Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

manners.

A scrivener, in remoter ages, is fupposed to have been a mere transcriber; but at the period we speak of, his occupation united the two profitable branches of drawing contracts and of lending money. The emoluments of this profeffion enabled the father of Milton to bestow moft abundantly on his fon those advantages of education, which had been cruelly withdrawn from himself. The poet was happy in both his parents; and to the merits of both he has borne affectionate and honourable teftimony. The maiden name of his mother has been difputed; but it feems reasonable to credit the account of Philips, her grandson, the earliest biographer of Milton, who had the advantage of living with him as a relation and a disciple.

Her name, according to this author, who speaks highly of her virtue, was Cafton, and her family derived from Wales. Milton, in mentioning his own origin, with a decent pride, in reply to one of his revilers, afferts, that his mother was a woman of exemplary character, and peculiarly distinguished by her extensive charity*. The parental kindness and the talents of his father he has celebrated in a Latin poem, which cannot be too warmly admired, as a monument of filial tenderness, and poetical enthusiasm. It is probable, that the fevere manner in which that indulgent father had been driven from the purfuits of learning induced him to exert uncommon liberality and ardour in the education of his fon. Though immerfed himself in a lucrative occupation, he feems to have retained great elegance of mind, and to have

* Londini fum natus, genere honefto, patre viro integerrimo, matre probatiffimâ, et eleemofynis per viciniam potiffimum nota. Defenfio fecunda.

[ocr errors]

amufed

amufed himself with literature and mufic; to the latter he applied so successfully, that, according to Dr. Burney, the accomplished historian of that captivating art," he became a voluminous composer, equal in fcience, if not in genius, to the best musicians of his age." Nor did his talents pass without celebrity or reward. Philips relates, that for one of his devotional compofitions in forty parts, he was honoured with a gold chain and medal by a Polish prince, to whom he prefented it. This mark of diftinction was frequently conferred on men, who rose to great excellence in different arts and sciences: perhaps the ambition of young Milton was firft awakened by these gifts of honour bestowed upon his father*.

A parent, who could enliven the drudgery of a dull profession by a variety of elegant pursuits, must have been happy to difcern, and eager to cherish, the first dawning of genius in his child. In this point of view we may contemplate with peculiar delight the infantine portrait of Milton, by that elegant and faithful artift, Cornelius Janfen. Aubrey, the antiquarian, observing in his manuscript memoirs of our

*The father of Milton has been lately mentioned as an author.-He was thought to have published, in the year of the poet's birth, a little book, with the quaint title of "A Sixe Fold Politician."-Mr. Warton obferved, that the curious publication afcribed to Milton's father may be found in the Bodleian library; that " it appears to be a fatire on characters pretending to wifdom or policy, and is not void of learning and wit, fuch as we often find affectedly and awkwardly blended in the effay-writers of that age."

By the favour of Mr. Ifaac Reed, who

is moft liberal in the communication of the literary rarities he has collected, I have perused this fingular performance, and perfectly agree with its obliging poffeffor, and his accomplished friend, Dr. Farmer, that, although in the records of the Stationers Company it is ascribed to John Milton, we may rather affign it to John Melton, author of the Aftrologafter, than to the father of our poet.-The latter will lofe but little in being no longer regarded as its author, especially as we have different and more honourable proofs of his attachment to literature.

author,

author, that he was ten years old when this picture was drawn, affirms that " he was then a poet." This expreffion may lead us to imagine, that the portrait was executed to encourage the infant author; and if so, it might operate as a powerful incentive to his future exertion. The permanent bias of an active spirit often originates in the petty incidents of childhood; and as no human mind ever glowed with a more intense, or with a purer flame of literary ambition, than the mind of Milton, it may not be unpleafing to conjecture how it firft caught the sparks, that gradually mounted to a blaze of unrivalled vehemence and fplendor.

His education, as Dr. Newton has well obferved, united the opposite advantages of private and public instruction. Of his early paffion for letters he has left the following record, in his fecond defence*: " My father deftined me from my infancy to the ftudy of polite literature, which I embraced with such avidity, that from the age of twelve, I hardly ever retired from my books before midnight. This proved the first source of injury to my eyes, whose natural weakness was attended with frequent pains of the head; but as all these disadvantages could not reprefs my ardour for learning, my father took care to have me inftructed by various preceptors both at home and at school." His domeftic tutor was Thomas Young, of Effex, who, being obliged to quit his country on account of religious opinions, became minister

*Pater me puerulum humaniarum literarum ftudiis deftinavit; quas ita avide arripui, ut ab anno ætatis duodecimo vix unquam ante mediam noctem a lucubrationibus cubitum difcederem; quæ prima oculorum perni

cies fuit, quorum ad naturalem debilitatem accefferant et crebri capitis dolores; quæ omnia cum difcendi impetum non retardarent, et in ludo literario, et fub aliis domi magiftris erudiendum quotidie curavit.

to

to the English merchants at Hamburgh. It was probably from this learned and confcientious man, that Milton caught not only his paffion for literature, but that steadiness and unconquerable integrity of character, by which he was diftinguished through all the viciffitudes of a tempeftuous life. His reverential gratitude and affection towards this preceptor are recorded in two Latin epiftles*, and a Latin elegy addressed

[blocks in formation]

Inspectis literis tuis (preceptor optime) unicum hoc mihi.fupervacaneum occurrebat, quod tardæ fcriptionis excufationem attuleris; tametfi enim literis tuis nihil mihi queat optabilius accedere, qui poffim tamen aut debeam fperare otii tibi tantum à rebus feriis, et fanctioribus effe, ut mihi femper refpondere vacet; præfertim cum illud humanitatis omnino fit, officii minime. Te vero oblitum effe mei ut fufpicer, tam multa tua de me recens merita nequaquam finunt. Neque enim video quorfum tantis onuftum beneficiis ad oblivionem dimitteres. Rus tuum accerfitus, fimul ac ver adoleverit, libenter adveniam, ad capeffendas anni tuique non . minus colloquii delicias, et ab urbano ftrepitu fubducam me paulifper, ad ftoam tuam Icenorum, tanquam ad celeberrimam illam Zenonis porticum aut Ciceronis Tufculanum, ubi tu in re modica regio fane animo veluti Serranus. aliquis aut Curius in agello tuo placide regnas, deque ipfis divitiis, ambitione, pompa, luxuriâ, et quicquid vulgus hominum miratur et ftupet, quafi triumphum agis fortunæ contemptor. Cæterum qui tarditatis culpam deprecatus es, hanc mihi viciffim, ut fpero,

to

præcipitantiam indulgebis; cum enim epistolam hanc in extremum diftuliffem, malui pauca, eaque rudiufcule fcribere, quam nihil. -Vale vir obfervande.

Cantabrigia, Julii 21, 1628.

In perufing your letters, my excellent preceptor, this only appeared to me fuperfluous, that you apologize for a delay in writing; for although nothing can be more defirable to me than your letters, yet what right have I to hope, that your ferious and facred duties can allow you fuch leifure, that you can always find time enough to anfwer me, especially when your writing is entirely an act of kindnefs, and by no means of duty. The many and recent favours I have received from you will by no means fuffer me to fufpect that you can forget me; nor can I conceive it poffible that, having loaded me with fuch benefits, you fhould now difmifs me from your remembrance. I shall willingly attend your fummons to your rural retirement on the first appearance of fpring, to enjoy with equal relifh the delights of the feafon and of your converfation. I shall withdraw myself for a little time from the buftle of the city to your porch in Suffolk, as to the famous portico of the Stoic, or the Tufculum of Cicero, where, ennobling a moderate eftate by an imperial mind, you reign contentedly in your little field, like a Serranus or a Curias, and triumph, as it were, over opulence,

to him: they suggest a most favourable idea of the poet's native difpofition, and furnish an effectual antidote to the poison of that most injurious assertion, that “he hated all whom he was required to obey."-Could untractable pride be the characteristic of a mind, which has expreffed its regard for a disciplinarian fufficiently rigid, with a tenderness fo confpicuous in the following verses of the fourth Elegy?

Vivit ibi antiquæ clarus pietatis honore,

Præful, chrifticolas pafcere doctus oves;

Ille quidem eft animæ plufquam pars altera nostræ,
Dimidio vitæ vivere cogor ego.

Hei mihi quot pelagi, quot montes interjecti,
Me faciunt aliâ parte carere mei!

Charior ille mihi, quam tu, doctiffime Graium,
Cliniadi, pronepos qui Telamonis erat ;
Quamque Stagyrites generofo magnus alumno,
Quem peperit Lybico Chaonis alma Jovi.
Qualis Amyntorides, qualis Phylirëius heros
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.

opulence, ambition, pomp, luxury (and whatever is idolized by the herd of men) by looking down upon fortune: but as you excuse yourself for delay, let me hope that you will forgive me for hafte, fince, having deferred

this letter to the last moment, I chofe to fend a few lines, though not very accurately written, rather than to be filent. Farewell my revered friend.

C

There

« AnteriorContinuar »