The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire fpun. What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, Of Attick tafte, with wine, whence we may rife To hear the lute well touch'd, or artful voice Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air? 10 He who of thofe delights can judge, and fpare "The gaudy peacock boasts not in his train "So many lights and fhadows, nor the rain- But the whole is from Claudian's Zephyr, Rapt. Proferp. L. ii. 73, &c. Compare Beaumont's Bosworth-Field, edit. 1629. p. 12. "And mild Favonius breathes." T. WARTON. 66 Ver. 8. — that neither fow'd nor Spun.] Alluding, as doctor Newton obferves, to Matt. vi. 26, 28. They fow not, neither do they fpin." And compare ver. 30. with the preceding hemiftich. TODD. Ver. 13. The clofe of this Sonnet is perfectly in the style of Horace and the Grecian lyricks; as is that of the following to Cyriack Skinner. T. WARTON. XXI.. To CYRIACK SKINNER*. CYRIACK, whofe grandfire, on the royal bench Of British Themis, with no mean applause Cyriack Skinner was one of the principal members of Harrington's political club. Wood fays, that he was "an ingenious young gentleman, and fcholar to John Milton; which Skinner fometimes held the chair," Ath. Oxon. ii. 591. I find one Cyriack Skinner, I know not if the fame, a member of Trinity college Oxford in 1640. In 1659-60, Milton published "A Ready and eafy way to establish a free Commonwealth, &c." This was foon afterwards attacked in a burlefque pamphlet, pretended to be written by Harrington's club, under the title of "The cenfure of the ROTA upon Mr. Milton's Book entitled The Ready and easy way, &c. Lond. Printed by Paul GIDDY printer to the ROTA, at the figne of the WINDMILL in Turne againe Lane, 1660." But Harrington's club, which encouraged all propofals for new models of government, was very unlikely to have made fuch an attack; and Milton's very familiar intimacy with Skinner, to whom he addreffes two Sonnets, full of confidence and affection, was alone fufficient to have prevented any remonftrance from that quarter. Aubrey fays, that Milton's Idea Theologia in manufcript is "in the hands of Mr. Skinner a Merchant's fon in Mark-Lane. Mem. There was one Mr. Skinner of the Jerker's office up two pair of stayres at the Custom-house." MS. Afhmol. ut infr. Milton's pamphlet was alfo anfwered in the "DIGNITY OF KINGSHIP afferted in anfwer to Mr. Milton's Ready and Eafe way &c. by G. S. a lover of Loyalty. London, Pr. by E. C. for H. Saile, &c. 1660." 12mo. It is a weak performance. In the Dedication to Charles the Second, the author fays, "the King's murther, and all its concomitant iniquities, were extenuated, extolled, and juftified, by one Mr. John Milton." I have alfo a pamphlet before me, "A Letter to Mr. Evelyn on Pronounc'd, and in his volumes taught, our laws, Which others at their bar fo often wrench To day deep thoughts refolve with me to drench In mirth that, after, no repenting draws; 6 Let Euclid reft, and Archimedes pause, And what the Swede intends, and what the French. the Constitution of the Houfe of Commons." G. S. is written into the title as the author's name, who is called an ejected member of the Houfe of Commons. I think he is not the fame." T. WARTON. George Searle was one of the ejected members of the House of Commons. See a "Declaration of the true state of the Secluded Members' Cafe, &c. 1660." p. 21. A perfon of both thofe names appears as an author in Kennet's Regifter, p. 571. Whether this be the perfon intended in the preceding note, I am unable to fay. Whoever he was, he prefixed another title to his book in 1661, viz. "Monarchy triumphing over traiterous republicans, &c." It differs in no other respect from the "Dignity of Kingfhip." TODD. Ver. 6. In mirth that, after, no repenting draws ;] This is the decent mirth of Martial. "Nox non ebria, fed foluta curis." T. WARTON. Ver. 8. And what the Swede intends, &c.] So it is in the manuscript. In the first edition it was "And what the Swede intend," which in others is altered to "And what the Swedes intend." Charles Guftavus, king of Sweden, was at this time waging war with Poland; and the French with the Spaniards in the Netherlands: And what Milton fays is fomewhat in the manner and spirit of Horace, Od. II. xi. 1. "Quid bellicofus Cantaber, et Scythes, "Divifus objecto, remittás 66 Quærere: &c." NEWTON. To measure life learn thou betimes, and know Toward folid good what leads the nearest way; 10 For other things mild Heaven a time ordains, And disapproves that care, though wife in show, That with superfluous burden loads the day, And, when God fends a cheerful hour, refrains. XXII. To the SAME. CYRIACK, this three years day thefe eyes, though clear, To outward view, of blemish or of fpot, Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot ; Nor to their idle orbs doth fight appear Of fun, or moon, or star, throughout the year, Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot Of heart or hope; but ftill bear up and steer 6 Ver. 3. In the printed editions this and the following lines were thus: "Bereft of fight their feeing have forgot, Ver. 7. "bate one jot." NEWTON. bate a jot] In the printed copies, Ver. 8. One of Milton's characteristicks was a fingular for titude of mind, arifing from a consciousness of fuperiour abilities, and a conviction that his caufe was juft. The heart which he prefents to Leonora is thus defcribed, Sonn. vi. 4. "Io certo a prove tante "L'hebbi fedele, intrepido, costante, "De penfieri leggiadro, accorto, e buono; "Tanto del forse, e d'invidia ficuro, He concludes, with great elegance, writing to a lady, that it was not proof againft love." T. WARTON. p. Ver. 9. Right onward.] Mr. Harris, in his notes on the Treatife on Happiness, obferves on this expreffion of Right onward, 306. "One would imagine that our great countryman Milton had the reasoning of Marcus Antoninus in view. L. 5. §. 5. Where in this Sonnet, speaking of his own Blindness, he says with a becoming magnanimity, yet I argue not, &c. The whole Sonnet is not unworthy of perufal, being both fimple and fublime.” Jos. WARTON. Ver. 10. When he was employed to answer Salmafius, one of his eyes was almost gone; and the physicians predicted the lofs of both if he proceeded. But he says, in aufwer to Du Moulin, "I did not long balance whether my Duty fhould be preferred to my Eyes." T. WARTON. Ver. 11. In liberty's defence, &c.] This Sonnet was not hazarded in the edition of 1673, where the last appears. For the Defenfio pro populo Anglicano, of which he here speaks with so much fatisfaction and self applause, at the restoration was ordered to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman, together with |