31 35 Aurea feu fternit motantem cornua taurum; i. 37. Immortale melos, &c.] See LYCIDAS, V. 176. 1 40 45 50 52. He alludes to the Song of Orpheus, in Apollonius Rhodius, 277. He "fung of CHAOS to the ORPHEAN lyre," PARAD. LOST, B. iii. 17. See alfo Onomacritus, ARGON. V. 438. 53. Quercubus addidit aures.] So alfo of Orpheus, PARAD. LOST, B. vii. 35. VOL. I. Uuu Where Carmine, non cithara; fimulachraque functa canendo Compulit in lacrymas: habet has a carmine laudes. 60 Nec tu perge, precor, facras contemnere Mufas, Nec vanas inopefque puta, quarum ipfe peritus Munere, mille fonos numeros componis ad aptos, Millibus et vocem modulis variare canoram Doctus, Arionii merito fis nominis hæres. Nunc tibi quid mirum, fi me genuiffe poetam Contigerit, charo fi tam prope fanguine juncti, Cognatas artes, ftudiumque affine fequamur? Ipfe volens Phœbus fe difpertire duobus, Altera dona mihi, dedit altera dona parenti; Dividuumque Deum, genitorque puerque, tenemus. Where wooDs and rocks had EARS To rapture. 65 54.Simulachraque functo.] So of Orpheus, going down to Hell, Ovid, METAM. X. 14. Perque leves populos, SIMULACRAQUE FUNCTA fepulcris, &c. Our author adds, " Compulit in lacrymas." So Ovid, continuing the fame ftory, ibid. 45. Tum primum LACRYMIS victarum carmine fama eft Here we have, Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek. See above, at v. 22. 66. Dividuumque Deum, genitorque puerque, tenemus.] The topic of perfuafion is happily felected. DIVIDUUS our author has twice anglicifed in PARADISE LOST, B. vii. 382. Of the moon. ---And her reign With thousand leffer lights DIVIDUAL holds. Again, B. xii. 85. Of liberty. -Which always with right reafon dwells "Candida "Ibid. ii. x. 10. "DIVIDU UMQUE tenent alter et alter amor.' ART. AMATOR. ii. 488. "DIVIDUOS Tu tamen ut fimules teneras odiffe Camoenas, Non odiffe reor; neque enim, pater, ire jubebas. <DIVIDUOs equos. "METAM. ii. 682. " Qualia DIVIDUA "finuantur cornua lunæ." See Note, ON TIME, V. 12. Milton's father was well skilled in mufic. Philips fays, that he compofed an In nomine of forty parts, for which he was honoured with a gold chain and medal by a Polish prince, to whom he prefented it. He is mentioned by Wood in his manufcript Hiftory of English Musicians. " John Milton, a musician livinge in the "reigne of queene Elizabeth, James i, Charles i. We have fome "of his compofitions in the publick muficke schoole at Oxford." MSS. Muf. Ás HM. D. 19. 4to. Among the Pfalm-tunes, published by Thomas Ravenscroft in 1633, are many with the name of John Milton; more particularly, that common one called York tune, the tenour part of which was fuch a favourite, as to be used by nurfes for a lullaby, and as a chime-tune for churches. See above, Note on Ps. i. p. 376. He has feveral fongs for five voices, in "The TEARES or lamentations of a SORROWFULLL SOULE, "compofed with mufical ayres and fongs both for voices and divers inftruments," containing alfo compofitions by Bird, Bull, Orlando Gibbons, Dowland the lutanift, Ferabofco, Coperario, Weelks, Wilbye, and others the most celebrated masters of the times, written and published by fir William Leighton, knight, a gentleman-penfioner, and a good musician, in 1614.* He has a madrigal for five voices, among the numerous contributions of the moft capital performers, in the TRIUMPHS OF ORIANA, published by Morley in 1601. [See Note on COM US, V. 495.] This collection is faid to have been planned by the earl of Nottingham, lord High Admiral; who, with a view to footh queen Elizabeth's defpair for the recent execution of lord Effex by flattering her prepofterous vanity, gave for a prize-fubject to the best poets and musicians, whom he liberally rewarded, the beauty and accomplishments of his royal mistress, now a decrepit virgin on the brink of feventy. But maiden queens are in perpetual bloom. Our author's father feems alfo to have been a writer. For, as I am informed by Mr. Steevens, in the Register of the Stationers, John Busby enters on Dec. 15, 1608, "A SIXE FOLD POLITI"CIAN by John Milton." A copy of this book is in the Bodleian library, which appears to have belonged to Burton, who wrote on MELANCHOLY. Mr. Steevens has another. It has the following title. "A SIXE FOLD POLITICIAN. Together with "a Sixe-fold Precept of Policy. London, Printed by E. A. for ** Iohn Busby, &c. 1609." At the end of the Epiftle, are the ini *There is an edition of the poem in 1612, 4to. He wrote alfo a poem called VIRTUE TRIUMPHANT, &c. Published in 1603. Qua via lata patet, qua pronior area lucri, 70 75 tials J. M. 12mo. And a fecond EPISTLE is fo fubfcribed. Among the recommendatory verfes prefixed, there is one copy by "Io. Davies Gent." probably Davies the epigrammatift, as he is ftyled. The work appears to be a fatire on characters pretending to wifdom or policy. Nor is it void of learning and wit, fuch as we often find affectedly and aukwardly blended in the Effay-writers of that age. For his feverity on POETS he apologifes, by faying, it may not bee thought that I houlde the skill and art of poetry " in bafe account, but onely the abufers of it. Poetry may be both "noblemens and fchollers afternoone, and [a] fucceffive exercise " and remiffion from the bent of grauer ftudies and affaires." Ch. iii. p. 42. See below, v. 67. Tu tamen ut fimulus teneras odiffe Camoenas, Non odiffe reor. 71. He had Ovid in his head. AMOR. i. XV. 5. Non me verbofas leges edifcere, nec me Ingrato vocem proftituiffe foro, &c. He fpeaks with a like contempt for the ftudy of the Law to Hartlib, TRACT. EDUCAT. "Some allured to the TRADE of Law, "grounding their purposes not on the prudent and heavenly contemplation of juftice and equity which was never taught them, "but on the promifing and pleafing thoughts of litigious terms, "fat contentions, and flowing fees." 75. Aubrey in Milton's manuscript Life, fays that he "was 10 "yeares old by his picture, and then a poet." The picture is that by Cornelius Janfen. A record of Milton's Baptifm, yet unnoticed, occurs in the parochial Register of Allhallows, Bread ftreet, fol. 42. "The twentieth day of Dec. 1608, was baptifed JOHN "MILTON, the fon of John Milton fcriviner." Et 89 85 Et Latii veneres, et quæ Jovis ora decebant I nunc, confer opes, quifquis malefanus avitas 83. -Novus Italus, &c.] Milton was fo well skilled in Italian, that at Florence, the Crufca, an academy inftituted for recovering and preferving the purity of the Florentine language, often confulted him on the critical niceties of that language. He tells Benedetto Buonmatteo, who was writing an Italian grammar, in a Latin Letter dated at Florence 1638, that although he had indulged in copious draughts of Roman and Grecian literature, yet that he came with a fresh eagerness and delight to the luxuries of Dante and Petrarch, and the rest of the Italian Poets; and that Athens with its pellucid Iliffus, and Rome with its banks of the Tiber, could not detain him from the Arno of Florence, and the hills of Fefole. PROSE-WORKS, ii. 570. See alfo Francini's panegyric. His Italian Sonnets fhew that he was a mafter of the language. Dr. Johnson is of opinion, that Milton's acquaintance with the Italian writers may be discovered in his LYCIDAS, by the mixture of longer and shorter verfes, according to the rules of the Tuscan poetry. 84. Barbaricos teftatus voce tumultus.] The pure Roman Language was corrupted by BARBARIC, or Gothic, invaders. He adopts BARBARICUS, ufed by Virgil more than once, into English. PARAD. L. B. ii. 4. "BARBARIC pearl and gold." 94. I nunc, confer opes, &c.] Ovid, EPIST. HEROID. xii. 204. I NUNC, Sifyphias, improbe, coN FER OPES. Jupiter, |