(Vol. vi., p. 5.; Vol. vii., p. 7.)
I desire to speak with the greatest deference to MR. BOLTON CORNEY'S
superior judgment, but still I cannot help saying that Thomas Warton's
remarks upon "our common friend Mr. R." and "the late R.'s poems" do not
seem to be supported by the facts. Randolph's poems were printed at Oxford
in 1638, but in which month we are not told. The first question then is
this, Were they printed before or after the 13th of April, when Wotton's
letter was written? If _after_ the 13th, or even the 6th of April, when
Milton's presentation copy of _Comus_ was forwarded, of course the matter
is decided. But, allowing for the present that they were printed _before_
the 13th of April in the year 1638, I must ask, in the second place, Could
Sir H. Wotton predicate of any volume printed in that year before that date
(or rather of _Comus_ stitched up with that volume), that he had viewed it
_some long time before_ with singular delight? I certainly think not, but
shall be very happy to have my objections overruled.
Then, again, if we admit MR. BOLTON CORNEY'S "novel conjecture" (which I
freely allow to be a great improvement upon that of Thomas Warton), how
comes it the Sir H. Wotton knew nothing of "the true artificer" of _Comus_
until he was let into the secret by Milton himself? If Robert Randolph was
the "common friend" of Wotton and Milton, was he not likely to have {112}
known something of the authorship of _Comus_, and to have enlightened Sir
Henry thereon? My principal objection remains. Thomas Randolph was far too
popular a poet to have been contemptuously alluded to by Wotton or any one
else in that age, and, making all due allowance for laudation and
compliment, Wotton does disparage the poems to which Milton's _Masque_ was
appended.
I think that quaint old Winstanley gives the general opinion of Randolph.
He says:
"He was one of such a pregnant wit that the Muses may seem not only to
have smiled, but to have been tickled at his nativity, such the
festivity of his poems of all sorts."--_Lives of English Poets_, p.
142., Lond. 1687.
We must therefore, perhaps, look out for some more obscure and worthless
poet, whose "principal" Milton's "accessory" was to "help out."
When writing on this subject before, I said that Samuel Hartlib had not
settled in England at the time of Sir H. Wotton's letter to Milton (Vol.
vi., p. 5.). I am indebted to Warton for that mistake. He fixes the date of
his coming hither to "about the year 1640." (_Illustrations of Milton's
Minor Poems_, p. 596.: Lond. 1775.)
Samuel Hartlib figures amongst the correspondents of Joseph Mede in March,
1634, and even then dated from London. (Mede's _Works_, vol. ii. lib. iv.
p. 1058.: Lond. 1664, fol.)
Amongst the _Letters and Despatches_ of Lord Strafforde are two letters
from Sir Henry Wotton, which do not appear in the _Reliquiæ_ (vide vol. i.
pp. 45-48.: Dublin, 1740, fol.), though some sentences in the former of the
two may be found at p. 373. of said work. I often find it a pleasant
employment to fill up the gaps and trace out the allusions in Wotton's
correspondence.
May I give a short specimen of one of his letters filled up? It was
written, I suppose, to Nicholas Pey:
"My dear Nic,
"More than a voluntary motion doth now carry me towards Suffolk,
especially that I may confer by the way with an excellent physician at
B., whom I brought myself from Venice."--_Reliquiæ_, p. 359.
By "B." is meant St. Edmund's Bury, and by the "excellent physician" no
less than _Gaspero Despotine_, who, together with Mark Anthony de Dominis,
accompanied Sir H. Wotton and his chaplain Bedell from Italy.
However, he was very unlike the archbishop of whom Dr. Crakanthorp used to
say, that he was well called "De Dominis in the plural, for he could serve
two masters, or twenty if they would all pay him wages." (Hacket's _Life of
Williams_, part i. p. 103.: Lond. 1693, fol.) Despotine left Italy that he
might at the same time leave the communion of the Church of Rome, and when
Bedell was appointed to the living of St. Edmund's Bury, he accompanied him
thither. One of Wotton's very interesting letters announces the event.
(_Reliquiæ_, p. 400.) Under the fostering care of the saintly Bedell,
Despotine rose to eminence in his profession at St. Edmund's Bury, and kept
up a kind correspondence with his guide and patron after his promotion to
the Provostship of Trinity College, Dublin, and the sees of Ardagh and
Kilmore. (Burnet's _Life of Bishop Bedell_, ad init.)
In another letter (_Reliquiæ_, p. 356.) Wotton speaks of having given also
to Michael Brainthwaite and the young Lord Scudamore the advice of Alberto
Scipioni to himself, to "keep his eyes open and his mouth shut," which
Milton sadly disregarded.