John Milton
Published: 2013-09
Total Pages: 136
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1806 edition. Excerpt: ... Onp this passage, which probably would not have been published had it referred to cimens, which he has given us of his Greek poetry, he has more frequently fallen into error, as Dr. C. Burney has very acutely and learnedly demonstrated. On Milton's Greek composition I have purposely foreborne to offer any remarks, the accomplished scholar and very acute critic, whom I have just mentioned, having completely exhausted the subject. When the almost infinite niceties of the Greek language are considered, and it is recollected that even Dawes, the most accurate Grecian, perhaps, whom this Island, till the present day, has ever produced, and the great sir William Jones have not, in every instance, been able to observe them, the lapses in Milton's Greek composition will possibly be regarded as venial, and not to be admitted in diminution of the fame of his Greek erudition. ! It may be proper to give a literal translation of these lines, that the English reader may form his own judgment on the extent of their testimony. ' Now neither am I anxious to revisit reedy Cam, nor does the love of my lately forbidden college give me uneasiness. Fields naked and destitute of soft shades do not please me. How ill-suited to the worshippers of Phcebus is such a place! Neither do I like always to bear the threats of a hard master, and other things, which are not to be submitted to by a mind and temper like mine. If it be banishment to return to a father's house, and there, exempt from cares, to possess delightful leisure, I will not refuse even the name and the lot of a fugitive, but exultingly enjoy the condition of an exile." As it may amuse some of my readers to see the entire elegy, I will transcribe it in its complete state, with a translation very...