sponsories, these are the deare Antiphonies that so bewitcht of late our Prelats and their Chaplaines with the goodly Eccho they made3; and besotted compass of ground on which the market is kept, has contributed to give currency to this impropriety. on Ducking is making affected obeisance see T. Warton's note "Here be without duck or nod." Comus; v. 960. And Noy, in his speech against Prynne: "Who he means by "his modern innovators in the Church, and by cringing and ducking to altars, a fit term to bestow upon the Church; he "learned it of the Canters, being used among them.-State Trials; I. col. 420. Hargrave's edit. We may well imagine to ourselves MILTON at Rome, eyeing their shav'n reverences, with a bent brow and a look full of scorn, while they were exchanging salutes with each other, in the places of public resort. 3 These are the prety Responsories, these are the deare Antiphonies that so bewitcht of late our Prelats and their Chaplaines with the goodly Eccho they made.] The parts in the Liturgy of the Church of England, which are recited in reciprocal succession by the Minister and the Congregation, such as the alternations of the Psalms, were called the Responsories. He enlarges on his dislike to them in the Apology for Smectymnuus; (Pr. W. I. 128. ed. 1738.) The "goodly eccho" now grated on his ear. I. Philipps, or rather he himself under his Nephew's name, makes again an allusion to them in the Responsio ad Apologiam Anonymi cujusdam Tenebrionis: "Siquid nos Carolum peccâsse dicimus; tu "verbis totidem, velut amabæa canens lyturgica, paria com"misisse Parlamentum accusas."-Cap. 12. The Antiphonies were the Anthems sung or chaunted by two responsive choirs, as in our Cathedrals: Du Fresne; Gloss. ad scriptores media & infimæ Græcitatis in v. ANTIOQNA; and Lyndwood's Constitutiones Provinciales, &c. p. 251. note z. fol. us to the gay imitation of a lordly Imprimatur, one from Lambeth House, another from the west end of Pauls; so apishly Romanizing, that the word 1679. The more rigid of the Protestant Reformers were strenuously opposed to the continuation of any choral service. By MILTON," the pealing organ" and the "full-voic'd Quire," were in earlier life heard with strong emotions of delight. Now, with Church-Musick the recollection rose in his mind of the recent and grievous persecutions by the established Hierarchy of those among their seceding Brethren who withdrew further from the Romish Church than they believed it right to go. 4 The gay imitation of a lordly Imprimatur, one from Lambeth House, another from the west end of Pauls ;] Pursuant to the Decree of the Star-Chamber in 1637, concerning the Press, all Books of Divinity, Physic, Philosophy, and Poetry, were to be licensed either by the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Bishop of London, or by substitutes of their appointment. This document is in Rushworth; Hist. Coll. III. 306. Appendix; and is reprinted in the Memoirs of Thomas Hollis; p. 641. Before this Decree, according to Rushworth," the licensing " of all new Books was in the power of the Archbishop of Can"terbury, and his Substitutes and Dependants, who used that "strictness, that nothing could pass the Press, without his or "their approbation, but the Authors, Printers, and Stationers "must run a hazard of ruin." He adds, that this Decree was made in the Star-Chamber lest Printers should reprint old Books of Divinity formerly licensed; and that For's Book of Martyrs, the Practice of Piety, with other works hitherto published by authority, were denied new Licences. Hist. Coll. II. 450. And Sir Edward Deering complained to the Parliament in 1640, that "the most learned labours of our ancient and best "Divines must be now corrected and defaced with a Deleatur, " by the supercilious Pen of my Lord's young Chaplain, fit "(perhaps) for the technical arts, but unfit to hold the Chair of "Divinity." ib. Hist. Coll. IV. 55. It should appear however to have been the course for works і of command still was set downe in Latine; as if the learned Grammaticall pen that wrote it, would cast no ink without Latine: or perhaps, as they thought, because no vulgar tongue was worthy to expresse the pure conceit of an Imprimatur ; but rather, as I hope, for that our English, the lan--guage of men ever famous, and formost in the atchievements of Liberty, will not easily finde servile letters anow to spell such a dictatorie presumption of an historical nature to be submitted to the Secretary of State for his written sanction, previously to their being sent to the Printer. I find the following authoritative approbation prefixed, as the instrument of Licence, to May's Poem, the victorious Reigne of King Edward the third: "I have perused this Booke, "and conceive it very worthy to be published. "Io. Coke, Knight, Principall Secretary of State, Whitehall "17. of November, 1634." Whereas Aleyn's metrical Historie of that wise and fortunate Prince, Henrie of that name the seventh; (Svo. 1638.) the MS of which work, in compliance with this decree of the Star-Chamber, was laid before the Bishop of London's Chaplain, has the word of command set down in Latin. Perlegi historicum hoc poema, dignumque judico quod Typis mandetur.-Tho. "Wykes R. P. Episc. Lond. Chapell. domest." Under the Licensing Act of the 13th and 14th of Charles II. ch. 33, all Novels, Romances, and Fairy Tales, and all Books on Philosophy, Mathematics, Physic, Divinity, or Love, were to be licenced by the Archbishop of Canterbury, or by the Bishop of London. "The Framers of this curious Act of Parlia"ment, (observed the late Earl Stanhope not unhappily) no doubt, "supposed that these Right Reverend Prelates were, of all the "Men in the kingdom, the most conversant with all those sub"jects."-The Rights of Juries defended; p. 65. 8vo. 1792. Englisht. And thus ye have the Inventors and the originall of Book-licencing ript up, and drawn as lineally as any pedigree. We have it not, that can be heard of, from any ancient State, or Politie, 5 Will not easily finde servile letters anow to spell such a dictatorie presumption Englisht.] In his Tractat, Of Education, MILTON speaks of "the ill habit which poor striplings get of wretched "barbarizing against the Latin and Greek idiom, with their un"tutor❜d Anglicisms, odious to be read." He was therefore ambitious of accommodating his English style to the constructions of the learned Languages. The adaptation of the Latin inversion which the text exhibits is however a form too succinct for a tongue where Articles are prefixed, as in ours, to supply the want of diversified terminations in the Cases of the Nouns. To say the best, it is unidiomatical and repugnant to the copious fluency of oratorial diction. We tolerate this classical dialect more easily in the scientific structure of blank verse; yet even there it often causes harshness and obscurity; as in the succeeding description: "And now, their mightiest quell'd, the battle swerv'd, "Enter'd, and foul Disorder; all the ground P. L. VI. 386. To comprehend this passage rightly, we should bear in mind, that Battle stands here in a sense now disused-for the main body of the Satanic Host. MILTON's spirited remark that the English Language would afford no word to denote the Licenser's passport for the admittance of a manuscript to the Printing Office may be extended to Sedition and Libel; neither of which are terms of indigenous growth, and have both been grafted on the native stock of our Law. or Church, nor by any Statute left us by our Ancestors elder or later; nor from the moderne custom of any reformed Citty, or Church abroad; but from the most Antichristian Councel, and the most tyrannous Inquisition that ever inquir'd. Till then Books were ever as freely admitted into the World as any other birth; the issue of the brain ** was no more stifl'd then the issue of the womb: no envious Juno sate cros-leg'd over the nativity of any mans intellectuall off-spring; but if it prov'd-a Monster, who denies, but that it was justly burnt, or sunk into the Sea. But that a Book in wors condition then a peccant soul, should be to stand before a Jury ere it be borne to the World, and undergo yet in darknesse the judgement of Radamanth" and his Collegues, ere it can passe the ferry Nor by any Statute-] Selden had said, in the Parliament which Charles called in 1628, "there is no Law to prevent the "printing of any Books in England, only a Decree in Star"chamber." The Proceeding and Debates of the House of Commons; taken by Sir Thomas Crew, p. 71. 12mo. 1707. Rushworth; Hist. Collect, I. 655. Or, 6* The issue of the brain, &c.] No doubt this passage was known to Harrington, and it might suggest to him the whimsical device by which he prevailed on the Lady Cleypoole to intercede with her Father to restore to him the manuscript of his Oceana which Cromwell had seized while under the Press. -Radamanth-] An observation from Sir Thomas Smith will account for the omission here of the h in Rhudamanth: "Quidam "nimium græcissantes, h, è literarum tanquam senatu moverunt, "alii relegerunt, nostra nihil interest: Græci semper in initio " & ante vocales solas, habebant, nisi in np, cui semper ferè suu |