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JOANNI MILTONI

LONDINENSI.

Juveni patria, virtutibus eximio,

VIRO qui multa peregrinatione, studio cuncta orbis terrarum loca perspexit, ut novus Ulysses omnia ubique ab omnibus apprehenderet:

Polyglotto, in cujus ore linguæ jam deperditæ sic reviviscunt, ut idiomata omnia sint in ejus laudibus infacunda; Et jure ea percallet, ut admirationes et plausus populorum ab propria sapientia excitatos intelligat :

Illi, cujus animi dotes corporisque sensus ad admirationem commovent, et per ipsam motum cuique auferunt; cujus opera ad plausus hortantur, sed 'venustate vocem laudatoribus adimunt.

Cui in memoria totus orbis; in intellectu sapientia; in voluntate ardor gloriæ; in ore eloquentia; harmonicos cœlestium sphærarum sonitus astronomia duce audienti; characteres mirabilium naturæ per quos Dei magnitudo describitur magistra philosophia legenti; antiquitatum latebras vetustatis excidia, eruditionis ambages, comite assidua autorum lectione,

Exquirenti, restauranti, percurrenti.
At cur nitor in arduum?

b vastitate. Edit. 1645.

Illi in cujus virtutibus evulgandis ora Famæ non sufficiant, nec hominum stupor in laudandis satis est, reverentiæ et amoris ergo hoc ejus meritis debitum admirationis tributum offert CAROLUS DATUS Patricius Florentinus,

Tanto homini servus, tantæ virtutis amator.

Carlo Dati, one of Milton's literary friends at Florence. See Epitaph. Damon. v. 137.

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ELEGIARUM LIBER.

ELEG. I. Ad CAROLUM DEODATUM.* TANDEM, chare, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ, Pertulit et voces nuncia charta tuas ;

* Charles Deodate was one of Milton's most intimate friends. He was an excellent scholar, and practised physic in Cheshire. He was educated with our author at Saint Paul's School in London; and from thence was sent to Trinity College, Oxford, where he was entered Feb. 7, in the year 1621, at thirteen years of age. Lib. Matric. Univ. Oxon. sub ann. He was born in London, and the name of his father, "in Medicina Doctoris," was Theodore. Ibid. He was a fellow collegian there with Alexander Gill, another of Milton's intimate friends,, who was successively Usher and Master of Saint Paul's School. Deodate, while Bachelor of Arts, gave to Trinity College Library, Zuinglius's Theatrum Vitæ humanæ, in three volumes. He has a copy of Alcaics extant in an Oxford collection on the death of Camden, called Camdeni Insignia, Oxon. 1624. He left the College, when he was a Gentleman Commoner, in 1628, having taken the degree of Master of Arts. Lib. Caution. Coll. Trin. Toland says, that he had in his possession two

Greek letters, very well written, from Deodate to Milton. Two of Milton's familiar Latin letters, in the utmost freedom of friendship, are to Deodate. Epist. Fam. Prose Works, vol. ii. 567, 568. Both dated from London, 1637. But the best, certainly the most pleasing evidences of their intimacy, and of Deodate's admirable character, are our author's first and sixth Elegies, the fourth Sonnet, and the Epitaphium Damonis. And it is highly probable, that Deodate is the simple shepherd lad in Comus, who is skilled in plants, and loved to hear Thyrsis sing, v. 619. seq. He died in the year 1638. See the first note, Epitaph. Damon.

This Elegy was written about the year 1627, in answer to a letter out of Cheshire from Deodate: and Milton seems pleased to reflect, that he is affectionately remembered at so great a distance, v. 5.

Multum, crede, juvat terras aluisse

remotas

Pectus amans nostri, tamque fidele caput.

Our author was now residing with his father, a scrivener in

Pertulit, occidua Devæ Cestrensis ab ora
Vergivium prono qua petit amne salum.

Bread street, who had not yet
retired from business to Horton
near Colnebrook.

I have mentioned Alexander Gill in this note. He was made Usher of St. Paul's School about the year 1619, where Milton was his favourite scholar. He was admitted at fifteen a Commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1612. Here at length he took the degree of Doctor in Divinity, about 1629. His brothers George and Nathaniel were both of the same College, and on the foundation. In a book given to the Library there, by their father, its author, called the Sacred Philosophie of the Holy Scripture, 1635, I find this inscription written by Alexander. "Ex dono "authoris Artium Magistri olim "Collegii Corporis Christi a"lumni, Patris Alexandri Georgii "et Nathanaelis Gillorum, qui " omnes in hoc Studiosorum vi"vario literis operam dedere. "Tertio Kal. Junias, 1635." This Alexander gave to the said Library the old folio edition of Spenser's Faerie Queene, Drayton's Polyolbion by Selden, and Bourdelotius's Lucian, all having poetical mottos from the classics in his own hand-writing, which shew his taste and track of reading. In the Lucian, are the Arms of the Gills, elegantly tricked with a pen, and coloured, by Alexander Gill. From Saint Paul's School, of which from the Ushership he was appointed Master in 1635, on the death and in the room of his father, he sent Milton's friend Deodate to Trinity College, Oxford. He

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continued Master five years only,
and died in 1642. Three of
Milton's familiar Latin Letters
to this Alexander Gill are re-
maining, replete with the strong-
est testimonies of esteem and
friendship. Wood
"he was
says,
"accounted one of the best Latin
poets in the nation." Ath.
Oxon. ii. 22.
Milton pays him
high compliments on the excel-
lence of his Latin poetry: and
among many other expressions
of the warmest approbation calls
his verses, "Carmina sane gran-
"dia, et majestatem vere poeti-
cam, Virgilianumque ubique
ingenium, referentia," &c. See
Prose Works, ii. 565, 566, 567.
Two are dated in 1628, and the
last, 1634. Most of his Latin
poetry is published in a small
volume, entitled, Poetici Conatus,
1632. 12mo. But he has other
pieces extant, both in Latin and
English. Wood had seen others
in manuscript. In the church of
St. Mary Magdalene at Oxford,
I have often seen a long prose
Latin epitaph written by Gill to
the memory of one of his old
College friends Richard Pates,
Master of Arts, which shews the
writer's uncommon skill in pure
latinity. He was not only con-
cerned with Saint Paul's School,
but was an assistant to Thomas
Farnabie, the school-master of
Edward King, Milton's Lycidas.
He is said to have been removed
from Saint Paul's School for his
excessive severity. The last cir-
cumstance we learn from a satire
of the times, "Verses to be re-

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printed with a second edition "of Gondibert, 1653." p. 54, 57.

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