himself known to the learned Librarian. Holstein re

him over He seems

ceived him with the greatest politeness, took the library and showed him all its treasures. to have been so much struck by the stores of knowledge and the strength and variety of the mental powers displayed by his new acquaintance, that he spoke of him in the highest terms to the Pope's eldest nephew Cardinal F. Barberini, who, as we learn elsewhere, was guardian or patron of the English, an office apparently similar to that of Proxenus in ancient Greece. In consequence of this, soon after, at a splendid concert given by this munificent Cardinal, to which, probably as a matter of course, all the English travellers at Rome were invited, he waited in person at the door of the saloon to receive the young Englishman, and almost, says Milton, taking him by the hand, led him into the room with every mark of attention and respect. Holstein accompanied him when he went next day to pay his respects to the Cardinal, and nothing could be more gracious than the reception he met with from that prince of the Church. It may be here observed that, beside speaking Latin, which every scholar at that time could do, Milton, as his poetic compositions in it evince, was a perfect master of the Italian language, and probably spoke it with fluency and ease. During his abode at Rome,—at the Cardinal's probably and elsewhere, for he heard her several times,-Milton, whose passion for music was extreme, heard the celebrated Leonora Baroni sing, and he repaid the delight which she yielded him with three Latin epigrams which he addressed to her. He also repaid Salsilli for his tetrastich by an elegant copy of Latin Scazontes addressed to him on the occasion of his illness.

After, as we have said, a residence of two months at

Rome, Milton left that city and set out for Naples. He of course travelled in the ordinary mode, by vettura, and, as he tells us, one of his travelling companions was a hermit, whom we may presume to have been a man of some taste and learning, as he was acquainted with the Marquis Manso. On their arrival at Naples the hermit introduced to that nobleman the young English traveller, with whose conversation on the journey he had probably been much pleased.

To every one acquainted with the history of the unhappy Torquato Tasso, the name of John Baptist Manso, Marquis of Villa, must be familiar. He had been the patron, friend, and biographer of that poet, and he had been the same to Marini, a poet whose birth also Naples claims. He was now nearly eighty years of age, yet he showed the stranger every attention, becoming his guide to all places worthy of his inspection. "I experienced from him, as long as I remained there," says Milton, "the most friendly attentions. He accompanied me to the various parts of the city, and took me over the Viceroy's palace, and came more than once to my lodgings to visit me. At my departure he made earnest excuses to me for not having been able to show me the further attentions which he desired in that city, on account of my unwillingness to conceal my religious sentiments." The venerable nobleman wrote a Latin distich in our poet's praise, who repaid it by a Latin poem which left far behind anything written in his honour even by the great Torquato Tasso.

It had been Milton's original intention to visit both Sicily and Greece, and thus to have explored all the regions in which classic poetry had had its birth, and from which it had drawn its inspiration. But while his mind

C

was occupied with the idea of the pleasures he seemed about to enjoy, he received tidings of the alarming state of affairs in England;* and aware that a rupture must ensue between the King and his people, he resolved to return and take whatever part Providence might assign him in the impending struggle. "I deemed it," says he, " to be disgraceful for me to be idling away my time abroad, for my own gratification, while my countrymen were contending for their liberty." Animated with these honourable intentions, he turned his back on fair Parthenope and set out once more for Rome, though his friends among the English merchants told him that they had been advised by letters from that city that the English Jesuits there were plotting against him, on account of the freedom with which he expressed himself on the subject of religion. In fact, he seems not to have adhered to the maxim of the prudent Italian, communicated by his friend Sir Henry Wootton, Il viso sciolto ed i pensieri stretti. It may be even doubted if it were possible for one of his open, candid, and fearless temper to have adhered to a maxim of such timid caution. The rule which, he says, he had laid down for himself was, never to introduce the subject of religion, but if questioned as to his faith, not to dissemble it, be the consequences what they might.

He accordingly quitted Naples and set out once more for Rome, where he arrived in safety, and where he made an abode of another two months, enjoying the society of his literary friends and unmolested by the Jesuits, though never concealing his religion, and boldly defending it when

* Just about the time that Milton was setting out on his travels, the National Covenant was renewed in Scotland, and the differences between the King and the people of that country assumed every day more and more a menacing aspect.

attacked. He thence proceeded to Florence, where he found himself as welcome, he says, as if it had been his native country. While there he wrote a letter to his friend Holstein at Rome, who had requested him to inspect for him some MS. in the Laurentian Library, a thing which, he tells him, he had hitherto found it impossible to accomplish, on account of the illiberal system on which that Library was managed. This letter, which is dated March 30, 1639, is of importance in settling the chronology of his travels.

After another stay of two months in this capital of Tuscany, during which he made an excursion of a few days to Lucca, he took a final leave of his friends there, and travelling of course by vettura, he crossed the Apennines to Bologna, and went thence by Ferrara to Venice. This celebrated city detained him an entire month, but he does not inform us how he passed his time there, or what acquaintances he made. He had, it appears, been a diligent collector of both books and music during his residence in Italy; and being now at a seaport, and having an opportunity of sending his literary treasures to England by sea, and thus becoming more expedite for his remaining travels, he took advantage of it, and put them on board an English vessel, at least a vessel bound for London, where, as he says nothing to the contrary, we may presume they arrived in safety.

Quitting the then Queen of the Adriatic, he proceeded through Padua and Vicenza to Verona, where of course he viewed the amphitheatre; and so on to Milan and over the Pennine Alps, i. e. Mount St. Bernard, to Geneva. He does not tell us how long he remained in this metropolis of Calvinism, but while there he was in the habit of daily intercourse with John Diodati, the professor of theology,

the uncle of his friend Charles Diodati. Here also he made the acquaintance of Frederick Spanheim, an eminent theologian. He thence proceeded to Lyons; and taking his former route through France, reached his native land in safety some time in the month of August, 1639, after an absence of fifteen months.

It does not seem to have occurred to any of Milton's biographers, to endeavour to assign the time of the year that he was in the different cities of Italy which he visited; yet it is not an uninteresting subject, and we will therefore try if we can succeed in elucidating it.

It is probable that he reached Florence some time in the month of July, 1638,* for he was two months there, and it is not at all likely that he would have set out for Rome till toward the middle or end of September, so as not to arrive till the period of the malaria in that city was nearly over, and people of rank were returning to it from the country. He staid there, as he tells us, about two months, so he may have reached Naples toward the end of November. His stay there must have been brief, perhaps not more than a fortnight, and he was probably back in Rome before Christmas. As he remained there two months, and was two months more in Florence, and one month in Venice, and we know that he was in Geneva in the beginning of June,† he probably left Rome about the middle of February. He wrote, as we have

* As he left England in May and made only a short stay in Paris, it is difficult to conjecture how he spent so much time on his way to Italy.

Mr. Hunter (p. 23) mentions an album kept at Geneva at that time, in which Milton had written

"If virtue feeble were, Heaven itself would stoop to her.

"Coelum non animum muto dum trans mare curro.

Junii 10°, 1639. Johannes Miltonius, Anglus."