"We meet with what is faid, to be a true Account of Sadler's Well,' in a pamphlet published by a phyfician at the clofe of the feventeenth century. The water,' fays he, of this well, before the Reformation, was very much famed for feveral extraordinary cures performed thereby; and was thereupon accounted facred, and 'called Holy-swell. The priefts belonging to the priory of Clerkenwell, ufing to attend there, made the peo'ple believe that the virtues of the water proceeded from the efficacy of their prayers: but, at the Reformation, the well was ftopped upon the fuppofition that the frequenting of it was altogether fuperftitious; and fo by degrees it grew out of remembrance, and was wholly loft until then found out; when a gentleman named Sadler, who had lately built a 'new mufic-house there, and being furveyor of the highways, had em'ployed men to dig gravel in his garden, in the midft whereof they found it ftopped up and covered with an "arch of ftone.' After the decease of Sadler, one Francis Forcer, a musician and compofer of fongs, became occupier of the well and mufic-room; he was fucceeded by his fon, who first exhibited there the diverfion of ropedancing and tumbling, which were then performed abroad in the garden. There is now a small theatre appropriated to this purpose, furnished with a ftage, fcenes, and other decorations proper for the representation of dra matic pieces and pantomimes. The diverfions of this place are of various kinds, and form, upon the whole, a fucceffion of performances very fimilar to thofe difplayed in former ages, by the gleemen, the minstrels, and the jugglers.

"To the three preceding places of public entertainment, we may add a fourth, not now indeed in existence, but which about thirty years back was held in fome degree of eftimation, and much frequented, I mean Mary-bone Gardens; where, in addition to the mufic and finging, there were burlet

tas and fireworks exhibited. The fite of thefe gardens is now covered with buildings.

"The fuccefs of thefe mufical affemblies, I prefume, firft fuggefted the idea of introducing operas upon the ftage, which were contrived at once. to please the eye and delight the ear; and this double gratification, generally fpeaking, was procured at the expense of reafon and propriety. Hence, alfo, we may trace the eftablishment of oratorios in England. I need not fay, that this noble fpecies of dramatic mufic was brought to great perfection by Handel: the oratorios produced by him, difplay in a wonderful manner his powers as a compofer of mufic; and they continue to be received with that enthufiafm of applaufe which they moft juftly deferve." P. 215.

(To be concluded in our next.)

CIV. Todd's Edition of the Poetical Works of John Milton. (Concluded from p. 530.)

ORIGIN OF PARADISE LOST t.
THAT Milton had certainly read

the facred drama of Andreini,
is the opinion both of Dr. Joseph
Warton and of Mr. Hayley. Another
elegant critic has obferved, that Vol-
taire may have related a tradition per-
haps current in England at the time it
was vifited by him; a period at
which, it may be prefumed, fome of
the contemporaries of Milton were
living, for he was then only about
fifty years dead. Milton, with the
'candour which is ufually united with
true genius, probably acknowledged
to his friends his obligations to the
Italian dramatift, and the floating tra-
'dition met the ardent inquiries of the
French poet.' It may be worth men-
tioning here, that Dante, according to
the account of fome Italian critics
took the hint of his Inferno from a noc-
turnal reprefentation of Hell, exhi-
bited in 1304 on the river Arno at

"It is faid to be written by T. G. doctor in phyfic, and was published A.D. 1684.'

+ See Voltaire's Obfervations on the origin of Paradife Loft, quoted by the prefent Editor of Milton, in M. Epitome, vol. iii. for 1799, p. 103.

"Hift. Mem. on Ital. Tragedy, p. 170.

"Warton's Hift. of Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 24r.”

Florence;

Florence; and that Taffo is faid to have conceived the idea of writing his Aminta at the reprefentation, in 1567, of Lo Sfortunato of Agoftino Argenti in Ferrara.

Trin. Coll. Camb. that Milton intended an opera of the Paradife Loft. 'Voltaire, on the credit of this circumftance, amongst a heap of imper'tinency, pretends boldly that he took the hint from a comedy he faw at Florence, called Adamo. Others 'imagined too he conceived the idea in Italy: now I will give you good ' proof that all this is a vifion. In one of his political pamphlets, written early by him, I forget which, he tells the world he had conceived a notion of an epic poem on the ftory of Adam or Arthur. What then will you fay muft we do with this circumstance of the Trin. Coll. MS.? I believe I can ' explain that matter. When the Parliament got uppermoft, they fuppreffed the playhouses; on which Sir John Denham, I think, and others, contrived to get operas performed. This 'took with the people, and was much

"From the Adamo of Andreini, a poetical extract, as well as the fummary of the arguments of each act and scene, were given by Dr. Warton, in an appendix to the fecond volume of his Effay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, 1782. Mr. Hayley has cited other specimens of the poetry in this fpirited, though irregular and fantaftic, compofition;' from which Milton's fancy is fuppofed to have caught fire. The reader will find a few quotations alfo, from this rare and curious drama, in the Notes on Paradife Loft. But, if the Adamo be examined with the utmoft nicety, Milton will be found no fervile copyift: he will be found, as in numberlefs inftances of his extenfive, his curious, and care-in their taste; and religious ones beful reading, to have improved the flightest hints into the fineft defcriptions. Milton, indeed, with the skill and grace of an Apelles or a Phidias, has often animated the rude sketch and the shapeless block*. I mean not to detract from the Italian drama; but let it here be remarked once for all, in Milton's own words, that borrowing, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted plagiariet. Let the bittereft enemies of Milton prove, if they can, whether the author of this ingenuous remark may be exhibited in fuch a light; rather let, them acknowledge, that, in fully comparing him with thofe authors who have written on fimilar fubjects, he must ever be confidered as

above the reft

'ing the favourites of that fanctified people, was, I believe, what inclined Milton at that time (and neither be'fore nor after) to make an opera of it. Even at a much later period, the very existence of the Adamo was denied; for Mr. Mickle, an ardent admirer of Milton, and the very able tranflator of The Lufiad, calls it a comedy which nobody ever faw;' and obferves, that even fome Italian literati declared that no fuch author

[as Andreini] was known in Italy.' Dr. Johnfon alfo, in his Life of Milton, calls Voltaire's relation ‘a wild, unauthorized story.'

"That Milton had conceived, in his younger days, as Dr. Warburton has obferved, the notion of an epic poem on the ftory of Arthur, is evident from his own words in the Man

In fhape and gefture proudly emi- fus, v. 80, &c. and the Epitaphium

nent.'

Damonis, v. 155, &c.: where fee the Notes, vol. vi. p. 357, and p. 373. Mr. Hayley, with his ufual acuteness and elegance of language, remarks that it seems very probable that Milton, in his collection of Italian books, had brought the Adamo of Andreini to England; and that the perufal of an author, wild indeed, and abound.

"From the remarks of Prince Giacomo Giuftiniani (the accomplished governor of Perugia), on the Adamo, which were tranfmitted to Mr. Walker, and by Mr. Walker obligingly communicated to me, it appears that the critics of Italy confider Milton not a little indebted to their countryman." "Eiconoclaftes, Profe Works, edit. 1698, fol. vol. ii. p. 509."

ing in grotefque extravagance; yet now and then fhining with pure and united rays of fancy and devotion, first gave a new bias to the imagination of the English poet, or, to ufe the expreffive phrase of Voltaire, firft revealed to him the bidden majefly of the fubject. The apoftate angels of Andreini, though fometimes hideously and abfurdly difgufting, yet occafionally sparkle with fuch fire as might awaken the emulation of Milton'." Fol. i. p. 250.

getting Pope to divide it into acts and fcenes, and of having it acted at Weftminfter: but his commitment to the Tower put an end to that defign. It has fince been brought upon the ftage in the form of an oratorio; and Handel's mufic is never employed to greater advantage, than when it is adapted to Milton's words. The great artist has done equal juftice in our author's L'Allegro and Il Penferofo, as if the fame fpirit poffeffed both mafters, and as if the god of mufic, and of verfe, was ftill one of the fame. NEWTON.

"Samfon Agonistes is but a very indifferent fubject for a dramatic fable. However, Milton has made the beft of it. He feems to have chofen it for the fake of the fatire on bad wives.

Vol. iv. p. 494.

"WARBURTON."

6

divided into three acts: Mr. Penn's abridgment exhibits the length of two.

"It has been obferved by Goldsmith, that Samfon is a tragedy without a love-intrigue, as the Athalie of Racine alfo is, which appeared not many years after Samfon; and that Maffei, inftructed by these examples, has formed his Merope without any amorous plot.

"The hiftory of Samfon has often employed the pen of poetry. Mr. Hayley thinks that Milton's Samfon might perhaps be founded on a facred drama of that country, to the poets of which Milton was confeffedly partial: La Rapprefentazione di Sanfone, per Aleffandro Rofelli; of which there is an edition printed at Florence in 1554," another at the fame place in 1588, and a third at Siena in 1616: but I have not been more fortunate than Mr. Hayley, in endeavouring to procure a copy of this Samfon. The accomplished author of the Hiftorical Memoir on Italian Tragedy, 1799, has fuggefted to me that Milton might have met with more than one Italian drama on this fubject; for, among the Rappre Jentazioni enumerated by Cionacci, he had obferved a Sanfone, from the prologue to which an extract is given: A gloria adunche dell' Altitonante, E di colui che più che 'l fol risplende, &c.'

"Mr. Penn has printed, in the fecond volume of his valuable Critical, ⚫ poetical, and dramatic Works, 1798, an abridgment of Milton's Samfon; in nearly which form he thinks it might be acted as an interlude, without danger of being ill received. The abridgment is formed with much ingenuity. Yet the claffical reader will not perhaps accede to the abfence of fome fplendid, and fome affecting paffages. Mr. Penn alfo remarks, that Dr. Johnfon's criticism on this tragedy is fevere only in fuppofing, that it contained no and this he conceives to be not the more than the fubftance of one act; Sanfone of Rofelli, but a Rappresentaand that, though ftill one of Milton's zione of the fifteenth century. I am valuable works, Samfon is inferior both informed by the fame gentleman, that, to Lycidas, and the Allegro and Pen- in or about the year 1622, appeared ferofo. I agree in preferring the earlier the following French drama, which poems of Milton to his tragedy: but I might alfo have influenced the English may be permitted not to fubfcribe to poet in the choice of Samfon: Tráthe affertion in Dr. Johnfon's criticism, gedie nouvelle de Samfon le fort; that nothing paffes between the firft contenant fes victoires, & fa prise par act and the last, that either haftens la trahifon de fon épouse Dalila, qui or delays the death of Samfon;'lui coupa fes cheveux, & le livra aux which, Mr. Cumberland obferves, is not correct. On the contrary, I admire the art and judgment with which the poet has delineated the various circumstances that, from the firft entrance of Manoah to the laft appearance of Samfon, progreffively affect the mind of the hero, and finally produce the refolution which haftens the cataftrophe. Samfon, as an oratorio, is

Philiftins, defquels il occit trois mille à fon trefpas: en quatre actes. 8vo. 'fans date.' Probably, among the Autos Sacramentales or religious tragedies of the Spanish, a Samfon may exist. His hiftory is particularly noticed, and, part of it defcribed in a fonnet, in the celebrated Spanish paftoral, La Conftante Amarillis, edit. Lyon. 1614, P. 166." Vol. iv. p. 497.

CV.

"Thefe diamonds came from the Mongoley. Thamas Kouli Khan brought away from that empire to the value of one hundred and forty-fix millions of pounds fterling in precious ftones, in gold, filver, and other valuables. The throne of the peacock alone, which he conveyed away from Delhi, was eftimated at 202,500,000 francs, or nine kiurures. The kiurure makes a hundred laks, each lak a hundred thoufand rupees. The rupee varies in value, but may be generally eftimated at 25. 3d, fterling."

*See Monthly Epitome, vol. ii. for 1798, p. 177 et feq.