Merriment, preconcerted, seldom answers the expectation, iv. 321.
generally the effect of chance, ibid.
Merry Wives of Windsor, observations on Shakespeare's comedy, v. 156.
Merton college, Oxford, accounts of the disputes respecting the visitation of, vi. 415.
Metaphysical poetry, what, vii. 14.
borrowed from Marino and his followers, and recommended by Donne and Jonson, 17.
other successors, 18.
critical remarks on this kind of writing, ibid.
Metastasio, translation of an air in the Clemenza of, i. 146.
translation of the speech of Aquileio, in the Adriano of, ibid.
Metrodorus, his account of life, iv. 98.
Midsummer, an ode, i. 119.
Midsummer Night's Dream, observations on Shakespeare's comedy, v. 159.
Milbourne, rev. Mr. specimen of his criticism on Dryden's translation of Virgil, vii. 333.
Milton, John, remarks on his versification, ii. 403, 412.
the peculiarity of it, wherein it consists, ibid.
he formed his scheme of it upon the models of Greece and Rome, ibid.
critical remarks on his Samson Agonistes, a tragedy, iii. 158, 162.
preface to an essay on his use and imitation of moderns in his Paradise Lost, v. 267.
from whence he took the first hints of Paradise Lost, 268.
manuscripts, called Adam Unparadised, supposed to be the embryo of Paradise Lost, 269.
subscriptions solicited for Mrs. Elizabeth Foster, his granddaughter, 270.
inferior both to May and Cowley in Latin poetry, vii. 10.
life of, 66.
descended from the proprietors of Milton, near Thame in Oxfordshire, ibid.
his grandfather keeper of the forest of Shotover, ibid.
his father a scrivener, and eminent for his skill in musick. ibid.
his mother's name Caston, a Welsh family, ibid.
his brother Christopher knighted by king James, and made a judge, ibid.
his sister Anne married Edward Philips, secondary in the crown office, who left two sons, John and Edward, who were educated by the poet, ibid.
born at his father's the Spread Eagle, in Bread street, London, Dec. 9, 1608, 67.
received private tuition under Mr. Young, then went to St. Paul's school, and entered sizar at Christ's college, Cambridge, Feb. 12, 1624. ibid.
at fifteen years of age, he versified Psal. cxiv. and cxxxvi. ibid.
wrote many elegies in his eighteenth year, 68.
wrote Latin verses with classick elegance, ibid.
received corporeal punishment at Cambridge, ibid.
took his bachelor's degree, 1628, and master's, 1632, 69.
observations on his Scheme of Education, ibid.
one of his objections to academical education, ibid.
his objections to entering into the ministry, ibid.
after leaving the university, he spent five years with his father in the country, where he read the Greek and Latin authors, 71.
his Masque of Comus, first acted in 1634, ibid.
his Lycidas, written in 1637, and his Arcades about the same time, 72.
Travels in 1638, ibid.
scarce any ever wrote so much, or praised so few, 73.
particularly noticed at Florence, ibid.
receives various Italian testimonies in his favour, ibid.
returns to London, 74.
instructs his nephews, J. and E. Philips, and some other boys, 75.
his biographers inclined to shrink from this part of his life, ibid.
a schoolmaster an honest and useful employment, ibid.
in education, he is said to have performed wonders, ibid.
on Sundays he instructed his scholars in theology, 77.
his treatise on Reformation, published in 1641, ibid.
answers a book of bishop Usher's in defence of Episcopacy, 78.
publishes his reasons of church government urged against prelacy, and two other pamphlets on the same subject, ibid.
marries Mary Powel, who leaves him after one month, 80.
publishes several books on divorce, for which he is called before the lords, but soon dismissed, ibid.
becomes an enemy to the presbyterians, 81.
pays his addresses to a daughter of Dr. Davis, ibid.
his wife asks forgiveness, and returns to him, ibid.
publishes his Areopagitica, 82.
publishes a collection of Latin and English poems, 1645, ibid.
takes a large house in Barbican for his scholars, ibid.
grants a refuge to the relations of his wife, ibid.
as a schoolmaster compared to a chamber milliner, 83.
is supposed to have had a design of entering into sir W. Waller's army as adjutant general, ibid.
removes to a small house in*
- <poem>
