344 



AZOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"d S. VIII. Oct. 29. '69. 



& we hope notwithstanding y" other matters you are 

 engajfed in, you'l be able to finnish (sic') ours, in about 

 two Months time. I shall be glad to see you when j'ou 

 come to Town, & y« Books shall be sent j'OU as soon as 

 you please by, 



"S^ 



" yo' humble Serv*. 



"Henky Bonwicke." 



J. E. B. MA.TOE. 



St. John's College, Cambridge. 



P.S. For the sake of completeness I may cite 

 the gossip of the Notes to The Dunciad, ii. 283. : — 



" Being emploj'ed by bishop Kennet, in publishing the 

 historians in his collection, he [Oldmixon] falsified Daniel's 

 Chronicle in numberless places." 



Kennett's own words, in his letter to Hearne, 

 sufficiently prove the falsehood of this statement 

 as far as it concerns him. 



SONNET SUPPOSED TO BE BT MILTON. 



In a copy of -Alexander Ross's Mel Heliconium, 

 1646, on the back of the title-page is the fol- 

 lowing sonnet : — 



" On Mel Heliconium Written by 

 Mr. RossE Chaplain to his Ma"^- 



These shapes, of old transfigurd hy y^ charms 

 Of wanton Ouid, waVned ivi^ the alarmes 

 Of powerfull Rosse, gaine nobler formes ; Sc 



try 

 The force of a diviner Alchimy. 



Soe the queint Chimist , ingenious power 



From calcyn^d hearles extracts a glorious flower : 

 Soe bees tofraight their thimy cells produce 

 From poisonous weedes a sweet Sj" loholesome 



juyce,"" — J. M. 

 The volume contalninp; the sonnet belongs to 

 William Tite, Esq., M.P., and was, with other 

 relics, exhibited at the meeting of the British 

 Association in Aberdeen in September. Mr. Tite 

 supposed the sonnet to be the composition of 

 Milton. This was questioned in one of the local 

 newspapers, and Mr. Tite explained : — 



" The book in question," he said, "has been twice sold 

 in London within the last three j'ears — first at Messrs. 

 Puttick & Simpson's, and next (when I bought it) at 

 Messrs. Sotheby & Wilkinson's — its authenticity was not 

 questioned at either sale ; and I satisfied myself, by its 

 distinctive character as handwriting, and the opinions of 

 those who knew Milton's hand well, that there was no 

 doubt of its authenticit}'. The book was carefully pre- 

 served in a cloth case, apparently about the time of the 

 printing of the book itself. The price it realised at both 

 sales was some slight proof of the correctness of their 

 opinions. I called the attention of my friend, Mr. Bohn 

 of London, to the writing, and he authorises me to say 

 that he knows Milton's autograph well, and that he en- 

 tertains no doubt whatever that the sonnet and the 

 initials are in Milton's handwriting. Your critic, how- 

 ever, saj-s ' that Milton's hand is strongly marked,' in 



which opinion I entirely agree, and if he will compare 

 this sonnet with the fac-similes given at the end of the 

 first volume of the admirable Life of Milton bj' Mr. Mas- 

 son, published this 5'ear, of which there are several copies 

 in Aberdeen, he will see specimens of Milton's writing so 

 exactly like mine in character that it appears to me 

 impossible to entertain any doubt on the subject." 



Mr. Tite farther says of Ross and his book : — 



" He was a most voluminous writer, and had the ill 

 fortune to be outrageously praised by Sir Thomas Urqu- 

 hart of Cromarty, believed hy me to be ' the ancient 

 sage philosopher ' referred to by Butler. It is not diflBi- 

 cult to imagine — regard being had to the antecedents of 

 both these writers — that the satirist was not particularly 

 pleased with either the piiilosopher or the poet ; but his 

 reference to the poet may only have had reference to the 

 enormous quantitj' of his writings, for I venture to think 

 he was no mean poet, as the sonnet I shall presently give 

 will perhaps show. But Urquhart was certainly the 

 most extravagant of pedants, and was not unfairly 

 satirised by Butler's lines, two of which, not so often 

 quoted as the two first, sutficiently refer to Urquhart's 

 ridiculous book. 



" The whole reference of Butler is as follows : which I 

 beg to be allowed to give here, because the two first are 

 in every one's mouth, and, as Addison says, ' though the 

 merest doggrel, are more frequently quoted than the 

 finest pieces of wit in the whole A'olume.' Butler begins 

 his second canto thus — 



" ' There was an ancient sage philosopher, 

 That had read Alexander Rosse over ; 

 And swore the world, as he could prove. 

 Was made of fighting and of love.' 



" Whatever might be Butler's opinion of Boss, how- 

 ever, he lived and died a * prosperous gentleman,' in 

 1654, at the age of sixty-five — leaving to the Town 

 Council of Aberdeen, his native place, 200/. for the foun- 

 dation of two bursaries. I could give many specimens 

 of his merit as a poet from the book which has led to 

 these remarks, but cannot ask you to do more than to 

 insert the following, which is a spiritualising of the 

 fable of Apollo and the Python : — 



" * APOLLO. 



*' * When God out of rude chaos drew the light 

 Which cleared away the long confused night. 

 O'er all this all it did display 

 Its golden beams, and made the day. 

 So, when mankinde did in the chaos lie 

 Of ignorance, and grosse idolatry. 

 Then did arise * a light,' ' a star,' 

 Brighter than sun or moon by far — 

 Who, with his fulgent beams, did soon disperse 

 The vapours of this little universe : 

 Till then, no morning did arise. 

 Nor sparkling stars to paint the skies. 

 This is that sun, this is ' The Woman's seed,' 

 Who with his arrows wounded Pj-thon's head ; 

 'Tis he who killed the Gj-ants all 

 Which were the causes of our fall ; 

 He is that ' Shepherd ' which in flow'ry meads 

 Doth feed his wandering flock : and then he leads 

 Them to a brook which softly glides, 

 And with his shepherd's crook them safely guides.' " 



The critic in the Aberdeen Herald^ was still 

 unconvinced, and replied to Mr. Tite in the fol- 

 lowing terms: — 



" Xo critical reader of Milton can for a moment believe 

 that in mature life he could have written such lines as 



