should be remembered, that Buchanan was now a popular and familiar modern Latin classic, and that Milton was his rival in the same mode of composition. And of our author's allusions to him, instances have before occurred, and will occur again. I am obliged to an unknown critic, for the leading idea of this very just and ingenious elucidation of a passage in Lycidas. EPIGRAMMATUM LIBER. I. In Proditionem Bombardicam. CUM simul in regem nuper satrapasque Britannos Fallor? An et mitis voluisti ex parte videri, Et II. In eandem. SICCINE tentasti cœlo donasse Iacobum, Ille quidem sine te consortia serus adivit Sic potius fœdos in cœlum pelle cucullos, 6. Elijah. See note on Par. Reg. ii. 17. 2. Quæ septemgemino Bellua ( 5 10 monte lates ?] The Pope, called in the theological language of the times The Beast. III. In eandem. PURGATOREM animæ derisit Iäcobus ignem, Movit et horrificum cornua dena minax. Et si stelligeras unquam penetraveris arces, IV. In eandem. QUEM modo Roma suis devoverat impia diris, V. In inventorem bombarde. IAPETIONIDEM laudavit cæca vetustas, 1. derisit Iacobus ignem,] Compare the quantity of Iacobus in Epigr. ii. 1. and In Quintum Novembris, 1. E. 4. Et trifidum fulmen surripuisse Jovi.] This thought was 5 10 afterwards transferred to the Paradise Lost. Where the fallen angels are exulting in their new invention of fire-arms, b. vi. 490. They shall fear we have disarm'd The thunderer of his only dreaded bolt. VI. Ad Leonoram Romæ canentem. ANGELUS unicuique suus, sic credite gentes, Obtigit æthereis ales ab ordinibus. * Adriana of Mantua, for her beauty surnamed the Fair, and her daughter Leonora Baroni, the lady whom Milton celebrates in these three Latin Epigrams, were esteemed by their contemporaries the finest singers in the world. Giovanni Battista Doni, in his book de præstantia Musica veteris, published in 1647, speaking of the merit of some modern vocal performers, declares that Adriana, or her daughter Leonora, would suffer injury by being compared to the ancient Sappho. B. ii. p. 57. There is a volume of Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish poems in praise of Leonora, printed at Rome, [probably at Bracciano. Todd.] entitled Applausi poetici alle glorie della Signora Leonora Baroni. Nicius Erythreus, in his Pinacotheca, calls this collection the Theatrum of that exquisite Songstress Eleonora Baroni, " in quo, omnes hic Romæ quotquot " ingenio et poeticæ facultatis "laude præstant, carminibus, cum Etrusce tum Latine scriptis, singulari ac prope divino "mulieris illius canendi artificio, r tamquam faustos quosdam clamores et plausus edunt, &c." Pinac. ii. p. 427. Lips. 1712. 12mo. In the Poesie Liriche of Fulvio Testi, there is an encomiastic Sonnet to Leonora, Poes. Lyr. del Conte Fulvio Testi, Ven. 1691. p. 361. Se l'angioletta mia tremolo, e chiaro, &c. Quid mirum, Leonora, tibi si gloria major? Nam tua præsentem vox sonat ipsa Deum. Aut Deus, aut vacui certe mens tertia cœli Per tua secreto guttura serpit agens; Serpit agens, facilisque docet mortalia corda Sensim immortali assuescere posse sono. Quod si cuncta quidem Deus est, per cunctaque fusus, In te una loquitur, cætera mutus habet. "delicate and difficult mode of "singing. She has no need of "any person to assist her with a "theorbo or viol, one of which " is required to make her singing "complete; for she plays per"fectly well herself on both "those instruments. In short, "I have been so fortunate as to "hear her sing several times "above thirty different airs, "with second and third stanzas «of her own composition. But "I must not forget, that one "day she did me the particular "favour to sing with her mother "and her sister: her mother "played upon the lute, her "sister upon the harp, and "herself upon the theorbo. This "concert, composed of three fine "voices, and of three different "instruments, so powerfully cap"tivated my senses, and threw "me into such raptures, that I "forgot my mortality, et crus "etre deja parmi les anges, jouis"sant des contentemens des bien"heureux." See Bayle, Dict. Baroni. Hawkins, Hist. Mus. iv. 5 10 196. To the excellence of the mother Adriana on the lute, Milton alludes in these lines of the second of these three Epigrams, v. 4. Et te Pieria sensisset voce canentem When Milton was at Rome, he was introduced to the concerts of Cardinal Barberini, afterwards Pope Urban the Eighth, where he heard Leonora sing and her mother play. It was the fashion for all the ingenious strangers who visited Rome, to leave some verses on Leonora. See the Canzone, supr. p. 329. and Sonn. iv. Pietro Della Valle, who wrote about 1640, a very judicious Discourse on the music of his own times, speaks of the fanciful and masterly style in which Leonora touched the arch-lute to her own accompaniments. At the same time, he celebrates her sister Caterine, and their mother Adriana. See the works of Battista Doni, vol. ii. at Florence, 1763. 1. Angelus unicuique, &c.] See note on Comus, v. 658. |