And how t'improve his grounds, and how himself. 780 Thus tender Spenfer liv'd, with mean repast 778. Mæonides,] Milton had fung of Homer, under the name of MAONIDES. P. L. iii. 35. 781. Spenfer.] Edmund Spenfer, the celebrated author of the Faery Queen, is faid to have been defcended from the fame family of the Spenfers in Northamptonshire, from whom the prefent Duke of Marlborough traces his pedigree, and was in the humble fituation of a Sizer at Pembroke College in Cambridge. Having completed his degrees, he retired to the north of England, where he continued to lead an obfcure life for fome years; but, being induced to quit his retirement in 1578, and to vifit London, 'he was introduced to Mr. (afterwards Sir Philip) Sydney, the Mæcænas of the age, and by him prefented to Queen Elizabeth, who made him Poet Laureat. The next year he went to Ireland as Secretary to Lord Grey de Wilton, then appointed Lord Lieutenant of that kingdom, and coming back with him, in 1582, continued in London till after the death of his patron, Sir Philip Sydney; when, having obtained a grant of fome forfeited lands in the county of Cork, he returned to Ireland, and fixed himfelf at the Castle of Kilcolman, where the river Mulla, which he has finely introduced into his poems, ran through his grounds. Here he married, and principally refided, untill, on the rebellion of Lord Tyrone, who ravaged the whole county of Cork, he was obliged to fly for fafety to England, where he died in extreme poverty, in the year 1 599. 782. deprefs'd by penury and pine] His raw-bone cheeks, through PENURY AND PINE, 784. FAERY QUEEN, B. i. C. 9. S. 35. And had that other bard, &c.] Addison, in his Account of the Greatest English Poets, having spoken of Milton, has a paffage fomewhat fimilar to this of our Author. O had Oh! had but he, that first ennobled fong O had the Poet ne'er profan'd his pen, 89 The Muses and their genuine votaries, without attacking Milton's party principles, may well arraign the violence with which he entered into the political controverfies of his time. "An Editor of Milton's 66 66 66 juvenile poems" (fays the late Mr. Warton)" cannot but express his "concern, that the number is fo inconfiderable. With Milton's mellow hangings, delicious as they are, we reasonably reft contented: but we are juftified in regretting, that he has left fo few of his early bloffoms, not only because they are fo exquifitely fweet, but because fo many more might have naturally been expected. And this regret is yet "aggravated, when we confider the caufe which prevented the production ‹‹ of more, and intercepted the progrefs of fo promifing a fpring: when we recollect that the vigorous portion of his life, that thofe years, in " which imagination is on the wing, were unworthily and unprofitably "wafted on temporary topics, on elaborate, but perishable differtations "in defence of innovation and anarchy. To this employment he "facrificed his eyes, his health, his repofe, his native propenfities, his elegant ftudies. Smit with the deplorable polemics of Puritanism, he fuddenly ceafed to gaze on fuch fights as youthful poets dream. The 66 numerous and noble plans of tragedy, which he had deliberately formed "with the difcernment and felection of a great poetical mind, were at once interrupted and abandoned, and have now left, to a disappointed pofterity, only a few naked lines and confufed fketches. Instead of " embellishing original tales of chivalry, of cloathing the fabulous at"chievements of the early British Kings and champions in the gorgeous trappings of Epic attire, he wrote SMECTYMNUS and TETRACHORDON, apologies for fanatical preachers, and the doctrine of di-: 66 vorces. The late Biographer of our English Poets imputes the part that Milton took in politics to a native violence of temper and a difinclination to government, even the mildeft. "Milton's republican" ifm (fays Dr. Johnfon) was, I am afraid, founded in an envious ha"tred of greatnefs, and a fullen defire of independance; in petulance, impatient of controul, and pride, difdainful of fuperiority. He hated "monarchs in the ftate, and prelates in the church; because he hated all "whom he was required to obey. It is to be fufpected, that his predo"minant defire was to deftroy, rather than establish, and that he felt not "fo much the love of liberty, as repugnance to authority.". This is rather strong. But Bishop Warburton, in A Letter to Doctor Birch, on the Character and Comvolitions of Milton, afcribes his violence in poliN 66 66 66 tics 'Mong many faithless strictly faithful found, Unpity'd he should not have wail'd his orbs, tics to quite another caufe. Having defcribed Milton as a complete time-ferver, he thus proceeds. "It is true he was fteady in one thing, "namely, his averfion to the Court and Royal Family; but, I fufpect, "it was because he was not received among the wits favorably; he, who "was fo far fuperior to them all. I take this to be owing to the stiffness " of his style and manner, fo contrary to that of the Court, who were "then enervating themselves on the model of France." 'Mong many faithlefs ftri&ly faithful found.] Milton had defcribed the Seraph Abdiel FAITHFUL FOUND AMONG THE FAITHLESS, only faithful he P. L. B. v. V. 897. 788. Unpity'd be fhou'd not have wail'd his orbs, Such is almoft literally the defcription Milton gives of his blindness in the third book of his PARADISE LOST; which having opened with a moft poetical and fublime address to light, he thus proceeds; thee I revisit safe, And feel thy fovran vital lamp; but thou Revifit'st not these eyes, THAT ROLL IN VAIN TO FIND THY PIERCING RAY, AND FIND NO DAWN; OR DIM SUFFUSION VEIL'D. Nothing can indeed be more pathetically beautiful than his WAILINGS of his own fituation that follow: Yet not the more Ceafe I to wander where the Mufes haunt Day, Or fight of vernal bloom, or lummer's role, Of nature's works, to me expung'd and ras'd, the opening of his SAMSON AGONISTES alfo, where Samson las his own blindness, every word feems dictated by the Poet's exquifite Dility of his own fituation. 794. Th' Olympian Hill] nilips had here in view the opening of the feventh book of the ADISE LOST. Defcend from heaven, Urania, by that name N 2 |