E di cetta fonora, e delle muse: VII. On his being arrived to the age of 23. How foon hath Time, the fubtle thief of youth, Stoln on his wing my three and twentieth year! My hafting days fly on with full career, But my late spring no bud or bloffom fhew'th. * Milton had a natural severity of mind. For love-verses, his Italian Sonnets have a remarkable air of gravity and dignity. They are free from the metaphyfics of Petrarch, and are more in the manner of Dante. Yet he calls his feventh Sonnet, in a Letter printed from the Cambridge manufcript by Birch, a compofition in the PETRARCHIAN ftanza. In 1762, the late Mr. Thomas Hollis examined the Laurentian library at Florence, for fix Italian Sonnets of Milton, addreffed to his friend Chimentelli; and, for other Italian and Latin compofitions and various original letters, faid to be remaining in manuscript at Florence. He fearched alfo for an original buft in marble of Milton, fuppofed to be fomewhere in that city. But he was unfuccefsful in his curious inquiries. 2. Stoln on his wing my three and twentieth year.] Mr. Bowle here cites ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, A. v. S. iii, On our quick'ft decrees The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time But the application of STEAL is different. In Shakespeare, Time comes imperceptibly upon, fo as to prevent, our purposes. In Milton, Time, as imperceptibly and filently, brings on his wing, in his flight, the poet's twenty third year. Juvenal fhould not here be forgotten, in a paffage of confummate elegance. SAT. ix. 129. --Dum ferta, unguenta, puellas, Pofcimus, OBREPIT NON INTELLECTA fenectus. Perhaps Perhaps my femblance might deceive the truth, 5 That I to manhood am arriv'd fo near, And inward ripeness doth much less appear, That some more timely-happy spirits indu’th. Yet be it lefs or more, or foon or flow, It fhall be ftill in ftrictest measure even To that fame lot, however mean or high, ΤΟ Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven; All is, if I have grace to use it so, As ever in my great Task-Master's eye. VIII. When the affault was intended to the City. Captain or Colonel, or Knight in arms, Guard them, and him within protect from harms. He can requite thee, for he knows the charms 5 That call fame on fuch gentle acts as these, And he can spread thy name o'er lands and feas, Whatever clime the fun's bright circle warms. 1. Captain or Colonel, or Knight in arms.] So Shakespeare, K. Rr. CHARD ii. A. i. S. iii. Where Bolingbroke enters" appellant in are mour." K, Rich. Marshal, ask yonder KNIGHT IN ARMS, Lift Lift not thy fpear against the Muses bow'r : ΙΟ The house of Pindarus, when temple' and tow'r Went to the ground: And the repeated air Of fad Electra's poet had the pow'r To fave th' Athenian walls from ruin bare. 10. The great Emathian conqueror did Spare The boufe of Pindarus. -] As a poet, Milton had as good right to expect this favour as Pindar. Nor was the English monarch less a protector of the arts, and a lover of poetry, than Alexander. As a subject, Milton was too confcious that his fituation was precarious, and that his feditious tracts had forfeited all pretenfions to his fovereign's mercy. Mr. Bowle here refers us to Pliny, L. vii. c. 29. "Alexander Mag. nus Pindari vatis familiæ penatibufque juffit parci, cum Thebas "caperet." And to the old commentator on Spenfer's Paftorals, whọ relates this incident more at large, and where it might have first struck Milton as a great reader of Spenfer. II. - When temple and tow'r Went to the ground. ] TEMPLE and TowER is a frequent combination in the old metrical romances. See SEGE of JERUSALEM, MSS. COTT. Cal. A. 2. f.122. And Davie's ALEXANDER, Bibl. Bodl. f. 112. Our author has it again, PARAD. REG. B. iii. 268, O'er hill and dale, Foreft, and field, and flood, TEMPLES AND TOWERS. And again, in the description of the buildings of Rome, ibid. B,iv.34. An imperial city stood With TOWRES and TEMPLES proudly elevate. 13. Of fad Electra's poet, &c.] Plutarch relates, that when the Lacedemonian general Lyfander took Athens, it was propofed in a council of war intirely to rafe the city, and convert its fite into a defert. But during the debate, at a banquet of the chief officers, a certain Phocian fung fome fine anaftrophics from a chorus of the ELECTRA of Euripides; which so affected the hearers, that they declared it an unworthy act, to reduce a place, fo celebrated for the production of illuftrious men, to total ruin and defolation. The lines of Euripides are at v. 168. ̓Αγαμέμνονος ὦ κόρα, ἤλυθον Η It IX. To a VIRTUOUS YOUNG LADY. way and the green, Lady that in the prime of earliest youth To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light, 10 Haft gain'd thy entrance, Virgin wife and pure. It appears, however, that Lyfander ordered the walls and fortifications to be demolished. See Plutarch. OPP. tom. ii. VIT. p. 897. Par. 1572. 8°. By the epithet SAD, Milton denominates the pathetic character of Euripides. REPEATED fignifies recited. 14. To fave th' Athenian walls from ruin bare.] See our author's PSALM Vii. 60. Fall on his crown with ruin STEEP. The meaning in both inftances is obvious and fimilar. This is one of Milton's best Sonnets. It was written in 1642, when the King's army was arrived at Brentford, and had thrown the whole city into confternation. 12. Thou, when the bridegroom with bis featful friends.] FEASTFUL is an epithet in Spenfer. He alludes to the midnight feasting of the Jews before the confummation of marriage. X. To the Lady MARGARET LEY. Daughter to that good Earl, once President Of England's Council, and her Treasury, Who liv'd in both, unftain'd with gold or fee, And left them both, more in himself content, Till fad the breaking of that Parlament Broke him, as that dishonest victory At Charonea, fatal to liberty, Kill'd with report that old man eloquent. Though later born than to have known the days Wherein your father florifh'd, yet by you, Madam, methinks I fee him living yet; So well your words his noble virtues praise, That all both judge you to relate them true, And to poffefs them, honour'd Margaret. XI. On the detraction which followed upon my writing certain treatises. A book was writ of late call'd Tetrachordon, 5 1. Daughter to that good earl, &c.] See Dugdale's BARON. ii. 450. 8. old man eloquent.] Ifocrates, aged ninety nine years, who died on hearing the news of the victory obtained by Philip of Macedon over the Athenians and their allies. A republic brought under the dominion of a king, was a part of the Grecian history which Milton was likely to remember. 1. A book was writ of late call'd Tetrachordon.] Milton wifhed he had not wrote this work in English. This is observed by Mr. Bowle, who |