienced at Cambridge a chequered fortune, very fimilar to his destiny in the world. It appears from some remarkable paffages in the Latin exercises, which he recited in his College, that he was at firft an object of partial severity, and afterwards of general admiration. He had differed in opinion concerning a plan of academical studies with fome perfons of authority in his college, and thus cited their difpleasure. He fpeaks of them as highly incensed against him; but expreffes, with the most liberal fenfibility, his furprife, delight, and gratitude, in finding that his enemies forgot their animosity to honour him with unexpected applause. ex An idle story has been circulated concerning his treatment in College. 'I am ashamed,” says Dr. Johnson, "to relate what what I fear is true, that Milton was the last student in either University that fuffered the public indignity of corporal punishment." In confirmation of this incident, which appears improbable, though fupported by Mr. Warton, the biographical critic alledges the following paffage from the firft Elegy: Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum, Nor zeal nor duty now my steps impel To reedy Cam and my forbidden cell; 'Tis time that I a pedant's threats difdain, And fly from wrongs my foul will ne'er sustain. Dr. Johnson confiders these expreffions as an absolute proof, that Milton was obliged to undergo this indignity; but they may fuggeft a very different idea. From all the light we can obtain concerning this anecdote, it seems most probable, that Milton was threatened, indeed, with what he confidered as a punishment, not only dishonourable but unmerited; that his manly spirit difdained to submit to it; and that he was therefore obliged to acquiefce in a short exile from Cambridge. In fpeaking of his academical life, it is neceffary to obviate another remark of a fimilar tendency. "There is reafon," fays Johnfon, "to fufpect that he was regarded in his college with no great fondness." To coun teract teract this invidious infinuation we are furnished with a reply, made by Milton himself, to this very calumny, originally fabricated by one of his contemporaries; a calumny, which he had fo fully refuted, that it ought to have revived no more! He begins with thanking his reviler for the afperfion: "It has given me," he says, an apt occafion to acknowledge publicly, with all grateful mind, that more “than ordinary favour and respect, which I found, above any "of my equals, at the hand of those courteous and learned men, the Fellows of that College, wherein I spent some years; who, at my parting, after I had taken two degrees, as the manner is, fignified many ways how much better "it would content them that I would ftay, as by many let i ters, full of kindness and loving respect, both before that "time and long after, I was affured of their fingular good "affection towards me."-Profe Works, vol. 1, p. 15. The Latin poems of Milton are yet entitled to more of our attention; because they exhibit lively proofs, that he poffeffed both tenderness and enthusiasm, those primary constituents of a poet, at an early period of life, and in the highest degree: they have additional value, from making us acquainted with several interesting particulars of his youth, and many of his opinions, which must have had confiderable influence on his moral character i 5 f His fixth Elegy, addreffed to his bofom friend, Charles Diodati, feems to be founded on the idea, which he may be faid to have verified in his own conduct, that ftrict habits of temperance and virtue are highly conducive to the perfection of great poetical powers. To pocts of a lighter class he recommends, with graceful pleasantry, much convivial enjoyment; but for those who aspire to Epic renown, he prescribes even the fimple regimen of Pythagoras. Ille quidem parce, Samii pro more magistri, Simply let these, like him of Samos, live; In his Elegy on the Spring, our poet expreffes the fervent emotions of his fancy in terms, that may be almost regarded as a prophetic description of his fublimeft work: Jam mihi mens liquidi raptatur in ardua cæli, Nec fugiunt oculos Tartara cæca meos. I moun't, 1 I mount, and, undepreffed by cumbrous clay, My spirit searches all the realms of light, And no Tartarean depths elude my fight. With these verses it may be pleafing to compare a fimilar paffage in his English vacation exercise, where, addressing his native language, as applied to an inconfiderable purpose, he adds, Yet I had rather, if I were to chufe, Such as may make thee search thy coffers round, How he before the thunderous throne doth lie. "It is worth the curious reader's attention to obferve how much the Paradife Loft correfponds with this prophetic wish," fays Mr. Thyer, one of the most intelligent and liberal of English commentators. The young poet, who thus expreffed his ambition, was then in his nineteenth year. At the age of twenty-one (the period of his life when that pleafing portrait of him was executed, which the Speaker Onflow obtained from the executors of his widow) he compofed his Ode on the Nativity; a poem that surpaffes in fancy and devotional fire a composition on the same subject by that celebrated and devout poet of Spain, Lopez de Vega. |