His grandfather John was keeper of the forest of Shotover, a zealous papist, who difinherited his fon, because he had forfaken the religion of his ancestors. His father, John, who was the fon difinherited, had recourfe for his fupport to the profeffion of a fcrivener. He was a man eminent for his fkill in mufick, many of his compofitions being ftill to be found; and his reputation in his profeffion was fuch, that he grew rich, and retired to an estate. He had probably more than common literature, as his fon addreffes him in one of his most elaborate Latin poems. He married a gentlewoman of the name of Cafton, a Welfh family, by whom he had two fons, John the poet, and Chriftopher who ftudied the law, and adhered, as the law taught him, to the King's party, for which he was awhile perfecuted; but having, by his brother's intereft, obtained permission to live in quiet, he supported himself by chamber-practice, till, foon after the acceffion of King James, he was knighted and made a Judge; but, his confti tution being too weak for bufinefs, he retired before before any difreputable compliances became neceffary. He had likewife a daughter Anne, whom he married with a confiderable fortune to Edward Philips, who came from Shrewsbury, and rofe in the Crown-office to be fecondary: by him she had two fons, John and Edward, who were educated by the poet, and from whom is derived the only authentick account of his domeftick manners. John, the poet, was born in his father's house, at the Spread-Eagle in Bread-street, Dec. 9, 1608, between fix and feven in the morning. His father appears to have been very folicitous about his education; for he was inftructed at first by private tuition under the care of Thomas Young, who was afterwards chaplain to the English merchants at Hamburgh; and of whom we have reafon to think well, fince his. scholar confidered him as worthy of an epiftolary Elegy. He was then fent to St. Paul's School, under the care of Mr. Gill; and removed, in the the beginning of his fixteenth year, to Chrift's College in Cambridge, where he entered a fizar, Feb. 12, 1624. He was at this time eminently skilled in the Latin tongue; and he himself, by annexing the dates to his first compofitions, a boaft of which the learned Politian had given him an example, seems to commend the earlinefs of his own proficiency to the notice of pofterity. But the products of his vernal fertility have been furpaffed by many, and particularly by his contemporary Cowley. Of the powers of the mind it is difficult to form an estimate: many have excelled Milton in their firft eflays, who never rofe to works like Paradife Loft. At fifteen, a date which he ufes till he is fixteen, he tranflated or verfified two Pfalms, 114 and 136, which he thought worthy of the publick eye; but they raise no great expectations: they would in any numerous fchool have obtained praise, but not excited wonder. Many Many of his Elegies appear to have been written in his eighteenth year, by which it appears that he had then read the Roman authors with very nice difcernment. I once heard Mr. Hampton, the tranflator of Polybius, remark what I think is true, that Milton was the first Englishman who, after the revival of letters, wrote Latin verses with claffick elegance. If any exceptions can be made, they are very few: Haddon and Afcham, the pride of Elizabeth's reign, however they may have fucceeded in profe, no fooner at tempt verses than they provoke derifion. If we produced any thing worthy of notice before the elegies of Milton, it was perhaps Alabafter's Roxana. Of the exercifes which the rules of the University required, fome were published by him in his maturer years. They had been undoubtedly applauded; for they were fuch as few can perform: yet there is reason to fufpect that he was regarded in his college with no great fondness. That he obtained no fellowship is certain; but the unkindness with which he was treated was not merely VOL. I. negative. K negative. I am afhamed to relate what I fear is true, that Milton was the laft ftudent in either univerfity that suffered the publick indignity of corporal correction. : It was, in the violence of controverfial hoftility, objected to him, that he was expelled this he steadily denies, and it was apparently not true; but it seems plain from his own verses to Diodati, that he had incurred Ruftication; a temporary difmiffion into the country, with perhaps the lofs of a term: Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum, I cannot find any meaning but this, which even kindness and reverence can give to the term, vetiti laris, "a habitation from which "he is excluded;" or how exile can be other, wife interpreted. He declares yet more, that he is weary of enduring the threats of a rigorous mafter, and fomething else, which a temper like his cannot undergo. What was more than threat was evidently punishment. This poem, |