bed; and much about the time of her death a gutta ferena, which had for several years been gradually increasing, totally extinguished his fight *. In this melancholic condition he was easily prevailed with to think of taking another wife, who was Catharine the daughter of Captain Woodcock of Hackney; and she too, in less than a year after their marriage, died in the fame unfortunate manner as the former had done; to whose memory he does honour in one of his Son nets. An. Et. $2. These private calamities were much heightened by the different figure he was likely to make in the new scene of affairs which was going to be actedin the It was the fight of his left eye that he loft firft; and it was at the defire of his friend Leonard Philaras, the Duke of Parma's minifter at Paris, that he fent him a particular account of his cafe, and of the manner of his growing blind, for him to confult Thevenot the physician, who was reckoned famous in cafes of the eyes. The letter is the fifteenth of his Familiar Epiftles. is dated September 28, 1654, and is thus tranflated by Mr Richardfon: "Since you advife me not to fling away all hopes of re"covering my fight, for that you have a friend at Paris, "Thevenot the phylician, particularly famous for the eyes, "whom you offer to confult in my behalf, if you receive "from me an account by which he may judge of the causes "and fymptoms of my disease, I will do what you advise "me to that I may not feem to refufe any affillance that " is offered, perhaps, from God. "think 'tis about ten years, more or lefs, fince I began "to perceive that my eye-fight grew weak and dim, and "at the fame time my fpleen and bowels to be oppreft and "troubled with flatus; and in the morning when I began "to read, according to custom, my eyes grew painful imme"diately, and to refufe reading, but were refreshed after a "moderate exercife of the body. A certain iris began to fur"round the light of the candle if I looked at it; foon af"ter which, on the left part of the left eye (for that was Volume I. B state: for all things now conspiring to promote the King's restoration, he was too conscious of his own activity during the ufurpation to expect any favour from the Crown; and therefore he prudently ab→ fconded 'till the act of Oblivion was published; by which he was only rendered incapable of bearing any office in the nation. Many had a very just esteem of his admirable parts and learning who detefted his principles, by whose interceffion his pardon paffed the feals and I wish the laws of Civil history could have extended the benefit of that oblivion to the memory of his guilt, which was indulged to his perfon; Ne tanti facinoris immanitas aut extitiffe, aut non vindicata fuiffe, videatur. : Having thus gained a full protection from the go "fome years fooner clouded) a mist arose which hid every "thing on that fide; and looking forward, if I fhut my "right eye objects appeared fmaller. My other eye alfo, "for thefe laft three years, failing by degrees, fome months "before all fight was abolifhed, things which I looked upon "feemed to fwim to the right and left; certain inveterate "vapours feem to poffefs my forehead and temples, which "after meat, efpecially quite to evening, generally urge "and deprefs my eyes with a fleepy heaviness: nor would "Iomit, that whilft there was as yet fome remainder of fight, "I no fooner lay down in my bed, and turned on my fide, "but a copious light dazzled out of my fhut eyes; and as "my fight diminished every day, colours gradually more "obfcure flafhed out with vehemence; but now that the "lucid is in a manner wholly extinct, a direct blackness, "or elfe fpotted, and, as it were, woven with afh-colour, "is ufed to pour itfelf in. Nevertheless, the couftant and "fettled darknefs that is before me, as well by night as "by day, feems nearer to the whitish than the blackish; and the eye rolling itfelf a little, feems to admit I know "not what little fmallness of light as through a chink." vernment, (which was in truth more than he could have reasonably hoped) he appeared as much in public as he formerly used to do; and employing his friend Dr. Paget to make choice of a third confort, on his recommendation he married Elizabeth the daughter of Mr. Minshul, a Cheshire gentleman, by whom he had no issue. Three daughters by his first wife were then living, two of whom are said to have been very serviceable to him in his studies: for, having been instructed to pronounce not only the modern, but alfo the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, they read in their respective originals whatever authors he wanted to confult, though they understood none but their mother-tongue. This employment, however, was too unpleasant to be continued for any long procefs of time; and therefore he dismissed them, to receive an education more agreeable to their sex and temper. An. Et. • 26. † 29. We come now to take a furvey of him in that point of view in which he will be looked on by all fucceeding ages with equal delight and admiration. An interval of above twenty years had elapfed fince he wrote the Mask of Comus *, L' Allegro, Il Penferofo, and Lycidas†; all in fuch an exquisite strain, that though he had left no other monuments of his genius behind him, his name had been immortal. But neither the infirmities of age and constitution, nor the viciffitudes of fortune, could deprefs the vigour of his mind, or divert it from executing a design he had long conceived of writing an heroic poem *. The Fall of Man was a subject which he had fome years before fixed on for a tragedy, which he intended to form by the models of Antiquity; and fome, not without probability, say the play opened with that fpeech in the Fourth Book of Paradise Lost, ver. 32. which is addreffed by Satan to the Sun. Were it material, I believe I could produce other paffages which more plainly appear to have been originally intended for the scene. But whatever truth there may be in this report, 'tis certain that he did not begin to mold his fubject in the form which it bears now before he had concluded his controversy with Salmafius and More; when he had wholly lost the use of his eyes, and was forced to employ in the office of an amanuenfis any friend who accidentally paid him a vifit. Yet, under all these discouragements and vaAn. Et. 61. rious interruptions, in the year 1669 he published his Paradise Lost †; the noblest Poem, next to those of Homer and Virgil, that ever the wit of man produced in any age or nation. Need I mention any other evidence of its inestimable worth, than that the finest geniuses who have fucceeded him have ever esteemed it a merit to relish and illuftrate its beauties whilft the critic who gazed, with fo much *Paradife Loft, B, IX, v. 26. † Milton's contract with his bookfeller, S. Simmons, for the copy, bears date April 27, 1667. wanton malice, on the nakedness of Shakespeare when he flept, after having * formally declared war against it, wanted courage to make his attack, flushed though he was with his conquests over Julius Cæfar and the Moor; which infolence his Muse, like the other affaffins of Cæfart, feverely revenged on herself; and not long after her triumph became her own executioner. Nor is it unworthy our obfervation, that though, perhaps, no one of our English poets hath excited fo many admirers to imitate his manner, yet I think never any was known to aspire to emulation : even the late ingenious Mr. Philips, who, in the colours of style, came the nearest of all the copiers to resemble the great original, made his distant advances with a filial reverence, and reftrained his ambition within the fame bounds which Lucretius prefcribed to his own imitation : Non ita certandi cupidus, quam propter amorem Quod TE imitari aveo: quid enim contendat hirundo Cycnis?...... And now, perhaps, it may pafs for fiction what with great veracity I affirm to be fact, that Milton, after having, with much difficulty, prevailed to have this divine Poem licensed for the prefs, could fell the copy for no more than fifteen pounds; the payment of which valuable confideration depended on the fale of three numerous impreffions. So unreasonably may The Tragedics of the laft age confidered, p. 143. † Vide Edgar. |