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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 father florish'd, yet by you,

your

Madam, methinks I fee him living yet; So well

your words his noble virtues praife,

That all both judge you to relate them true,
And to poffefs them, honor'd Margaret.

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Lady Margaret Ley. She was the daughter of Sir James Ley, whofe fingular learning and abilities raifed him through all the great pofts of the the law, till he came to be made Earl of Marlborough, and Lord High Treasurer, and Lord Prefident of the Council to King James I. He died in an advanc'd age, and Milton attributes his death to the breaking of the parlament; and it is true that the parlament was diffolved the 10th of March 1628-9, and he died on the 14th of the fame month. He left feveral fons and daughters; and the Lady Margaret was married to Captain Hobfon of the le of Wight. It appears from the accounts of Milton's life, that in the year 1643 he ufcd frequently

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XI.

* On the detraction which followed upon my writing certain treatises.

A book was writ of late call'd Tetrachordon,
And woven close, both matter, form and ftile;
The subject new: it walk'd the town a while,
Numb'ring good intellects; now feldom por❜d on.
Cries the ftall-reader, Blefs us! what a word on
A title
page is this! and fome in file

5

Stand spelling false, while one might walk to MileEnd Green, Why is it harder Sirs than Gordon,

AUTY BIO. Dionyfius Halicarnaff. de Ifocrate Vol. 2. p. 150. Edit, Hudfon. Plutarch fays that he abftain'd from food for four days, and fo put a period to his life, having liv'd 98, or as fome fay 100 years. See Plutarch's Lives of the ten Orators. Vol. z. p. 837. Edit. Paris. 1624.

When Milton publish'd his books of Divorce, he was greatly condemn'd by the Prefbyterian clergy, whofe advocate and champion he had been before. He publish'd his Tetrachordon or Expofitions upon the four chief places in Scripture, which treat of marriage or nullities in marriage, in 1645; and foon after we may fuppofe he compofed these two

Colkitto,

fonnets, which were first printed in the edition of 1673, and to which we have prefixed the title that he himself has in the Manufcript.

1. A book was writ of late &c] In the Manufcript he had written at first,

I writ a book of late call'd Tetrachordon, And weav'd in close, both matter, form and ftile;

It went off well about the town a while,

Numb'ring good wits, but now is feldom por'd on.

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Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galafp?

9

Thofe rugged names to our like mouths grow fleek, That would have made Quintilian ftare and gasp. 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

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I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs
By the known rules of ancient liberty,
When ftrait a barbarous noife environs me
Of owls and cuccoos, affes, apes and dogs;

9. Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galafp?] We may fuppofe that these were perfons of note and eminence amongst the Scotch minifters who were for preffing and enforcing the Covenant. Galafp we know was one of the Scotch minifters and commiffioners from the Kirk to the Parlament. See the verses on the forcers of confcience.

10. Thofe rugged names] He had written at first barbarous, and then rough hewn, and then rugged.

12. Sir John Cheek]
Or Cheke.

He was the firft Profeffor of the
Greek tongue in the university of

As

Cambridge, and was highly inftru-
mental in bringing that language
into repute, and restoring the ori
ginal pronunciation of it, tho'
with great oppofition from the pa-
trons of ignorance and popery,
and especially from Gardiner, bi-
fhop of Winchefter, and chancel-
lor of the univerfity. He was af-
terwards made one of the tutors
to Edward VI. See his life by
Strype, or in Biographia Britan-
nica.

Milton's Manufcript it ftands,
4. Of owls and cuccoos, ] In

Of owls and buzzards

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As when thofe hinds that were transform'd to frogs 5
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;

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That bawl for freedom in their fenfelefs mood,
And ftill revolt when truth would fet 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 see
For all this wafte of wealth, and lofs of blood.

XIII.

*To Mr. H. LAW ES on his Airs. Harry, whofe tuneful and well measur'd fong'

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9

First

And hate the truth whereby they
fhould be free.

*This fonnet was alfo firft add-
ed in the edition of 1673, and in
Milton's Manufcript it is dated
Febr. 9. 1645. and faid to be wrote
to Mr. Lawes on the publishing of
his airs. This Mr. Henry Lawes
was a gentleman of his Majefty's
chapel, and one of his band of
mufic, and an intimate friend of
Milton, as appears by his first put-
lifhing the Mask in 1637, the airs
of which he fet to mufic, and
probably too those of his Arcades.
He was educated under Signor
Coperario,

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Firft taught our English mufic how to fpan Words with juft note and accent, not to scan With Midas ears, committing fhort and long; Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng, With praise enough for envy to look wan; To after thou shalt be writ the man,

age

6

That with smooth air could't humour beft our

tongue.

Thou honor'ft verfe, and verfe muft lend her wing To honor thee, the priest of Phoebus quire, 10

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