And woven clofe, both matter, form and ftile non who points out the following proof, in the DEFENSIO SECUNDA. 66 This was one of Milton's books published in confequence of his divorce from his first wife, Mary the daughter of Mr. Richard Powell of Forrefthill four miles from Oxford, a gentleman of good family and repute. They were married at Forresthill in 1643, where the wedding was kept. About a month after marriage, fhe withdrew herfelf from his house, and returned to her friends in difguft. After a feparation of four years, during which time Milton wrote more than one treatise in favour of divorce, a happy reunion took place. Mr. Powell's manfion ftill remains; in which Mr. Mickle, the ingenious tranflator of the LUSIAD, lately made a search, with a view of finding fome of Milton's letters or papers. There is an old paper-room or deserted study in the house, where are many obfolete family writings, with letters to and from Mr. Powell, who was a great royalist in the rebellion. One of the letters is a requifition, dated about 1645. from fir Thomas Glemham governor of Oxford-garrison, and late a gentleman commoner of Trinity college, to Mr. Powell, to fend a large quantity of winnowed wheat into the city of Oxford, then befieged. At length he discovered a small paper-book, in which were written four or five poems, of the hand-writing of about the close of the reign of James the firft. One of them is the copy of a well-known old English ballad. The reft I never faw before. Some of them have confiderable merit, but none feem to be the compofitions of Milton. It is however likely they were left there in confequence of Milton's intercourfe and connections with the family. The Powells were sharers of abbey-land in Oxfordshire. They were feated in the diffolved monaftery of Sandford near Oxford; and one of them built the Gothic manerial stone-house, now standing, at that village, in the reign of queen Elizabeth. Wood mentions John Powell, a great cavalier, living at Sandford in 1661. DIARIE, vol. ii. p. 174. But this was not Milton's father-in-law. Richardson justly conjectures, that the circumftances of Milton's reconciliation to this lady are beautifully fhadowed in a like fcene between Adam and Eve, PARAD. L. B. x. 937. But none have obferved, that Milton alludes to fome of the particulars of this marriage, and its confequences, in the following fpeech of Samfon, SAMS. ACON. 219. The 1 Cries the stall-reader, Bless us! what a word on 5 page is this! and fome in file A title Stand spelling falfe, while one might walk to MileEnd Green. Why is it harder, Sirs, than Gordon, Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galafp? 9 Those rugged names to our like mouths grow fleek, That would have made Quintilian stare and gafp. Thy age, like ours, O Soul of Sir John Cheek, Hated not learning worse than toad or afp, When thou taught'ft Cambridge, and king Edward Greek. The FIRST I faw at Timna, and the pleas'd She proving FALSE, &C. The Chorus had juft obferved, v. 215. I oft have heard men wonder Why thou fhould'ft wed PHILISTIAN Women, rather To fay nothing of the diffatisfaction she had conceived at her husband's unfocial and philofophical fyftem of life, fo different from the convi. vial plenty and chearfulness of her father's family, it is probable that the quarrel was owing to party. But when Cromwell's faction prevailed, Mr. Powell, who had taken an active part in affifting the king during the fiege of Oxford, finding his affairs falling into diftrefs, for prudential reasons strove to bring about an agreement between Milton and his daughter. Aubrey fays, that fhe could not bear to hear the outcries of her husband's nephews, his pupils, whom he frequently corrected too feverely. TETRACHORDON fignifies Expofitions on the four chief places in Scripture which mention marriage or nullities in marriage. 9. Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galafp.] Some of the Scotch writers against the independents. See verfes on the FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE, &C. 13. Hated not learning worse than toad or afp.] Mr. Bowle quotes Halle, RICH. ii. f. 54. "Diverse noble perfonages hated Kingę "Richard worse than a toade or a ferpent." XII. To XII. On the SAME. I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs When strait a barbarous noise environs me Of owls and cuccoos, affes, apes and dogs: 4 As when those hinds that were transform'd to frogs Rail'd at Latona's twin-born progeny, Which after held the fun and moon in fee. But this is got by cafting pearl to hogs; That bawl for freedom in their fenfeless mood, 9 And still revolt when truth would set them free. Licence they mean when they cry Liberty; For who loves that, must first be wife and good; But from that mark how far they rove we fee For all this waste of wealth, and lofs of blood. XIII. To Mr. H. LAW ES on his Airs *) Harry, whofe tuneful and well measur'd song 3. When firait a barbarous noise, &c.] Milton was violently cenfured by the presbyterian clergy for his TETRACHORDON, and other tracts of that tendency. See Ovid, METAM. vi. 381. *Henry Lawes was the fon of Thomas Lawes a vicar choral of Salisbury cathedral. He was perhaps at first a choir-boy of that church. With his brother William, he was educated under Giovanni Coperario, X x Words with just note and accent, not to scan With Midas ears, committing fhort and long; Coperario, fuppofed by Fenton in his Notes on Waller to be an Italian, but really an Englishman under the plain name of John Cooper, at the expence of Edward earl of Hertford. In the year 1625, he became a gentleman of the royal chapel, and was afterwards of the private MUSIC to king Charles the first. In 1633, in conjunction with Simon Ives, he compofed the mufic to a Mask prefented at Whitehall on Candlemas night by the gentlemen of the four inns of court, under the direction of fuch grave characters as Noy the attorney-general, Edward Hyde afterwards earl of Clarendon, Selden, and Bulftrode Whitelock. Lawes and Ives received each one hundred pounds as compofers; and the whole coft, to the great offence of the puritanical party, amounted to more than one thousand pounds. Lawes appears to have been well acquainted with the best poets, and the most popular of the nobility of his times. Befides what I have mentioned in COMUS, he fet to mufic all the Lyrics in Waller's Poems first publifhed in 1645. Among which is an Ode addreffed to Lawes by Waller, full of high compliments. One of the pieces of Waller was fet by Lawes in 1635. He compofed the Songs in the POEMS and a Mafque, of Thomas Carew. See third edit. 1651. p. ult. The MASQUE was exhibited 1633. In the title-page to "Comedies, Tra"gicomedies, and other Poems," by William Cartwright, published in 1651, it is faid, that "The Ayres and Songs were fet by Mr. "Henry Lawes." And Lawes himself has a commendatory poem prefixed, infcribed "To the memory of my most deferving and peculiar friend Mr. William Cartwright." I have mentioned Lawes's "Ayres and Dialogues for one, two, and three voices, 1653." See Note on COMUS, v. 85. The words of the numerous Songs in that work, are by fome of the most eminent poets of the day. A few young noblemen are alfo contributors. One of the pieces is a poem by John Birkenhead called "an Anniversary on the Nuptials of John "earl of Bridgewater, Jul. 22, 1642." p. 33. This was the young Lord Brackley, who acted the First Brother in Coмus, and who married, about nineteen, Elizabeth daughter of William earl of Newcastle*. The first piece in the book is the COMPLAINT of ARIADNE, written by Cartwright abovementioned, and printed in his Poems. For a 66 * She died 1663, leaving a numerous iffue. She was a most amiable woman. The earl, her husband, ordered it to be recorded on his tomb, in Gadefden-church, that he "en"joyed, almoft twenty two years, all the happiness that a man could receive in the sweet "fociety of the beft of wives." See above, p. 113 In the Newcastle book on Horsemanship, there is a print of this earl of Bridgewater and his countefs, grouped with others, I inform the lovers of Cumus, that there is also a large mezzotinto plate in quarto of this earl, done in 1680, from a picture by W. Claret, an imitator of Lely, which I believe is at Afhridge. compofition Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng, With praise enough for envy to look wan; 6 compofition to one of the airs, of this piece, which gained unusual and exceffive applaufe, Lawes is faid to be the first who introduced the Italian ftyle of mufic into England. In the Preface, he says he had formerly compofed airs to Italian and Spanish words: and, allowing the Italians to be the chief masters of the mufical art, concludes that England has produced as able muficians as any country of Europe, and cenfures the prevailing fondness for Italian words. To this Preface, among others, are prefixed Waller's verses abovementioned, and two copies by Edward and John Philips, Milton's nephews. Befides his Pfalms, printed for Mofeley in 1648, and to which this SONNET is prefixed, ne composed tunes to Sandys's admirable PARAPHRASE on the Pfalms, published in folio, in 1653. Wood fays, that he had feen a poem written by fir W. Raleigh, which had a mufi"cal compofition of two parts fet to it by the incomparable artist "Henry Lawes," ATHEN. OXON. ii. p. 441. num. 510. More of Lawes's works are in the Treasury of Mufick, 1669. And in the Mufical Companion, 1662. And in other collections of that age. See Notes on COMUS, v.86.201.230.231.494. Cromwell's ufurpation put an end to Masks and mufic: and Lawes, being difpoffeffed of his appointments, chiefly employed that gloomy period in teaching a few young ladies to fing. His irreproachable life, ingenuous deportment, and liberal connections, had railed even the credit of his profeffion. Wood fays that his great benefactors during his fufferings for the royal cause in the rebellion and afterwards, were the ladies Alice and Mary the earl of Bridgewater's daughters. MSS. Muf. AsHM, D.17. 4to. p.115. In the year 1660, he was restored to his places and practice; and had the happiness to compose the coronation anthem for the exiled mo. narch. He died in 1662, and was buried in Westminster-abbey. Of all the panegyrics which he received from his contemporaries, Milton's must be allowed to be the most honourable. And Milton's praife is likely to be founded on truth. Milton was himself a skilful performer on the organ, and a judge of mufic: and even after the murther of the king, at a time when the royalists were univerfally perfecuted or discountenanced by the predominant faction, he continued his friendship for Lawes, whose attachments and principles had been ftrongly on the fide of the royal caufe. Lawes's brother William was killed in 1645 at the fiege of Chefter: and it is faid, that the king wore a private mourning for his death. Of William's separate works, there are two bulky manufcript volumes in fcore, for various inftruments, in the Music School at Oxford. In one of them, I know not if with any of Henry's intermixed, are his original compofitions for Masks performed before the king and at the Inns of Court. In Xx a the |