BOOKS.

MILTON'S COMMON-PLACE BOOK.*

IN examining the papers of Sir F. Graham, of Netherby, for the purposes of the Historical Manuscripts Commission a couple of years ago, Mr. Horwood discovered a seventeenth-century Com- mon-place Book, which proved to contain a number of entries unmistakably in Milton's handwriting. Between the leaves was a note, which had done good service as blotting-paper, from Henry Lewes, the musician, to the poet, mentioning that the writer sent with it a letter from the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, which would be "a sufficient warrant to justify Milton's going out of the King's dominions ;" and loose in the same box with the Common-place Book was a leaf of foolscap, containing a Latin pro- lusion and a copy of Latin verses on the praises of early rising, and bearing the name of Milton in the margin. The writing of the prolusion and verses is unlike anything that has hitherto been known as Milton's, but Mr. Norwood is, on the whole, of opinion that these are juvenile efforts of Milton, which be did not after- wards consider worthy of publication in his Prolusiones Oratories. In dealing with the question as to how or when this Common-place Book found its way into the Netherby collection of MSS., he suggests that it was possibly disposed of by Milton's daughters, and secured by Lord Preston, of Netherby ; or that more probably A Commas place Book of John Milton, and a Latin Essay and Latin Versa pre- sumed to be by Milton. Edited from the Original MSS. in the possession of Sir Frederick II. Graham, Bar; by Alfred J. Norwood. London; Printed for the Camden Society. Lord Preston purchased it of Daniel Skinner, with whom he is known to have been in frequent communication, and who, after the poet's death, carried off into Holland a number of his books:

The editor's account of the various handwritings in this MS., of all but two of which fac-similes are to be found in the Camden Society's edition, is as follows :—

"The entries are by five or six hands. The greater number are• by Milton, at various periods of his We, mostly before his going into Italy. Two are by Daniel Skinner. Some entries are by one of the hands that copied parts of the treatise De Doctrines Christiana, now in the Public Record Office. Some are by the hand which copied the Sonnet No. IT in the Cambridge MS. ; one (at least) is by the hand that made the- transcript of the First Book of Paradise Lost in the possession of Mr.

Baker, of Bayfordbury ; and some are by Sir R. Graham, of Netherby, Viscount Preston."

The scarcity of genuine specimens of Milton's autograph renders any addition to those hitherto known especially valuable. His handwriting, to quote again from the editor's really exhaustive

introduction, "has some distinguishing marks. He is not care- ful, after a full stop, to begin the following sentence with a capital-

letter ; he is indifferent to the correct spelling of names of per- sons ; he always writes prmlacie, prrecept, prztence ; he always.

writes thire or thir, for the possessive pronoun their." On the

strength of the last peculiarity, by the way, Mr. Horwood pro- nounces definitely against the authenticity of the well-known poem found and attributed to Milton by Professor H. Morley.

Dr. Johnson said of Burke that " if you met him for the fwd. time in the street, where you were stopped by a drove of oxen,. and you and he stepped aside to take shelter but for five minutes, he'd talk to you in such a manner, that when you parted, you

would say, This is an extraordinary man." The same remark we should, before reading this Common placeBook, have confi- dently expected to apply to Milton. We should have supposed that in the most meagre jottings by his hand there would have been present unmistakable indications of a mind teeming with originality, overflowing with recondite knowledge, and instinct with the rarest gifts of grace, eloquence, and power. But it must be confessed that these chips from Milton's workshop are but of poor and ordinary quality. The Milton whom they almost ex- clusively show us is the Milton of controversy and party politics, not the Milton of L'Allegro or of Coma. The entries are arranged under three heads,—" Ethical," " Economical," and " Political.' They consist for the most part of brief comments by Milton ou passages from various authors, Greek and Latin, English, French, and Italian, and show that he habitually wrote, as well as read, the four languages last named. In all, over eighty authors are laid under contribution, the chief English writers quoted being Chaucer, Ascham, Camden, Sidney, Stow, Spenser, Holinshed, Speed, Bacon, and Selden, and the rest such chiefly as would be found in the library of any highly educated Englishman of the- day. In this list several notable omissions will at once strike the reader.

In the ethical section, the passages bearing on the various virtues and vices are especially trite and obvious, but it should be remarked that notes on music and poetry are here included, and that under " Justice " Milton has written emphatically in the margin, "A just woman," against an instance of that masculine virtue in "the lady of Sir Stephen Scroope." In the "Index CEconomicus,'T we have many indications of the writer's peculiar views on the sub- ject of the relations of the sexes. We are greeted on the threshold by the suggestive heading, " Matrimonium.—Vide de Divortio ;" and Milton's own bitter experience is perhaps summed up in the remark, " Conjugal affection rare, in the wife of Ed. L in Pales- tine." The general tenor of the entries under this head confirms the presumption, already based on pretty strong evidence, that Milton must have been difficult to live with, and that his nature- was more prone to friendship than to love or affection. The• remarks on foreign marriages are noteworthy, as showing the in- jurious effect on the English mind of Charles's choice of a Catholic bride, which is likewise illustrated by a well-known passage in. Mrs. Hutchinson's memoirs of her husband,-

" With one of a different religion," writes Milton, " dangerous ; for- hence Gregory XV. is so bold as to count Prince Charles a favourer of the Catholick cause, as he terms it, and of the Roman przelacie, be- cause he sought in marriage a daughter of Spain. The marriage with France also was non lesse dangerous, if the conditions obtained by the. Marquesse D'Effiat and Richelieu be true, as among the rest that the children should be bred in the Papists' religion till thirteen years old. Mariage with Papists dangerous to England appeares by the oration a Fontidonius in the name Di Luna, the Spanish Ambassador to the Councel of Trent, whereon he professes ' the il sue Re si marite Maria d'Inghilterra non ad afire fine the per rider quell'Isola ails religions: "

The political section is by far the most important, both in quan- tity and quality. If Milton's party generally had but recognised, the truth of his remarks under the heading of " Respublica," England might have been spared much blood and many tears, and many high hopes and aspirations might have found a more perfect and speedy fulfilment :—

"The form of state to be fitted to the people's disposition : some live best under monarchy, others otherwise, so that the conversions of com- monwealths happen not always through ambition or malice; as among the Roman; who, after thire infancy, were ripe for a more free govern- ment then monarchy, beeing in a manner all fit to be Ks.: afterward growne unruly and impotent with overmuch prosperity, were either for flake profit or thire punishment fit to be curb'd with a lordly and dread- full monarchy ; which was the error of the noble Brutus and Cassius, who felt themselves of spirit to free a nation, but consider'd not that the nation was not fit to be free, whilst forgetting thire old justice and fortitude which was made to rule, they became slaves to thire own ambition and luxurie."

All these entries have a strong popular, or even anti-monarchi- cal and republican bias. Milton quotes with approval the saying of Lambard, that " laws were first devised to bound and limit the power of governours, that they might not make lust thire judge and might thire minister." He wishes that Alfred, who turned the old laws into English, " lived now, to rid us of this Norman gibberish," and characterises it as "a dangerous thing and an ominous thing to imitate with earnestness the fashions of neighbour nations. God turn the omen from these days !" " The clergy are commonly the corrupters of kingly authority, turning it to tyrannie by thire wicked flatteries even in the pulpit." " All is the prince's ; that is, all is his to defend, but not to "spoil." "The first original of a King was in paternal autho- rity, and from thence ought [to] pattern himself how to be toward his subjects." Richard L's voyage to the Holy-Land was " most unholily set out." Henry III. is accused of prac- tising "a trick more befitting a cheater than a King ;" Henry VII. of " an unkinglike paltering," which should be provided against in such cases by Parliament. Again, Milton repeatedly denounces the exactions of a whole string of English monarchs, and jots down, with an eye to more recent events, that " Harold Harefoot, by exacting ship-money, lost his subjects' love." On the other hand, he gives a favourable estimate of Edward III., Henry V., and Elizabeth, and expresses his warm approval of the league and union with the Scots. He condemns Peter's pence, "the ignominious price of our damnation." " Lawyers' opinions," he complains, "turn with the times for private ends." Passages also occur relating to the freedom of the Press, the connection of Church and State, and to one of the most momentous questions of his own, or, indeed, of any time, namely, at what point the subject is justified in taking up arms in defence of his liberties or his religion. But we turn away with pleasure from these graver matters to the entry under " Spectacula," in which we have a glimpse of the Milton of 11 Penseroso once again :—

" Et Lactantius argumentis nihilo firmioribas rem seenicam univer- sam in vitio ponit ; nee semel quidem cogitasse videtur, corruptelas quidem theatricas merits tolli debere, omnem astern idcirco rerum dramaticarum nsum penitus aboleri nihil income ease, immo potins nimis insulsum cosset; quid enim in told philosophifi ant gravius, mat aanctins, ant snblimius tragcedid recto constitute; quid utilius ad hnmanae vitae coons et conversions uno intuitu spectandos ? Idem etiam °spite seqnenti totam artem musicam videtur e medio snblatana yells."

This passage would have been gall and wormwood to most of the left wing of Milton's own party.

Mr. Horwood gives a number of instances in which entries in the Common-place Book have been utilised in Milton's published works, and the list might probably be enlarged by any one with a minute and special knowledge of his prose writings. He also gives us a new fact with regard to Milton's sojourn abroad, in the form of an item from the Travellers' Book of the English College at Rome, recording that on October 30, 1638, Milton and his servant, N. Cary, brother of Lord Falkland, Dr. Holding, of Lancaster, and N. Fortescue dined at the College.

Here we must take our leave of the Common place Book. It does not give us any fresh insight into Milton's mind and char- acter, or the general bent of his studies, but it forcibly illustrates his mode of working,—the way in which he assimilated all that he read, and only gave it to the world after it had been thoroughly melted down and transformed in the crucible of his own intellect. His prose writings abound in traces of wide reading, but not in direct quotation. He never gives us, like too many learned authors, the disjointed contents of a note-book, or a crude mass of raw material, which the reader is to transmute into precious metal. It is an indication of his character, so objective and self- centred, that in this book, which was never intended to meet the public eye, he is as cold and unconscious as ever ; for that is no random criticism of his fellow-poet, that " his soul was like a star, and dwelt apart." To Sir Frederick Graham, to the Council of the Camden Society, and to Mr. Horwood our best thanks are due for making us joint-owners of this relic of one of the noblest of Englishmen.