the fon of Sir John King, fecretary 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 difcovered by a mixture of longer and shorter verfes, according to the rules of Tuscan poetry, and his malignity to the Church by fome lines which are interpreted as threatening its extermination.

He is fuppofed about this time to have written his Arcades for while he lived at Horton he used fometimes 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 fet him at liberty to travel, for which he obtained his father's confent, and Sir Henry Wotton's directions, with the celebrated precept of prudence, i penfieri ftretti, VOL. I

K

ed

ed il vifo fciolto;" thoughts close, and looks loofe.'

In 1638 he left England, and went first to Paris; where, by the favour of Lord Scuda more, he had the opportunity of visiting Grotius, then refiding at the French court as ambaffador from Chriftina of Sweden. From Paris he hafted into Italy, of which he had with particular diligence ftudied the language and literature and, though he feems to have intended a very quick perambulation of the country, ftaid two months at Florence; where he found his way into the academies, and produced his compofitions with fuch ap plaufe as appears to have exalted him in his own opinion, and confirmed him in the hope, that,"by labour and intenfe ftudy, which," fays he, "I take to be my portion in this life, joined with a ftrong propensity of nature,' he might "leave fomething fo written to after-times, as they fhould not willingly ** let it die."

It appears, in all his writings, that he had the ufual concomitant of

great abilities. a lofty and fteady confidence in himself,

.

perhaps

}

perhaps not without fome contempt of others; for fcarcely any man ever wrote fo much, and praifed fo few. Of his praise he was very frugal; as he fet its value high, and confidered his mention of a name as a fecurity against the wafte of time, and a certain prefervative from oblivion.

At Florence he could not indeed complain that his merit wanted distinction. Carlo Dati prefented him with an encomiastick infcription, 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 laft is natural and beautiful.

י

From Florence he went to Sienna, and from Sienna to Rome, where he was again. received with kindness by the Learned and the Great. Holftenius, the keeper of the Vatican Library, who had refided 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 affembly. Here Selvaggi praised him in a diftich, and Sal

4

filli in a tetraftick: neither of them of much value. The Italians were gainers by this literary commerce; for the encomiums with which Milton repaid Salfilli, though not fecure against a ftern grammarian, turn the balance indifputably in Milton's favour.

Of these Italian teftimonies, poor as they are, he was proud enough to publish them before his poems; though he fays, he cannot be fufpected but to have known that they were faid non tam de fe, quam fupra fe.

At Rome, as at Florence, he ftaid only two months; a time indeed fufficient, if he defired only to ramble with an explainer of its antiquities, or to view palaces and count pictures; but certainly too fhort for the contemplation of learning, policy, or man

ners.

From Rome he paffed on to Naples, in company of a hermit; a companion from whom little could be expected, yet to him Milton owed his introduction to Manfo marquis of Villa, who had been before the patron of Taffo. Manfo was enough delighted with

his accomplishments to honour him with a forry distich, in which he commends him for every thing but his religion; and Milton, in return, addreffed him in a Latin poem, which must have raised an high opinion of English elegance and literature.

His purpose was now to have vifited Sicily and Greece; but, hearing of the differences between the king and parliament, he thought it proper to haften 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 Jefuits, 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 fhunning controverfy. He had perhaps given fome offence by visiting Galileo, then a prifoner in the Inquifition for philofophical herefy; and at Naples he was told by Manfo, that, by his declarations on religious queftions, he had excluded himself from fome diftinctions which he should otherwife have paid him,