rich, and retired to an eftate. He had probably more than common literature, as his fon addreffes him in one of his moft elaborate Latin poems. He married a gentlewoman of the name of Cafton, a Welth family, by whom he had two fons, John, the poet, and Chriftopher, who ftudied the law, and adhered, as the law taught him, to the King's party, for which he was a while perfecuted, but having, by his brother's intereft, obtained permiffion to live in quiet, he fupported himself so honourably by chamber-practices, that, foon after the acceffion of King James, he was knighted and made a judge; but, his conftitution being too weak for business, he retired before any difreputable compliances became neceffary. He had likewife a daughter Anne, whom he mar ried with a confiderable fortune to Edward Philips, who came from Shrewsbury, and rofe in the Crownoffice to be fecondary: by him fhe had two fons, John and Edward, who were educated by the poet, and from whom is derived the only authentic account of his domestic manners. John, the poet, was born in his father's houfe, at the Spread-Eagle in Bread-ftreet, Dec. 9, 1608, between fix and seven in the morning. His father appears to have been very folicitous about his education: for he was inftructed at firft by private tuition under the care of Thomas Young, who was afterwards chaplain to the English merchants at Hamburgh, and of whom we have reafon to think well, fince his fcholar confidered him as worthy of an epiftolary elegy. He was then fent to St. Paul's School, under the care of Mr. Gill; and removed, in the beginning of his fixteenth year, to Chrift's College in Cambridge, where he entered a fizar *, Feb. 12, 1624. He was at this time eminently skilled in the Latin tongue; and he himself, by annexing the dates to his firft compofitions, a boaft of which the learned Politian had given him an example, feems to commend the earlinefs of his own proficiency to the notice of pofterity. But the products of his vernal fertility have been furpaffed by many, and particularly by his contemporary Cowley. Of the powers of the mind it is difficult to form an eftimate: many have excelled Milton in their firft effays, who never rose to works like Paradife Loft. At fifteen, a date which he uses till he is fixteen, he tranflated or verfified two Pfalms, 114 and 136, which he thought worthy of the publick eye; but they raise no great expectations: they would in any numerous school have obtained praise, but not excited wonder. Many of his elegies appear to have been written in his eighteenth year, by which it appears that he had then read the Roman authors with very nice difcernment. I once heard Mr. Hampton, the translator of Polybius, remark, what I think is true, that * In this affertion Dr. Johnson was miftaken. Milton was admitted a penfioner, and not a fizar, as will appear by the following extract from the College Regifter: "Johannes Milton "Londinenfis, filius Johannis, inftitutus fuit in literarum ele"mentis fub Mag'ro Gill Gymnafii Paulini præfecto, admiffus eft Penfionarius Minor Feb. 12°, 1624, fub M'ro Chappell, folvitq, "pro Ingr. L.o 10s od." R. Milton was the first Englishman who, after the revival of Letters, wrote Latin verfes with claffick elegance. If any exceptions can be made, they are very few : Haddon and Ascham, the pride of Elizabeth's reign, however they have fucceeded in profe, no fooner attempt verfe than they provoke derifion. If we produced any thing worthy of notice before the elegies of Milton, it was perhaps Alabaster's Roxana. Of the exercises, which the rules of the Univerfity required, fome were published by him in his maturer years. They had been undoubtedly applauded; for they were such as few can perform; yet there is reason to fufpect that he was regarded in his college with no great fondness. That he obtained no fellowship is certain; but the unkindness with which he was treated was not merely negative. I am afhamed to relate what I fear is true, that Milton was one of the last students in either univerfity that fuffered the publick indignity of corporal correction. It was, in the violence of controverfial hoftility, objected to him, that he was expelled: this he steadily denies, and it was apparently not true; but it feems plain, from his own verses to Diodati, that he had incurred Ruftication, a temporary difmiffion into the country, with perhaps the lofs of a term. Me tenet urbs refluâ quam Thamefis alluit undâ, Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum, *Published 1632. R. G 4 Nec Nec duri libet ufque minas perferre magiftri, Non ego yel profugi nomen fortemve recufo, 66 I cannot find any meaning but this, which even kindness and reverence can give the term, vetiti laris, a habitation from which he is excluded;" or how exile can be otherwife interpreted. He declares yet more, that he is weary of enduring the threats of a rigorous mafier, and fomething else, which a temper like his cannot undergo. What was more than threat was probably punishment. This poem, which mentions his exile, proves likewife that it was not perpetual; for it concludes with a refolution of returning fome time to Cambridge. And it may be conjectured, from the willingnefs with which he has perpetuated the memory of his exile, that its caufe was fuch as gave him no fhame. He took both the ufual degrees; that of Batchelor in 1628, and that of Master in 1632; but he left the univerfity with no kindness for its inftitution, alienated either by the injudicious feverity of his governors, or his own captious perverfenefs. The cause cannot now be known, but the effect appears in his writings. His fcheme of education, infcribed to Hartlib, fuperfedes all academical inftruction, being intended to comprife the whole time which men ufually spend in literature, from their entrance upon grammar, till they proceed, as it is called, Masters of Arts. And in his Difcourfe on the likelieft Way to remove Hirelings out of the Church, he inge niously nioufly proposes, that the profits of the lands forfeited by the act for fuperftitious ufes fhould be applied to fuch academies all over the land where languages and arts may be taught together; fo that youth may be at once brought up to a competency of learning and an honest trade, by which means fuch of them as bad the gift, being enabled to fupport themselves (without tithes) by the latter, may, by the help of the former, became worthy preachers. One of his objections to academical education, as it was then conducted, is, that men defigned for orders in the Church were permitted to act plays, writhing and unboning their clergy limbs to all the antick and difhoneft geftures of Trincalos*, buffoons, and bawds, proflituting the shame of that miniftry which they had, or were near having, to the eyes of courtiers and court ladies, their grooms and mademoiselles. This is fufficiently peevish in a man, who, when he mentions his exile from the college, relates, with great luxuriance, the compenfation which the pleafures of the theatre afford him. Plays were therefore only criminal when they were acted by academicks. He went to the univerfity with a defign of entering into the church, but in time altered his mind; for he declared, that whoever became a clergyman muft fubfcribe flave, and take an oath withal, *By the mention of this name, he evidently refers to Albumazar, acted at Cambridge in 1614. Ignoramus and other plays were performed at the fame time. The practice was then very frequent. The laft dramatick performance at either university was The Grateful Fair, written by Christopher Smart, and reprefented at Pembroke College, Cambridge, about 1747. R. "which, |