intention he had of taking chambers in one of the Inns of Court, where there would be a pleasant shady walk [he had Gray's Inn probably in view], where he could enjoy himself with some companions, and more readily pay visits to such places as he might wish to frequent. "For you know," says he, "that where I now am* I am cramped and obscure."

Beside the course of historic reading which he indicates above, he read the Greek and Latin writers in general, and probably some of the Fathers of the Church. To these he added the poets and other writers of modern Italy; and as he was acquainted with French and Spanish, he may, though we have no information to that effect, have studied Rabelais, Montaigne, Cervantes, and other eminent writers in these languages.

While he was thus enjoying the delights of literature, and storing his mind with various kinds of knowledge, his muse did not slumber. It was, beyond doubt, at this period that he wrote his beautiful pendents, L'Allegro and Il Penseroso. Horton also witnessed the birth of Arcades, Comus,† and Lycidas; and in all probability it was here also that he wrote his beautiful Latin poem, Ad Patrem. The whole of the poetry produced at Horton bears strong evidence of the calm, cheerful frame of mind which he seems to have enjoyed while dwelling amid its sequestered rural scenery. In his poems written during the latter years of his residence at the University, and while he was engaged in the study of theology, all is solemn, serious, and deeply imbued with the spirit of devotion; but in those com

* He would seem to mean Horton, but Hayley says he means the lodgings which he was in in London whence the letter is dated. + See Note D. at the end of this Part.

posed at Horton we everywhere discern animation, grace, elegance, and sweetness; the tone is cheerful, and the verses replete with rural imagery. Even in Il Penseroso and Lycidas there is no gloom, and both terminate in a tone of calm and tranquil cheerfulness. We may say of his Muse in these poems—

"But such a sadness did her thoughts employ

As lives within the neighbourhood of joy."*

On the 3rd of April, 1637, our poet's excellent mother departed this life. It had probably been her maternal uneasiness which had hitherto checked his desire to visit the Continent; and that impediment being now removed, he easily obtained his father's permission to put his design into execution. As he had lately, by means of his Comus, formed the acquaintance of Sir Henry Wootton, the Provost of Eton, who had been for some time ambassador at Venice, that accomplished scholar and statesman wrote him a letter of advice and directions for his travels, with an introduction to the tutor, it would appear, in the family of Lord Scudamore, Viscount Sligo, the English resident at the Court of France. Sir Henry's letter is dated April 18, 1638, and in the following month Milton embarked for the Continent. He travelled as a gentleman, being attended all the time he was abroad by his own servant, whom he had taken with him from England.+

At Paris he met with a very kind reception from Lord Scudamore, to whom he had an introduction. At his particular desire he introduced him to the celebrated Hugo Grotius, at that time resident there for Christina

* Dodsley's Collection, vi. 310.

For the following account of his travels we are indebted to Milton himself, in his Defensio Secunda.

Queen of Sweden. We are not informed of any of the circumstances of this interview; but Phillips says that "Grotius took the visit kindly, and gave him entertainment suitable to his worth and the high commendations he had heard of him." In truth our loss is probably not very great, for in general little that is of much importance takes place at such interviews.

He only staid a few days in Paris, which probably possessed little to interest him, and then left it, directing his course for Italy, the goal of his desires. Lord Scudamore kindly furnished him with letters to the English merchants at the ports of the South which he was likely to visit. We are not informed of his route through France, but it was of course the ordinary one through Lyons, and probably down the Rhône; for instead of entering Italy by the Alps and Turin, we find that he went to Nice, and thence by sea to Genoa. From this city, as he informs us, he proceeded, probably by sea also, to Leghorn and thence to Pisa, whence he went on to Florence, where he made a stay of two months.

Florence was then, as ever, the most literary city in Italy. Milton probably had from Sir Henry Wootton, from Lord Scudamore, or from some other quarter, letters of introduction to some person of influence there, for he obtained ready admission to those literary societies named Academies; and as it was the custom that every one who was admitted should give some specimens of his literary powers, he used for this purpose such of his Latin poems as he retained in his memory, to which he added. the Italian sonnets which he composed while there, all of which were received with applause. Count Carlo Dati wrote a Latin address panegyrizing him in high, almost extravagant terms; a gentleman of literary taste and

attainments named Francini wrote an Italian ode in his praise; and Antonio Malatesti presented him with a copy of his manuscript poems named La Tina, with a handsome dedication to him in the title-page.*

The other distinguished Florentines with whom he was on terms of intimacy were, he tells us, Buommattei, the celebrated grammarian, Gaddi, Frescobaldi, Coltellino, Clementillo, more properly Chimentelli, and others whom he does not name. When some years later he was nobly advocating the liberty of the press, he tells how these learned and ingenious men deplored the intellectual bondage under which they groaned. "I could recount," says he, "what I have seen and heard in other countries. where this kind of inquisition tyrannizes; where I have sat among their learned men (for this honour I had), and been counted happy to be born in such a place of philosophic freedom as they supposed England was, while themselves did nothing but bemoan the servile condition into which learning amongst them was brought; that this was it which had damped the glory of Italian wits; that nothing had been there written now these many years but flattery and fustian." The words which immediately follow these are important, as they inform us that Milton had also the high honour of being acquainted with the most illustrious philosopher of the age: "There it was that I found and visited the famous Galileo, grown

*Mr. Singer, who has seen this very copy, has given the title as follows, in Notes and Queries, viii. 295 :—

La Tina, Equivoci Rusticali, di Antonio Malatesti cōposti nella sua Villa di Triano, il Settembre dell' anno 1637.

"Sonetti cinquanta dedicati all' Illmo Signore et Padrone Ossmo il Signore Giovanni Milton, nobil' Inghilese."

La Tina (probably from tina, winepress), Mr. Singer tells us, was the name of the poet's rustic mistress, to whom the sonnets are supposed to have been addressed.

old, a prisoner to the Inquisition for thinking in astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought." Whether this was on his first or second visit to Florence he does not inform us, and we consequently have no means of ascertaining. Our young poet's intercourse at Florence however does not appear to have been confined to the men of letters, for he would also seem to have mingled in general society. It in fact appears from his Italian sonnets that he met there a lady, apparently a Bolognese, who made some impression on his heart.

Instead of taking the more agreeable and picturesque route by Perugia, he went to Rome by Siena, which, we may observe, was at that time, and long continued to be, the ordinary route between Florence and Rome. In this former mistress of the world he made another stay of two months, engaged, it would appear, chiefly in studying the ruins and the antiquities. In all probability he had brought with him letters of introduction from Florence. Among his literary acquaintances at Rome we meet with the names of Salsilli and Selvaggi, otherwise little known, the former of whom wrote a Latin tetrastich, the latter a Latin distich, in his praise,-neither of much merit, but both indicative of the strong idea he must have given of his poetic powers.

But his most valuable acquaintance at Rome seems to have been Lucas Holstein, or, as it was Latinized, Holstenius, at that time keeper of the Vatican Library, a man of learning, and who had at one time spent three years at Oxford. As far as we can collect from Milton's own account, he went to the library either without an introduction, or with a very slight one from a person of the name of Cherubini, not otherwise mentioned, and made