trations, nearly half a century has elapfed. Of thofe critics and annotators, whofe obfervations were then felected by Dr. Newton, as well as of thofe, with whofe fubfequent remarks the following pages are enriched; fome account may be thought neceffary. The firft annotator on the poet was Patrick Hume, a Scotchman. He publifhed, in 1695, a copious commentary on the Paradife Loft; to which fome of his fucceffors in the fame pro'vince,' fays Mr. Warton, appre⚫hending no danger of detection from a work rarely inspected, and too pe'dantic and cumbersome to attract many readers, have been often amply • indebted, without even the most diftant hint of acknowledgment.' His illuftrations in these volumes will be rarely found uninterefting. To him fucceeded the elegant Addifon, by whofe blandifhments of gentleness and facility, Milton has been made an univerfal favourite, with whom ⚫ readers of every clafs think it neceffary to be acquainted.' His effays on the Paradife Loft are printed in this edition, as a Preliminary Differtation; the remarks on each particular book not being detached from the general obfervations on the Poem, because Mr. Addison himself was defirous that the reader. fhould not neglect to view the whole extent of his criticifm. By the fame critic Comus and L'Allegro had been before commended. In 1732, Dr. Bentley published a fplendid edition of the Paradise Loft, by which he acquired no honour. His fpecious pretences of an interpolated text, and his arbitrary method of emendation, were received with derifion and difguft. Yet there are fome notes, in the edition, which befpeak the unvitiated tafte of this eminent fcholar, and to which the claffical reader will always thankfully fubfcribe. Immediately after the publication of this edition, the admirers of Milton were gratified by Dr. Pearce's masterly and candid refutation of the editor's chimerical corrections: and the Review of the Text of Paradife Loft furnished abundant annotations, at once inftructive and delightful. In 1734, the two Richardfons publifhed their Explanatory Notes on the Paradife Loft. Soon afterwards, Dr. Warburton communicated to the world fome remarks upon the fame poem. An Eday upon Milton's Imitations of the Ancients, faid to be written by a gent tleman of North Britain, whofe name, it is believed, has not been divulged the Letters concerning poetical tranflation, afcribed to Auditor Benfon, and the Critical Obfervations on Shakfpeare, in which are interspersed remarks upon Milton, by Mr. Upton, were the next publications, from which Dr. Newton profeffes to have derived affiftance. But, befides the flower of thofe which had been already publifhed, he added many new observations both of others and his own. He was indebted, for several ingenious illuftrations of Paradise Loft, to his relation, Dr. Greenwood. He was alfo obliged by the ufe of Dr. Heylyn's manuscript remarks on the fame poem, which had been before communicated to Bentley, and of which the greater part had been difingenuously adopted by that critic without acknowledgment. By the manufcript communications of Richardfon, Jortin, and Warburton; and more particularly by thofe of the modeft and liberal Mr. Thyer, his commentary on Paradife Loft was confiderably enlarged." P. 1. "In the year after the publication of Dr. Newton's edition of Paradife Loft, there was published at Glasgow the first book of that poem, with a large and very learned commentary, from which fome notes are selected in this edition. They, who are acquainted with this commentary, will concur with the present editor in wishing that the annotator had continued his ingenious and elaborate criticisms on the whole poem." P. 4. "In 1785 the public was presented with Lycidas, L'Allegro, Il Penferofo, Arcades, Comus, Odes, Sonnets, &c. accompanied with Mr. Warton's critical and explanatory notes; of which a fecond edition, with many alterations and large additions, was published in 1791, foon after his lamented death: in whom poetry and antiquity loft one of their moft zealous votaries, criticifm one of its ableft affertors, fociety one of its moft agreeable members, and the univerfity of Oxford one of her moft valuable and most respected fons. Mr. Warton appears to have alfo planned an edition of Paradise Regained and Sampfon Agonistes, by having omitted in the latter edition fuch notes as more immediately related to thofe poems, and which had appeared in the former edition; and by fubftituting merely references to the notes on thofe refpective paffages. The fignatures to the fheets of his latter edition are numbered indeed volume the firft. From both these editions, in which the names of Warburton, of Hurd, Bowle, and Dr. Joseph Warton, often occur as annotators, the most valuable illuftrations have been derived to the following pages. From Mr. Dunfter's edition of Paradife Regained, publifhed in 1795, a copious stock of judicious and elegant obfervations on that poem has been alfo here extracted. From modern works of critical eminence, relating to the English language and poetry, inany notices have been likewife drawn; in particular, from the compofitions of Lord Monboddo, Dr. Beattie, and Dr. Blair; from the Jate commentaries on Shakspeare; from Mr. Headley's Select Specimens of Ancient English Poetry; from the acute obfervations of Dr. Johnfon and Mr. Hayley; and in fhort, if the present editor may respectfully adopt the language of his predeceffor, like the bee, he has been ftudious of gathering fweets wherever he could find them.' Thefe contributions, however, have not been exacted, without references to the original treasuries of the information adduced, or without the names of the authors fubjoined. Of the notes in Dr. Newton's excellent edition of the Paradise Loft, few have been omitted, and fome have been fhortened; by which method the editor has been enabled to introduce, without too copious a commentary, the important obfervations of critics already enumerated, as well as of thofe who are yet to be named. Of the notes alfo in his edition of Paradife Regained, and the remaining Poems, feveral are retained. The labours of Mr. Warton and Mr. Dunfter have rendered more perhaps unneceffary. For the notes, to which no fignature is affixed, the prefent editor is accountable." P. 5. "The editor offers, with the utmoft deference, fome account of the Life of Milton, of which the materials have been drawn from authentic fources. In this biographical attempt fome new anecdotes, relating to the hiftory of Milton's friends, of his works, and of his times, will alfo be found. Thefe may perhaps plead as an apology for the rafhnefs of the editor, in affecting to sketch the poet, whom the masterly hands of a Johnson and an Hayley have. depicted; a rafhness to which he has been impelled by the perfuafion of others, that, to a new edition of his Works, it is a cuftom to prefix the Life of the Author. "Such are the materials here accu mulated, in order to explain the la bours of Milton: of Milton, the proud boaft of his own country, and the admiration of the world: of Milton, whofe imitations of others are fo ge nerally adorned with new modes of fentiment or phrafeology, that they lofe the nature of borrowings, and dif. play the skill and originality of a perfect master; and from whom fucceeding poets, at various periods, have • ftolen authentic fire'." P. 13. EXTRACTS FROM THE LIFE OF "HAVING taken the degree of M. A. in 1632, he left the univerfity, and retired to his father's house in the country, who had now quitted bufinefs, and lived at an estate which he had purchased at Horton, near Colne. brooke, in Buckinghamshire. Here he refided five years; in which time he not only, as he himself informs us, read over the Greek and Latin authors, particularly the hiftorians, but is alfo believed to have written his Arcades, Comus, L'Allegro and Il Penferofo, and Lycidas. The pleasant retreat in the country excited his moft poetic feelings; and he proved himself able, in his pictures of rural life, to rival the works of Nature which he contemplated with delight. In the neighbour hood of Horton the Countefs Dowager of Derby refided; and the Arcades was performed by her grandchildren at this feat, called Harefield Place. It seems to me, that Milton intended a compliment to his fair neighbour (for fair fhe was) in his L'Allegro : Towers and battlements it fees Where perhaps fome beauty lies, 'Bofom'd high in tufted trees, The Cynofure of neighbouring eyes. The woody scenery of Harefield, and the perfonal accomplishments of the Countess, are not unfavourable to this fuppofition; which, if admitted, tends 3 X 2 to to confirm the opinion, that L'Allegro and Il Penferofo were compofed at Horton. have been caught at Florence from Galileo or his disciples. "From Florence he paffed through Sienna to Rome, where he also stayed two months; feafting, as Dr. Newton well obferves, both his eyes and his mind, and delighted with the fine paintings, and sculptures, and other rarities and antiquities of the city. It has been judicioully conjectured, that feveral of the immortal works of the fineft painters and ftatuaries may be traced in Milton's poetry. They are fuppofed by Mr. Hayley to have had confider. able influence in attaching his imagination to our firft parents. He had moft probably contemplated them,' the elegant writer continues, not only in the colours of Michael Angelo, who ' decorated Rome with his picture of the creation, but in the marble of Bandinelli, who had executed two large ftatues of Adam and Eve, which, though they were far from fatisfying the tafte of connoiffeurs, might fi "The Mask of Comus, and Lycidas, were certainly produced under the roof of his father. It may be obferved that, after his retirement to private ftudy, he paid great attention, like his master Spenfer, to the Italian fchool of poetry. Dr. Johnfon obferves, that his acquaintance with ⚫ the Italian writers may be discovered by the mixture of longer and shorter verfes in Lycidas, according to the rules of Tuscan poetry.' In Comus the sweet rhythm and cadence of the Italian language is no lefs obfervable. Of thefe poems, as of his other works, the reader will find critical opinions in their respective places. I must here obferve that the house in which Milton drew fuch enchanting fcenes, was about ten years fince pulled down; and that, during his refidence at Horton, he had occafionally taken lodgings in London, in order to cultivate muficmulate even by their imperfections and mathematics, to meet his friends from Cambridge, and to indulge his paffion for books." Vol. i. p. xix. "Milton became acquainted (during his travels in Italy) with the celebrated Galileo, whom many biographers have reprefented as in prifon when the poet vifited him. But Mr. Walker has informed me that Galileo was never a prifoner in the inquifition at Florence, although a prisoner of it. On his arrival at Rome on February roth, 1632, that illuftrious philofopher had furrendered himself to Urban, who ordered him to be confined for his philofophical herefy in the palace of the Trinità de' Monti. Here he remained five months. Having retracted his opinion, he was difmiffed from Rome; and the houfe of Monfignor Piccolomini in Sienna was affigned to him as his prifon. About the beginning of December, in 1633, he was liberated, and returned to the village of Belloguardo near Florence, whence he went to Arcetri, where, it is probable, he received the vifit of the English bard. Milton himself has informed us that he had really feen Galileo; and Rolli, in his Life of the poet, confiders fome ideas in the Paradife Loft approaching towards the Newtonian philofophy, to *"Author of Historical Memoir the genius of a poet.' The defcription of the creation in the third book of Paradife Loft (line 708, 719), is fup pofed by Mr, Walker to be copied from the fame fubject as treated by Raphael in the gallery of the Vatican, called 'La Bibbia di Raffaello.' There are indeed several interefting pictures relating to Adam and Eve in the Flo rence collection, together with the Fall of Lucifer,' fuppofed to be the work of Michael Angelo, which Milton might have alfo feen. Mr. Dunfter ingeniously conjectures the Paradife Regained to have been enriched by the fuggeftions of Salvator Rofa's mafterly painting of The Temptation. The genius of Milton feems to have refembled more particularly that of Michael Angelo. It is worthy of notice, as it fhows a ftrong coincidence of tafte in the poet and the painter, that Michael Angelo was particularly ftruck with Dante; and that he is faid to have sketched with a pen, on the margin of his copy of the Inferno, every striking fcene of the terrible and the pathetic; but this valuable curiofity was unfortunately loft in a fhipwreck. The learned author of Tableaux tirés de l'Iliade, de l'Odyssée d'Homere, et de l'Eneide de Virgile,' was never on Italian Tragedy,' 4to. 1799 more more mistaken than in fuppofing the Paradife Loft incapable of fupplying an artift with fcenes as graceful and fublime as can be met with in the poems of the Grecian and Roman bards; for, in the words of Mr. Hayley, there is no charm exhibited by painting, which Milton's poetry has failed to equal, as far as analogy be tween the different arts can extend. Indeed the numerous exercifes for the painter's fkill, which Milton's works afford, have, in later times, commanded due attention; and Fufeli, by his happy fketches from fuch originals, has taught us how to admire poetry and painting 'breathing united force'." P. xxiv. when she came to live with her huf band, fhe found it folitary, no company came to her, and the often heard 'her nephews cry and be beaten. This life was irkfome to her, and fo fhe ' went to her parents. He fent for her 'home after fome time. As for wronging his bed, I never heard the leaft fufpicion of that; nor had he of that any jealoufie.' He fent for her, however, in vain. As all his letters, defiring her to return, were unanfwered; fo the meffenger, whom he afterwards employed for the fame purpofe, was difmiffed from her father's houfe with contempt. He refolved, therefore, to repudiate her; and, in defence of his refolution, he published four treatises, the two firft in 1644, the two laft in 1645. The Doctrine and Difcipline of Divorce; the Judgement of Martin Bucer concerning Divorce; Tetrachordon, or Expofitions upon the four chief Places of Scripture which treat of Marriage, or Nullities in Marriage; and Colafterion. The laft is a reply to the anonymous author of 'An Answer 'to a Book intituled, "The Doctrine "At Whitfuntide, in 1643, and in his thirty-fifth year, he married Mary, the daughter of Richard Powell, a gen-, tleman who refided at Forest Hill, near Shotover, in Oxfordshire, and was a juftice of the peace for the county. He brought his bride to London; who, after living only a few weeks with him, obtained his confent to accept the invitation of her friends to spend the remaining part of the fummer with them and Difcipline of Divorce," or a Plea in the country. He gave her permif- 'for Ladies and Gentlewomen, and fion to ftay till Michaelmas; but the 'all other married Women against Dideclined to return at the expiration of vorce. Wherein both Sexes are vinthat period. The vifit to her friends 'dicated from all Bondage of Canon was, in fact, only a pretence for con- Law, and other Miftakes whatsoever; jugal defertion. This defertion has and the unfound Principles of the been imputed, by Philips, to the dif- Author are examined and fully conferent principles of the two families. futed by Authority of Holy Scripture, Her relations, he tells us, being ge- 'the Laws of this Land, and found ⚫nerally addicted to the Cavalier party, Reafon. Lond. 1644. This pamand fome of them poffibly engaged in phlet was licensed and recommended 'the King's fervice (who by this time by Mr. Joseph Caryl, a Prefbyterian had his head-quarters at Oxford, and divine, and author of a voluminous was in fome profpect of fuccefs), commentary on the book of Job; 'they began to repent them of having whom Milton, in his reply, roughly matched the eldest daughter of the ftigmatizes with repeated charges of 'family to a perfon fo contrary to them ignorance, as he alfo ftyles his antain opinion; and thought it would be gonist, a ferving-man both by nature a blot in their efcutcheon, whenever and by function, an idiot by breedthat court fhould come to flourishing, and a folicitor by prefumption!" ་ again: however, it fo incenfed our author, that he thought it would be 'difhonourable ever to receive her again after fuch a repulfe.' The fame biographer intimates, that he was averfe to the philofophic life of Milton, and fighed for the mirth and jovialnefs to which he had been accustomed in Oxfordshire. And Aubrey relates, that fhe was brought up and bred where there was a great deal of company and merriment, as dancing, &c.; and, The application of thefe and fimilar terms in the difpute, may remind us of the elegant dialogue between Nym and Pistol in King Henry V.: but there a wife retained, and not a wife repudiated, is the caufe of fo much eloquence." P. xlviii.. "Milton now became an enemy to the Prefbyterians, whom he before had favoured. Notwithstanding their oppofition, however, he proceeded to illuftrate his opinion more forcibly by |