man resented it highly, that the family fhould be thought to bear any relation to France: that Milton's fecond wife did not die in childbed, as Mr. Philips and Toland relate, but above three months after of a confumption; and this too Mr. Birch relates upon her authority; but in this particular fhe must be mistaken as well as in the other, for our author's fonnet on his deceased wife plainly implies, that he did die in childbed. She knows nothing of her aunt Philips or Agar's defcendents, but believes that they are all extinct as is likewife Sir Chriftopher Milton's family, the laft of which, fhe fays, were two maiden fifters, Mrs. Mary and Mrs. Catharine Milton, who lived and died at Highgate; but unknown to her, there is a Mrs. Milton living in Grofvenor ftreet, the grandaughter of Sir Chriftopher, and the daughter of Mr. Thomas Milton before mentioned: and the herfelf is the only furvivor of Milton's own family, unlefs there be fome in the Eaft Indies, which the very much questions, for fhe used to hear from them fometimes, but has heard nothing now for feveral years; fo that in all probability Milton's whole family will be extinct with her, and he can live only in his writings. And fuch is the caprice of fortune, this grandaughter of a man, who will be an everlasting glory to the nation, has now for fome years with her husband kept a little chandler's or grocer's fhop for their fubfiftence, lately at the lower Holloway in the road between Highgate and London, and at prefent in Cock Lane not far from Shoreditch Church. Another thing let me mention, that is equally to the honor of the present age. Tho' Milton received not above ten pounds at two different payments for the copy copy of Paradife Loft, yet Mr. Hoyle author of the treatife on the Game of Whift, after having difpofed of all the first impreffion, fold the copy to the bookfeller, as I have been informed, for two hundred guineas. As we have had occafion to mention more than once Milton's manufcripts preferved in the library of Trinity College in Cambridge, it may not be ungrateful to the reader, if we give a more particular account of them, before we conclude. There are, as we faid, two draughts of a letter to a friend who had importuned him to take orders, together with a fonnet on his being arrived to the age of twenty three: and by there being two draughts of this letter with feveral alterations and additions, it appears to have been written with great care and deliberation; and both the draughts have been published by Mr. Birch in his Hiftorical and Critical Account of the life and writings of Milton. There are alfo feveral of his poems, Arcades, At a folemn mufic, On time, Upon the circumcifion, the Mafk, Lycidas, with five or fix of his fonnets, all in his own hand-writing: and there are fome others of his fonnets written by different hands, being most of them compofed after he had loft his fight. It is curious to fee the first thoughts and fubfequent corrections of fo great a poet as Milton: but it is remarkable in thefe manufcript poems, that he doth not often make his ftops, or begin his lines with great letters. There are likewife in his own hand-writing different plans of Paradife Loft in the form of a tragedy: and it is an agreeable amusement. to trace the gradual progrefs and improvement of fuch a work from its firft dawnings in the plan of a tragedy. to its full luftre in an epic poem. And together with the plans of Paradife Loft there are the plans or fubjects of feveral other intended tragedies, fome taken from the Scripture, others from the British or Scotish hiftories: and of the latter the last mentioned is Macbeth, as if he had an inclination to try his ftrength with Shakespear; and to reduce the play more to the unities, he propofes beginning at the arrival of "Malcolm at Macduff; the matter of Duncan may "be expreffed by the appearing of his ghoft." Thefe manufcripts of Milton were found by the learned Mr. Profeffor Mafon among fome other old papers, which, he fays, belonged to Sir Henry Newton Puckering, who was a confiderable benefactor to the library : and for the better prefervation of fuch truly valuable reliques, they were collected together, and handfomely bound in a thin folio by the care and at the charge of a perfon, who is now very eminent in his profeffion, and was always a lover of the Mufes, and at that time a fellow of Trinity College, Mr. Clarke, one of his Majesty's counsel. IN IN PARADISUM AMISSAM Q SUMMI POETE JOHANNIS MILTONI. UI legis Amiffam Paradifum, grandia magni Et quodcunque ullis conclufum eft finibus ufquam, Et quæ cœleftes Quantus Quantus in æthereis tollit fe Lucifer armis ! Atque ipfo graditur vix Michaele minor! Dum ferus hic ftellas protegit, ille rapit! Et flammæ vibrant, & vera tonitrua rauco Excidit attonitis mens omnis, & impetus omnis, Ad pœnas fugiunt, & ceu foret Orcus afylum, Infernis certant condere fe tenebris. Cedite Romani Scriptores, cedite Graii, Et quos fama recens vel celebravit anus. Hæc quicunque leget tantùm ceciniffe putabit Mæonidem ranas, Virgilium culices. SAMUEL BARROW, M. D. ON |