where Milton intimates a defign of writing an Epic poem on some part of the ancient British hiftory, he has given us fome of that reading which is now never read; but the paffage required it, nor was the shadow of an apology neceffary for it. If Milton brings into his verse, -Pandrafidos regnum vetus Inogeniæ, Brennumque Arviragumque duces, prifcumque Belinum, Mendaces vultus, affumptaque Gorlöis arma, the reader will efteem himself obliged to Mr. W. for informing him, that Brutus (under whom tradition reports the Trojans landed in England) married Inogen, the eldest daughter of Pandrafus, a Grecian King; from whofe bondage Brutus had delivered his countrymen the Trojans. Brennus and Belinus were the fons of Molutius Dunwallo, by fome writers called the first King of Britain. The two fons carried their victorious arms into Gaul and Italy. Arviragus, or Arvirage, the fon of Cunobelin, conquered the Roman General Claudius. He is faid to have founded Dover Castle. Armorica, or Britany in France, was peopled by the Britons when they fled from the Saxons. Jogerne was the wife of Gorlois, Prince of Cornwall. Merlin transformed Uther Pendragon into Gorlois; by which artifice Uther had access to the bed of logerne, and begat King Arthur. This was in Tintagel Castle, in Cornwall. See Geffr. Monm. viii. 19. The flory is told by Selden on the POLYOLBION, S. i. vol. ii. 674.' But Mr. W. feems to question the propriety of giving this information; for he adds, Perhaps it will be faid I am retailing much idle hiftory.' The hiftory is indeed idle, but it is not idle to retail it in this place. If the poet ftarts his game on fabulous or romantic ground, it is the duty of his commentator to follow him. We lament that Milton never executed the scheme he propofed to himself in the above recited lines, confident, with Mr. W. that they contain fuch idle hiftory as he would have cloathed in the richest drefs. Here we entirely agree with him; but in fome other places we fee reason to adopt different fentiments. An inftance or two of this fort muft now be noticed. With the firft Elegy, written from London to Charles Deodati, is given a long note on a paffage which has been often commented on, and produced in confirmation of a report refpecting our poet, viz. that he was actually whipped, during his refidence at the Univerfity. His late biographer fays, "He was the last student in either Univerfity that fuffered the public indignity of corporal correction." As it may be fome gratification to our Readers to know the evidence given in fupport of this ftory, and on what ground Milton himself is confidered as confirming it, we fhall, notwithstanding we are much ftraitened for room, lay before them them the text, together with the commentary on it, and afterward fubjoin our own ftrictures. Me tenet urbs reflua quam Thamefis alluit unda, Nuda nec arva placent, umbrafque negantia molles, Nec dudum vetiti me Laris angit amor.] The words vetiti Laris, and afterward exilium, will not fuffer us to determine otherwife, than that Milton was fentenced to undergo a temporary removal or ruftication from Cambridge. I will not fuppofe for any immoral irregularity. Dr. Bainbridge, the Mafter, is reported to have been a very active difciplinarian: and this lover of liberty, we may prefume, was as little difpofed to fubmiffion and conformity in a college as in a ftate. When reprimanded and admonished, the pride of his temper, impatient of any fort of reproof, naturally broke forth into expreffions of contumely and contempt againft his governor. Hence he was punished. See the next note. He appears to have lived in friendship with the fellows of the college.' On this note, we have only to observe, that whatever may have been the pride of Milton's temper, there is no ground for concluding, from the words noticed by Mr. W. that this led him to any act for which he underwent the punishment of ruftication. Facts induce us to believe the contrary. Milton while at College loft no term, and the regifters of Chrift's College are filent with respect to any expulfion or ruftication of John Milton. (See Remarks on Johnfon's Life of Milton.) Nec duri libet ufque minas perferre magiftri, · Cæteraque ingenio non fubeunda meo.] Milton is faid to have been whipped at Cambridge. See LIFE OF BATHURST, p. 153. This has been reprobated and difcredited, as a moft extraordinary and improbable piece of feverity. But in thofe days of fimplicity and fubordination, of roughnefs and rigour, this fort of punishment was much more common, and confequently by no means fo difgraceful and unfeemly for a young man at the University, as it would be thought at prefent. We learn from Wood, that Henry Stubbe, a ftudent of Christ Church, Oxford, afterwards a partifan of Sir Henry Vane, "fhewing himself too forward, pragmatical, and conceited," was publicly whipped by the Cenfor in the college-hall. ATH. OXON. ii. p. 560. See alfo LIFE OF BATHURST, p. 202. I learn from fome manufcript papers of Aubrey the antiquary, who was a ftudent in Trinity College, Oxford, four years from 1642, that "at Oxford, and, I believe, at Cambridge, the rod was frequently used by the tutors and deans: and Dr. Potter, while a tutor of Trinity College, I knew right well, whipt his pupil with his fword by his fide, when he came to take his leave of him to go to the Inns of Court." In the Statutes of the faid College, given in 1556, the fcholars of the foundation are ordered to be whipped by the deans, or or cenfors, even to their twentieth year. In the University Statutes at Oxford, compiled in 1635, ten years after Milton's admiffion at Cambridge, corporal punishment is to be inflicted on boys under fixteen. The author of an old pamphlet, Regicides no Saints or Martyrs, fays, that Hogh Peters, while at Trinity College, Cambridge, was publicly and officially whipped in the Regent Walk, for his infolence. p. 81. 8vo. The anecdote of Milton's whipping at Cambridge, is told by Aubrey, MS. MUS. ASHM. Oxon. Num. x. P. iii. From which, by the way, Wood's Life of Milton in the FASTI OXONIENSES, the first and the ground-work of all the Lives of Milton, was compiled. Wood fays, that he draws his account of Milton" from his own mouth to my friend, who was well acquainted with and had from him, and from his relations after his death, most of this account of his life and writings following." ATH. OXON. i. F. p. 262. This friend is Aubrey; whom Wood, in another place, calls credulous, "roving and magotie-headed, and fometimes little better than crafed." LIFE OF A. WOOD, p. 577. edit. Hearne, Th. Caii VIND. &c. vol. ii. This was after a quarrel. I know not that Aubrey is ever fantastical, except on the fubjects of chemistry and ghofts. Nor do I remember that his veracity was ever impeached. I believe he had much less credulity than Wood. Aubrey's MONUMENTA BRITANNICA is a very folid and rational work, and its judicious conjectures and obfervations have been approved and adopted by the best modern antiquaries. Aubrey's manufcript Life contains fome anecdotes of Milton yet unpublished. But let us examine if the context will admit fome other interpretation. Cæteraque, the most indefinite and comprehenfive of defcriptions, may be thought to mean literary tasks, called impofitions, or frequent compulfive attendances on tedious and unimproving exercifes in a college-hall. But cætera follows minas, and perferre feems to imply fomewhat more than these inconveniences, fomething that was fuffered, and feverely felt. It has been fuggefted, that his father's economy prevented his conftant refidence at Cambridge; and that this made the college Lar dudum vetitus, and his abfence from the University an exilium. But it was no unpleafing or involuntary banishment. He hated the place. He was not only offended at the college difcipline, but had even conceived a diflike to the face of the country, the fields about Cambridge. He peevishly complains, that the fields have no foft fhades to attract the Mufe; and there is fomething pointed in his exclamation, that Cambridge was a place quite incompatible with the votaries of Phebus. Here a father's prohibition had nothing to do. He refolves, however, to forget all thefe difagreeable circumftances, and to return in due time. difmiffion, if any, was not to be perpetual. In these lines, ingenium is to be rendered temper, nature, difpofition, rather than genius. Aubrey fays, from the information of our author's brother Christopher, that Milton's "firft tutor there [at Chrift's College] was Mr. Chapell, from whom receiving fome unkindneffe, (he whipt bim) he was afterwards, though it feemed against the rules of the college, transferred to the tuition of one Mr. Tovell, who dyed parfon of Lutterworth." MS. Mus. ASHм. ut fupг. This information,' 4 which which ftands detached from the body of Aubrey's narrative, seems to have been communicated to Aubrey, after Wood had seen his papers; it therefore does not appear in Wood, who never would otherwife have fuppreffed an anecdote which contributed in the least degree to expose the character of Milton. As it is a matter involved in the subject of the present note, I muft here correct a mistake in the BIOGRAPHIA, p. 3106. Where Milton is faid to have been entered at Cambridge a SIZAR, which denominates the lowest rank of academics. But his admiffion thus ftands in the Regifter at Chrift's College: "Johannes Milton, filius Johannis inftitutus fuit in literarum elementis fub magiftro Gill Gymnafii Paulini præfecto, et admiffus eft Penfionarius Minor. 12°. feb. 1624.' But Penfionarius minor is a Penfioner, or Commoner, in contradiftinction to a Fellow Commoner. And he is fo entered in the Matricula tion Book of the University.' Inclined, however, as Mr. Warton feems, to the belief of Milton's flagellation, and though the credit of this ftory is fupported by Johnfon's new narrative, it appears to us to want fufficient evidence; the deficiency of which, our Editor's comments on the words cætera, minas, and perferre contribute little to fupply. Had this whipping bout really happened, it must, we prefume, have been known to many, throughout his College at least, and his enemies, induftrious in collecting every anecdote which might ferve to difgrace him in the eye of the Public, would foon have obtained the knowledge of this, and have upbraided him with it. From their profound filence, therefore, on this head, we are inclined to doubt the fact, for while they charge him with "being vomited out of the University," they would not have omitted the mention of this indignity, had there been any ground for the accufation. The ftory refts on a single teftimony, viz. that of Aubrey; and there is this prefumption againft admitting it, that Wood, who compiled his account of Milton from Aubrey's MSS. and who would have rejoiced in a fair opportunity of attacking our poet's character, thought fit to reject this whipping anecdote.-But Mr. Warton confiders the paffage we have extracted, as a ftrong proof of the credibility of Aubrey's teftimony. This, however, we cannot admit. For does it neceffarily follow, that cætera muft fignify corporal chastisement, because it follows minas, and is connected with the word perferre? Might it not fignify fomething more than threats, and yet fomething else than whipping, or even ruftication? Why must ingenium, be rendered temper, nature, difpofition, rather than genius? We rather inclined to believe the contrary, fince it is highly probable he alludes here to thofe college exercifes known by the name of impofitions (oftentimes prefcribed as punishments), which were calculated, as the writer we have lately referred to obferves, rather for the drudgery of an induftrious plodder, than fuited to the genius of a youth of parts and fpirit. The lines, too, which follow, descriptive of the liberty he enjoyed in his studies during his absence from college, may tend to confirm this fuppofition : Tempora nam licet hic placidis dare libera Mufis We give the above not as demonftration, but probable conjecture, and shall leave the reader to credit or reject the ftory of Milton's flagellation, as he likes best. This refractory republican may have deferved a little wholefome chaftifement, but there is a fneer in a fubfequent note, to which he is by no means entitled. After relating a circumftance told by Milton himself (in the 7th Elegy, written in his 19th year), of his falling in love with an unknown fair, whom he accidentally met in fome public walks in or near London, and remarking that five of his Italian Sonnets, and his CANZONE, are amatorial, and were probably infpired by Leonora, a young lady whom he had heard fing at Rome, and whom he celebrates in three Latin Epigrams;-his commentator adds-But these were among the vanities of his youth. A fling, we fufpect, at the rigidnefs of Puritanical principles, which, Mr. W. would infinuate, condemned thefe innocent fallies of his youthful Mufe. But if Puritanism was fo abfurd as this, our poet never embraced its abfurdity. No man, as his Editor confeffes, was more deeply impreffed with the allurements of female beauty, or had ftronger perceptions of the paffion of love. If to employ his Mufe in praife of the sex was vanity, it was the vanity not merely of his youth, but of his whole life. Were not the inftances we have adduced in the foregoing articles, fufficient to evince the abhorrence which Mr. W. feems to have of his author's principles, we could, from this part of the volume, furnish more. Enough, however, has been faid on this head, and we foon forget the little disguft we now and then feel, in the pleasure which the learned repaft he has provided is perpetually adminiftering. Though it was not our intention to fwell this article by the enumeration of little miftakes, there is one which we cannot prevail on ourselves to pafs over, unnoticed. Mr. W. obferves, on the paffage in the fourth Elegy, beginning, Flammeus at fignum, &c. This must mean five years;' but on this mode of computation, the following lines in the Epitaphium Damonis muft defcribe the space of four years: Et jam bis viridi furgebat culmus arifta, Et totidem flavas numerabant horrea messes. As, however, two fprings and two autumns can make but two years; fo three fprings, two autumns, and two winters, can include the fpace of little more than two. Suppofing Young left England in the fpring, and Milton addreffed this Elegy to him |