necessary time for the news of his merit to reach the literati of France and Italy, it is probable that he did not start from home till about the beginning of the next year.

He had some verses printed, indeed, soon after leaving the university. They composed a sort of epitaph upon Shakspeare; and were published with the edition of that poet's works for 1632. It is not likely, that he received any distiches or tetrastiches from the Italians, on account of this poem. It concludes with a most frigid conceit, that Shakspeare's best tomb is the marble into which he turns his readers; and, like all other epitaphs, makes the poet's monument proclaim the futility of its own erection. We have seen it stated, that Shakspeare was no very great favourite with Milton; and, in Mr. Scott's Life of Dryden, he is said to have reproached Charles the First with 'having, as the chosen companion of his private hours, one William Shakspeare, a player.'* This was probably said, when he had become a furious writer against kings in general. He, then, indeed, made no secret of his opposition to the stage; and, in his Discourse on the likeliest Way to remove Hirelings out of the Church, one of the chief topics of invective is, the practice, among the clergy, of filling up their leisure hours with acting some play. He was not such an enemy to the drama in his early days; and, in his Elegy to Deodati, he says,

Excipit hine fessum sinuosi pompa theatri
Et vocat ad plausus garrula scena suos.

Some time in the year 1643, when the earl of Bridgewater resided at Ludlow Castle, in Shropshire, his two sons, Lord Brackley and Mr. Egerton, with their sister, Lady Alice Egerton, while passing through Haywood Forest, in Herefordshire, were overtaken by night, and the lady, for some time, lost. The adventure furnished an abundant topic of conversation, when they got home; and, at the solicitation of Henry Lawes, who was then teaching music in the family, Milton undertook to compose a mask upon the subject. It was acted at the castle on Michaelmas night; and the two brothers, the young lady, and Lawes, each bore a part in the performance. Lawes composed the music; and was afterwards the editor of Comus. The following lines ✓ are supposed to be meant for that eminent musician; who took the part of Comus.

--But first I must put off

These skie robes, spun out of Iris woof,
And take the weeds and likeness of a swain
That to the service of this house belongs;
And with his soft pipe, and smooth dittied song,
Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar,
And hush the waving woods.-

It has been conjectured, that Arcades was acted before the countess dowager of Derby, at her seat in Harefield, the year previous to the composition of Comus. No reason is given for assigning the time so precisely; but, as Lady Derby died in January, 1636,† the Arcades must at least have been written before Comus was published; and, as the earl of Bridgewater, who married a daughter of her ladyship, lived at a much greater distance from Horton than the Countess herself, it is likely, that Milton first established his reputation with the latter; and, being afterwards introduced to the former, was solicited to make a second effort of his skill. Mr. Wharton tells us, that the Arcades was 'acted by the persons of Lady Derby's own family; and Mr. Todd conjectures, that these persons could have been no other than the same Lord Brackley, Mr. Thomas and Lady Alice Egerton, who performed Comus. It seems, indeed, that they were famous for their abilities at a mask; for, in 1633, they assisted in the performance of Carew's Cœlum Brittanicum before the court.*

In August, 1637, Mr. Edward King, son of Sir John King, secretary for Ireland, under queen Elizabeth, James the First, and Charles the First, was sailing from Chester to Ireland, when the crazy vessel, in which he had embarked, was split upon a rock, and went to the bottom. A few escaped; and an attempt was made to get Mr. King into the boat; but we have the most unequivocal ivocal evidence, that the attempt proved unsuccessful. He had many friends in Cambridge; and his death was lamented in three Greek, nineteen Latin, and thirteen English poems. Milton's Lycidas was at the end of the collection; and, though Peck says, that it was placed last in consequence of the author's disagreement with Christ College, Mr. Wharton will have it, that the end of the volume was the place of honour. King had written some Latin iambics; and Milton asks,

-Our tears shall seem the Irish seas,
We floating islands, living Hebrides.

But a Mr. Booth exceeded all the rest; though his poem was not published in the collection. He has this epitaph upon Mr. King:

Heere lies the love of gentle hearts,
The cabinet of all the artes.
Heere lies Grammar, out of which
Mute fishes learn their parts of speech.
Heere lies Rhetoriche, all undone,
Which makes the seas more fluent runne.
And heere Philosophy was drown'd,
Which makes the seas far more profound.*

In all the three poems now mentioned, Milton had imitated the Italian versification; and it was probably on account of this preference, that he was recompensed with so much extravagant praise, during his stay in Italy. His reputation must have had time to go before him; and, as his letter of advice from Sir Henry Wotton is dated April 13th, 1638,† it is probable, that he did not set out till about the close of that year, or the beginning of the next. It was in this letter that Sir Henry Wotton gave Milton the famous advice of 'I pensieri stretti, et il viso sciolto'-thoughts close, and looks loose; which same piece of advice he received from an old Roman courtier, and was accustomed to bestow it upon all his friends, who were about to travel. This, and a direction as to the best route, are the only advice in this famous letter of Sir Henry Wotton. How Milton followed the former, is well known. Whether he adopted the latter, we cannot ascertain.

He started with a single servant, who accompanied him throughout his journey. The English

ambassador at Paris received him with kindness; and, at his own request, made him acquainted with Grotius, who was then embassador from Christiana, of Sweden. From Paris he went to Nicæa; from Nicæa, by water, to Genoa; thence to Leghorn, to Pisa, and to Florence; where he remained two months,-inspecting its curiosities, visiting the academies, and receiving compliments. The attentions of the Florentine literati could hardly be repaid by separate acknowledgments. Milton, therefore, calls over the roll, and makes one compliment serve for all. Tui enim Jacobe Gaddi, Carole Dati, Frescobalde, Bommatthæe, Clementille, Francine, aliorumque plurium memoriam apud me semper gratam, atque jucundam, nulla dies delebit.'* Francini wrote upon him an Italian ode; and Dati sent him a Latin epistle, in which he is called a second Ulysses, wandering about every where, to learn every thing, from every body.†

Preceding biographers have generally followed each other in stating, that, when Milton visited Galileo, he was in the dungeon of the Inquisition, for holding doctrines at variance with the established astronomical philosophy. But Mr. Walker has informed me, (says Mr. Todd,) that Galileo was never a prisoner in the Inquisition at Florence, although a prisoner of it. On his arrival at Rome, on February the 10th, 1632, that illustrious philosopher had surrendered himself to Urban, who ordered him to be confined, for his philosophical heresy, in the palace of Trinità de Monti.' Five months of imprisonment made him retract his opinions; but this confession only procured him a dismission from Rome; and the house of a Monsignor Piccolomini was assigned him as his future prison. About the beginning of December, 1633, however, he was en