18 



AUTHORS. 



to six ; then entertained his visitors 

 till eight ; then supped, and after a 

 pipe of tobacco and a glass of water, 

 went to bed. Milton has the repu- 

 tation of having been in his youth 

 eminently beautiful, so as to have 

 been called the lady of his college. 

 His hair, which wasof alight brown, 

 parted at the fore-top, and hung 

 down upon his shoulders, according 

 to the picture which he has given 

 of Adam. He was, however, not 

 of the heroic stature, but rather be- 

 low the middle size, though both 

 vigorous and active. His eyes, 

 which are said never to have been 

 good, were much weakened by study, 

 and are believed to have been of 

 little service to him after writing 

 his Defence of the People, in answer 

 to the Defensio Regis of Salmasius ; 

 and as Salmasius reproached Milton 

 with losing his eyes in this quarrel, 

 Milton delighted himself with the 

 belief that he had shortened Sal- 

 masius' life ; but both, perhaps, 

 with more, malignity than reason. 

 Salmasius, however, died at the Spa 

 about two years after ; and as con- 

 troversists are commonly said to be 

 killed by their last dispute, Milton 

 was flattered with the credit of de- 

 stroying him. (Johnson's Lives.) 



DEATH OF OTWAT. 



Otway died in his thirty-third 

 year, in a manner which -I am un- 

 willing to mention. Having been 

 compelled by his necessities to con- 

 tract debts, and hunted, as is sup- 

 posed, by the terriers of the law, he 

 retired to a public-house on Tower 

 Hill, where he is said to have died 

 of want ; or, as it is related by one 

 of his biographers, by swallowing, 

 after a long fast, a piece of bread 

 which charity had supplied. He 

 went out, as is reported, almost 

 naked in the rage of hunger, and, 

 finding a gentleman in a neighbour- 

 ing coffee-house, asked him for a 

 shilling. The gentleman gave him 

 a guinea; and Otway going away, 



bought a roll, and was choked witfr 

 the first mouthful. All this, I hope, 

 is not true ; and there is ground of 

 better hope that Popa, who lived 

 near enough to be well informed, 

 relates, in Spence's Memorials, that 

 he died of a fever, caught by violent 

 pursuit of a thief that had robbed 

 him of his funds. But that indi- 

 gence, and its concomitants, sorrow 

 and despondency, pressed hard upon 

 him, has never been denied, what- 

 ever immediate cause might bring 

 him to the grave. (Johnson's 

 Lives.) 



BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY., 

 The first edition of this book was 

 published in 1621, in 4to. The 

 author is said to have composed it 

 with a view of relieving his own 

 melancholy, but increased it to such 

 a degree, that nothing could make 

 him laugh, but going to the bridge- 

 foot and hearing the ribaldry of the 

 bargemen, which rarely failed to 

 throw him into a violent fit of 

 laughter. Before he was overcome 

 with this horrid disorder, he, in the 

 intervals of his vapours, was esteem- 

 ed one of the most facetious com- 

 panions in the university [Christ's 

 Church College, where he died at or 

 very near the time he had some 

 years before foretold, from the cal- 

 culation of his own nativity, and 

 which, says Wood, being exact, 

 several of the students did not for- 

 bear to whisper among themselves, 

 that rather than there should be a 

 mistake in the calculation, he sent 

 up his soul to heaven through a slip 

 about his neck.] (Granger.) 



DE FOE AND THE UNION. 



He appears to have been no great 

 favourite in Scotland, although, 

 while there, he published Caledonia, 

 a poem in honour of the nation. He 

 mentions many hair-breadth 'scapes, 

 which, by " his own prudence and 

 God's providence," he effected ; and it 

 is not wonderful, that where almost 



