Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III) - Samuel Johnson (classic books to read txt) 📗

_Exile_ Can Be Otherwise Interpreted. He Declares Yet

More, That He Is Weary Of Enduring "The Threats Of A Rigorous Master,

And Something else, Which A Temper Like His Cannot Undergo." What Was

More Than Threat Was Probably Punishment. This Poem, Which Mentions His

Exile, Proves, Likewise, That It Was Not Perpetual; For It Concludes

With A Resolution Of Returning some Time To Cambridge. And It May Be

Conjectured, From The Willingness With Which He Has Perpetuated the

Memory Of His Exile, That Its Cause Was Such As Gave Him No Shame.

 

 

 

He Took Both The Usual Degrees; That Of Bachelor In 1628, And That Of

Master In 1632; But He Left The University With No Kindness For Its

Institution, Alienated either By The Injudicious Severity Of His

Governours, Or His Own Captious Perverseness. The Cause Cannot Now Be

Known, But The Effect Appears In his Writings. His Scheme Of Education,

Inscribed to Hartlib, Supersedes All Academical Instruction, Being

Intended to Comprise The Whole Time Which Men Usually Spend In

Literature, From Their Entrance Upon Grammar, "Till They Proceed, As It

Is Called, Masters Of Arts." And In his Discourse On The Likeliest Way

To Remove Hirelings Out Of The Church, He Ingeniously Proposes, That

"The Profits Of The Lands Forfeited by The Act For Superstitious Uses

Should Be Applied to Such Academies All Over The Land, Where Languages

And Arts May Be Taught Together; So That Youth May Be, At Once, Brought

Up To A Competency Of Learning and An Honest Trade, By Which Means Such

Of Them As Had The Gift, Being enabled to Support Themselves, Without

Tithes, By The Latter, May, By The Help Of The Former, Become Worthy

Preachers."

 

 

 

One Of His Objections To Academical Education, As It Was Then Conducted,

Is, That Men Designed for Orders In the Church Were Permitted to Act

Plays, "Writhing and Unboning their Clergy Limbs To All The Antick And

Dishonest Gestures Of Trincalos[29], Buffoons, And Bawds, Prostituting

The Shame Of That Ministry Which They Had, Or Were Near Having, To The

Eyes Of Courtiers And Court Ladies, Their Grooms And Mademoiselles."

 

 

 

This Is Sufficiently Peevish In a Man, Who, When He Mentions His Exile

From The College, Relates, With Great Luxuriance, The Compensation Which

The Pleasures Of The Theatre Afford Him. Plays Were, Therefore, Only

Criminal When They Were Acted by Academicks.

 

 

 

He Went To The University With A Design Of Entering into The Church,

But In time Altered his Mind; For He Declared, That Whoever Became A

Clergyman Must "Subscribe Slave, And Take An Oath Withal, Which, Unless

He Took With A Conscience That Could Retch, He Must Straight Perjure

Himself. He Thought It Better To Prefer A Blameless Silence, Before The

Office Of Speaking, Bought And Begun With Servitude And Forswearing."

 

 

 

These Expressions Are, I Find, Applied to The Subscription Of The

Articles; But It Seems More Probable That They Relate To Canonical

Obedience. I Know Not Any Of The Articles Which Seem To Thwart His

Opinions; But The Thoughts Of Obedience, Whether Canonical Or Civil,

Raised his Indignation.

 

 

 

His Unwillingness To Engage In the Ministry, Perhaps Not Yet Advanced to

A Settled resolution Of Declining it, Appears In a Letter To One Of His

Friends, Who Had Reproved his Suspended and Dilatory Life, Which He

Seems To Have Imputed to An Insatiable Curiosity, And Fantastick Luxury

Of Various Knowledge. To This He Writes A Cool And Plausible Answer, In

Which He Endeavours To Persuade Him, That The Delay Proceeds Not From

The Delights Of Desultory Study, But From The Desire Of Obtaining more

Fitness For His Task; And That He Goes On, "Not Taking thought Of Being

Late, So It Gives Advantage To Be More Fit."

 

 

 

When He Left The University He Returned to His Father, Then Residing at

Horton, In buckinghamshire, With Whom He Lived five Years; In which

Time He Is Said To Have Read All The Greek And Latin Writers. With What

Limitations This Universality Is To Be Understood, Who Shall Inform Us?

 

 

 

It Might Be Supposed, That He Who Read So Much Should Have Done Nothing

Else; But Milton Found Time To Write The Masque Of Comus, Which Was

Presented at Ludlow, Then The Residence Of The Lord President Of Wales,

In 1634; And Had The Honour Of Being acted by The Earl Of Bridgewater'S

Sons And Daughter. The Fiction Is Derived from Homer'S Circe[30]; But We

Never Can Refuse To Any Modern The Liberty Of Borrowing from Homer:

 

 

 

  --"A Quo Ceu Fonte Perenni

  Vatum Pieriis Ora Rigantur Aquis."

 

 

 

His Next Production Was Lycidas, An Elegy, Written In 1637, On The Death

Of Mr. King, The Son Of Sir John King, Secretary For Ireland In the

Time Of Elizabeth, James, And Charles. King was Much A Favourite At

Cambridge, And Many Of The Wits Joined to Do Honour To His Memory.

Milton'S Acquaintance With The Italian Writers May Be Discovered by A

Mixture Of Longer And Shorter Verses, According to The Rules Of Tuscan

Poetry, And His Malignity To The Church By Some Lines Which Are

Interpreted as Threatening its Extermination.

 

 

 

He Is Supposed about This Time To Have Written His Arcades; For, While

He Lived at Horton, He Used sometimes To Steal From His Studies A Few

Days, Which He Spent At Harefield, The House Of The Countess Dowager Of

Derby, Where The Arcades Made Part Of A Dramatick Entertainment.

 

 

 

He Began Now To Grow Weary Of The Country, And Had Some Purpose Of

Taking chambers In the Inns Of Court, When The Death Of His Mother Set

Him At Liberty To Travel, For Which He Obtained his Father'S Consent,

And Sir Henry Wotton'S Directions; With The Celebrated precept Of

Prudence, "I Pensieri Stretti, ed il Viso Sciolto;" Thoughts Close, And

Looks Loose.

 

 

 

In 1638 He Left England, And Went First To Paris; Where, By The Favour

Of Lord Scudamore, He Had The Opportunity Of Visiting grotius, Then

Residing at The French Court, As Ambassadour From Christina Of Sweden.

From Paris He Hasted into Italy, Of Which He Had, With Particular

Diligence, Studied the Language And Literature; And, Though He Seems

To Have Intended a Very Quick Perambulation Of The Country, Staid Two

Months At Florence; Where He Found His Way Into The Academies, And

Produced his Compositions With Such Applause, As Appears To Have Exalted

Him In his Own Opinion, And Confirmed him In the Hope, That, "By Labour

And Intense Study, Which," Says He, "I Take To Be My Portion In this

Life, Joined with A Strong Propensity Of Nature," He Might "Leave

Something so Written To Aftertimes, As They Should Not Willingly Let It

Die." It Appears, In all His Writings, That He Had The Usual Concomitant

Of Great Abilities, A Lofty And Steady Confidence In himself, Perhaps

Not Without Some Contempt Of Others; For Scarcely Any Man Ever Wrote So

Much, And Praised so Few. Of His Praise He Was Very Frugal; As He Set

Its Value High, And Considered his Mention Of A Name, As A Security

Against The Waste Of Time, And A Certain Preservative From Oblivion.

 

 

 

At Florence He Could Not, Indeed, Complain That His Merit Wanted

Distinction: Carlo Dati Presented him With An Encomiastick Inscription,

In The Tumid Lapidary Style; And Francini Wrote Him An Ode, Of Which The

First Stanza Is Only Empty Noise; The Rest Are, Perhaps, Too Diffuse On

Common Topicks; But The Last Is Natural And Beautiful.

 

 

 

From Florence He Went To Sienna, And From Sienna To Rome, Where He Was

Again Received with Kindness By The Learned and The Great. Holstenius,

The Keeper Of The Vatican Library, Who Had Resided three Years At

Oxford, Introduced him To Cardinal Barberini; And He, At A Musical

Entertainment, Waited for Him At The Door, And Led him By The Hand Into

The Assembly. Here Selvaggi Praised him In a Distich, And Salsilli In a

Tetrastick; Neither Of Them Of Much Value. The Italians Were Gainers

By This Literary Commerce; For The Encomiums With Which Milton Repaid

Salsilli, Though Not Secure Against A Stern Grammarian, Turn The Balance

Indisputably In milton'S Favour.

 

 

 

Of These Italian Testimonies, Poor As They Are, He Was Proud Enough To

Publish Them Before His Poems; Though He Says, He Cannot Be Suspected

But To Have Known That They Were Said, "Non Tam De Se, Quam Supra Se."

 

 

 

At Rome, As At Florence, He Staid Only Two Months; A Time, Indeed,

Sufficient, If He Desired only To Ramble With An Explainer Of Its

Antiquities, Or To View Palaces And Count Pictures; But Certainly Too

Short For The Contemplation Of Learning, Policy, Or Manners.

 

 

 

From Rome He Passed on To Naples In company Of A Hermit, A Companion

From Whom Little Could Be Expected; Yet To Him Milton Owed his

Introduction To Manso, Marquis Of Villa, Who Had Been Before The Patron

Of Tasso. Manso Was Enough Delighted with His Accomplishments To Honour

Him With A Sorry Distich, In which He Commends Him For Every Thing but

His Religion: And Milton, In return, Addressed him In a Latin Poem,

Which Must Have Raised an High Opinion Of English Elegance And

Literature.

 

 

 

His Purpose Was Now To Have Visited sicily And Greece; But, Hearing of

The Differences Between The King and Parliament, He Thought It Proper To

Hasten Home, Rather Than Pass His Life In foreign Amusements, While His

Countrymen Were Contending for Their Rights. He, Therefore, Came Back To

Rome, Though The Merchants Informed him Of Plots Laid Against Him By The

Jesuits, For The Liberty Of His Conversations On Religion. He Had Sense

Enough To Judge That There Was No Danger, And, Therefore, Kept On His

Way, And Acted as Before, Neither Obtruding nor Shunning controversy. He

Had, Perhaps, Given Some Offence By Visiting galileo, Then A Prisoner In

The Inquisition For Philosophical Heresy; And At Naples He Was Told By

Manso, That, By His Declarations On Religious Questions, He Had Excluded

Himself From Some Distinctions Which He Should Otherwise Have Paid Him.

But Such Conduct, Though It Did Not Please, Was Yet Sufficiently Safe;

And Milton Staid Two Months More At Rome, And Went On To Florence

Without Molestation.

 

 

 

From Florence He Visited lucca. He Afterwards Went To Venice; And,

Having sent Away A Collection Of Musick And Other Books, Travelled to

Geneva, Which He, Probably, Considered as The Metropolis Of Orthodoxy.

 

 

 

Here He Reposed, As In a Congenial Element, And Became Acquainted with

John Diodati And Frederick Spanheim, Two Learned professors Of Divinity.

From Geneva He Passed through France; And Came Home, After An Absence Of

A Year And Three Months.

 

 

 

At His Return He Heard Of The Death Of His Friend Charles Diodati; A

Man, Whom It Is Reasonable To Suppose, Of Great Merit, Since He Was

Thought, By Milton, Worthy Of A Poem, Entitled epitaphium Damonis,

Written With The Common, But Childish, Imitation Of Pastoral Life.

 

 

 

He Now Hired a Lodging at The House Of One Russet, A Tailor, In st.

Bride'S Church-Yard, And Undertook The Education Of John And Edward

Philips, His Sister'S Sons. Finding his Rooms Too Little, He Took A

House And Garden In aldersgate Street[31], Which Was Not Then So Much

Out Of The World As It Is Now; And Chose His Dwelling at The Upper End

Of A Passage, That He Might Avoid The Noise Of The Street. Here He

Received more Boys, To Be Boarded and Instructed.

 

 

 

Let Not Our Veneration For Milton Forbid Us To Look With Some Degree

Of Merriment On Great Promises And Small Performance, On The Man Who

Hastens Home, Because His Countrymen Are Contending for Their Liberty,

And, When He Reaches The Scene Of Action, Vapours Away His Patriotism In

A Private Boarding-School. This Is The Period Of His Life From Which All

His Biographers Seem Inclined to Shrink. They Are Unwilling that Milton

Should Be Degraded to A Schoolmaster; But, Since It Cannot Be Denied

That He Taught Boys, One Finds Out That He Taught For Nothing, And

Another, That His Motive Was Only Zeal For The Propagation Of Learning

And Virtue; And All Tell What They Do Not Know To Be True, Only To

Excuse An Act Which No Wise Man Will Consider As In itself Disgraceful.

His Father Was Alive; His Allowance Was Not Ample; And He Supplied its

Deficiencies By An Honest And Useful Employment.

 

 

 

It Is Told, That In the Art Of Education He Performed wonders; And A

Formidable List Is Given Of The Authors, Greek And Latin, That Were Read

In Aldersgate Street, By Youth Between Ten And Fifteen Or Sixteen Years

Of Age. Those Who Tell Or Receive These Stories Should Consider, That

Nobody Can Be Taught Faster Than He Can Learn. The Speed of The Horseman

Must Be Limited by The Power Of The Horse. Every Man, That Has Ever

Undertaken To Instruct Others, Can Tell What Slow Advances He Has Been

Able To Make, And How Much Patience It Requires To Recall Vagrant

Inattention, To Stimulate Sluggish Indifference, And To Rectify Absurd

Misapprehension.

 

 

 

The Purpose Of Milton, As It Seems, Was To Teach Something more Solid

Than The Common Literature Of Schools,