model and indefensible by example, may be admitted as not deficient in rhythm; but others are to be found, in this composition of Milton, not only unprecedented by the strong bulwark of authority, but unrecommended also by the wily influence of harmony; monsters, such as Seneca, or whoever was the author of Oedipus and Agamemnon, scarcely ever begot, or Georgius Fabricius christened. To reject disdainfully such specimens, as are contained in the following list, (verses 3, 6, 7, 9, 13, 22, 25, 30, 36, 42, 45, 74, 75,) requires not the superbum aurium judicium. King Midas would have disapproved of them; and we may decide dogmatically, and may animadvert severely, without caution and without delicacy, on a fact which is so obvious, and on uncouthness which is so barbarous.' As Antispasticks (a measure though difficult and obscure, yet not lawless and licentious,) are in use only among the Greeks, and were rejected by the Latins as unpleasant to their ears, and repugnant to their accent, it would be in vain to justify the preceding lines by referring them to that metre, to which they may, perhaps, bear some shadowy resemblance; with any degree of resemblance, they could not be permitted to avail themselves of such far-fetched and foreign authority, citra mare nati. "Of the remaining lines of this ode, it will be sufficient to say that they are good, and that most of them are well known` and well authorised, without entering into a tedious detail of the names of dactylicks, iambicks, trochaicks, asclepiadems, &c.". It has been observed, in the preceding note of Mr. Warton, that, on the reception of Milton's monument into Westminster Abbey, Dr. * George's verses were written; so were the following, which I first met with in manuscript, inserted in a volume of Tracts, and subscribed Authore Petro Keith, Edis Christi Alumn. Bacc., but which, it seems, are the production of Vincent Bourne, as they appear in the edition of his poems printed in 1772, although they do not occur in an earlier edition which I have seen. They are too spirited not to command the attention of the learned reader. * Ascribed also, as I have been informed, to the Hon. Tho. Townshend, father of the late lord Sidney. "Maximus antiquis venisti sedibus Hospes “Jam tandem, nitidóque graves in marmore vultus Erigis, O decus! O tanti laus optima tecti! "Non talis prisco Chaucerus conditur ingens "In tumulo pater, aut vario modulamine dulcis Spencerus; non arte pares, non divitis haustu "Castaliæ tanto, liquidive aspergine fontis. 66 66 'Ipse novæ virtute ingentes fortior ausus "Aggrederis Vates, validóque agis impete mirum "Certus iter; cursúsque novos ultra avia longi "Limina Musarum, veterisque cacumina Pindi. "Quantus per Graias olim mirabilis urbes "Ibat Mæonides, divûmque ferebat honorem ; "Quantus in attonitis volitabat rupibus Orpheus; "Ille deûm sanctas stirpes et nomina vates, 66 Æternúmque canit decus, antiquósque labores, "Aut hominum genus, aut diæ primordia lucis, Turbatásque domos superis, immissáque bella, (Immanes ausus) tum victis Tartara triste 66 Effugium, horrentésque umbras; stupet undique turba Fulgura verborum, et docti miracula cantûs. "TALE TUUM CARMEN NOBIS: Quin pulchra recludis "Hortorum spatia, irriguisque ingentia campis "Flumina concelebras, primævi regna parentis. "At dulcis conjux secta inter lucida florum "Mollibus invigilat curis; ubi dives opacat "Umbra toros, myrtúsque viret, dubiique rubores "Nascuntur violis, et se crocus induit auro. "At postquam rupto fatali fœdere, tristis "Exilii legem subeuntes, rura peragrant "Sola simul, trepido gressu, ambiguique viarum : "Limina, dilectásque domos, feralia flammis "Tela nitent circum, et sævæ formidinis ora.— "Tam facili polles citharæ moderamine, tanto "Numine verborum, variarúmque ubere rerum "Ingenio; ergo animos quædam divina voluptas "Percipit, aut trepidos sensus perlabitur horror "Intimus, aut vero perculsi pectora luctu "Solvimur in lacrymas tecum, et miserescimus ultrò. "Salve, sancta mihi sedes! Túque, unice Vates! 66 66 Ipsa senis, lauri atque come! Et tu, muneris author Egregii! Tanto signatum Nomine marmor "Securum decus, et seros sibi vindicet annos." TODD. APPENDIX. BARON'S IMITATIONS OF MILTON'S EARLY POEMS. ROBERT BARON'S " imitations, or rather open plagiarisms, from Milton," were first noticed in Mr. Warton's posthumous edition of the Smaller Poems. To the passages which he had selected from Baron's book, entitled the Cyprian Academy, dated 1647, and now become scarce, I have added others; and it would be no difficult task to point out, in the same volume, thefts from Shakspeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Randolph, and Sir John Suckling. Langbaine only observes, that Baron borrowed much from Waller. "Baron was a young man," says Mr. Warton, "much encouraged and esteemed by James Howell, the justly celebrated Letter-writer; to whom he dedicates his Cyprian Academy."— Oldys, in his MS. Notes on Langbaine, says he was born in 1630. He was educated at Cambridge. A variety of the most flattering commendatory verses are prefixed to the Cyprian Academy by the wits of the time. One of them, Henry Bold, fellow of New College, thus punningly addresses him : "Baron of Witt! 'twere sin to blazon forth, "Under a meaner stile, thy mighty worth : "The Muses' Lower House to vote thee King," &c. The Cyprian Academy, as Mr. Warton observes, is a sort of poetical romance, partly formed on the plan of Sidney's Arcadia. The author, Mr. Warton adds, "has introduced the fine old |