"If ever I pass a month or six weeks at Oxford in the summer, I shall be inclined to hire and repair this venerable mansion, and to make a festival for a circle of friends, in honour of Milton, the most perfect scholar, as well as the sublimest poet, that our country ever produced. Such an honour will be less splendid, but more sincere and respectful, than all the pomp and ceremony on the banks of the Avon."

It would not be easy, we apprehend, to produce a stronger instance than this of the self-deception that an ingenious man can practise. Sir William Jones, we see, had persuaded himself that Milton had "composed several of his earliest productions" at Forest Hill, and of course he found proofs, and by leading questions he obtained such answers as he wished from some of the villagers. But any one who reads with any care our Life of Milton, will see not merely the improbability, but the impossibility of the whole theory. Milton never had a house at Forest Hill. Whenever he was there he must have resided at Mr. Powell's, and it is probable that he never made any stay there of any duration, except on the occasion of his marriage; and surely L'Allegro and Il Penseroso are not the kind of poems that a man would be likely to write during the honeymoon. Besides, from the time that Milton engaged in theologic controversy his mind had probably taken such a turn as would make such occupation seem to him at least unsuitable. But we should not waste our own time or that of the reader on what is so self-evidently apocryphal.

Todd gives the following anecdote from a book named Easton's Human Longevity, published at Salisbury in 1799, observing that the same had appeared in the Wolverhampton Chronicle of March 31, 1790, while Mr. Hartop was still living:

"Of his unsubdued spirit," says Mr. Todd, "the following anecdote has been related. Soon after the Restoration he is said to have borrowed £50 of Jonathan Hartop, of Aldborough, near Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, who died in 1791, at the great age of 138. He returned the loan with honour, though not without much difficulty, as his circumstances were very low. Mr. Hartop would have declined receiving it, but the pride of the poet was equal to his genius, and he sent the money with an angry letter, which was found among the curious possessions of that venerable old man."

We may

observe that Mr. Todd expresses no doubt whatever of

the truth of this anecdote. Unfortunately for his critical acumen, chronology is as much against him here as topography was on a former occasion; for as Mr. Hartop died in 1791, aged 138 years, he must have been born in 1653, and so have been at most only ten years old when he made the loan to Milton.

Mr. Mitford, in the Addenda to his Life of Milton, quotes the following passage :—

"Mrs. Katharine Milton, wife to John Milton, Esq., was buried in St. Margaret's Church in Westminster, Feb. 10, 1657. Reg. Book. Milton then lived in a new house in Petty France, when Mr. Harvey, son of Dr. Harvey, of Petty France, Westminster, told me, Nov. 14, 1770 (1670 ?) that old Mr. Lownde assured him that when Mr. Milton buried his wife he had the coffin shut down with twelve several locks that had twelve several keys, and that he gave the keys to twelve several friends, and desired the coffin might not be opened till they all met together. Kennett. Wood's Ath. Ox. vol. ii. col. 486." This is not very like Milton; and when and why was the coffin to be opened?

Richardson states that he was informed by Sir George Hungerford, an ancient Member of Parliament, that Sir John Denham came into the House one morning with a sheet of Paradise Lost wet from the press in his hand, and, being asked what it was, he replied, "Part of the noblest poem that ever was printed in any language or in any age." He further tells us that it remained unknown till two years afterwards, when Lord Buckhurst, in company with a gentleman who often told the story to Richardson's informant, looking over some books in Little Britain, met with Paradise Lost, and, being surprised with some passages in turning it over, bought it. The bookseller requested his Lordship to speak in its favour if he liked it, for the books lay on his hands as waste paper. Lord Buckhurst having read the poem, sent it to Dryden, who in a short time returned it with this answer-This man cuts us all out, and the ancients too. "Much the same character," adds Richardson," he gave of it to a north-country gentleman to whom I mentioned the book, he being a great reader, but not in a right train, coming to town seldom, and keeping little company. Dryden amazed him with speaking loftily of it. Why, Mr. Dryden,' says he (Sir W. L. told me the thing himself), 'it is not in rime.' 'No,' replied Dryden, nor would I have done my Virgil in rime, if I was to begin it again.""

On the first of these anecdotes Malone observes that there was

little probability of Denham's getting a proof-sheet; he might however if well known at the printing-office. He then observes that Denham was out of his mind the greater part of the year 1667, when the poem was at press; and finally, what is quite conclusive, that Denham never was in Parliament at all. With respect to the second, he notices the fact that within the first two years 1300 copies were sold.* We may add that Dryden was probably acquainted with Milton at the time, and at all events he must have known that he had written Comus, which was so far beyond anything that he himself or any of his contemporaries had written. The last anecdote is probably true.

NOTE I.

MILTON'S WILL AND PROCEEDINGS THEREON.†

"Memorandum, that JOHN MILTON, late of the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate in the Countie of Middlesex Gentleman, deceased, at severall times before his death, and in particular on or about the twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord God 1674, being of perfect mind and memorie, declared his Will and intent as to the disposall of his estate after his death, in these words following, or of like effect: The portion due to me from Mr. Powell, my former wife's father, I leave to the unkind children I had by her, having received no parte of it: but my meaning is, they shall have no other benefit of my estate than the said portion, and what I have besides done for them; they having been very undutifull All the residue of my estate I leave to [the] disposall of Elizabeth my loving wife. Which words, or to the same effect, were spoken in the presence of CHRISTOPHER MILTON.

to me.

"Nov. 23. 1674."

"X [Mark of] ELIZABETH FISHER.

I.

The Allegation propounding the Will, on which Allegation the Witnesses be examined.

"Negotium Testamentarium, sive probacionis Testamenti nuncupativi, sive ultima Voluntatis, JOHANNIS MILTON, nuper dum

* As the poem was first published by Peter Parker under Creed Church, near Aldgate, and Robert Boulter in Fleet-street, the Little Britain bookseller could have only had some of the copies he had bought at the sale, which might be lying on his hands. Symmons gives credit to the anecdote.

First published by Warton in his edition of Milton's Minor Poems.

vixit parochiæ S. Egidii Cripplegate London generosi, defuncti, habent. etc. promotum per Elizabetham MILTON Relictam, et Legatariam principalem nominatam in Testamento nuncupativo, sive ultima Voluntate, dicti defuncti, contra Mariam, Annam, et Deboram MILTON, filias dicti defuncti.

"Secundo Andreæ, A. D. 1674. Quo die . . Thompson, nomine, procuratione, ac ultimus procurator legitimus, dicta Elizabethæ MILTON, omnibus melioribus et effectualioribus [efficacioribus] via, modo, et meliori forma, necnon ad omnem juris effectum, exhibuit Testamentum nuncupativum dicti JOHANNIS MILTON defuncti, sic incipiens, MEMORANDUM, that JOHN MILTON, late of the parish of S. Giles, Cripplegate,' etc. Which words, or words to the same effect, were spoken in the presence of Christopher MILTON, and Elizabeth Fisher; et allegavit consimiliter, et dicens prout sequitur. I. Quod præfatus JOHANNES MILTON, dum vixit, mentis compos, ac in sua sana memoria existens, Testamentum suum nuncupativum modo in hoc negotio exhibitum . . . tenoris schedulæ . . . testamentaria condidit, nuncupavit, et declaravit; cæteraque omnia et singula dedit, donavit, reliquit, et disposuit, in omnibus, et per omnia, vel similiter in effectum, prout in dicto Testamento nuncupativo continetur, ac postea mortem obiit: ac Principalis Pars ista proponit conjunctim, divisim, et de quolibet. II. Item, quod tempore conditionis, declarationis, nuncupationis Testamenti, in hoc negotio exhibiti, præfatus JOHANNES MILTON perfecta fruebatur memoria; ac proponit ut supra."

II.

Interrogatories addressed to the Witnesses examined upon
the Allegation.

"Decemb. 5. 1674. Interrogatoria ministrata et ministranda ex parte Annæ, Mariæ, et Debora MILTON, testibus ex parte Elizabethæ MILTON productis sive producendis sequuntur.

66

Imprimis, Aske each witnesse, what relation to, or dependance on, the producent, they, or either of them, have; and to which of the parties they would give the victory were it in their power? Et interrogatur quilibet testis conjunctim, et divisim, et de quolibet.

"2. Item, Aske each witnesse, what day, and what time of the

day, the Will nuncupative was declared; what positive words did the deceased use in the declaring thereof? Can you positively swear, that the deceased did declare that hee did leave the residue of his estate to the disposall of his wife, or did hee not say, ‘I will leave the residue of my estate to my wife'? Et fiat ut supra.

"3. Item, Upon what occasion did the deceased declare the said Will? Was not the deceased in perfect health at the same time? Doe you not think, that the deceased, if he declared any such Will, declared it in a present passion, or some angry humour against some or one of his children by his former [first] wife? Et fiat ut supra.

"4. Item, Aske each witnesse, whether the parties ministrant were not and are not greate frequenters of the Church, and good livers;* and what cause of displeasure had deceased against them? Et fiat ut supra.

"5. Item, Aske Mr. [Christopher] MILTON, and each other witnesse, whether the deceased's Will, if any such was made, was not, that the deceased's wife should have £1000, and the children of the said Christopher MILTON the residue; and whether she hath not promised him that they should have it, if shee prevailed in this Cause? Whether the said Mr. MILTON hath not since the deceased's death confessed soe much, or some part thereof? Et fiat ut supra.

"6. Item, Aske each witnesse, whether what is left to the ministrants by the said Will is not reputed a very bad or altogether desperate debt? Et fiat ut supra.

"7. Aske the said Mr. MILTON, whether he did not gett the said Will drawn upp, and inform the writer to what effect he should draw it? And did he not enquire of the other witnesses, what they would or could depose? And whether he hath not solicited this Cause, and pay'd fees to the Proctour about it? Et fiat ut supra.

"8. Item, Aske each witnesse, what fortune the deceased did in his lifetime bestowe on the ministrants? And whether the said Anne MILTON is not lame, and almost helplesse ? Et fiat ut supra.

*The description good livers is not to be understood in its general and proper sense, which could not have offended Milton; but as arising from what went before, and meaning much the same thing, that is, regular in their attendance on the established worship.-WARTON.