The letter which sir Henry Wotton addressed to Milton, on receiving the
_Maske presented at Ludlow-castle_, appears to admit of an interpretation
which has escaped the numerous editors of the works of Milton; and I
resolve to put this novel conjecture on its trial in the critical court of
facts and inferences held at No. 186. Fleet Street.
Sir Henry Wotton thus expresses himself on the circumstance which I
conceive to have been misinterpreted:
"For the work itself [a dainty piece of entertainment, by Milton] I had
viewed some good while before with singular delight, having received it
from our common friend Mr. R. in the very close of the late R.'s
_Poems_, printed at Oxford; whereunto [it] is added (as I now suppose)
that the accessory might help out the principal, according to the art
of stationers, and to leave the reader _con la bocca
dolce_."--_Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, 1672.
In the poems of Milton, as edited by himself in 1645, the date of this
letter is "13th April, 1638;" and as the _Poems_ of "Thomas Randolph,
master of arts, and late fellow of Trinity colledge in Cambridge," were
printed at Oxford in that year, in small quarto, it may be assumed that the
gift of _Mr. R._ was a copy of that volume, with the addition of the
_Maske_, as printed in the same size in 1637. Such was the conclusion of
Warton, and such is mine. The question at issue is, Who was _Mr. R._?
Warton says, "I believe _Mr. R._ to be John Rouse," the keeper of the
Bodleian library. Is it not more probable that _Mr. R._ means Robert
Randolph, master of arts, and student of Christchurch--a younger brother of
Thomas Randolph, and the editor of his poems?
I must first dispose of the assertion that the friendship between Rouse and
Milton "appears to have subsisted in 1637." There is no evidence of their
friendship till 1647; and that evidence is the ode to Rouse, to which this
address is prefixed: "Jan. 23. 1646. Ad Joannem Rousium, Oxoniensis
academiæ bibliothecarium. De libro poematum amisso, _quem ille sibi denuo
mitti postulabat_, ut cum aliis nostris in bibliotheca publica reponeret,
ode." It seems that Milton did not send the volume of 1645 till a copy of
it had been requested; no evidence, certainly, of old friendship! I admit
the probability that Wotton and Rouse were friends; but why should Rouse
_officiously stitch up_, as Warton expresses it, the _Mask_ of Milton with
the _Poems_ of Thomas Randolph, and present the volume to Wotton? Did he
give away that which is still wanting in the Bodleian library?
Admit my novel conjecture, and all the difficulties vanish. Thomas
Randolph, says Phillips, was "one of the most pregnant young wits of his
time;" and Robert, who was also noted as a poet, could scarcely fail to
offer the poems of his brother to so eminent a person as sir Henry Wotton.
As sir Henry _yearly went to Oxford_, he may have made acquaintance with
Robert; and Robert may have been introduced to Milton by Thomas, who was
for eight years his cotemporary at Cambridge, and in the enjoyment of much
more celebrity. The _Maske_ may have been added as an experiment in
criticism.
The rev. Thomas Warton was a man of extensive reading, an excellent critic,
and a fascinating writer--but too often inattentive to accuracy of
statement. He says that Randolph _died_ the 17th March, 1634: Wood says he
was _buried_ the 17th March, 1634. He says it is so stated on his monument:
the monument has no date. He says the _Poems_ of Randolph contain 114
pages: the volume contains 368 pages! He says the _Maske_ is a slight
quarto of 30 pages only; it contains 40 pages! Is it not fit that such
carelessness should be exposed?