good affection towards me." And still more pointedly in another place: a" Pater me Cantabri giam misit: Illic disciplinis atque artibus tradi solitis septennium studui; procul omni flagitio, bonis omnibus probatus, usquedum magistri, quem vocant, gradum," &c. To oblige one of the fellows, his friends so affectionately noticed, he wrote, in 1628, the comitial verses, entitled Naturam non pati senium. I mention this in order to obviate a remark made by Dr. Johnson, that the poet countenanced an opinion, prevalent in his time, "that the world was in its decay, and that we had the misfortune to be produced in the decrepitude of nature." In the preceding year the following very learned work had been published, "An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World, by George Hakewill, D.D. and Archdeacon of Surrey, 1627." The young poet, I conceive, had been much pleased with this excellent work, which refutes, with particular felicity of argument, the absurdity of supposing nature impaired. This forgotten folio has found an able advocate in modern days. "They," says Dr. Warton, "whom envy, malevolence, discontent, or disappointment, have induced to think that the world is totally degenerated, and that it is daily growing worse and a Defens. Sec. Prose-Works, vol. iii. p. 95, edit. 1698. "Pope's Works, edit. 1797. vol. iv. p. 319. worse, would do well to read a sensible, but too much neglected, treatise of an old Divine, written in © 1630, Hakewill's Apology &c." This work was commended too by Archbishop Usher. A truly amiable and learned author, it may here be added, to whom the literature of this country is peculiarly indebted, has closed his Philological Inquiries with a chapter, well calculated, like the animated lines of Milton, to banish the timid and unbenevolent idea of nature's decrepitude. e Milton was designed by his parents, and once in his own resolutions, for the Church. But his subsequent unwillingness to engage in the office of a minister was communicated to a friend in a letter; (of which two draughts exist in manuscript;) with which he sent his impressive Sonnet, On his being arrived at the age of twenty-three. The truth is, Dr. Newton says, he had conceived early prejudices against the doctrine and discipline of the Church. This, no doubt, was a disappointment to his friends, who though in comfortable were yet by no means in great circumstances. Nor does he seem to have This is the second edition of the work, which Dr. Warton seems not to have known. See a Letter from Dr. Hakewill to Archbishop Usher, in the Life and Letters of Usher by R. Parr, D.D. fol. 1686. Letters, p. 398. e See Birch's Life of Milton, Dr. Newton's edit. of Milton, Sonnet vii. General Dictionary, 1738, vol. vii. And Biograph. Brit. 1760, vol. v. Art. Milton, where they are printed. been disposed to any profession. It is certain that he also declined the Law. He had probably read, with no slight attention, the conduct of Tasso, as described by the noble biographer to whom he has addressed his admired eclogue: "8 Il qual poema [il Rinaldo] mandò egli fuori per voler del Cardinal Luigi da Este; e con poco piacer di suo padre; il quale non haurebbe ciò per due ragioni desiderato. Primieramente percioche Bernardo non rimaneua appagato, che l'animo del giouanetto s'appigliasse alla piaceuolezza della poesia, perche non deuiasse (come aduienne) dallo studio delle leggi dal qual' egli speraua maggiori comodi con l'essempio in contrario di se medesimo, che per molto, e per bene c' hauesse, et in versi, et in prosa saputo scriuere, non potette giammai però auanzare la mezzanità della sua fortuna ne difendersi dalla rea: nella qual cosa malageuolmente Torquato l' obediua, tirato altroue dal proprio genio, come ne' versi che seguono dietro a que' che detti habbiamo, si legge : His contempt of the Law, as well as of the Church, is rather strongly marked, as in his Verses Ad Patrem, ver. 71, &c. To the ecclesiastical lawyers he has shown no mercy; but alludes to "chancellours and suffragans, delegates and officials, with all the hell-pestering rabble of sumners and apparitors," in the very spirit of Quevedo. See his Animadversions, &c. Prose-Works, vol. i. p. 159, edit. 1698. Vita di Torq. Tasso, scritta da G. B. Manso, 12mo. Venet. 1621, p. 32, 33. Ad altri studi, onde poi speme hauea Rinaldo, Canto xii. st. 90. Dr. Newton thinks that he had too free a spirit to be limited and confined; that he was for comprehending all sciences, but professing none. His conduct, however, on these occasions is a proof of the sincerity with which he had resolved to deliver his sentiments. "For me, I have determined to lay up as the best treasure and solace of a good old age, if God vouchsafe it me, the honest liberty of free speech from my youth." i Having taken the degree of M.A. in 1632, he left the university, and retired to his father's house in the country; who had now quitted business, and lived at an estate which he had purchased at Horton near Colnebrooke, in Buckinghamshire. Here he resided five years; in which time he not only, as he himself informs us, read over the Greek and Latin authors, particularly the historians, but is also believed to have written his Arcades, Comus, L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, and Lycidas. The pleasant retreat in the country excited his most poetick feelings; and he has proved himself able, in his pictures h Prose-Works, vol. i. p. 220, edit. 1698. He was admitted to the same degree at Oxford in 1635. See Wood, Fasti, vol. i. p. 262. of rural life, to rival the works of Nature which he contemplated with delight. In the neighbourhood of Horton the Countess Dowager of Derby resided; and the Arcades was performed by her grandchildren at this seat, called Harefield-place. It seems to me, that Milton intended a compliment to his fair neighbour in his L'Allegro ; k The woody scenery of Harefield, and the personal accomplishments of the Countess, are not unfavourable to this supposition; which, if admitted, tends to confirm the opinion, that L'Allegro and Il Penseroso were composed at Horton. The Mask of Comus, and Lycidas, were certainly produced under the roof of his father. It may be observed that, after his retirement to private study, he paid great attention, like his master Spenser, to the Italian school of poetry. Dr. Johnson remarks, that his acquaintance with the Italian writers may be discovered by the mixture of longer and shorter verses in Lycidas, according to the rules of Tuscan poetry. In Comus also the sweet rhythm and cadence of the Italian language are no less observable. I must here mention that the house, in which Milton * See Lysons's Middlesex, 1800. Harefield, p. 108. |