Pronounc'd and in his volumes taught our laws, Let Euclid rest and Archimedes pause, And what the Swede intends, and what the French. an ingenious young gentleman, and scholar to John Milton. Athen. Ox. vol. ii. p. 591. No wonder then that Milton was so intimate with him, and has addressed two Sonnets to him, this first of which was printed in the edition of 1673. Newton. I find one Cyriac Skinner, I know not if the same, a member of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1640. In 1659-60, Milton published "A ready and easy 66 way to establish a free Com"monwealth, &c." This was soon afterwards attacked in a burlesque pamphlet, pretended to be written by Harrington's club, under the title of "The censure of the Rota upon Mr. "Milton's book entitled The 66 go Ready and easy way, &c. Lond. "Printed by Paul Giddy, printer "to the Rota, at the signe of "the Windmill in Turne againe "Lane, 1660." But Harrington's club, which encouraged all proposals for new models of vernment, was very unlikely to have made such an attack; and Milton's very familiar intimacy with Skinner, to whom he addresses two Sonnets, full of confidence and affection, was alone sufficient to have prevented any remonstrance from that quarter. Aubrey says, that Milton's Idea Theologiæ in manuscript is "in "the hands of Mr. Skinner, a 5 "merchant's son in Mark-Lane. 66 mons. 6. In mirth, that after no repenting draws.] This is the decent mirth of Martial, Nox non ebria, sed soluta curis. 8. And what the Swede intends,] We have printed it as it is in the Manuscript. In the first edition it was, And what the Swede intend, To measure life learn thou betimes, and know XXII. To the same.* CYRIAC, this three years day these eyes, though clear, which in others is altered to And to General Fairfax, Cromwell, Quid bellicosus Cantaber, et Scythes *The two Sonnets to Cyriac Skinner we have printed in the same order as they are numbered in the Manuscript. This latter was never printed in Milton's lifetime, but was first published several years after his death at the same time and in the same manner with the foregoing ones and Sir Henry Vane: and though the person, to whom it is addressed, was not so obnoxious as any of those before mentioned, yet it might not have been safe for Milton to have published such a commendation of his Defence of the people, which the government had ordered to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman. In the printed editions this Sonnet likewise is very incorrect, but we shall restore it by the assistance of the Manuscript. 7. Against heav'n's hand &c.] It was at first in the Manuscript God's hand: and one jot in the printed copies is a jot in the Manuscript. 8. but still bear up and steer Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask? The conscience, Friend, to' have lost them overplied In liberty's defence, my noble task, Of which all Europe talks from side to side, Right onward.] In the Manuscript it was at first, -but still attend to steer 8. One of Milton's characteristics was a singular fortitude of mind, arising from a consciousness of superior abilities, and a conviction that his cause was just. See Sonn. vi. 4 where he describes the heart which he presents to Leonora, -Io certo a prove tante L'hebbi fedele, intrepido, costante, &c. But he concludes, with great elegance, writing to a lady, that it was not proof against love. T. Warton. utilius esse potest?" But he adds, with less triumph than in this Sonnet, about his blindness, "siquidem per valetudinem, et "hanc luminem orbitatem licu"erit." Pr. W. ii. 574. This Sonnet was not written before 1651, when the Defensio appeared. T. Warton. 12. Of which all Europe talks from side to side, &c.] In the printed copies these lines are thus, Whereof all Europe rings from side to side. This thought might lead me through The Manuscript has the advantage over the printed editions, unless rings may be thought better than talks from side to side. There is something very pleasing, as well as very noble, in this conscious virtue and magnanimity of a great poet: and for the same reason no part of Mr. Pope's works affords greater pleasure than what he says of himself and his writings, especially in his imitation of the first Satire of Horace, and in his Satires intitled from the year 1738. This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask Content though blind, had I no better guide. XXIII. On his deceased WIFE.* Methought I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave, Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave, Rescued from death by force, though pale and faint. This was his second wife Catharine the daughter of Captain Woodcock of Hackney, who lived with him not above a year after their marriage, and died in childbed of a daughter. 1. Methought I saw my late espoused saint, &c.] Raleigh's elegant sonnet, called a "Vision 66 upon the conceipt of the Faerie "Queene," begins thus, Methought I saw the grave where And hence perhaps the idea of a This Sonnet was written about the year 1656. T. Warton. 2. like Alcestis from the grave, &c.] Alcestis was the wife of Admetus king of Thessaly, who being dangerously ill obtained by the means of Apollo, that he should recover, if any body else would die in his stead. His wife voluntarily offered herself, but Hercules intervening rescued her from death, and brought her back again to her husband. Our author borrows the allusion from a play of Euripides called Alcestis. 2. Dr. Johnson calls this a poor sonnet. Perhaps he was not struck with this fine allusion to Euripides. T. Warton. The last scene of the Alcestis of Euripides, our author's favourite writer, to which he alludes in this passage, is remarkably pathetic; particularly at v. 1155. Ω φίλτατης γυναικος όμμα, &c. And all that follows on Admetus's discovering that it was his wife whom Hercules had brought to him covered with a veil. And equally tender and pathetic is the passage in the first Act, which describes Alcestis taking leave of her family and house, when she had resolved to die to save her husband: particularly from v. 175. to v. 196. Thompson closely copied this passage in his Edward and Eleonora. I have wondered, that Addison, who has made so many observations on the allegory of Sin and Death, in the Paradise Lost, did not recollect, that the person of Death was clearly and obviously taken from the OavaTOS of Euripides in this Tragedy of Alcestis. Dr. J. Warton. Mine, as whom wash'd from spot of child-bed taint And such, as yet once more I trust to have So clear, as in no face with more delight. But O as to embrace me she inclin❜d, 5 10 I wak'd, she fled, and day brought back my night.* Besides, his genius rises above, and, as we may say, overflows, the banks of this narrow confined poem, pontem indignatus Araxes. Hurd. Birch has printed a Sonnet said to be written by Milton, in 1665, when he retired to Chalfont on account of the plague, and to have been lately seen inscribed on the glass of a window in that place. Life, p. xxxviii. It has the word sheene as a substantive. But Milton was not likely to commit a scriptural mistake. For the Sonnet improperly represents David as punished by a pestilence for his adultery with Bathsheba. Birch, however, had been informed by Vertue, that he had seen a satirical medal, struck upon Charles the Second, abroad, without any legend, having a correspondent device. T. Warton. |