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1. THY gracious ear, O Lord, incline, O hear me, I thee pray;

For I am poor, and almost pine

With need, and sad decay.

2. Preserve my soul; for I have trod
Thy ways, and love the just;
Save thou thy servant, O my God,
Who still in thee doth trust.

3. Pity me, Lord, for daily thee
I call; 4. Omake rejoice

Thy servant's soul; for, Lord, to thee

I lift my soul and voice.

5. For thou art good, thou, Lord, art prone

To pardon, thou to all

Art full of mercy, thou alone,

To them that on thee call.
6. Unto my supplication, Lord,
Give ear, and to the cry
Of my incessant prayers afford
Thy hearing graciously.
7. I, in the day of my distress,
Will call on thee for aid;

For thou wilt grant me free access,
And answer what I pray'd.

8. Like thee among the gods is none,
O Lord; nor any works

Of all that other gods have done

Like to thy glorious works.

9. The nations all whom thou hast made
Shall come, and all shall frame

To bow them low before thee, Lord,
And glorify thy name.

10. For great thou art, and wonders great
By thy strong hand are done;
Thou in thy everlasting seat,

Remainest God alone.

11. Teach me, O Lord, thy way most right, I in thy truth will bide;

To fear thy name my heart unite,

So shall it never slide.

12. Thee will I praise, O Lord my God,
Thee honour and adore

With my whole heart, and blaze abroad
Thy name for evermore.

13. For great thy mercy is toward me,
And thou hast freed my soul,
Even from the lowest Hell set free,
From deepest darkness foul.

14. O God, the proud against me rise,
And violent men are met

To seek my life, and in their eyes

No fear of thee have set.

15. But thou, Lord, art the God most mild, Readiest thy grace to shew,

Slow to be angry, and art styl'd

Most merciful, most true.

16. O, turn to me thy face at length,
And me have mercy on ;

Unto thy servant give thy strength,
And save thy handmaid's son.
17. Some sign of good to me afford,
And let my foes then see,

And be asham'd; because thou, Lord,
Dost help and comfort me.

PSALM LXXXVII.

1. AMONG the holy mountains high
Is his foundation fast;
There seated in his sanctuary,

His temple there is plac'd.

2. Sion's fair gates the Lord loves more
Than all the dwellings fair

Of Jacob's land, though there be store,
And all within his care.

3. City of God, most glorious things
Of thee abroad are spoke ;

4. I mention Egypt, where proud kings
Did our forefathers yoke.

I mention Babel to my friends,
Philistia full of scorn;

And Tyre with Ethiops' utmost ends,
Lo this man there was born:

5. But twice that praise shall in our ear.

Be said of Sion last;

This and this man was born in her;
High God shall fix her fast.

6. The Lord shall write it in a scroll
That ne'er shall be out-worn,
When he the nations doth enroll,
That this man there was born.

7. Both they who sing, and they who dance, With sacred songs are there;

In thee fresh books, and soft streams glance,
And all my fountains clear.

PSALM LXXXVIII.

1. LORD God, that dost me save and keep, All day to thee I cry;

And all night long before thee weep,
Before thee prostrate lie.

2. Into thy presence let my prayer
With sighs devout ascend;

And to my cries, that ceaseless are,
Thine ear with favour bend.

3. For, cloy'd with woes and trouble store, Surcharg'd my soul doth lie;

My life, at Death's uncheerful door,
Unto the grave draws nigh,

4. Reckon'd I am with them that pass Down to the dismal pit ;

I am a man, but weak alas!

And for that name unfit.

5. From life discharg'd and parted quite
Among the dead to sleep;
And like the slain in bloody fight,
That in the grave lie deep.
Whom thou rememberest no more,
Dost never more regard,

Them, from thy hand deliver'd o'er,
Death's hideous house hath barr'd.
6. Thou in the lowest pit profound
Hast set me all forlorn,

Where thickest darkness hovers round,

In horrid deeps to mourn.

7. Thy wrath, from which no shelter saves, Full sore doth press on me ;

Thou break'st upon me all thy waves,
And all thy waves break me.

8. Thou dost my friends from me estrange, And mak'st me odious,

Me to them odious, for they change,

And I here pent up thus.

9. Through sorrow, and affliction great,
Mine eye grows dim and dead;
Lord, all the day I thee entreat,

My hands to thee I spread.

10. Wilt thou do wonders on the dead? Shall the deceas'd arise,

And praise thee from their loathsome bed
With pale and hollow eyes?

11. Shall they thy loving kindness tell.
On whom the grave hath hold?
Or they, who in perdition dwell,

Thy faithfulness unfold?

12. In darkness can thy mighty hand
Or wonderous acts be known?
Thy justice in the gloomy land

Of dark oblivion?

13. But I to thee, O Lord, do cry,
Ere yet my life be spent ;
And up to thee my prayer doth hie,

Each morn, and thee prevent.

14. Why wilt thou, Lord, my soul forsake, And hide thy face from me,

15. That am already bruis'd, and shake
With terrour sent from thee?
Bruis'd and afflicted, and so low
As ready to expire;
While I thy terrours undergo,
Astonish'd with thine ire.

16. Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow;
Thy threatenings cut me through :
17. All day they round about me go,
Like waves they me pursue.

18. Lover and friend thou hast remov'd, And sever'd from me far:

hey fly me now whom I have lov'd, T And as in darkness are."

A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV.

This and the following Psalm were done by the
Author at fifteen years old.

WHEN the blest seed of Terah's faithful son,
After long toil, their liberty had won ;

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JOANNIS MILTONI

LONDINENSIS

POEMATA.

QUORUM PLERAQUE INTRA ANNUM ÆTATIS
VIGESIMUM CONSCRIPSIT.

H&c quæ sequuntur de authore testimonia, tametsi ipse intelligebat non tam de se quàm supra se esse dicta, eò quòd præclaro ingenio viri, nec non amici, ita ferè solent laudare, ut omnia suis potiùs virtutibus, quàm veritati congruentia, nimis cupidè affingant, noluit tamen horum egregiam in se voluntatem non esse notam ; cùm alii præsertim ut id faceret magnoperè suaderent. Dum enim nimiæ laudis invidiam totis ab se viribis amolitur, sibique quod plus æquo est non attributum esse mavult, judicium interim homi. num cordatorum atuue illustrium quin summo sibi honori ducat, negare non potest.

Joannes Baptista Mansus, Marchio Villensis, Neapolitanus, ad JOANNEM MILTONIUM Anglum. Ur mens, forma, decor, facies mos, și pietas sic, Non Anglus, verùm herclè Angelus, ipse fores.

Ad JOANNEM MILTONEM Anglum triplici poeseos laurea coronandum, Græcâ nimirum, Latina, atque Hetrusca, Epigramma Joannis Salsilli Romani.

CEDE, Meles; cedat depressâ Mincius urnâ ;
Sebetus Tassum desinat usque loqui ;
At Thamesis victor cunctis ferat altior undas,
Nam per te, Milto, par tribus unus erit.

GRACIA Mæonidem, jactet sibi Roma Maro

nem,

Anglia Miltonum jactat utrique parem.

Selvaggi.

Al Signor Gio. Miltoni Nobile Inglésé.

ODE.

ERGIMI all' Etra ò Clio

Perche di stelle intreccierò corona

Non più del Biondo Dio

La Fronde éterna in Pindo, e in Elicona,
Diensi a merto maggior, maggiori i fregi,
A' celeste virtù celesti pregi.

Non puo del tempo edace
Rimaner preda, eterno alto valore
Non puo l'oblio rapace

Furar dalle memorie eccelso onore,
Su l'arco di mia cetra un dardo forté
Virtù m' adatti, e ferirò la morte,

Del Ocean profondo

Cinta dagli ampi gorghi Anglia resiede Separata del mondo,

Però che il suo valor l' umano eccede : Questa feconda sà produrre Eroi,

Ch' hanno a region del sovruman tra noi.

Alla virtù sbandita

Danno ne i petti lor fido ricetto,
Quella gli è sol gradita,

Perche in lei san trovar gioia, e diletto;
Ridillo tu, Giovanni, e mostra in tanto
Con tua vera virtù, vero il mio Canto.

Lungi dal Patrio lido

Ch' udio d' Helena il grido
Spinse Zeusi l' industre ardente brama;
Con aurea tromba rimbombar la fama,
E per poterla effigiare al paro
Dalle più belle Idee trasse il più raro.

Cosi l' Ape Ingegnosa

Dal giglio e dalia rosa,
Tra con industria il suo liquor pregiato

E quanti vaghi fiori ornano il prato ;
Formano un dolce suon diverse Chorde,
Fan varie voci melodia concorde.

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I più profondi arcani

Ch' occulta la natura e in cielo e in terra
Ch' à Ingegni sovrumani

Troppo avara tal' hor gli chiude, e serra,
Chiaramente conosci, e giungi al fine
Della moral virtude al gran confine.

Non batta il Tempo l' ale,

Fermisi immoto, e in un fermin si gl' anni,
Che di virtù immortale

Scorron di troppo ingiuriosi a i darni ;
Che s' opre degne di Poema e storia
Furon gia, l'hai presenti alla memoria.

Dammi tua dolce Cetra

Se vuoi ch' io dica del tuo dolce canto,
Ch' inalzandoti all' Etra

Di farti huomo celeste ottiene il vanto,
Il Tamigi il dirà che gl' e concesso
Per te suo cigno pareggiar Permesso.
Io che in riva del Arno

Tento spiegar tuo merto alto, e preclaro
So che fatico indarno,

E ad ammirar, non a lodarlo imparo ;
Freno dunque la lingua, e ascolto il core
Che ti prende a lodar con lo stupore.

Del sig. ANTONIO FRANCINI, gentilhuomo
Florentino.

JOANNI MILTONI.

LONDINENSI:

Juveni patriâ, virtutibus, eximio; VIRO, qui multae peregrinatione, studio cuncta orbis terrarum loca, perspexit; ut novus Ulysses omnia ubique ab omnibus apprehenderet :

Illi, in cujus virtutibus evulgandis ora Famæ non sufficiant, nec hominum stupor in laudandis Isatis est, reverentiæ at amoris érgo hoc ejus meritis debitum admirationis tributum offert C rolus Datus Patricius Florentinus,

Tanto homini servus, tantæ virtutis amator

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS

ON

THE LATIN VERSES.

Milton is said to be the first Englishman, who after the restoration of letters wrote Latin verses with classic elegance. But we must at least ex⚫ cept some of the hendecasyllables and epigrams of Leland, one of our first literary reformers, from this hasty determination.

In the elegies, Ovid was professedly Milton's model for language and versification. They are not, however, a perpetual and uniform tissue of Ovidian phraseology. With Ovid in view, he has an original manner and character of his own, which exhibit a remarkable perspicuity, a native facility and fluency. Nor does his observation of Roman models oppress or destroy our great poet's inherent powers of invention and sentiI value these pieces as much for their fancy and genius, as for their style and expression.

ment.

That Ovid among the Latin poets was Milton's favourite, appears not only from his elegiac but his hexametric poetry. The versification of our author's hexameters has yet a different structure from that of the Metamorphoses: Milton's is more clear, intelligible, and flowing; less desultory, less familiar, and less embarrassed with a frequent recurrence of periods. Ovid is at once rapid and abrupt. He wants dignity: he has too much conversation in his manner of telling a story. Prolixity of paragraph, and length of sentence, are peculiar to Milton. This is seen, not only in some of his exordial invocations in the Paradise Lost, and in many of the religious addresses of a like cast in the prose-works, but in his long

verse. It is to be wished that, in his Latin com

Polyglotto, in cujus ore linguæ jam deperdita sic reviviscunt, ut idiomata omnia sint in ejus laudibus infacunda; et jure ea percallet, ut ad-positions of all sorts, he had been more attenmirationes et plausus populorum ab propriâ sapientiâ excitatos intelligat :

Illi, cujus animi dotes corporisque sensus ad admirationem commovent, et per ipsam motum cuique auferent ; cujus opera ad plausus hortantur, sed venustate vocem laudatoribus adimunt

tive to the simplicity of Lucretius, Virgil, and Tibullus.

Dr. Johnson, unjustly I think, prefers the Latin poetry of May and Cowley to that of Milton, and thinks May to be the first of the three. May is certainly a sonorous versifier, and was sufficiently accomplished in poetical declamation for the continuation of Lucan's Pharsalia. May is scarcely an author in point. His skill is in parody; and he was confined to the peculiarities of an archetype, which, it may be presumed, As to Cowley when comhe thought excellent.

But

Cui in memoriâ totus orbis ; in intellectu sapientia; in voluntate ardor gloriæ; in ore eloquentia; harmonicos cœlestium sphærarum sonitus, astronomiâ duce, audienti; characteres mirabilium naturæ per quos Dei magnitudo de-pared with Milton, the same critic observes, "Milton is generally content to express the scribitur, magistrâ philosophiâ, legenti; antiquitatum latebras vetustatis excidia, eruditionis am- thoughts of the ancients in their language: Cowley, without much loss of purity or elegance, bages, comite assiduâ autorum lectione, accommodates the diction of Rome to his own conceptions.-The advantage seems to lie on the

Exquirenti, restauranti, percurrenti.
At cur nitor in arduum?

side of Cowley." But what are these concep-
tions? Metaphysical conceits, all the unna-
tural extravagancies of his English poetry; such
as will not bear to be clothed in the Latin lan-
guage; much less are capable of admitting any
degree of pure Latinity. I will give a few in-
stances, out of a great multitude, from the
Davideis.

Hic sociatorum sacra constellatio vatum,
Quos felix virtus evexit ad æthera, nubes
Luxuriæ supra, tempestatesque laborum.

Again,

Temporis ingreditur penetralia celsa fu-
turi,

Implumesque videt nidis cœlestibus annos. And, to be short, we have the Plusquam visus aquilinus of lovers, Natio verborum, Exuit vitam aeriam, Menti auditur symphonia dulcis, Natura archiva, Omnes symmetria sensus congerit, Condit aromatica prohibetque putescere laude. Again, where Aliquid is personified, Monogramma exordia mundi.

It may be said, that Cowley is here translating from his own English Davideis. But I will bring examples from his original Latin poems. In praise of the spring.

At mare immensum oceanusque Laeis
Jugitèr cœlo fluit empyræo;

Hinc inexhausto per utrumque mundum
Funditur ore.

Milton's Latin poems may be justly considered as legitimate classical compositions, and are never disgraced with such language and such imagery. Cowley's Latinity, dictated by an irregular and unrestrained imagination, presents a mode of diction half Latin and half English. It is not so much that Cowley wanted a knowledge of the Latin style, but that he suffered that knowledge to be perverted and corrupted by false and extravagant thoughts. Milton was a more perfect scholar than Cowley, and his mind was more deeply tinctured with the excellencies of ancient literature.

and therefore a more just writer. In a word, he He was a more just thinker, had more taste, and more poetry, and consequently more propriety. If a fondness for the Italian writers has sometimes infected his English poetry with false ornaments, his Latin verses, both in diction and sentiment, are at least free from those depravations.

Some of Milton's Latin poems were written in his first year at Cambridge, when he was only se venteen: they must be allowed to be very correct and manly performances for a youth of that age. And considered in that view, they discover ancient fable and history. I cannot but add, an extraordinary copiousness and command of that Gray resembles Milton in many instances. And in the same poem in a party worthy of the Among others, in their youth they were both pastoral pencil of Watteau. strongly attached to the cultivation of Latin poetry. WARTON

Et resonet toto musica verna libro;
Undique laudis odor dulcissimus halet,

&c.

Hauserunt avide Chocolatam Flora venus-
que.

Of the Fraxinella,

Tu tres metropoles humani corporis armis
Propugnas, uterum, cor, cerebrumque,
tuis.

He calls the Lychnis, Candelabrum ingens.
Cupid is Arbiler forme criticus. Ovid is Anti-
quarius ingens. An ill smell is shunned Olfactus
tetricitate sui. And in the same page, is nugatoria
pestis.

But all his faults are conspicuously and collectively exemplified in these stanzas, among others, of his Hymn on Light.

Pulchra de nigro soboles parente,
Quem Chaos fertur peperisse primam,
Cujus ob formam bene risit ofim
Massa severa!

Risus O terræ sacer et polorum,
Aureus vere pluvius Tonantis,
Quæque de cœlo finis inquieto
Gloria rivo!-

Te bibens arcus Jovis ebriosus
Mille formosos revomit colores,
Pavo cœlestis, variamque pascit
Lumine caudam.

Lucidum trudis properanter agmen :
Sed resistentum super ora rerum
Lenitèr stagnas, liquidoque inundas
Cuncta colore:

ELEGIARUM
LIBER.

ELEC. I. AD CAROLUM DEODATUM.'

TANDEM, chare, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ,
Pertulitet voces nuncia charta tuas ;
Pertulit, occiduâ Devæ Cestrensis ab ora

Multùm, crede, juvat terras aliuisse remotas
Vergivium prono quà petit amne salum.

Pectus amans nostrî, támque fidele caput,
Quódque mihi lepidum tellus longinqua sodalem
Debet, at unde brevi reddere jussa velit.
Me tenet urbs refluâ quam Thamesis alluit undâ,
Méque nec invitum patria dulcis habet.
Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum,
Nec dudum vetiti me laris angit amor.

'Charles Deodate was one of Milton's most intimate friends. He was an excellent scholar, and practised physic in Cheshire. He was educated with our author at St. Paul's school in Loudon; and from thence was sent to Trinity college Oxford, where he was entered Feb. 7, in the year 1621, at thirteen years of age. Lib. Matric. Univ. Oxon, sub ann.

He was born in London and the name of his father, in Medicina Doo toris, was Theodore. Ibid.

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