Imatges de pàgina
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and study, with the approbation of the good, and without any stain upon my character, till I took the degree of Master of Arts. After this I did not, as this miscreant feigns, run away into Italy, but of my own accord retired to my father's house, whither I was accompanied by the regrets of most of the fellows of the college, who shewed me no common marks of friendship and esteem. On my father's estate, where he had determined to pass the remainder of his days, I enjoyed an interval of uninterrupted leisure, which I entirely devoted to the perusal of the Greek and Latin classics; though I occasionally visited the metropolis, either for the sake of purchasing books, or of learning something new in mathematics or in music, in which I, at that time, found a source of pleasure and amusement. In this manner I spent five years till my mother's death. I then became anxious to visit foreign parts, and particularly Italy. My father gave me his permission, and I left home with one servant. MILTON, JOHN, 1654, Second Defence of the People of England.

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He married his first wife (Mary) Powell, of Fosthill, at Shotover, in Oxonshire. Two opinions doe not well on the same boulster. She was a royalist, and went to her mother to the king's quarters, neer Oxford. I have perhaps so much charity to her that she might not wrong his bed: but what man, especially contemplative, would like to have a young wife environ'd and storm'd by the sons of Mars, and those of the enemi partie? He was a spare man. He was scarce so tall as I amquaere, quot feet I am high: resp., of middle stature. He had abroun hayre. His complexion exceeding faire-he was so faire that they called him the lady of Christ's College. Ovall face. His eie a darke gray. He had a delicate tuneable voice, and had good skill. His father instructed him. He had an organ in his howse he played on that most. Of a very cheerfull humour.-He would be chearfull even in his gowte-fitts, and sing. He was very healthy and free from all diseases: seldome tooke any physique (only sometimes he tooke manna): only towards his latter end he was visited with the gowte, spring and fall. He had a very good memorie; but I beleeve that his excellent

method of thinking and disposing did much to helpe his memorie.-AUBREY, JOHN, 1669-96, Brief Lives, ed. Clark, vol. II, pp. 64, 65, 67.

An Author that liv'd in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr. Had his Principles been as good as his Parts, he had been an Excellent Person; but his demerits towards his Sovereign, has very much sullied his Reputation.-LANGBAINE, GERARD, 1691, An Account of the English Dramatick Poets, p. 375.

He was frequenty visited in his house. [in Petty France] by persons of quality, particularly my lady Ranelagh, whose son for some time he instructed; all learned foreigners of note, who could not pass out of the city without giving a visit to a person so eminent; and, lastly, by particular friends that had a high esteem for himviz. Mr. Andrew Marvel; young Lawrence (the son of him that was president of Oliver's council), to whom there is a sonnet among the rest in his printed poems; Mr. Marchamont Needham, the writer of "Politicus;" but, above all, Mr. Cyriack Skinner, whom he honoured with two sonnets. Those [daughters] he had by his first [wife] he made serviceable to him in that very particular in which he most wanted their service, and supplied his want of eyesight by their eyes and tongue; for, though he had daily about. him one or other to read to him-some, persons of man's estate, who of their own accord greedily catched at the opportunity of being his readers, that they might as well reap the benefit of what they read to him as oblige him by the benefit of their reading; others, of younger years, sent by their parents to the same end—yet, excusing only the eldest daughter by reason of her bodily infirmity and difficult utterance of speech (which, to say truth, I doubt, was the principal cause of excusing her), the other two were condemned to the performance of reading and exactly pronouncing of all the languages of whatever book he should at one time or other think fit to peruse-viz. the Hebrew (and, I think, the Syriac), the Greek, the Latin, the Italian, Spanish, and French. All which sorts of books to be confined to read without understanding one word. must needs be a trial of patience almost beyond endurance; yet it was endured by both for a time. There [in

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Jewin-street] he lived when he married his third wife, recommended to him by his old friend, Dr. Paget in Coleman Street.PHILLIPS, EDWARD, 1694, Memoir of Milton, prefixed to the English Edition of Letters of State.

Understanding that the mediation used for my admittance to John Milton had succeeded so well that I might come when I would, I hastened to London, and in the first place went to wait upon him. He received me courteously, as well for the sake of Dr. Paget, who introduced me, as of Isaac Penington, who recommended me; to both of whom he bore a good respect. And having inquired divers things of me, with respect to my former progression in learning, he dismissed me, to provide myself such accommodation as might be most suitable to my future studies. I went therefore and took myself a lodging as near his house, which was then in Jewin Street, as conveniently I could; and from thenceforward went every day in the afternoon, except on the first days of the week, and sitting by him. in his dining-room, read to him in such books in the Latin tongue as he pleased to hear me read. At my first sitting to read to him, observing that I used the English pronunciation, he told me if I would have the benefit of the Latin tongue, not only to read and understand Latin authors, but to converse with foreigners, either abroad or at home, I must learn the foreign pronunciation. To this I consenting, he instructed me how to sound the vowels. . . But this change of pronunciation proved a new difficulty to me. He, on the other hand, perceiving with what earnest desire I pursued learning, gave me not only all the encouragement, but all the help he could. For, having a curious ear, he understood by my tone when I understood what I read, and when I did not; and accordingly would stop me, examine me, and open the most difficult passages to me. Thus went I on, for about six weeks' time, reading to him in the afternoons. ELLWOOD, THOMAS, 1714, The History of the Life of, Written by His own Hand, ed. Howells, pp. 275, 276, 277.

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An ancient clergyman of Dorsetshire, Dr. Wright, found John Milton in a small chamber hung with rusty green, sitting in an elbow-chair, and dressed neatly in

black; pale but not cadaverous; his hands and fingers gouty and with chalk-stones. He used also to sit in a gray, coarse cloth coat, at the door of his house in Bunhill Fields, in warm sunny weather, to enjoy the fresh air; and so, as well as in his room, received the visits of people of distinguished parts as well as quality.RICHARDSON, JONATHAN, 1734, Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's Paradise Lost.

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In his youth he is said to have been extremely handsome, and while he was a student at Cambridge, he was called "the Lady of Christ's-College," and he took notice of this himself in one of his Public Prolusions before that university; "A quibusdam audivi nuper domina." The colour of his hair was a light brown; the symmetry of his features exact; enlivened with an agreeable air, and a beautiful mixture of fair and ruddy. Mr. Wood observes, that "his eyes were none of the quickest." His stature, as we find it measured by himself, did not exceed the middle-size; he was neither too lean, nor too corpulent; his limbs well proportioned, nervous, and active, serviceable in all respects to his exercising the sword, in which he much delighted, and wanted neither skill, nor courage, to resent an affront from men of the most athletic constitutions. In his diet he was abstemious; not delicate in the choice of his dishes; and strong liquors of all kinds were his. aversion. Being too sadly convinced how much his health had suffered by nightstudies in his younger years, he used to go early (seldom later than nine) to rest; and rose commonly in the summer at four, and in the winter at five in the morning; but when he was not disposed to rise at his usual hours, he always had one to read to him by his bed-side. At his first rising. he had usually a chapter read to him out of the Hebrew bible; and he commonly studied all the morning till twelve, then used some exercise for an hour, afterwards dined, and after dinner played on the organ, and either sung himself, or made his wife sing, who, he said, had a good voice, but no ear, and then he went up to study again till six, when his friends. came to visit him, and sat with him till eight. Then he went down to supper, which was usually olives and some light thing; and after supper he smoked his

pipe, and drank a glass of water, and went to bed. When his blindness restrained him from other exercises, he had a machine to swing in for the preservation of his health; and diverted himself in his chamber with playing on an organ. He had a delicate ear and excellent voice, and great skill in vocal and instrumental music. His deportment was erect, open and affable; and his conversation easy, cheerful, and instructive. BIRCH, THOMAS, 1738-53, An Historical and Critical Account of the Life and Writings of Mr. John Milton, vol. 1, p. lxxiii.

In his way of living he was an example of sobriety and temperance. He was very sparing in the use of wine or strong liquors of any kind. He was likewise very abstemious in his diet, not fastidiously nice or delicate in his choice of dishes, but content with anything that was most in season, or easiest to be procured; eating and drinking (according to the distinction of the philosopher) that he might live, and not living that he might eat or drink. So that probably his gout descended by inheritance from one or other of his parents; or, if it was of his own acquiring, it must have been owing to his studious and sedentary life.-NEWTON, THOMAS, 1749-51, ed., Milton's Poetical Works, Life.

I am ashamed to relate what I fear is true, that Milton was one of the last students in either university that suffered the public indignity of corporal correction. Milton has the reputation of having been in his youth eminently beautiful, so as to have been called the Lady of his college. His hair, which was of light brown, parted at the foretop, and hung down upon his shoulders, according to the picture which he has given of Adam. He was, however, not of the heroic stature, but rather below the middle size, according to Mr. Richardson, who mentions bim as having narrowly escaped from being short and thick. He was vigorous and active, and delighted in the exercise of the sword, in which he is related to have been eminently skilful. His eyes are said never to have been bright; but if he was a dexterous fencer, they must have been once quick. His domestick habits, so far as they are known, were those of a severe student. He drank little strong drink of any kind, and fed

without excess in quantity, and in his earlier years without delicacy of choice.

Milton, who appears to have had a full conviction of the truth of Christianity, and to have regarded the Holy Scriptures with the profoundest veneration, to have been untainted by any heretical peculiarity of opinion, and to have lived in a confirmed belief of the immediate and occasional agency of Providence, yet grew old without any visible. worship. In the distribution of his hours there was no hour of prayer, either solitary or with his household; omitting publick prayers, he omitted all.-JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1779, John Milton, Lives of the English Poets.

Yea, our blind Poet, who in his later day,
Stood almost single; uttering odious truth-
Darkness before, and danger's voice behind,
Soul awful-if the earth has ever lodged
An awful soul-I seemed to see him here
Familiarly, and in his scholar's dress
Bounding before me, yet a stripling youth--
A boy, no better, with his rosy cheeks
Angelical, keen eye, courageous look,
And conscious step of purity and pride
-WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM, 1799-1805,
The Prelude, bk. iii.

His literature was immense.

With the Hebrew, and its two dialects, he was well acquainted; and of the Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish languages, he was a master. In Latin, Dr. Johnson observes, his skill was such as places him in the first rank of writers and criticks. In the Italian he was also particularly skilled. His "Sonnets" in that language have received the highest commendation from Italian criticks, both of his own and of modern times. If he had written generally in Italian, it has been supposed, by the late lord Orford, that he would have been the most perfect poet in modern language; for his own strength of thought would have condensed and hardened that speech to a proper degree. The Academy Della Crusca consulted him. on the critical niceties of their language. In his early days indeed he had become deeply enamoured of "the two famous renowners of Beatrice and Laura." It has been rightly remarked, that he read almost all authors, and improved by all: He himself relates, that his "round of study and reading was ceaseless."--TODD, HENRY JOHN, 1801-26, Some Account of the Life and Writings of John Milton, p. 346.

We have now completed the history of John Milton;-a man in whom were illustriously combined all the qualities that could adorn, or elevate the nature to which he belonged; a man, who at once possessed beauty of countenance, symmetry of form, elegance of manners, benevolence of temper, magnanimity and loftiness of soul, the brightest illumination of intellect, knowledge the most various and extended, virtue that never loitered in her career nor deviated from her course;―a man, who, if he had been delegated as the representative of his species to one of the superior worlds, would have suggested a grand idea of the human race, as of beings affluent with moral and intellectual treasure, who were raised and distinguished in the universe as the favourites and heirs of Heaven.-SYMMONS, CHARLES, 1809-10, The Life of John Milton, p. 593.

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ness, nor gout, nor age, nor penury, nor domestic afflictions, nor political disappointments, nor abuse, nor proscription, nor neglect, had power to disturb his sedate and majestic patience. His spirits do not seem to have been high, but they were singularly equable. His temper was serious, perhaps stern; but it was a temper which no sufferings could render sullen or fretful. Such as it was, when, on the eve of great events, he returned from his travels, in the prime of health and manly beauty, loaded with literary distinction and glowing with patriotic hopes, such it continued to be when, after having experienced every calamity which is incident to our nature, old, poor, sightless, and disgraced, he retired to his hovel to die!-MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, 1825, Milton, Edinburgh Review.

Milton alone remained faithful to the memory of Cromwell. While minor authors, vile, perjured, bought by restored power, insulted the ashes of a great man at whose feet they had grovelled, Milton gave him an asylum in his genius, as in an inviolable temple. Milton might have been reinstated in office. His third wife (for he espoused two after the death of Mary Powell) beseeching him to accept his former place as Secretary, he replied, "You are a woman, and would like to keep your carriage; but I will die an honest man." Remaining a Republican, he wrapped himself in his principles, with his Muse and his poverty. He said to those who reproached him with having served a tyrant, "He delivered us from kings.' kings." Milton affirmed that he had only fought for the cause of God and of his country. One day, walking in St. James's Park, he suddenly heard repeated near him, "The king! the king!" "Let us withdraw," he said to his guide, "I never loved kings." Charles II. accosted the blind man. "Thus, Sir, has Heaven punished you for having conspired against my father." "Sire," he replied, "if the ills that afflict us in this world be the chastisements for our faults, your father must have been very guilty."-CHATEAUBRIAND, FRANÇOIS RENÉ, VICOMTE DE, 1837, Sketches of English Literature, vol. II, p. 80.

We have offered no apology for expanding to such length our commentary on the character of John Milton; who, in old age, in solitude, in neglect, and blind, wrote the "Paradise Lost"; a man whom labor or danger never deterred from whatever efforts a love of the supreme interests of man prompted. For are we not the better; are not all men fortified by the remembrance of the bravery, the purity, the temperance, the toil, the independence and the angelic devotion of this man, who, in a revolutionary age, taking counsel only of himself, endeavored, in his writings and in his life, to carry out the life of man to new heights of spiritual grace and dignity, without any abatement of its strength? EMERSON, RALPH WALDO, 1838, Milton.

Indignant at every effort to crush the spirit, and to cheat it, in his own words, "of that liberty which rarefies and enlightens it like the influence of heaven,"

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