ADVERTISEMENT

ΤΟ

THE POEM OF "MILTON."

A CONSIDERABLE part of this poem was written some years ago at college: the plan of it is now altered, and the additions I have inserted may, perhaps, procure some indulgence for the tameness, or the faults, of the earlier portion. The first part of the poem is founded upon the well-known, though ill-authenticated, tradition of the Italian lady seeing Milton asleep under a tree, and leaving some verses beside him, descriptive of her admiration of his beauty. Taking full advantage of this legend, and combining with it the fact that Milton appears-if his verses, especially those in the Italian language, are

founded on truth-not altogether to have escaped, in his tour through Italy, the master passion,* I have suffered it to impart somewhat of romance and somewhat of a tale, to a poem, originally, and still chiefly, intended as a sketch of the most celebrated of English poets, in the three great divisions of life-Youth, Manhood, and Age. Aware, how sacred and solemn is all connected with the Great Poet, I have endeavoured to touch upon so difficult a subject with all delicacy and all reverence. Perhaps there exists no other name in the records of literature, in which the same poetical licence, if taken on the same grounds, would be considered, by any one, as too large an extension of privilege. But here I confess with willingness my fear -that I may have erred by suffering the smallest mixture of fancy with truth. I have not done so, however, from an unthinking rashness, or without all due and

* Hayley, indeed, in that most audacious piece of biography, the "Life of Milton," in which he has taken almost as much licence with fact, as I, with awe at my own temerity, have done under the sanction of verse, speaks thus composedly on the subject-" It was at the concerts of the Cardinal that he was captivated by the charms of Leonora Baroni, whose extraordinary musical powers he has celebrated in Latin verse, and whom he is supposed to have addressed as a lover in his Italian poetry, &c."

respectful care. And if it should seem to the welljudging, that I have erred, the error (should a second edition ever grant me the opportunity) shall be expunged. The nature of my undertaking has obliged me to give the poem in the shape of fragments, and it may be as well to add, that the poem, in its original state, was privately printed some years ago at Paris, though scarcely thirty copies have ever left my hands, and only a hundred were printed.