"which, unless he took with a confcience that could "not retch, he must straight perjure himself. He "thought it better to prefer a blamelefs filence be"fore the office of fpeaking, bought and begun "with fervitude and forfwearing."

Thefe expreffions are, I find, applied to the fubfcription of the Articles; but it seems more probable that they relate to, canonical obedience. I know not any of the articles which feem to thwart his opinions but the thoughts of obedience, whether canonical or civil, raifed his indignation.

His unwillingness to engage in the miniftry, perhaps not yet advanced to a fettled refolution of declining it, appears in a letter to one of his friends, who had reproved his fufpended and dilatory life, which he seems to have imputed to an insatiable curiofity, and fantastic luxury of various knowledge. To this he writes a cool and plaufible anfwer, in which he endeavours to perfuade him, that the delay proceeds not from the delights of defultory ftudy, but from the defire of obtaining more fitnefs for his tafk; and that he goes on, not taking thought of being late, so it gives advantage to be more fit.

When he left the univerfity he returned to his father, then refiding at Horton in Buckinghamshire, with whom he lived five years, in which time he is faid to have read all the Greek and Latin writers. With what limitations this univerfality is to be understood, who fhall inform us?

It might be fuppofed, that he who read fo much fhould have done nothing elfe; but Milton found time to write the Mafque of Comus, which was prefented at Ludlow, then the refidence of the Lord

Pre

Prefident of Wales in 1634; and had the honour of being acted by the Earl of Bridgewater's fons and daughter. The fiction is derived from Homer's Circe but we never can refuse to any modern the liberty of borrowing from Homer:

a quo ceu fonte perenni

Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis.

His next production was Lycidas, an elegy, written in 1637, on the death of Mr. King, the son of

* It has nevertheless its foundation in reality. The earl of Bridgewater being President of Wales in the year 1634, had his refidence at Ludlow-caftle in Shropshire, at which time lord Brackly and Mr. Egerton, his fons, and lady Alice Egertnn, his daughter, paffing through a place called the Hay-wood foreft, or Haywood in Herefordshire, were benighted, and the lady for a fhort time loft: this accident being related to their father upon their arrival at his caftle, Milton, at the request of his friend Henry Lawes, who taught mufic in the family, wrote this mafque. Lawes fet it to mufic, and it was acted on Michaelmas night; the two brothers, the young lady, and Lawes himself, bearing each a part in the representation.

The lady Alice Egerton became afterwards the wife of the earl of Carbury, who, at his feat called Golden-grove, in Caermarthenshire, harboured Dr. Jeremy Taylor in the time of the Ufurpation. Among the doctor's fermons is one on her death, in which her character is finely portrayed. Her fifter, lady Mary, was given in marriage to lord Herbert of Cherbury.

Notwithstanding Dr. Johnfon's affertion, that the fiction is derived from Homer's Circe, it may be conjectured, that it was rather taken from the Comus of Erycius Puteanus, in which, under the fiction of a dream, the characters of Comus and his attendants are delineated, and the delights of fenfualifts expofed and reprobated. This little tract was published at Louvain in 1611, and afterwards at Oxford in 1634, the very year in which Milton's Comus was written. H.

Milton evidently was indebted to the Old Wives Tale of George Peele for the plan of Comus. R.

Sir John King, fecretary for Ireland in the time of Elizabeth, James, and Charles. King was much a favourite at Cambridge, and many of the wits joined to do honour to his memory. Milton's acquaintance with the Italian writers may be difcovered by a mixture of longer and fhorter verfes, according to the rules of Tufcan poetry, and his malignity to A the Church by fone lines which are interpreted as threatening its extermination.

He is fuppofed about this time to have written his Arcades; for, while he lived at Horton, he used fometimes to steal from his ftudies a few days, which he fpent at Harefield, the houfe of the countess dowager of Derby, where the Arcades made part of a dramatic entertainment.

He began now to grow weary of the country, and had fome purpofe of taking chambers in the Inns of Court, when the death of his mother set him at liberty to travel, for which he obtained his father's confent, and Sir Henry Wotton's directions; with the celebrated precept of prudence, i fenfueri firetti, ed il fo fciolto; thoughts clofe, and looks

loofe."

In 1638 he left England, and went first to Paris; where, by the favour of Lord Scudamore, he had the opportunity of vifiting Grotius, then refiding at the French court as ambaffador from Chriftina of Sweden. From Paris he hafted into Italy, of which he had with particular diligence ftudied the language and literature; and though he feems to have intended a very quick perambulation of the country, ftaid two months at Florence; where he found his way into the academies, and produced his compofi

tions with such applause as appears to have exalted him in his own opinion, and confirmed him in the hope, that, "by labour and intenfe ftudy, which," fays he, "I take to be my portion in this life, joined with a strong propenfity of nature," he might leave fomething fo written to after-times, as they should not willingly let it die."

It appears, in all his writings, that he had the ufual concomitant of great abilities, a lofty and fteady confidence in himself, perhaps not without some contempt of others; for fcarcely any man ever wrote fo much, and praised fo few. Of his praise he was very frugal; as he fet its value high, and confidered his mention of a name as a fecurity against the waste of time, and a certain prefervative from oblivion.

At Florence he could not indeed complain that his merit wanted diftinction. Carlo Dati prefented him with an encomiaftic infcription, in the tumid lapidary style; and Francini wrote him an ode, of which the first stanza is only empty noife; the rest are perhaps too diffufe on common topics: but the laft is natural and beautiful.

From Florence he went to Sienna, and from Sienna to Rome, where he was again received with kindness by the Learned and the Great. Holftenius, the keeper of the Vatican Library, who had refided three years at Oxford, introduced him to Cardinal Barberini; and he, at a mufical entertainment, waited for him at the door, and led him by the hand into the affembly. Here Selvaggi praised him in a diftich, and Salfilli in a tetraftick; neither of them of much value. The Italians were gainers by

this literary commerce; for the encomiums with which Milton repaid Salfilli, though not fecure against a stern grammarian, turn the balance indifputably in Milton's favour.

Of thefe Italian teftimonies, poor as they are, he was proud enough to publifh them before his poems; though he fays, he cannot be fufpected but to have known that they were faid non tam de fe, quam fupra fe.

At Rome, as at Florence, he ftaid only two months; a time indeed fufficient, if he defired only to ramble with an explainer of its antiquities, or to view palaces and count pictures; but certainly too fhort for the contemplation of learning, policy, or

manners.

From Rome he paffed on to Naples, in company of a hermit, a companion from whom little could be expected; yet to him Milton owed his introduction to Manfo marquis of Villa, who had been before the patron of Taffo. Manso was enough delighted with his accomplishments to honour him with a forry diftich, in which he commends him. for every thing but his religion: and Milton, in return, addreffed him in a Latin poem, which must have raised an high opinion of English elegance and literature.

His purpose was now to have vifited Sicily and Greece; but, hearing of the differences between the king and parliament, he thought it proper to haften home, rather than pafs his life in foreign amufements while his countrymen were contending for their rights. He therefore came back to Rome, though the merchants informed him of plots laid against

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