No. XXIX. tricts of Malamocca and Palestrina, sing in like manner the works of Tasso, to these and similar tunes. "They have the custom, when their husbands are fishing out at sea, to sit along the shore in the evenings, and vociferate these songs, and continue to do so with great violence, till each of them can distinguish the responses of her own husband at a distance. "How much more delightful, and more appropriate does this song shew itself here, than the call of a solitary person uttered far and wide, till another equally disposed shall hear and answer him! It is the expression of a vehement and hearty longing, which yet is every moment nearer to the happiness of satisfaction." * No. XXXII.-P. 191. † No. XXXII. SUPPLICATION OF TASSO, TO THE EMPRESS. Torquato Tasso, umilissimo, e devotissimo servitore di Vostra Maestà, e soggetto del Cattolico, e potentissimo Re, suo fratello, avendo, già molťanni sono passati, molte speranze, e quasi promesse della grazia dell'uno, e dell'altro, supplica V. M. che si degni d'averlo in qualche modo sotto la sua protezione, accioch' egli possa passar sicuramente per tutti gli Stati mediatamente sottoposti alla C. M. dell' Imperadore, suo figliuolo, per andarsene verso Roma, e Napoli; nelle quali parti ha molti negozj, e particolarmente è avvisato da parenti, e dagli amici, che per ragione se gli aspettano della dote materna due mila, e cinquecento scudi; senza i quali il supplichevole difficilmente stimerebbe di poter vivere l'avanzo della sua vita, essendo egli infermo, e frenetico, e maleficiato, ed innocente d'ogni colpa, e d'ogni sospetto d'eresia, che si potesse aver di lui, prima, ch'avesse fatto ricorso alla Sacra, *Curiosities of Literature, vol. II. p. 156. Ed. 1807. + See p. 451. n. e Cesarea Maestà dell' Imperador suo figliuolo. E perch'egli è costantissimo No. XXXII. nella Fede Cattolica, e tanto sicuro della sua antica innocenza, quanto certo della nuova, e vecchia perfidia, e malignità de' suoi nemici; crede che V. M. di leggieri esaudirà le sue umilisime preghiere, massimamente dopo tante calamità, e tanti travagli, che da lui sono stati patiti, e tanti torti, ch'egli ha sostenuti in tutte le parti d'Italia, e particolarmente nel Regno di Napoli, e negli Stati de' Principi sottoposti all' Imperadore; nell' uno de' quali può far sommo favore, e negli altri somma grazia. Di Mantova. No. XXXV.-P. 284, OF THE PROBABILITY THAT THE CONVERSATION OF MAN SO, AND THE EXAMPLE OF TASSO, INSPIRED MILTON I have remarked at page 285, that "all the biographers of Milton, from No. XXXV. Toland to Symmons, have conjectured that his meeting with Manso increased with new vehemence his thirst of poetical immortality, and even suggested his design of writing an epic work." This I exemplified by quotations from three of these biographers; and I added, that I hoped I should be able to strengthen by some new arguments, the probability of their conjectures. These arguments it will not be improper to introduce with a short account of the growth of the genius and projects of the English poet, My father (says he in a passage formerly quoted) destined me when I was yet a child, to the study of polite literature, and such was the avidity of my pursuit, that till the age of twelve, I seldom quitted till midnight my studies for my bed." The poems which he soon afterward began to writę, shew what promise he gave of being an illustrious man. The spirit of a youth, That means to be of note No. XXXV. "You en In his poem to his father, Milton celebrates in the most enthusiastic strains, the praises of poetry; and seems now sufficiently conscious of his genius. His hope of renown is still more strongly attested in a letter written in his twenty-ninth year, to his most beloved friend, Charles Diodati. quire," says he, "with a kind of solicitude even into my thoughts.-Hear then, Diodati, but let me whisper in your ear, that I may not blush at my reply, while I utter great things, I think, so help me Heaven! of immortality. You enquire also, what I am doing? I nurse my wings, and meditate a flight, but my Pegasus rises as yet on very tender pinions. Let me be humbly wise."* We see from this letter, written the year before he visited Italy, [which was in 1688,] that Milton had some indistinct prospect of a great work, but in none of the many documents which remain do we find any mention, prior to his travels, of his design to attempt an epic poem. On the contrary, he seems to have had a more natural propensity to "those dramatic constitutions wherein Sophocles and Euripides reign." It was in Italy that Milton received that high honour which nourishes the arts, and was confirmed in the opinion which he had long conceived, and which seems born with every heroic mind, that he was destined for great things. "I began," says he, speaking of his Italian friends, "thus far to assent both to them, and divers of my friends here at home, and not less to an inward prompting, which now grew daily upon me, that by labour and intense study, (which I take to be my portion in this life,) joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to aftertimes, as they should not willingly let it die."+ That it was the conversation, and encouragement of Manso, which first directed Milton to the pursuit of the epic palm, seems probable from this, that * Multa solicitè quaeris, etiam quid cogitem. Audi, Theodote, verum in aurem ut ne rubeam, et sinito paulisper apud te grandia loquar; quid cogitem quaeris? ita me bonus Deus, immortalitatem. Quid agam vero? Tagouw, et volare meditor: sed tenellis admodum adhuc pennis evehit se noster Pegasus, humilè sapiamus. + Works, vol. I. p. 120. it is in his poem to that nobleman, he first hints an intention of this sort. It No. XXXV. would seem from this poem, that Arthur was then the object of his choice; and it has been remarked by Mr Hayley, that," in the discourses on epic poetry, which are included in the prose works of Tasso, Arthur is repeatedly recommended as a proper hero for a poem."* This renders it probable that Tasso and Manso, first suggested the epic plan to Milton; and in his verses to the Marquis of Villa, there is an implied comparison of himself with the Italian bard. Oh might so true a friend to me belong! It appears, then, that the poetical enthusiasm of the English bard, first received an epic direction in Italy, and that it is extremely probable that this was owing to the example of Tasso, and the advice of Manso. That the poet of Italy greatly engaged the thoughts of Milton, after his return from that country, is evident I think from the following passages, which have hitherto passed unnoticed by any of his biographers or commentators. They occur in his pastoral Epitaphium Damonis, an eclogue written on the death of his beloved friend Diodati, who had died during Milton's absence from England. This Epitaphium was composed soon after the poet's arrival, is written with much affecting tenderness; and is equally honourable to the heart, as to the genius of its author. * Life of Milton, p. 244. † O mihi si mea sors talem concedat amicum ! Mansus, v. 77. No. XXXV. In the first place, Milton, in this pastoral, denominates himself Thyrsis, which, I have remarked, was the same assumed by Tasso, in his pastoral, the Aminta.* Nec dum aderat Thyrsis; pastorem scilicet illum It has been remarked, that there is a Mopsus spoken of, in the Aminta, by which is meant Sperone. § In the poem of Milton there is also a Mopsus, and the description of the endowments of each is similar. -Il saggio Mopso Mi predisse la mia cruda ventura ; Mopso, ch'intende il parlar de gli augelli, E la virtù de l'erbe, e de le fonti. Aminta, At. I. Sc. 2. Mopsus ad haec, nam me redeuntem forte notârat, In both poems, Mopsus is represented as understanding the language of birds, by no means a common accomplishment. Moreover, in the Aminta, Tasso says that he had been seen by a wolf, which prevented him for a long time from writing verses. A notion prevailed among the ancients, (Virgil, Ec. IX. v. 54.) and still, it is said, prevails in Italy, that if a wolf sees any man before it is perceived by him, it deprives him for some time of his voice. |