wrath. I found, too, that it would be difficult, except perhaps to the curiosity of a few inquisitive scholars, to direct or detain the attention on the discussion of a subject which once held all Europe in suspense; the progress of which, under the skill of the combatants, was watched with the most intense anxiety; which employed the most powerful minds, and included the most important interests; but which long since has passed away from the disputed possession of party writers, to remain under the graver and more impartial protection of history. A few original notes attached to this edition, are the gradual result of the Editor's reading, and were written in the margin of the copy which he used. Some have been selected from the different commentators, whose observations have been diligently collected by Mr. Todd; and, for a few, the editor has been indebted to his amiable and most accomplished friend, the Rev. Alexander Dyce, to whose industry and talents, all who are interested in our early poetry must feel great obligations; and from whose classical knowledge, sound judgment, and refined taste, that curious information which he is able to bestow, will be given with a precision, a temperance, and an elegance, except perhaps in the case of the learned and lamented Tyrwhitt, hitherto unknown among the editors of our elder poets. Benhall, 20th Nov. 1831. JOHN MITFORD. THE LIFE OF MILTON. BY THE REVEREND JOHN MITFORD. 2 JOHN MILTON, magnum et venerabile nomen, the son of John Milton and Sarah Castor, a woman of incomparable virtue and goodness, and exemplary for her liberality to the poor, was born1 in London on the 9th of December, 1608. His father was an eminent scrivener, and lived at the sign of the Spread Eagle (the armorial ensign of the family) in Bread Street. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, embraced the doctrines of the reformed church, and in consequence was disinherited by his father, who was a bigoted papist. The profession, however, which he chose was so successful, as to enable him to give his Baptized the xx Dec. 1608, according to the Register of Allhallows, Bread Street. 2 This house wherein he was born, and which strangers used to visit before the fire, was part of his estate as long as he lived. v. Toland's Life, p. 148, on his mother's family. See Birch's Life of Milton, p. 11. The family of the Castors originally derived from Wales, as Philips tells us; but Wood asserts that she was of the ancient family of the Bradshaws, and a still later account informs us that she was a Haughton, of Haughton Tower, in Lancashire, as appeared by her own arms, &c. Both Toland and Philips date his birth in 1606, but erroneously, for the inscription under his print in the Logic says that in 1671, he was 63 years of age. Milton's armorial bearings were argent, an eagle displayed with two heads gules, legged and beaked sable. A small silver seal, with these arms, with which he was accustomed to seal his letters, was in the possession of the late Dr. Disney. children a liberal education; 3 and to allow him to pass his latter years in the leisure and tranquillity of a country life. The grandfather of the poet was keeper of the forest of Shotover, in Oxfordshire, and his family had been long settled at Milton,* in that neighbourhood. They took, however, the unfortunate side in the civil wars, their estate was sequestrated, and their rank and opulence consequently destroyed. Milton's father was a person of a superior and accomplished mind, and was greatly distinguished for his musical talents; indeed, in science, he is said to have been equal to the very first musicians of the age. He saw the early promises of genius 5 3 He died about 1647, and was buried in Cripplegate Church. See T. Warton's note on Carmen ad Patrem, ver. 66, p. 523, ed. second. Aubrey says he read without spectacles at 84. 4 There has been some doubts about the situation of the village of Milton. See Todd's Life, p. 2, and the note. Wood's Fasti Oxon. vol. i. art. 262. 5 On a work called "A Sixefold Politician, together with a Sixefold Precept of Policy, 1609," attributed to him, see Mr. I. P. Collier's Poetical Decameron, vol. ii. p. 305, Philips says, That as I have been told and I take it by our author himself, that his father composed an Il Domine of forty parts, for which he was rewarded with a gold medal and chain, by a Polish prince, to whom he presented it, and that some of his songs are to be seen in old Whitby's set of airs, besides some compositions of his in Ravenscroft's Psalms, v. p. xli. ed. Pickering. Some beautiful lines in Milton's Poem 'ad Patrem' allude to his father's skill in music. Ipse volens Phoebus se dispertire duobus, Altera dona mihi, dedit altera dona parenti, Dividuumque deum genitorque, puerque tenemus.' See Burney's Hist. of Music, vol iii. p. 134. In a little book which I possess, the Psalms, by W. Slatyer, 12mo. 1643, one of the tunes is by J. Milton. See also Todd's Milton, vol. i. p. 4, and vi. p. 337, and Aubrey Letters, vol. iii. p. 439. in his son, and encouraged them by a careful and liberal education. Milton was at first placed under the domestic tuition of Thomas Young, a puritan minister, and native of Essex; to whom he was in after life much attached, and to whom his fourth elegy, and the first of his Latin Epistles, are inscribed. A portrait of him, by Cornelius Jansen,6 when only ten years old, shows the affection of the parents for their handsome and accomplished child, who even at that early age was expanding the first flower of his youthful genius; and whose vernal promise was ripening fast into works of finished and exquisite beauty. Young quitted England in 1623, and it is probable that in the same year, Milton was admitted into St. Paul's School, under the care of Alexander Gill.8 His unwearied love of study had This picture was in the possession of T. Hollis, Esq. and is engraven by Cipriani, in his Memoirs, p. 96, it represents the youthful poet in a richly worked collar, and striped jacket. It was purchased by Mr. Hollis at C. Stanhope's sale, who bought it for twenty guineas of the executors of Milton's widow. The picture of Milton when about twenty, was in the possession of the Right Honourable Arthur Onslow. 7 In Mr. Fellowes's translation of Milton's Letters printed in Dr. Symmons's edition, 1806, Why is the direction of Milton's Letters to Young translated to Thomas Jure? For an account of T. Young see Todd's Milton, vol. vi. p. 199, 207. Young returned to England in or before the year 1628; he was afterwards master of Jesus Col. Camb. and Vicar of Stow Market, in Suffolk. Milton, in his Elegy, ver. 83, says to him : Te tamen interea belli circumsonat horror, & See an account of Al. Gill, in Wood's Ath. Oxon, vol. ii. p. 22, and T. Warton's Milton, p. 419. I possess a copy of Gill's Parerga, sive Poetici Conatus, 12mo. 1632, that belonged to Is. Casaubon. A. Gill must have been a de 6 already commenced; Ab anno,' he says, 'ætatis duodecimo vix unquam ante mediam noctem à lucubrationibus cubitum discederem ;' and Aubrey adds, that when Milton went to school, he studied very hard, and sate up very late, commonly till twelve or one o'clock, and his father ordered the maid to sitt up for him.' In a letter to his preceptor, dated not long after this time, he says Hæc scripsi Londini, inter urbana diverticula, non libris, ut soleo circumseptus.' Thus early and deep were laid the foundation of his future fame. His studies were in a great measure poetical. Humphrey Lownes, the printer, who lived in the same street, supplied him with Spenser and Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas: his admiration of the former is known to all; the attention which he paid to the more obscure, and now almost forgotten poet, was pointed out more fully than before, by my late ingenious friend Mr. Charles Dunster, in a little work which cided royalist, for he has several poems addressed to the royal family, and to the bishops. He has an epistle, as Milton has, to his Father, p. 14. There is a line resembling one in Milton's verses to Christina. (Christina arctoi Lucida stella poli!') Pene sub arctoi sidere regna poli!' In Milton's third Elegy, ver. 9, are these lines, which puzzled the commentators till Sir D. Dalrymple explained them to T. Warton. 'Tunc memini clarique ducis, fratrisque verendi In his Tillii Epitaphium, p. 91, Gill mentions who these brothers in arms were. Quem nec Mansfeltus, quem nec Brunonius heros i. e. Mansfelt and the Duke of Brunswick. Gill speaks of himself in the Preface; Hactenus vitam egi nescio qua siderum inclementiâ, hominum et fortunæ injuriis perpetuo colluctantem.' |