EPIGRAMMATUM L I B E R. I. In Proditionem Bombardicam. UM fimul in regem nuper fatrapafque Britannos CUM Aufus es infandum, perfide Fauxe, nefas, Fallor? An et mitis voluifti ex parte videri, Et penfare mala cum pietate fcelus? Scilicet hos alti miffurus ad atria cœli, Sulphureo curru, flammivolifque rotis: Qualiter ille, feris caput inviolabile Parcis, Liquit lördanios turbine raptus agros. II. In eandem. SICCINE tentafti cœlo donasse Iäcobum, Quæ feptemgemino Bellua monte lates? Ni meliora tuum poterit dare munere numen, Parce precor, donis infidiofa tuis. 6. Elijah. See Note on PARAD. REG. ii. 16. .5 2. Quæ feptemgemino Bellua monte lates ?] The Pope, called in the theological language of the times The Beaft. Ille quidem fine te confortia ferus adivit Et quot habet brutos Roma profana Deos: Namque hac aut alia nifi quemque adjuveris arte, Crede mihi, cœli vix bene fcandet iter. P III. In eandem. Urgatorem animæ derifit Iäcobus ignem, Q IV. In eandem. Uem modo Roma fuis devoverat impia diris, Hunc, vice mutata, jam tollere gestit ad aftra, I V. In inventorem bombarde. Apetionidem laudavit cæca vetuftas, 5. 10 At At mihi major erit, qui lurida creditur arma, N VI. Ad Leonoram Romæ canentem.* Angelus unicuique fuus, fic credite gentes, Obtigit æthereis ales ab ordinibus. Quid mirum, Leonora, tibi fi gloria major ? 4. Et trifidum fulmen furripuisse Jovi.] This thought was afterwards transferred to the PARADISE LOST. Where the fallen angels are exulting in their new invention of fire-arms, B. vi. 490. -They fhall fear we have difarm'd The thunderer of his only dreaded bolt. * Adriana of Mantua, for her beauty furnamed the Fair, and her daughter LEONORA Baroni, the lady whom Milton celebrates in these three Latin Epigrams, were efteemed by their contemporaries the finest fingers in the world. Giovanni Battista Doni, in his book de PRESTANTIA MUSICÆ VETERIS, published in 1647, fpeaking of the merit of fome modern vocal performers, declares that Adriana, or her daughter Leonora, would fuffer injury by being compared to the ancient Sappho. B. ii. p. 57. There is a volume of Greek, Latin, Italian, French and Spanish poems in praise of Leonora, printed at Rome, entitled Applaufi poetici alle glorie della Signora LEONORA BARONI. Nicius Erythreus, in his PINACOTHECA, calls this collection the THEATRUM of that exquisite Songstress Eleonora Baroni, " in quo, omnes hic Romæ quotquot ingenio et poeticæ facultatis laude præftant, carmini"bus, cum Etrufce tum Latine fcriptis, SINGULARI AC PROPE DIVINO MULIERIS ILLIUS canendi artificio, tamquam fauftos quofdam clamores et plaufus edunt, &c." PINAC. ii. p. 427. Lipf. 1712. 12mo. In the POESIE LIRICHE of Fulvio Tefti, there is an encomiaftic Sonnet to Leonora, POES. LYR. del Conte Fulvio Tefti, Ven. 1691. p. 361. 66 Se l'angioletta mia tremolo, e chiaro, &c. M. Maugars, Priour of S. Peter de Mac at Paris, king's interpreter of the English language, and in his time a capital practitioner on the viol, has left this eulogy on Leonora and her mother, at the end of his judicious Difcours fur la Mufique d'Italia, printed with the life of Malherbe, and other treatifes, at Paris, 1672. 12mo. "Leonora has fine parts, and a happy judgement in distinguishing good from bad mufic: fhe understands it perfectly well, and even " composes, Aut Deus, aut vacui certe mens tertia cœli 5 <composes, which makes her abfolute mistress of what the fings, " and gives her the most exact pronunciation and expreffion of the fenfe of the words. She does not pretend to beauty, yet she is far from being difagreeable, nor is fhe a coquet. She fings << with an air of confident and liberal modefty, and with a pleafing gravity. Her voice reaches a large compafs of notes, is juft, "clear, and melodious; and fhe foftens or raises it without con"ftraint or grimace. Her raptures and fighs are not too ten"der; her looks have nothing impudent, nor do her geftures betray any thing beyond the referve of a modeft girl. In paffing "from one fong to another, fhe fhews fometimes the divifions of "the enharmonic and chromatic fpecies with fo much air and "sweetness, that every hearer is ravished with that delicate and "difficult mode of finging. She has no need of any person to af"fift her with a theorbo or viol, one of which is required to make "her finging complete; for the plays perfectly well herself on "both those inftruments. In fhort, I have been fo fortunate as to "hear her fing feveral times above thirty different airs, with fe❝cond and third ftanzas of her own compofition. But I must not "forget, that one day fhe did me the particular favour to fing "with her mother and her fifter: her mother played upon the lute, "her fifter upon the harp, and herself upon the theorbo. This concert, compofed of three fine voices, and of three different in"ftruments, fo powerfully captivated my fenfes, and threw me into "fuch raptures, that I forgot my mortality, et crus etre deja parmi "les anges, jouiffant des contentemens des bienherueux." See Bayle, Dict. BARONI. Hawkins, HIST. Mus. iv. 196. To the excellence of the mother Adriana on the lute, Milton alludes in these lines of the fecond of these three Epigrams, v. 4. Et te Pieria fenfiffet voce canentem Aurea MATERNÆ fila movere LYRÆ. When Milton was at Rome, he was introduced to the concerts of Cardinal Barberini, afterwards Pope Urban the eighth, where he heard Leonora fing and her mother play. It was the fashion for all the ingenious ftrangers who vifited Rome, to leave fome verfes on Leonora. See the CANZONE, fupr. p. 329. And Son N. iv. Pietro Della Valle, who wrote about 1640, a very judicious Difcourfe on the mufic of his own times, fpeaks of the fanciful and masterly ftyle in which Leonora touched the arch-lute to her own accompaniments. At the fame time, he celebrates her fifter Caterine, and their mother Adriana. See the works of Battista Doni, vol. ii. at Florence, 1763. 1. Angelus unicuique, &c.] See Note on Coмus, v. 658. Serpit agens, facilifque docet mortalia corda Senfim immortali affuefcere poffe fono. Quod fi cuncta quidem Deus eft, per cunctaque fufus, In te una loquitur, cætera mutus habet. A VII. Ad eandem. Ltera Torquatum cepit Leonora poetam, Ah mifer ille tuo quanto felicius ævo Perditus, et propter te, Leonora, foret! Et te Pieria fenfiffet voce canentem 10 5 1. Altera Torquatum cepit Leonora.—] In the circumftantial account of the LIFE of Taffo written by his friend and patron G. Battista Manfo, mention is made of three different Ladies of the name of LEONORA, of whom Taffo is there said to have been fucceffively enamoured. GIER. LIB. edit. Haym, Lond. 4to. 1724. p. 23. The firft was Leonora of Efte, fifter of Alfonfo, Duke of Ferrara, at whofe court Taffo refided. This Lady, who was highly accomplished, lived unmarried with her elder fifter D. Lucretia, who had been married, but was feparated from her husband the Duke of Urbino. The Countefs San Vitale was the Second Leonora, to whom Taffo was faid to be much attached, p. 26. Manso relates, that the Third Leonora was a young lady in the fervice of the Princefs of Efte, who was very beautiful, and to whom Taffo paid great attention, p. 27. He addreffed many very elegant Loveverfes to each of these three different Ladies; but as the pieces addreffed to Leonora Princess of Efte have more PASSION than GALLANTRY, it may juftly be inferred, notwithstanding the pains he took to conceal his affection, that she was the real favourite of his heart. Among the many remarks that have been made on the GIERUSALEMME LIBERATA of Taffo, I do not remember to have feen it obferved, that this great poet probably took the hint of his fine fubject, from a book very popular in his time, written by the celebrated Benedetto Accolti, and entitled, DE BELLO A CHRISTIANIS CONTRA BARBAROS GESTO, pro Chrifti Sepulchro et Judæa recuperandis, Lib. iv. Venetiis per Bern. Venetum de Vitalibus. 1532. 4to. It is dedicated to Pietro de Medici. Dr. J. WARTON. This allufion to Taffo's Leonora, and the turn which it takes, are inimitably beautiful. Aurea |