1802.) 
With fubmiffion to the opinion of Mr. 
Todd, I am inclined to prefer the expla- 
nation of Dr. Newton, of do/f, to fhoot, 
from Barrv, jacio, to Mr. Warton’s, 
from an idea that Milton had in his mind 
a paflage in David’s Pfalms, a fpecies of 
poetry congenial tohis mind. Mr. Todd 
will immediately perceive that I allude to 
the 64th Pfalm, verfe 4—** They /hoot out 
their arrows; even bitter words: or as 
in*the Bible Verfion, ‘* They bend their 
bows to fhoot their arrows, even bitter 
words.”” It fhould be remembered that a 
bolt is properly the arrow of a crofs-bow. 
Y. 329. She, guiltlefs damfel, Aying the mad 
purfuit 
Of her enraged ftepdam, Guendolen, 
Commended ber fair innocence to the flood, 
In Ben Jonfon’s ‘* Pan’s Anniverfary,”’ 
prefented before King James in 1625, we 
meet with precifely the fame expreffion as 
in the laft line above from Milton ;— 
Commending fo to all pofterity 
Her innocence. 
Works, vol. 6, p. 174, Ed. Whalley. 
‘was free from the faults of the firit (profanefs) 
as if he had drank Jordan inftead of Helicon, 
and flept on mount Olivet for his Parnaffus.” 
Worthies in Effex, fol. 334, ed. 1662. 
Biographical Memoirs of Cardinal Ruffa. 
349 
Jonfon was cne of Milton’s favourite 
poets, and atthe fame time the moft admired 
mafk-writer extant ; and, as it is probable 
he would refer to Jonfon while writing 
on fuch a fubject, he might, however un- 
con{cious, retain fome of his expreffions. . 
The father of Milton has been mentioned 
as the author of (a very {carce book called) 
‘¢ A Sixe-fold Politician. Together with 
a Sixe-fold Precept of Policy,” 4to. 1f09.* 
But the internal evidence of the book 
will, I think, go far to prove that he was 
not. Milton’s father is known to have 
been particularly diftinguifhed for his mu- 
fical talents. At page 33 of this little 
volume (chap. 3,) is a fevere invective 
againft poets, not without fome harfh 
epithets applied to the mufical tribes: 
Now it is hardly probable that he would 
write a fatire againft himfelf, nor is it 
likely that the writer of a Philippick 
again{t poets fhould condefcead to become 
a compofer of Madrigals. 
March 26, 
1802. O. G. GILCHRIST. 
* An indifferent copy of this book was fold 
at Mr. Ireland’s fale for 31. 13s. 6d. . 
MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR Of CARDINAL 
RUFFO, J/ately VICEROY and GENE- 
RALISSIMO of NAPLEs.—Communi- 
cated by a BRITISH OFFICER. 
ABRICE RUFFO, of the Houfe of 
Baranello, a Roman Cardinal, was 
born in Naples in 1744, and was defcend- 
ed from an illuftrious family, the greateft 
perhaps in the fouth of the.kingdom of 
Naples, and one of the few, among the 
ancient nobility, whofe records have, in 
-fome meafure, efcaped from the injuries 
of the times. It is beyond alldoubt that 
his anceftors held fome of the feven higheft 
offices of the crown, under the domination 
of the Houfe of Suabia, the moft intereft- 
ing and brilliant period of the Sicilian mo- 
narchy ; as in the teftament of the immor- 
tal Emperor and King, Frederic the II. 
reported by Giannone and other hiftorians, 
we find the fubfcriptions—Petrus Ruffus 
and Fulcus Ruffus de ‘Calabria—an em- 
phatic and, perhaps, oftentatious figna- 
‘ture, tending to evince the renown, the in- 
fiuence, and the wealth which their fami- 
ly had already poffeffed in that extenfive 
and valuable province of the kingdom of 
MontTuiy Mac, No. 86. 
Naples, even before the thirteenth cen- 
tury, the epoch of the above-mentioned 
ftate paper. 
The fubject of this article, being ini- ’ 
tiated in the clerical orders, was fent to 
Rome, for the purpofe of running the ca- 
reer of the ecclefiaftical benefices; and few 
clergymen, from the feveral parts of Eu- 
rope, ever repaired, with the fame view, 
to that metropolis of the Catholic world, 
under better aufpices than he did! Inde- 
pendent of the {plendour attached to his 
family name, .an advantage which he held 
in common with many other young prelates, 
his contemporaries, he poficfled the fgnal 
prerogative of being the great favourite of 
the then newly elected Pope, Pius VI. 
It is a fact univerfally admitted by the hif- 
torians of this venerable pontiff, that he 
was indebted for his firft ftep in the Roman 
dignities to theold Cardinal Ruffo, grand- 
uncle of Fabrice, whom he had attended, 
inthe capacity of Uditore; that the Car- 
dinal was fo generous as to bequeath him 
the- enjoyment of his ufual falaries of, 
Uditore during his life; whil@, on tbe 
other hand, he fo far revered the memory 
Lz of 
