To after age thou shalt be writ the man, That with fmooth air could'ft humour beft our tongue. Thou honour'st verse, and verse must lend her wing To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus quire, 10 That tun'ft their happieft lines in hymn, or story, Dante shall give fame leave to set thee higher Than his Cafella, whom he woo'd to fing Met in the milder fhades of purgatory. the fame fchool, is an original portrait of his brother Henry. In the houfe of Mr. Elderton, an attorney, at Salisbury, there is a portrait on board of Henry Lawes, marked with his name, and " ætat, fuæ "26, 1622." It is not ill painted: the face and ruff in tolerable prefervation, the drapery, a cloak, much injured. 4. II. Committing fhort and long.] COMMITTING is a Latinifm. Or ftory.] "The ftory of Ariadne fet by him to mufic." This a note in the margin of this fonnet, as it flands prefixed to Choice Pfalms put into mufick by Henry and William Lawes, Lond. "for H. Mofeley 1648." The infcription is there, "To my friend "Mr. HENRY LAWES." In the ninth line, is the true reading lend, as in the manufcript, for "fend her wing," as in the edition 1673. 14. Than his Cafella, &c.] Dante, on his arrival in Purgatory fees a veffel approaching the fhore, freighted with fouls under the conduct of an angel, to be cleanfed from their fins and made fit for Paradife. When they are difembarked, the poet recognizes in the croud his old friend Cafella the mufician. The interview is ftrikingly imagined, and in the course of an affectionate dialogue, the poet requests a foothing air; and Cafella fings, with the most ravishing fweetness, Dante's fecond CANZONE. CONVIT. p. 116. vol. iy. P.i,Ven. 1758. 4to. It begins, Amor, che nella mente mi ragioną. See Dante's PURGATOR. C.ii.v. 111. The Italian commentators on the paffage fay, that Cafella, Dante's friend, was a musician of distinguished excellence. He must have died a little before the year 1300. In the Vatican library is a Ballatella, or Madrigal, infcribed Lemmo da Piftoja, e Cafella diede il Suono. That is, Lemmo da Pistoja wrote the words, which were fet to mufic by Cafella. Num. 3214. f. 149. Crefcimbeni XIV. On the religious memory of Mrs. CATHARINE THOMSON *, my chriftian friend, deceased 16 Decem. 1646. When faith and love, which parted from thee never, Had ripen'd thy just foul to dwell with God, Meekly thou didst resign this earthly load Of death, call'd life; which us from life doth fever. Crefcimbeni mentions an antient manufcript Ballatella, with Dante's words and his friend Scochetti's mufic. Infcribed Parole di Dante, e Suono di Scochetti. IST. VOLG. POES. p. 409. From many parts of his writings, Dante appears to have been a judge and a lover of mufic. This is not the only circumstance in which Milton resembled Dante. By milder fhades, our author means, fhades comparatively much less horrible than those which Dante describes in the INFERNO. * Peck fuppofes, that Milton, from his acquaintance with this Mrs. Thomfon and Thomas Ellwood, was a quaker. Milton was certainly of that profeffion, or general principle, in which all fectarists agree, a departure from establishment; and there was at least one common cause in which all concurred who deferted the church, whether quakers, anabaptifts, or Brownifts. In the PARADISE REGAINED, however, a poem fuppofed to have been written at the fuggeftion of Ellwood, there is a paffage which may seem to favour this notion. B. iv. 288. He who receives Light from above, from the fountain of light, And if ever a quaker indulges himself in the vanities of English poetry, the PARADISE REGAINED is his favourite claffic. Be this as it may, one is furprised to find that Milton fhould have been fo intimately connected with Ellwood. The early life of Ellwood exhibits the exact progrefs of an enthufiaft. Having been a profligate youth, and often whipped at fchool twice a day, he was fuddenly converted by accidentally hearing a quaker's fermon. He then had the felicity of following the steps of faint Paul, in fuffering bonds and imprisonment. But these flight evils did not reach the fpiritual man. He found the horrours of a gaol to be green and flowery paftures, refreshed with the fountains of grace. He confoled himself, as Shakespeare fays, Thy works and alms and all thy good endevor 5 Stay'd not behind, nor in the grave were trod; But, as Faith pointed with her golden rod, Follow'd thee up to joy and blifs for ever. Love led them on, and Faith who knew them best Thy hand-maids, clad them o'er with purple beams And azure wings, that up they flew fo dreft, 11 fays, with a fuff in a dungeon. The hiftory of his defultory life written by himself, and from which I collect thefe anecdotes, is filled with idle rambles and adventures, foolish fcraps of poetry both religious and fatirical, and fanatical opinions. The belt and most curious part of the book is the defcription of Bridewell and Newgate, then the ufual receptacles of preaching apprentices, and frequently more full of faints than felons. He is a voluminous controverfialist. He wrote DAVIDEIS, a long English poem. In the Preface of which he declares, that he has avoided "lofty language, angels, fpirits, demons, 86 &c." P. xiii. edit. Lond. 1712. Thefe trappings were too pompous for the fimplicity of a quaker's poetry. Milton was fond of Ellwood's converfation. See his LIFE, p. 136. Lond. 1714. 8vo. 6. Stay'd not behind, nor in the grave were trod.] "Nor in the grave were trod," is a beautiful periphrafis for "good deeds forgotten, at "her death," and a happy improvement of the original line in the manufcript, Strait follow'd thee the path that faints have trod. 7. But as Faith pointed with her golden rod.] Perhaps from the golden reed in the Apocalypfe. Which he mentions in CH. GOVERNM. B. i. ch. i. "The golden furveying reed [of the Saints] marks out and "measures every quarter and circuit of the New Jerufalem." PROSE WORKS, Vol. i. 41. See alfo p. 44. 10. Clad them o'er with purple beams And azure wings, that up they flew fo dreft, &c.] This is like the thought of the perfonification and afcent of the Prayers of Adam and Eve, a fiction from Ariosto and Taffo, PARAD. L. B. xi, 14. To heaven their prayers Flew up, nor mifs'd their way, by envious winds In And spake the truth of thee on glorious themes Before the Judge, who thenceforth bid thee reft And drink thy fill of pure immortal streams. XV. To the Lord General FAIRFAX *. Fairfax, whofe name in arms through Europe rings, Filling each mouth with envy or with praise, In the REVELATIONS, an angel offers incense with the prayers of the faints upon the golden altar. Ch. viii. 4. See alfo Spenfer, F. Q. i. x. 51. Of Mercy. Thou doeft the praiers of the righteous feed Prefent before the maieftie divine. 14. And drink thy fill of pure immortal streams.] So in the EPITAPH. DAMON. V. 206. Æthereos haurit latices, et gaudia potat Ore facro. The allufion is to the waters of life, and more particularly to Ps. xxxvi. 8, 9. "Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy plea"fures, for with thee is the well of life." On this fcriptural idea, which is enlarged with the decorations of Italian fancy, Milton seems to have founded his feast of the angels, PARAD. L. B. v. 632. Where they "quaff immortality and Joy, &c." *For obvious political reafons this Sonnet, the two following, and the twenty fecond, were not inferted in the edition 1673. They were first printed at the end of Philips's Life of Milton prefixed to the English verfion of his public Letters, 1694. They are quoted by Toland in his Life of Milton, 1698. Tonfon omitted them in his editions of 1695, 1705. But, growing lefs offenfive by time, they appear in his edition of 1713. The Cambridge manufcript happily corrects many of their vitiated readings. They were the favourites of the republicans long after the restoration: it was fome confolation to an exterminated party, to have fuch good poetry remaining on their fide of the question. These four Sonnets, being frequently tranfcribed, or repeated from memory, became extremely incorrect: their faults were implicitly preferved by Tonfon, and afterwards continued without examination by Tickell and Fenton. And And all her jealous monarchs with amaze And rumours loud, that daunt remotest kings, Thy firm unshaken virtue ever brings 5 Victory home, though new rebellions raise Their Hydra heads, and the false North displays Her broken league to imp their ferpent wings. 4. Daunt remoteft kings.] Who dreaded the example of England, that their monarchies would be turned into republics. Milton, under the EMMET, has admirably defcribed the fort of men of which a republic was to confift, PARAD. L. B. vii. 484. First crept The PARSIMONIOUS EMMET, provident Pattern of just equality, perhaps Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes 7. Their Hydra beads, and the falfe north displays Her broken league to imp their ferpent-wings.] Euripides, Milton's favourite, is the only writer of antiquity that has given wings to the monster Hydra. IoN, v. 198. “ ΠΤΑΝΟΝ πυρίφλεκτον.” The word ПTANON is controverted. But here perhaps is Milton's authority for the common reading. 8. To imp their ferpent-wings.] In falconry, to imp a feather in a hawk's wing, is to add a new piece to a mutilated ftump. From the Saxon impan, to ingraft. So Spenfer, of a headless trunk, F. Q iv. ix. 4. And having YMPT the head to it agayne. TO IMP wings is not uncommon in our old poetry. Spenser, HYMNE OF HEAVENLY BEAUTIE. Thence gathering plumes of perfect fpeculation, To IMPE the winges of thy high flying minde. Fletcher, PURPL. ISL. C. i. 24. IMPING their flaggie wings With thy ftolne plumes. Shakespeare, RICH. ii. A. ii. S. i. IMP out our drooping country's broken wing. Where Mr. Steevens produces other inftances. It occurs also in poets much later than Milton. O yet |