OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF MILTON. JOHN MILTON, fon of John and Sarah Milton, was born on the 9th of December 1608, at the house of his father, who was then an eminent fcrivener in London, and lived at the fign of the Spread Eagle (which was the armorial enfign of the family) in Bread-street. The ancestry of the poet was highly refpectable. His father was educated as a gentleman, and became a member of Chrift-Church, Oxford; in which fociety, as it may be prefumed, he imbibed his attachment to the doctrines of the Reformation, and abjured the errours of Popery; in confequence of which, his father, who was a bigotted papist, difinherited him. The student therefore chofe, for his fupport, the profeffion already mentioned; in the practice of which he became fo fuccefsful as to be enabled to give his children the advantages of a polite education, and at length to retire with comfort into the country. a “The xxth daye of December 1608 was baptized John, the fonne of John Mylton, fcrivenor." Extract from the Register of Allhallows, Bread-street. b See the firft Note on Milton's Verfes Ad Patrem. с The grandfather of the poet was under-ranger or keeper of the foreft of Shotover, near Halton in Oxfordshire; and probably refided at the village of Milton in that neighbourhood, where the family of Milton, in remoter times, were diftinguished for their opulence; till, one of them having taken the unfortunate fide in the civil wars of York and Lancaster, the estate was fequeftered; and the proprietor was left with nothing but what he held by his wife. There is a tradition that the poet had once refided in this village, while he was Secretary to Cromwell. The mother of Milton is faid by Wood, from Aubrey, to have been a Bradfhaw; defcended from a family of that name in Lancashire. Peck relates, that he was informed fhe was a Haughton of Haughton-tower in the fame county. But Phillips, her grandfon, whofe authority it is moft reafonable to admit, affirms, in his Life of Milton, that she was a Cafton, of a genteel family derived originally from h f In the Regifters of Milton, as I have been obligingly informed by letter from the Rev. Mr. Jones, there are however no entries of the name of Milton. Phillips, Milton's nephew, fays. that the family refided at Milton near Abingdon in Oxfordshire, as appeared by the monuments then to be feen in Milton church. But that Milton is in Berkshire; and Dr. Newton fearched in vain for the monuments faid to exift in that church. The information of Wood is moft probably correct, that they lived at Milton near Halton and Thame. Phillips's Life of Milton, 1694. p. iv. e Communicated to me by letter from Milton. f Fafti Ox. vol. i. p. 262, &c. chiefly taken, as Mr. Warton has obferved, from Aubrey's manufcript Life of Milton, preferved in the Afhmolean Museum, Oxford. & Memoirs of Milton, 1740. p. 1. Life of Milton, p. v. Wales. Milton himself has recorded, with becoming reference to the respectability of his descent, the great efteem in which fhe was held for her virtues, more particularly for her charity. k His father was particularly diftinguished for his mufical abilities. He is faid to have been a voluminous compofer, and equal in fcience, if not in genius, to the best musicians of his age. Sir John Hawkins and Dr. Burney, in their Hiftories of Mufick, have each selected a specimen of his fkill. He has been mentioned alfo by Mr. Warton, as the author of A fixe-fold Politician. Together with a fixe-fold precept of Policy. Lond. 1609. But Mr. Hayley agrees with Dr. Farmer and Mr. Reed in affigning that work rather to John Melton, author of the Aftrologafter, than to the father of our poet. Of his attachment to literature, however, the Latin verfes of his fon, addreffed to him with no lefs elegance than gratitude, are an unequivocal proof. Perhaps it may again be confounding him with the author of the Aftrologafter, in noticing the perfon who figns himself John Melton, citizen of London, at the close of a very indifferent Sonnet of fourteen lines, addreffed to John Lane on his Guy of Warwick, which is prėserved in the British Museum, and bears the date of licence for being printed in July 1617. This John Lane is the perfon whom Milton's nephew calls "" a 1 Londini fum natus, genere honefto, patre viro integerrimo, matre probatiffimâ, et eleemofynis per viciniam potiffimùm notâ. Defenf. fec. vol. iii. p. 95 edit. fol. 1698. * Dr. Burney's Hift. of Mufick, vol. iii. p. 134. 1 See the Note on ver. 66. 4d Patrem. fine old queen Elizabeth gentleman, who was living within his remembrance," and of whofe poems he gives a very flattering character. The Sonnet is entitled "In Poefis Laudem," and is not worth citing. But a little poem, to which the mufick of the elder Milton's Madrigal is adapted, (whether the poetical as well as the mufical compofition be his or not,) is given below, on account of the circumstance which occafioned it, (that of flattering a maiden queen on the verge of feventy,) as a curiofity. n The care, with which Milton was educated, fhows the difcernment of his father. The bloom of genius was fondly noticed, and wifely encouraged. He was See the note on ver. 66. Ad Patrem. And Madrigales, viz. The Triumphes of Oriana, to 5 and 6 voices, compofed by diuers feuerall authors. Newly published by Thomas Morley, Batcheler of Mufick, &c. 4to. Lond. 1601. For 6. Voices. Mad. XVIII. Fayre Orian in the morne, Before the day was borne, With velvet steps on ground, Which made nor print nor found, Would fee hir nymphs abed, What lives thofe ladies led: O ftay thou shepherd's mayd: They rofe and heard hir call. Then fang thofe fhepherds and nymphs of Diana, The Annual Regifter of 1762 very erroneously refers to Milton's poem Ad Putrem, in order to fupport the following mistaken affertion: "Ariosto often lamented, as Ovid and Petrarch did before him, and our own Milton fince, that his father banished him from the Mufes." Characters, Life of Ariofto, p. 23. Milton's verfes to his father prove exactly the reverse. |