Pertulit, occiduâ Devæ Cestrensis ab orâ 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. "Multûm, crede, juvat terras aluisse remotas "Pectus amans nostrî, támque fidele caput.” Our author was now residing with his father a scrivener in Breadstreet, 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 of 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 alumni, Patris Alexandri Georgii et Nathanaelis Gillorum, qui omnes in hoc Studiosorum vivario 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 classicks in his own hand-writing, which show 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 continued Master five years only, and died in 1642. Three of Milton's familiar Latin Letters to this Alexander Gill are remaining, replete with the strongest testimonies of esteem and friendship. Wood says, "he was accounted one of the best Latin poets in the nation," Multùm, crede, juvat terras aluisse remotas 5 Ath. Oxon. ii. 22. Milton pays him high compliments on the excellence of his Latin poetry: and among many other expressions of the warmest approbation calls his verses, "Carmina sane grandia, et majestatem verè poeticam, 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, in the neighbourhood of Trinity college, 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 I should not have mentioned, but as it shows the writer's uncommon skill in pure latinity. He was not only concerned 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 circumstance we learn from a satire of the times," Verses to be reprinted with a second edition of Gondibert, 1653." p. 54. 57. Alexander Gill here mentioned, Milton's friend, seems to be sometimes confounded with his father, whose name was also Alexander, who was also master of Saint Paul's, and whose Logonomia, published in 1621, an ingenious but futile scheme to reform and fix the English language, is well known to our critical lexicographers. T. WARTON. Ver. 4. Vergivium] Drayton has "these rough Vergivian seas," Polyolb. S. i. p. 656, vol. ii. The Irish sea. Again, Vergivian deepe," Ibid. S. vi. vol. ii. p. 766. And in other places. Camden's Britannia has lately familiarised the Latin name. T. WARTON. Ver. 8. I. III. 5. Debet, at unde brevi reddere jussa velit.] Hor. Od. Me tenet urbs refluâ quam Thamesis alluit undâ, 10 Nuda nec arva placent, umbrásque negantia molles : Si sit hoc exilium patrios adiisse penates, "Navis, quæ tibi creditum "Debes Virgilium, finibus Atticis "Reddas incolumem," &c. RICHARDSON. 15 Ver. 9. Me tenet urbs refluâ quam Thamesis alluit undâ,] To have pointed out London by only calling it the city washed by the Thames, would have been a general and a trite illusion. But this allusion by being combined with the peculiar circumstance of the reflux of the tide, becomes new, poetical, and appropriated, The adjective reflua is at once descriptive and distinctive. Ovid has "refluum mare,” Metam. vii. 267. T. WARTon. But Milton had Buchanan perhaps in view, Silva, p. 48. edit. Ruddiman. "Oceanus refluis ut plenior undis" &c. Again, Psalm xcvii. 3. “Quas vagus Oceanus refluis complectitur undis." TODD. Ver. 12. Nec dudum vetiti me laris angit amor. Nec duri libet usque minas perferre Magistri, Cæteraque ingenio non subeunda meo.] How far these lines may seem to countenance an opinion, that Milton was sentenced to undergo a temporary removal or rustication from Cambridge, and that he was publickly whipped at his college, is minutely considered in the life of the poet, prefixed to this edition. TODD. Non ego vel profugi nomen sortémve recuso, O, utinam vates nunquam graviora tulisset Ille Tomitano flebilis exul agro; Non tunc Ionio quicquam cessisset Homero, Et vocat ad plausus garrula scena suos. Detonat inculto barbara verba foro; 20 26 30 Ver. 22. Ille Tomitano flebilis exul agro;] Ovid thus begins his Epistles from Pontus, I. i. 1. "Naso Tomitanæ jam non novus incola terræ," &c. See also ibid. III. viii. 2. "Dona Tomitanus mittere posset ager." The word is frequent in the Epist. ex Pont. and Trist. T. WARTON. Ver. 23. Non tunc Ionio &c.] I have before observed, that Ovid was Milton's favourite Latin poet. In these Elegies Ovid is his pattern. But he sometimes imitates Propertius in his prolix digressions into the ancient Grecian story. T. WARTON. Ver. 24. Neve foret victo] Tickell and Fenton read, "Victorive foret." TODD. Ver. 27. Excipit hinc fessum sinuosi pompa theatri, &c.] The theatre, as Mr. Warton observes, seems to have been a favourite amusement of Milton's youth. See L'Allegro, v. 131. Hence I have ventured to think he may be traced in several of our old dramas, besides those of Shakspeare, Jonson, and Beaumont and Fletcher. TODD. Ver. 31. Sive decennali fœcundus lite patronus Detonat inculto barbara verba foro ;] He probably Sæpe vafer gnato succurrit servus amanti, Quid sit amor nescit, dum quoque nescit, amat. Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragoedia sceptrum Quassat, et effusis crinibus ora rotat, Et dolet, et specto, juvat et spectâsse dolendo, Interdum et lacrymis dulcis amaror inest: puer infelix indelibata reliquit Seu 35 40 means the play of Ignoramus. In the expression decennali fœcundus lite, there is both elegance and humour. Most of the rest of Milton's comick characters are Terentian. He is giving a general view of comedy: but it is the view of a scholar, and he does not recollect that he sets out with describing a London theatre. T. WARTON. Ver. 35. Sæpe novos &c.] Compare Claudian, Epith. Hon. et Mar. 3. "Nec novus unde calor, nec quòd suspiria vellent, And Ovid, Met. iv. 330. "Nescit quid sit amor, sed et erubuisse decebat." RICHARDSON. Ver. 37. Sive cruentatum &c.] See note on Il Pens. v. 98, in which the whole of Ovid's portrait of Tragedy should have been quoted. Amor. iii. i. 11. "Venit et ingenti violenta Tragoedia passu, "Fronte comæ torva, palla jacebat humi: "Læva manus sceptrum late regale tenebat," &c. Here we trace Milton's pall, as well as scepter. T. WARTON. lacrymis dulcis amaror inest :] So, in Ver. 40. Tibullus: "Quæ dulcem lacrymis miscet amaritiam." JOHN WARTON. Ver. 41. Seu puer infelix indelibata reliquit |