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. ELEGIARUM LIBER. ELEG. I.-AD CAROLUM DEODATUM.* 5 TANDEM, care, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ, 10 Quam male Phœbicolis convenit ille locus! Nec duri libet usque minas perferre magistri, 15 Cæteraque ingenio non subeunda meo. Si sit hoc exilium patrios adiisse penates, O, utinam vates nunquam graviora tulisset 3 20 26 Non tunc Ionio quicquam cessisset Homero, Detonat inculto barbara verba foro;* 30 35 Quid sit amor nescit; dum quoque nescit, amat. Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragoedia sceptrum Quassat, et effusis crinibus ora rotat, Et dolet, et specto, juvat et spectasse dolendo; Interdum et lacrymis dulcis amaror inest : 40 Seu puer infelix indelibata reliquit 45 Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit; Seu ferus e tenebris iterat Styga criminis ultor, Conscia funereo pectora torre movens : 5 Seu moret Pelopeia domus, seu nobilis Ili, Aut luit incestos aula Creontis avos. Sed neque sub tecto semper, nec in urbe, latemus; Irrita nec nobis tempora veris eunt. Nos quoque lucus habet vicina consitus ulmo, 60 65 70 Et quot Susa colunt, Memnoniamque Ninon ;7 Vos etiam, Danaæ fasces submittite nymphæ, Et vos, Iliacæ, Romuleæque nurus : Nec Pompeianas Tarpëia Musa columnas Jactet, et Ausoniis plena theatra stolis. Gloria virginibus debetur prima Britannis; Extera, sat tibi sit, fœmina, posse sequi. Tuque urbs Dardaniis, Londinum, structa colonis, Turrigerum late conspicienda caput, Tu nimium felix intra tua monia claudis Quicquid formosi pendulus orbis habet. Non tibi tot cœlo scintillant astra sereno, Endymioneæ turba ministra deæ, Quot tibi, conspicuæ formaque auroque, puellæ Per medias radiant turba videnda vias. 75 80 VOL. VI. R Creditur huc geminis venisse invecta columbis Huic Cnidon, et riguas Simoentis flumine valles, 85 Huic Paphon, et roseam posthabitura Cypron. Stat quoque juncosas Cami remeare paludes, ELEG. II.-In Obitum Præconis Academici Canta brigiensis.* Anno Etatis 17. 90 Te, qui, conspicuus baculo fulgente, solebas 5 10 |