JOANNIS MILTONI

LONDINENSIS

POEMATA;

QUORUM PLERAQUE INTRA ANNUM ÆTATIS VIGESIMUM CONSCRIPSIT.

Hæc quæ sequuntur de Auctore testimonia, tametsi ipse intelligebat non tam de se quam supra se esse dicta, eo quod præclaro ingenio viri, necnon amici, ita fere solent laudare, ut omnia suis potius virtutibus, quam veritati congruentia, nimis cupide affingant; noluit tamen horum egregiam in se voluntatem non esse notam; cum alii præsertim ut id faceret magnopere suaderent. Dum enim nimiæ laudis invidiam totis ab se viribus amolitur, sibique quod plus æquo est non attributum esse mavult, judicium interim hominum cordatorum atque illustrium quin summo sibi honori ducat, negare non potest.

JOANNES BAPTISTA MANSUS, MARCHIO VILLENSIS, NEAPOLITANUS,
AD JOANNEM MILTONIUM, ANGLUM.
Ur mens, forma, decor, facies, mos, si pietas sic,
Non Anglus, verum hercle Angelus, ipse fores.

AD JOANNEM MILTONEM, ANGLUM, TRIPLICI POESEOS LAUREA CORONANDUM,

Græca nimirum, Latina, atque Hetrusca, Epigramma Joannis Salsilli, Romani.
CEDE, Meles; cedat depressa Mincius urna;

Sebetus Tassum desinat usque loqui:
At Thamesis victor cunctis ferat altior undas,
Nam per te, Milto par tribus unus erit.

AD JOANNEM MILTONUM.

GRECIA Mæonidem, jactet sibi Roma Maronem;
Anglia Miltonum jactat utrique parem.-SELVAGGI.

AL SIGNOR GIO. MILTONI, NOBILE INGLESE.

ODE.

ERGIMI all' Etra ò Clio

Perche di stelle intreccierò corona

Non più del Biondo Dio

La fronde eterna in Pindo, e in Elicona,
Diensi a merto maggior, maggiori i fregi,
A' celeste virtù celesti pregi.

Non puo del tempo edace
Rimaner preda, eterno alto valore
Non puo l'oblio rapace,

Furar dalle memorie eccelso onore,

Su l'arco di mia cetra un dardo forte
Virtù m' adatti, e ferirò la morte.

Del ocean profondo

Cinta dagli ampi gorghi Anglia resiede

Separata dal mondo,

Però che il suo valor l' umana eccede:

Questa feconda sa produrre Eroi,

Ch' hanno a ragion del sovruman tra noi.

Alla virtù sbandita

Danno ne i petti lor fido ricetto,

Quella gli è sol gradita,

Perche in lei san trovar gioia, e diletto;

Ridillo tu, Giovanni, e mostra in tanto
Con tua vera virtù, vero il mio Canto.

Lungi dal patrio lido

Spinse Zeusi l' industre ardente brama;
Ch' udio d' Helena il grido

Con aurea tromba rimbombar la fama,

E per poterla effigiare al paro

Dalle più belle Idee trasse il più raro.

Cosi l'ape ingegnosa

Trae con industria il suo liquor pregiato
Dal giglio e dalla rosa,

E quanti vaghi fiori ornano il prato ;
Formano un dolce suon diverse chorde,
Fan varie voci melodia concorde.

Di bella gloria amante

Milton dal ciel natio per varie parti
Le peregrine piante

Volgesti a ricercar scienze, ed arti;
Del Gallo regnator vedesti i regni,

E dell' Italia ancor gl' Eroi più degni.

Fabro quasi divino

Sol virtù rintracciando il tuo mensiero
Vide in ogni confino

Chi di nobil valor calca il sentiero;
L'ottimo dal miglior dopo scegleia
Per fabbricar d' ogni virtù l' idea.

Quanti nacquero in Flora

O in lei del parlar Tosco appreser l' arte,

La cui memoria onora

Il mondo fatta eterna in dotto carte,

Volesti ricercar per tuo tesoro,

E parlasti con lor nell' opre loro.

Nell' altera Babelle

Per te il parlar confuse Giove in vano,

Che per varie favelle

Di se stessa trofeo cadde su 'l piano:

Ch' Ode oltr' all' Anglia il suo più degno idioma

Spagna, Francia, Toscana, e Grecia, e Roma.

1

I più profondi arcani

Ch' occulta la natura e in cielo e in terra

Ch' à ingegni sovrumani

Troppo avaro tal' hor gli chiude, e serra,
Chiaromente conosci, e giungi al fine
Della moral virtude al gran confine.

Non batta il Tempo l' ale,

Fermisi immoto, e in un fermin si gl' anni,

Che di virtù immortale

Scorron di troppo ingiuriosi a i danni;
Che s' opre degne di poema o storia
Furon gia, l' hai presenti alla memoria.

Dammi tua dolce cetra

Se vuoi ch' io dica del tuo dolce canto,

Ch' inalzandoti all' Etra

Di farti huomo celeste ottiene il vanto,
Il Tamigi il dirà che gl' e concesso
Per te suo cigno pareggiar Permesso.

Io che in riva del Arno

Ténto spiegar tuo merto alto e preclaro,
So che fatico indarno,

E ad ammirar, non a lodarlo imparo;
Freno dunque la lingua, e ascolto il core
Che ti prende a lodar con lo stupore.

Del Sig. ANTONIO FRANCINI,

Gentilhuomo Fiorentino.

JOANNI MILTONI LONDINENSI:

Juveni patria virtutibus eximio;

Viro, qui multa peregrinatione, studio cuncta orbis terrarum loca perspexit; ut novus Ulysses omnia ubique ab omnibus apprehenderet:

Polyglotto, in cujus ore linguæ jam deperditæ sic reviviscunt, ut idiomata omnia sint in ejus laudibus infacunda; et jure ea percallet, ut admirationes et plausus populorum ab propria sapientia excitatos intelligat :

Illi, cujus animi dotes corporisque sensus ad admirationem commovent, et per ipsam motum cuique auferunt; cujus opera ad plausus hortantur, sed venustate vocem laudatoribus adimunt:

Cui in memoria totus orbis; in intellectu sapientia; in voluntate ardor gloriæ; in ore eloquentia; harmonicos cœlestium sphærarum sonitus, astronomia duee, audienti; characteres mirabilium naturæ, per quos Dei magnitudo describitur, magistra philosophia, legenti; antiquitatum latebras, vetustatis excidia, eruditionis ambages, comite assidua auctorum lectione,

Exquirenti, restauranti, percurrenti:

At cur nitor in arduum?

Illi, in cujus virtutibus evulgandis ora Famæ non sufficiant, nec hominum stupor in laudandis satis est; reverentiæ et amoris ergo hoc ejus meritis debitum admirationis tributum offert CAROLUS DATUs,† Patricius Florentinus,

Tanto homini servus, tantæ virtutis amator.

* In the edition 1645, it stood "vastitate."

† Carlo Dati, one of Milton's literary friends at Florence. See "Epitaph. Damon.” v. 137. -T. WARTON.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE LATIN VERSES.

MILTON is said to be the first Englishman, who, after the restoration of letters, wrote Latin verses with classic elegance: but we must at least except some of the hendecasyllables and epigrams of Leland, one of our first literary reformers, from this hasty determination.

In the Elegies, Ovid was professedly Milton's model for language and versification; they are not, however, a perpetual and uniform tissue of Ovidian phraseology. With Ovid in view, he has an original manner and character of his own, which exhibit a remarkable perspicuity of contexture, a native facility and fluency. Nor does his observation of Roman models oppress or destroy our great poet's inherent powers of invention and sentiment: I value these pieces as much for their fancy and genius, as for their style and expression.

That Ovid among the Latin poets was Milton's favourite, appears not only from his elegiac, but his hexametric poetry. The versification of our author's hexameters has yet a different structure from that of the "Metamorphoses:" Milton's is more clear, intelligible, and flowing; less desultory, less familiar, and less embarrassed with a frequent recurrence of periods. Ovid is at once rapid and abrupt; he wants dignity: he has too much conversation in his manner of telling a story. Prolixity of paragraph, and length of sentence, are peculiar to Milton: this is seen, not only in some of his exordial invocations in the "Paradise Lost," and in many of the religious addresses of a like cast in the Prose Works, but in his long verse. It is to be wished that, in his Latin compositions of all sorts, he had been more attentive to the simplicity of Lucretius, Virgil, and Tibullus.

Dr. Johnson, unjustly I think, prefers the Latin poetry of May and Cowley to that of Milton, and thinks May to be the first of the three. May is certainly a sonorous versifier, and was sufficiently accomplished in poetical declamation for the continuation of Lucan's "Pharsalia:" but May is scarcely an author in point: his skill is in parody; and he was confined to the peculiarities of an archetype, which, it may be presumed, he thought excellent. As to Cowley when compared with Milton, the same critic observes, "Milton is generally content to express the thoughts of the ancients in their language: Cowley, without much loss of purity or elegance, accommodates the diction of Rome to his own conceptions. The advantage seems to lie on the side of Cowley." But what are these conceptions? Metaphysical conceits; all the unnatural extravagances of his English poetry; such as will not bear to be clothed in the Latin language, much less are capable of admitting any degree of pure Latinity.

Milton's Latin poems may be justly considered as legitimate classical compositions, and are never disgraced with such language and such imagery: Cowley's Latinity, dictated by an irregular and unrestrained imagination, presents a mode of diction half Latin and half English. It is not so much that Cowley wanted a knowledge of the Latin style, but that he suffered that knowledge to be perverted and corrupted by false and extravagant thoughts. Milton was a more perfect scholar than Cowley, and his mind was more deeply tinctured with the excellences of ancient literature: he was a more just thinker, and therefore a more just writer: in a word he had more taste, and more poetry, and consequently more propriety. If a fondness for the Italian writers has sometimes infected his English poetry with false ornaments; his Latin verses, both in diction and sentiment, are at least free from those depravations.

Some of Milton's Latin poems were written in his first year at Cambridge, when he was only seventeen: they must be allowed to be very correct and manly performances for a youth of that age; and, considered in that view, they discover an extraordinary copiousness and command of ancient fable and history. I cannot but add, that Gray resembles Milton in many instances: among others, in their youth they were both strongly attached to the cultivation of Latin poetry.-T. Warton.