Went to the ground: And the repeated air
Of fad Electra's poet had the pow'r

To fave th' Athenian walls from ruin bare.

IX.

To a virtuous young Lady.

Lady that in the prime of earliest youth
Wifely haft fhunn'd the broad

And with those few art eminently feen, That labor up the hill of heav'nly truth, The better part with Mary and with Ruth Chofen thou haft; and they that overween, And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen,

No anger find in thee, but pity' and ruth. Thy care is fix'd, and zealously attends

To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light,

And hope that reaps not fhame. Therefore be fure Thou, when the bridegroom with his feaftful friends Paffes to blifs at the mid hour of night, Haft gain'd thy entrance, Virgin wife and pure. X.

*To the Lady Margaret Ley.

Daughter to that good Earl, once President
Of England's Council, and her Treasury,
Who liv'd in both, unstain'd with gold or fee,

And

that the fame word fhould rime to itself though in different fenfes: but our old poets were not fo very delicate, and the reader may fee parallel inftances in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. 1. Cant. 6. St. 39. and B. 7. Cant. 6. St. 38.

13. Paffes to bliss at the mid hour of night,] Inftead of this line he had written at first,

Opens the door of bliss that hour of night:

but he rightly alter'd it, the better to accommodate it to the parable to which he is alluding. See Mat. XXV.

8. but pity and ruth.] Here Ruth and ruth are made to rime to each other, and it may perhaps of* We have given the title which fend the niceness of modern ears is in Milton's Manufcript, To the

Q 2

Lady

1

And left them both, more in himself content,

Till fad the breaking of that Parlament

Broke him, as that dishoneft victory

At Chæronea, fatal to liberty,

Kill'd with report that old man eloquent. Though later born than to have known the days father florish'd, yet by you,

Wherein your

Madam, methinks I fee him living yet;
So well your words his noble virtues praise,
That all both judge you to relate them true,
And to poffefs them, honor'd Margaret.

Lady Margaret Ley. She was the
daughter of Sir James Ley, whofe
fingular learning and abilities raifed
him through all the great pofts
of the the law, till he came to be
made Earl of Marlborough, and
Lord High Treasurer, and Lord
Prefident of the Council to King
James I. He died in an advanc'd
age, and Milton attributes his
death to the breaking of the par-
lament; and it is true that the
parlament was diffolved the 10th
of March 1628-9, and he died on
the 14th of the fame month. He
left feveral fons and daughters;
and the Lady Margaret was mar-
ried to Captain Hobfon of the le
of Wight. It appears from the
accounts of Milton's life, that in
the year 1643 he ufed frequently

ΙΟ

5

On

XI.

* On the detraction which followed upon my writing certain treatises.

A book was writ of late call'd Tetrachordon,
And woven close, both matter, form and stile;
The subject new: it walk'd the town a while,
Numb'ring good intellects; now feldom por❜d on.
Cries the ftall-reader, Blefs us! what a word on 5
A title page is this! and fome in file

Stand spelling false, while one might walk to Mile-
End Green. Why is it harder Sirs than Gordon,
Colkitto,

ἑαυτε βιου.
Dionyfius Halicar-
naff. de Ifocrate Vol. 2. p. 150.
Edit. Hudfon. Plutarch fays that
he abftain'd from food for four
days, and fo put a period to his
life, having liv'd 98, or as fome
fay 100 years. See Plutarch's Lives
of the ten Orators. Vol. 2.
P. 837.
Edit. Paris. 1624.

* When Milton publish'd his books of Divorce, he was greatly condemn'd by the Prefbyterian clergy, whofe advocate and champion he had been before. He publish'd his Tetrachordon or Expofitions upon the four chief places in Scripture, which treat of

fonnets, which were firft printed in the edition of 1673, and to which we have prefixed the title that he himfelf has in the Manuscript.

1. A book was writ of late &c] In the Manufcript he had written at first,

I writ a book of late call'd Tetrachordon, And weav'd in clofe, both matter, form and ftile;

It went off well about the town a while,

Numb'ring good wits, but now is feldom por'd on.

marriage or nullities in marriage, The reader will readily agree, that

in 1645; and foon after we may fuppofe he compofed these two

it was alter'd for the better.

Q 3

9. Colkitte,

Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp?

9

Those rugged names to our like mouths grow fleek, That would have made Quintilian ftare and gafp. Thy age, like ours, O Soul of Sir John Cheek, Hated not learning worfe than toad or afp, When thou taught'ft Cambridge, and king Edward

Greek.

XII.

On the fame.

I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs
By the known rules of ancient liberty,
When strait a barbarous noise environs me
Of owls and cuccoos, affes, apes and dogs;

9. Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galafp?] We may fuppofe that thefe were perfons of note and eminence amongst the Scotch minifters who were for preffing and enforcing the Covenant. Galafp we know was one of the Scotch minifters and commiffioners from the Kirk to the Parlament. See the verfes on the forcers of conScience.

10. Thofe rugged names] He had written at firft barbarous, and then rough hewn, and then rugged.

12. Sir John Check Or Cheke.

He was the firft Profeffor of the
Greek tongue in the university of

As

Cambridge, and was highly inftru-
mental in bringing that language
into repute, and reftoring the ori
ginal pronunciation of it, tho'
with great oppofition from the pa-
trons of ignorance and popery,
and especially from Gardiner, bi-
fhop of Winchefter, and chancel-
lor of the univerfity. He was af-
terwards made one of the tutors
to Edward VI. See his life by
Strype, or in Biographia Britan
nica.

Milton's Manufcript it ftands,
4. Of owls and cuccoos, ] In
Of owls and buzzards