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ÆC ego, mente olim læva, ftudioque fupino,
Nequitiæ pofui vana trophæa meæ.

Scilicet abreptum fic me malus impulit error,
Indocilifque ætas prava magiftra fuit.
Donec Socraticos umbrofa Academia rivos
Præbuit, admiffum dedocuitque jugum.
Protinus extinctis ex illo tempore flammis,

Cincta rigent multo pectora noftra gelu.
Unde fuis frigus metuit puer ipfe fagittis,

Et Diomedeam vim timet ipfa Venus *.

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1. The elegiac poets were among the favourite claffical authors of Milton's youth, APOL. SMECTYMN. "Others, were the fmooth Ele"giac Poets, whereof the schools are not fcarce: whom, both for the "pleafing found of their numerous writing, which in imitation I "found moft eafy, and most agreeable to nature's part in me; and "for their matter, which what it is, there be few who know not, I "was fo allured to read, that no recreation came to me better wel"come." PROSE-WORKS, vol. i. 110.

10. Et Diemedeam vim timet ipfa Venus.] Ovid makes this fort of allufion to Homer's incident of Venus wounded by Diomed. In the beginning of the REMEDY OF LOVE, Ovid with great liveliness introduces Cupid alarmed at fuch a title, and anticipating hoftilities. But with equal livelinefs the poet apologises and explains, v. 5.

Non ego Tydides, a quo tua faucia mater

In liquidum red it æthera, Martis equis.

See alfo METAM. xiv. 491. And EPIST. PONT. ii. ii. 13.

Thefe lines are an epilogistic palinode to the last Elegy. The Socratic doctrines of the fhady Academe foon broke the bonds of beauty. In other words, his return to the univerfity.

They were probably written, when the Latin poems were prepared for the prefs in 1645.

EPIGRA M

EPIGRAM MATUM

LIBE R.

I. In Proditionem Bombardicam.

UM fimul in regem nuper fatrapafque Britannos

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Aufus es infandum, perfide Fauxe, nefas, Fallor? An et mitis voluifti ex parte videri,

Et penfare mala cum pietate fcelus ? Scilicet hos alti miffurus ad atria cœli,

Sulphureo curru, flammivolifque rotis: Qualiter ille, feris caput inviolabile Parcis, Liquit lördanios turbine raptus agros.

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6. Sulpbureo curru flammivolisque rotis.] In PARAD. REG. B. ii, 16. And the great Tifhbite, who ON FIERY WHEELS

Rode up to heaven, &c.

And in THE PASSION, ft. vi.

See, see the CHARIOT, and thofe rufhing WHEELS,
That WHIRL'D the prophet up at Chebar flood.

Again, In OBIT. PRASUL, ELIENS. V. 49.

Vates ut olim raptus ad cœlum, fenex

Auriga CURRUS IGNEI.

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II. In eandem.

Iccine tentafti cœlo donaffe läcobum,

Quæ feptemgemino Bellua monte lates?
Ni meliora tuum poterit dare munera numen,
Parce precor, donis infidiofa tuis.
Ille quidem fine te confortia ferus adivit
Aftra, nec inferni pulveris ufus ope.

Sic potius fœdos in cœlum pelle cucullos,

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Et quot habet brutos Roma profana Deos : Namque hac aut alia nifi quemque adjuveris arte, Crede mihi, cœli vix bene fcandet iter.

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III. In eandem.

Urgatorem animæ derifit läcobus ignem,
Et fine quo fuperum non adeunda domus.

Frenduit hoc trina monftrum Latiale corona,

Movit et horrificum cornua dena minax.

Et nec inultus ait, temnes mea facra, Britanne:
Supplicium fpreta religione dabis.

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Et fi ftelligeras unquam penetraveris arces,
Non nifi per flammas trifte patebit iter.
quam funefto cecinisti proxima vero,
Verbaque ponderibus vix caritura fuis!
Nam prope Tartareo fublime rotatus ab igni,
Ibat ad æthereas, umbra perufta, plagas.

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IV. In eandem.

Uem modo Roma fuis devoverat impia diris,
Et Styge damnarat, Tænarioque finu;

Hunc, vice mutata, jam tollere geftit ad aftra,
Et cupit ad fuperos evehere ufque Deos.

V. In inventorem bombarda.

Apetionidem laudavit cæca vetuftas,

Qui tulit ætheream folis ab axe facem ; At mihi major erit, qui lurida creditur arma, Et trifidum fulmen furripuiffe Jovi.

VI. Ad Leonoram Roma canentem*.

Angelus unicuique fuus, fic credite gentes,

Obtigit æthereis ales ab ordinibus.

Quid mirum, Leonora, tibi fi gloria major ?
Nam tua præfentem vox fonat ipfa Deum.

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4. Et trifidum fulmen furripuiffe Jovi.] This thought was afterwards transferred to the PARADISE LOST. Where the fallen angels are exulting in their new invention of fire-arms, B. vi. 490.

— They shall fear we have disarm'd

The thunderer of his only dreaded bolt.

Adriana of Mantua, for her beauty furnamed the Fair, and her daughter LEONORA Baroni, the lady whom Milton celebrates in these three Latin Epigrams, were efteemed by their contemporaries the finest fingers in the world. Giovanni Battista Doni, in his book de PRÆSTANTIA MUSICA VETERIS, published in 1647, speaking of the merit of fome modern vocal performers, declares that Adriana, or her daughter Leonora, would fuffer injury by being compared to the

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Aut Deus, aut vacui certe mens tertia cœli
Per tua fecreto guttura ferpit agens;

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ancient Sappho. B ii. p.57. There is a volume of Greek, Latin, Italian, French and Spanish poems in praise of Leonora, printed at Rome, entitled Applaufi poetici alle glorie della Signora LEONORA BARONI. Nicius Erythreus, in his PINACOTHECA, calls this collection the THEATRUM of that exquifite Songftrefs Eleonora Baroni, "in quo, omnes hic "Romæ quotquot ingenio et poeticæ facultatis laude præftant, carmi"nibus, cum Etrufce tum Latine fcriptis, SINGULARI AC PROPE " DIVINO MULIERIS ILLIUS canendi artificio, tamquam fauftos quof"dam clamores et plaufus edunt, &c." PINAC. ii. p. 427. Lipf. 1712. 12mo. In the POESIE LIRICHE of Fulvio Tefti, there is an encomiaftic Sonnet to Leonora, POES. LYR, del Conte Fulvio Tefti, Ven. 1691. p. 361.

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Se l'angioletta mia tremolo, e chiaro, &c.

M. Maugars, Priour of S. Peter de Mac at Paris, king's interpreter of the English language, and in his time a capital practitioner on the viol, has left this eulogy on Leonora and her mother, at the end of his judicious Difcours fur la Mufique d'Italia, printed with the Life of Malherbe, and other treatifes, at Paris, 1672. 12mo. "Leonora has "fine parts, and a happy judgement in diftinguishing good from bad "mufic: fhe understands it perfectly well, and even composes, which "makes her abfolute mistress of what the fings, and gives her the "most exact pronunciation and expreffion of the fenfe of the words. "She does not pretend to beauty, yet fhe is far from being disagreea"ble, nor is the a coquet. She fings with an air of confident and "liberal modefty, and with a pleafing gravity. Her voice reaches a large compafs of notes, is juft, clear, and melodious; and the "foftens or raifes it without constraint or grimace. Her raptures and "fighs are not too tender; her looks have nothing impudent, nor "do her geftures betray any thing beyond the referve of a modett "girl. In paffing from one fong to another, fhe fhews fometimes the "divifions of the enharmonic and chromatic fpecies with so much "air and sweetness, that every hearer is ravifhed with that delicate "and difficult mode of finging. She has no need of any perfon to "affist her with a theorbo or viol, one of which is required to make "her finging complete; for fhe plays perfectly well herself on both "thofe inftruments. In fhort, I have been so fortunate as to hear her "fing feveral times above thirty different airs, with fecond and "third ftanzas of her own compofition. But I must not forget, that "one day the did me the particular favour to fing with her mother "and her fifter: her mother played upon the lute, her fifter upon "the harp, and herfelf upon the theorbo. This concert, compofed "of three fine voices, and of three different inftruments, fo power

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