1. THY gracious ear, O Lord, incline, O hear me, I thee pray; For I am poor, and almost pine With need, and sad decay. 2. Preserve my soul; for I have trod 3. Pity me, Lord, for daily thee Thy servant's soul; for, Lord, to thee I lift my soul and voice. 5. For thou art good, thou, Lord, art prone To pardon, thou to all Art full of mercy, thou alone, To them that on thee call. For thou wilt grant me free access, 8. Like thee among the gods is none, Of all that other gods have done Like to thy glorious works. 9. The nations all whom thou hast made To bow them low before thee, Lord, 10. For great thou art, and wonders great Remainest God alone. 11. Teach me, O Lord, thy way most right, I in thy truth will bide; To fear thy name my heart unite, So shall it never slide. 12. Thee will I praise, O Lord my God, With my whole heart, and blaze abroad 13. For great thy mercy is toward me, 14. O God, the proud against me rise, To seek my life, and in their eyes No fear of thee have set. 15. But thou, Lord, art the God most mild, Readiest thy grace to shew, Slow to be angry, and art styl'd Most merciful, most true. 16. O, turn to me thy face at length, Unto thy servant give thy strength, And be asham'd; because thou, Lord, PSALM LXXXVII. 1. AMONG the holy mountains high His temple there is plac'd. 2. Sion's fair gates the Lord loves more Of Jacob's land, though there be store, 3. City of God, most glorious things 4. I mention Egypt, where proud kings I mention Babel to my friends, And Tyre with Ethiops' utmost ends, 5. But twice that praise shall in our ear. Be said of Sion last; This and this man was born in her; 6. The Lord shall write it in a scroll 7. Both they who sing, and they who dance, With sacred songs are there; In thee fresh books, and soft streams glance, PSALM LXXXVIII. 1. LORD God, that dost me save and keep, All day to thee I cry; And all night long before thee weep, 2. Into thy presence let my prayer And to my cries, that ceaseless are, 3. For, cloy'd with woes and trouble store, Surcharg'd my soul doth lie; My life, at Death's uncheerful door, 4. Reckon'd I am with them that pass Down to the dismal pit ; I am a man, but weak alas! And for that name unfit. 5. From life discharg'd and parted quite Them, from thy hand deliver'd o'er, Where thickest darkness hovers round, In horrid deeps to mourn. 7. Thy wrath, from which no shelter saves, Full sore doth press on me ; Thou break'st upon me all thy waves, 8. Thou dost my friends from me estrange, And mak'st me odious, Me to them odious, for they change, And I here pent up thus. 9. Through sorrow, and affliction great, My hands to thee I spread. 10. Wilt thou do wonders on the dead? Shall the deceas'd arise, And praise thee from their loathsome bed 11. Shall they thy loving kindness tell. Thy faithfulness unfold? 12. In darkness can thy mighty hand Of dark oblivion? 13. But I to thee, O Lord, do cry, Each morn, and thee prevent. 14. Why wilt thou, Lord, my soul forsake, And hide thy face from me, 15. That am already bruis'd, and shake 16. Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow; 18. Lover and friend thou hast remov'd, And sever'd from me far: hey fly me now whom I have lov'd, T And as in darkness are." A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV. This and the following Psalm were done by the WHEN the blest seed of Terah's faithful son, JOANNIS MILTONI LONDINENSIS POEMATA. QUORUM PLERAQUE INTRA ANNUM ÆTATIS H&c quæ sequuntur de authore testimonia, tametsi ipse intelligebat non tam de se quàm supra se esse dicta, eò quòd præclaro ingenio viri, nec non amici, ita ferè solent laudare, ut omnia suis potiùs virtutibus, quàm veritati congruentia, nimis cupidè affingant, noluit tamen horum egregiam in se voluntatem non esse notam ; cùm alii præsertim ut id faceret magnoperè suaderent. Dum enim nimiæ laudis invidiam totis ab se viribis amolitur, sibique quod plus æquo est non attributum esse mavult, judicium interim homi. num cordatorum atuue 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, și pietas sic, Non Anglus, verùm herclè Angelus, ipse fores. Ad JOANNEM MILTONEM Anglum triplici poeseos laurea coronandum, Græcâ nimirum, Latina, atque Hetrusca, Epigramma Joannis Salsilli Romani. CEDE, Meles; cedat depressâ Mincius urnâ ; GRACIA Mæonidem, jactet sibi Roma Maro nem, Anglia Miltonum jactat utrique parem. Selvaggi. Al Signor Gio. Miltoni Nobile Inglésé. ODE. ERGIMI all' Etra ò Clio Perche di stelle intreccierò corona Non più del Biondo Dio La Fronde éterna in Pindo, e in Elicona, Non puo del tempo edace Furar dalle memorie eccelso onore, Del Ocean profondo Cinta dagli ampi gorghi Anglia resiede Separata del mondo, Però che il suo valor l' umano eccede : Questa feconda sà produrre Eroi, Ch' hanno a region del sovruman tra noi. Alla virtù sbandita Danno ne i petti lor fido ricetto, Perche in lei san trovar gioia, e diletto; Lungi dal Patrio lido Ch' udio d' Helena il grido Cosi l' Ape Ingegnosa Dal giglio e dalia rosa, E quanti vaghi fiori ornano il prato ; I più profondi arcani Ch' occulta la natura e in cielo e in terra Troppo avara tal' hor gli chiude, e serra, Non batta il Tempo l' ale, Fermisi immoto, e in un fermin si gl' anni, Scorron di troppo ingiuriosi a i darni ; Dammi tua dolce Cetra Se vuoi ch' io dica del tuo dolce canto, Di farti huomo celeste ottiene il vanto, Tento spiegar tuo merto alto, e preclaro E ad ammirar, non a lodarlo imparo ; Del sig. ANTONIO FRANCINI, gentilhuomo JOANNI MILTONI. LONDINENSI: Juveni patriâ, virtutibus, eximio; VIRO, qui multae peregrinatione, studio cuncta orbis terrarum loca, perspexit; ut novus Ulysses omnia ubique ab omnibus apprehenderet : Illi, in cujus virtutibus evulgandis ora Famæ non sufficiant, nec hominum stupor in laudandis Isatis est, reverentiæ at amoris érgo hoc ejus meritis debitum admirationis tributum offert C rolus Datus Patricius Florentinus, Tanto homini servus, tantæ virtutis amator 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 ex⚫ cept 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, a native facility and fluency. Nor does his observation of Roman models oppress or destroy our great poet's inherent powers of invention and sentiI value these pieces as much for their fancy and genius, as for their style and expression. ment. 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 com Polyglotto, in cujus ore linguæ jam deperdita sic reviviscunt, ut idiomata omnia sint in ejus laudibus infacunda; et jure ea percallet, ut ad-positions of all sorts, he had been more attenmirationes et plausus populorum ab propriâ sapientiâ excitatos intelligat : Illi, cujus animi dotes corporisque sensus ad admirationem commovent, et per ipsam motum cuique auferent ; cujus opera ad plausus hortantur, sed venustate vocem laudatoribus adimunt tive 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. 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, As to Cowley when comhe thought excellent. But Cui in memoriâ totus orbis ; in intellectu sapientia; in voluntate ardor gloriæ; in ore eloquentia; harmonicos cœlestium sphærarum sonitus, astronomiâ duce, audienti; characteres mirabilium naturæ per quos Dei magnitudo de-pared with Milton, the same critic observes, "Milton is generally content to express the scribitur, magistrâ philosophiâ, legenti; antiquitatum latebras vetustatis excidia, eruditionis am- thoughts of the ancients in their language: Cowley, without much loss of purity or elegance, bages, comite assiduâ autorum lectione, accommodates the diction of Rome to his own conceptions.-The advantage seems to lie on the Exquirenti, restauranti, percurrenti. side of Cowley." But what are these concep- Hic sociatorum sacra constellatio vatum, Again, Temporis ingreditur penetralia celsa fu- Implumesque videt nidis cœlestibus annos. And, to be short, we have the Plusquam visus aquilinus of lovers, Natio verborum, Exuit vitam aeriam, Menti auditur symphonia dulcis, Natura archiva, Omnes symmetria sensus congerit, Condit aromatica prohibetque putescere laude. Again, where Aliquid is personified, Monogramma exordia mundi. It may be said, that Cowley is here translating from his own English Davideis. But I will bring examples from his original Latin poems. In praise of the spring. At mare immensum oceanusque Laeis Hinc inexhausto per utrumque mundum 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 excellencies of ancient literature. and therefore a more just writer. In a word, he He was a more just thinker, 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 se venteen: they must be allowed to be very correct and manly performances for a youth of that age. And considered in that view, they discover ancient fable and history. I cannot but add, an extraordinary copiousness and command of that Gray resembles Milton in many instances. And in the same poem in a party worthy of the Among others, in their youth they were both pastoral pencil of Watteau. strongly attached to the cultivation of Latin poetry. WARTON Et resonet toto musica verna libro; &c. Hauserunt avide Chocolatam Flora venus- Of the Fraxinella, Tu tres metropoles humani corporis armis He calls the Lychnis, Candelabrum ingens. But all his faults are conspicuously and collectively exemplified in these stanzas, among others, of his Hymn on Light. Pulchra de nigro soboles parente, Risus O terræ sacer et polorum, Te bibens arcus Jovis ebriosus Lucidum trudis properanter agmen : ELEGIARUM ELEC. I. AD CAROLUM DEODATUM.' TANDEM, chare, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ, Multùm, crede, juvat terras aliuisse remotas Pectus amans nostrî, támque fidele caput, 'Charles Deodate was one of Milton's most intimate friends. He was an excellent scholar, and practised physic in Cheshire. He was educated with our author at St. Paul's school in Loudon; and from thence was sent to Trinity college Oxford, where he was entered Feb. 7, in the year 1621, at thirteen years of age. Lib. Matric. Univ. Oxon, sub ann. He was born in London and the name of his father, in Medicina Doo toris, was Theodore. Ibid. |