1 I am grateful to the Pennsylvania State University for a research grant and to the Library of Glasgow University for its help in securing materials for research.

2 ‘John Baptista Manso, Marquis of Villa, is one of the most distinguished men in Italy, for bodi intellectual eminence and literary interests, and for military prowess also.' (Throughout I shall use the text and translation of ‘Mansus’ in The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton, ed. Douglas Bush, Boston, 1965, pp. 150-155.)

3 Manso, Giovanni Battista, Poesie Nomiche (Venice, 1635).Google Scholar

4 I am grateful to Dr. Alfred Triolo for his help here and elsewhere with these Italian poems addressed to Manso.

5 Andrea Vittorelli, p. 310. See also Scipione Sambiasi, ‘Glorioso colla spada, e colla penna', p. 280.

6 ‘For it is not only the gift of powerful eloquence that is thine: thou hast limbs that are made for war', Silvae, rv.iv.64-65 (trans. J. H. Mozley in the Loeb edition).

7 For centuries the poem had the advantage of being attributed to Tibullus. But Karl Lachmann, in Kleinere Schriften zur Classischen Philologie, ed. J. Vahlen (Berlin, 1876), II, 149, points out the improbability of Tibullus’ authorship.

8 ‘For who doth greater things than thou, whether in camp or forum?’ ‘Panegyricus Messallae', line 39. (Throughout I shall use the translation of J. P. Postgate in the Loeb edition.)

9 J. C. Scaliger at one point thought the poem was by Ovid and so did Octavianus Mirandula (Illustrium Poetarum Flores, Antwerp, 1549), who quoted lines 218-222 under the heading ‘De Amicitia’ (f. 15^r). This bad poem gained further prestige by being attributed also to Vergil. But the ‘Piso’ it praises seems to have been Gaius (or Claudius) Calpurnius Piso, who committed suicide in 65 A.D. Gladys Martin (Laus Pisonis, Ithaca 1917, p. 27) refuses to attribute the poem to any known poet. B. L. Ullman (“The Text Tradition and Authorship of the Laus Pisonis', CP, XXIV [1929], 132) thinks the poem is by Lucan.

10 Poetices Libri Septem (Lyons, 1561), p. 53.

11 See Curtius, Ernst Robert, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, trans. Willard Trask, Harper Torchbooks (New York, 1963), pp. 154–182.Google Scholar

12 ‘ … but not accustomed to the lesser men of our time, [Virtue] brought forth Robert, outstanding for his services in war and peace’ (my translation). ‘In Robertum Sanseverinatem Panaegyricum Carmen', Opera Omnia (Bologna, 1502), f. li^v [lines 54-56].

13 F. lix^v [lines 680-681].

14 ‘Who could set forth your eagerness, your habits, properly, one at a time? Now fiercely you brandish the reins and the curb with its jagged teeth, now you wield the short spear in your hand. Now you engage in conscientious communion with the learned Muses. Then soon it pleases you to relax your tired spirit in play and to make an end to your studies. Who would believe your youth?’ (my translation). ‘Ad Illustrissimum Walliae Principem, Henricum', Poematum Libri Duo (Oxford, 1636), p. 10 [lines 34-39].

15 Of Education, The Works of John Milton, ed. Frank Patterson (New York, 1931), IV, 280.

16 ‘Publius Scipio’ was her stepfather, Philip Skippon, one of Cromwell's generals, who died in 1660.

17 The Caroline Poets, ed. George Saintsbury (Oxford, 1905), 1, 595, lines 19-20.

18 ‘These lines too, Manso, the Pierides are meditating in your praise, for you, Manso, who are widely known to Phoebus’ choir because, since the death of Gallus and Etruscan Maecenas, on no one else has the god bestowed equal honor. You also, if the breath of my Muse has the power, shall sit among victorious ivy and laurels’ (lines 1-6).

19 ‘But thou strivest to surpass the olden honours of thy line, thyself a greater lustre to posterity than ancestry to thee. For thy exploits no legend underneath a name has room. Thou shalt have great rolls of immortal verse; and, in eagerness to write thy praises, all will assemble who compose in rhythm, whether bound or free. They will strive who shall be first. May I be the conqueror among them all, that I may write my name above the great story of those deeds’ (lines 31-38).

20 ‘Hail! ornament of the age, worshipful deservedly for all time, protection of the Pierian choir, beneath whose guardianship never did poet fear for an old age of beggary.

'But if there is any room for entreaties of mine, if my prayers have reached your heart, then you, Piso, shall one day be chanted in polished verse, to be enshrined in the memory as my Maecenas. I can consign a name to everlasting renown, if after all ‘tis right for any man to promise this of himself, and if the avenging god is absent’ (lines 243-251). Throughout I shall use the translation of J. W. and A. M. Duff in the Loeb edition.

21 ‘Ad Carolum V. Imper. Burdegalae hospitio publico susceptum, nomine Scholae Burdegalensis anno M D xxxix', Elegiarum Liber I, Sylvarum Liber I… (Amsterdam, 1665), p. 368 [lines 7-18].

22 ‘Ad Iulium III P. M.’, Delitiae CC Italorum Poetarum ([Frankfurt], 1608), I, 1113 [lines 1-6].

23 ‘Ad Potentissimum et Augustissimum Britanniarum Monarcham, Jacobum Primum, Kalendae Januariae', Poematum Libri Duo, p. 1 [lines 1-3]; p. 2 [lines 47-58]; p. 5 [lines 149-154].

24 “The Second Elegy', The Caroline Poets, ed. George Saintsbury (Oxford, 1905) I, 706, lines 227-234.

25 D. Vincenzo Carrafa, ‘Sue lodi dispari alia fama del Marchese', p. 284.

26 ‘When we draw our Introduction from the person being discussed: if we speak in praise, we shall say that we fear our inability to match his deeds with words', Ad Herennium, III. vi. II (trans. Harry Caplan in the Loeb edition). See also Doxopater (Christian Walz, Rhetores Graeci, Stuttgart, 1832, II, 449, 33) as quoted by Theodore Burgess in 'Epideictic Literature', University of Chicago Studies in Classical Philology, III (1902), 122: 'It is the law of encomiasts to agree always that the subject is greater than words can match.'

27 See Baldwin, T. W., William Shakspere's Small Latine & Lesse Greeke (Urbana, 1944)Google Scholar, 1,417, and Donald Lemen Clark, John, Milton at St. Paul's School (New York, 1948), p. 193.Google Scholar

28 ‘You also, if the breath of my Muse has the power, shall sit among victorious ivy and laurels.'

29 See e.g. ‘Ad Messallam', lines 1-17 and 177-178; ‘Laus Pisonis', lines 68-80; ‘In Robertum Sanseverinatem', f. liii^r [lines 168-169] and f. lv^r [lines 325-326]; Henry King, 'Upon the Death of… Doctor Donne', The Caroline Poets, III, 218-219, lines 1-28, 43-50; Carlo Noci, ‘Stile dispari al desiderio', Poesie Nomiche, p. 263.

30 For a summary of the facts concerning the friendship of Milton and Manso, see The Latin Poems of John Milton, ed. Walter MacKellar, Cornell Studies in English No. xv (New Haven, 1930), pp. 58-60.

31 ‘Then it will be said that Cynthius was a voluntary guest in your house, and that the Muses came as servants to your door. For it was not willingly that Apollo, when he was an exile from heaven, came to the home and fields of King Pheretiades, although the king had been the host of great Alcides. Only, when he wished to escape from the noisy ploughmen, he sought refuge in the famous cave of gentle Chiron, among the wellwatered glades and leafy shelters beside the river Peneus. There under the dark oak, yielding to his friend's persuasive urging, he would often, to the sound of the lyre, relieve the hard labors of his exile with song. Then neither the bank of the stream nor the rocks fixed in the lowest abyss remained in their places; the Trachinian chff swayed and no longer felt the huge weight of its accustomed woods; the ash-trees, dislodged, hastened from their hills, and the spotted lynxes were tamed by the wondrous song’ (lines 54-69).

32 See MacKellar, pp. 327-328, for a list of Greek and Roman analogues.

33 ‘Epithalamion in Stellam et Violentillam', Silvae, I, ii, lines 83-90, 209-217.

34 ‘Ad Robertum', f. lii^r [lines 102-103] and f. liiir [lines 170-172 and 182-184].

35 ‘Nobilissimo Comiti Sarum, Roberto Cecilio', Poematum Libri Duo, p. 26 [lines 89-94].

36 ‘Cede al Tasso in lodar lo', p. 294.

37 ‘Desidera ripatriare in Napoli con gratia del Vicere procurata, e poi impetrata dal Manso', p. 259.

38 ‘II loda nell'Otio dell'Academia', p. 275.

39 ‘An Elegy upon the Most Incomparable King Charles the First', The Caroline Poets, III, 256, lines 50-52.

40 ‘De Consulate Stilichonis', I, 33-34. MacKellar (p. 329) points out the similarity of 'De Consulate Stilichonis', I, 316, and lines 74-75 of'Mansus'.

41 Rhetoric, I, 9, 1368a.

42 ‘Praefatio Panegyrici Dicti Anthemio Augusto bis Consuli', lines 15-20.

43 ‘Panegyricus de Tertio Consulate Honorii Augusti', lines 59-62.

44 ‘Ad Carolum', pp. 368-369 [lines 24-28].

45 Antonio Gallerati, in the Poesie Nomiche tributes, assured Manso that he was ‘il paragona ad Apollo nell'arme, e nel canto’ (p. 267). Sambiasi ('Glorioso colla Spada', p. 280) and Vincenzo Toraldo ('Antico Poesia rinovata nello stilo del Marchese', p. 262) also compared Manso with Apollo.

46 ‘He sought refuge in the famous cave of gentle Chiron’ (60).

47 E.g. ‘Laus Pisonis', lines 68-80.

48 ‘Fortunate old man! For wherever … through the world …'.

49 ‘Old man, beloved by the gods …'.

50 ‘Happy old man! So these lands will still be yours’ (46) (H. R. Fairclough's translation in the Locb edition).

51 ‘Happy old man! Here amid familiar streams …’ (51).

52 But Milton is not unique. Hieronymus Fracastorius likewise echoes Vergil's ‘fortunate senex’ in praising Ioannis Baptista Turrius ‘Ad Io. Bapt Turrium Veronensem', Delitiae CC Italorum Poetarum, I, 1094 [line 30]. So also does M. Ant. Flaminius in ‘Ad Petrum Viperam’ in Carmina Quinque Illustrium Poetarum (Florence, 1549), p. 174, line 1.

53 ‘Old man beloved by the gods, when you were born kindly Jupiter and Phoebus and the grandson of Atlas must have shed their gracious light upon you, for no one, unless from birth he was dear to the gods, could have be friended a great poet’ (70-73).

54 Burgess, p. 122.

55 ‘Other topics to be drawn from the period preceding their birth will have reference to omens or prophecies foretelling their future greatness, such as the oracle which is said to have foretold that the son of Thetis would be greater than his father.’ Institutio Oratoria, III, vii, 11 (trans. H. Butler in the Loeb edition).

56 Baldwin, l, 417; Clark, p. 132.

57 ‘Hence your old age is green with lingering blossoms and gains the vigor of Aesonian spindles; your brow still preserves its honors unfallen, and your spirit is strong, your ripe mind acute’ (74-77).

58 The Life of John Milton (New York, 1946), 1, 813, and 819, II. 1.

59 ‘On the death of my much honoured Uncle, Mr G. Sandys', The Caroline Poets, II, 518, lines 30-32.

60 ‘Do you stretch out your hand to a swimmer’ (253).

61 ‘Ad Potentissimum et Augustissimum Britanniarum Monarcham Jacobum Primum', p. 5 [lines 169-170].

62 ‘Ad … Henricum', p. II [lines 63-81].

63 ‘On the Death of my worthy friend Mr John Oldham', The Caroline Poets, III 381-382, lines 45-65. See also Flatman's ‘On the Death of the Right Honourable Thomas, Earl of Ossory', The Caroline Poets, m, 298, lines 81-100, which presents a vision of the Earl in Heaven.

64 ‘O if my fate would grant to me such a friend, who knows well how to honor the votaries of Phoebus—if ever I shall call back into verse our native kings, and Arthur waging wars even under the earth, or shall tell of the great-hearted heroes united in the invincible fellowship of the table; and—if only inspiration be widi me—I shall break the Saxon battalions under British arms!’ (78-84).

65 Milton (London, 1946), pp. 90-91.

66 The Works of Walter Savage Landor, ed. T. Earle Welby (London, 1927), v, 330

67 ‘Laudes Crispini', Silvae, v, ii.

68 ‘Ad Danielem Raincrium Veron.ic Prefectum', Delitiae, I, 1096-1098. See also, e.g., Lazarus Bonamicus, ‘Ad Diegum Hurtadmn Mendozam', Delitiae, 1, 469-472.

69 Charles Diodati was buried on 27 Aug. 1638, while Milton was in Italy. It is not certain when Milton learned of his death or when he wrote the ‘Epitaphium Damonis'. John T. Shawcross ('Epitaphium Damonis: Lines 9-13 and the Date of Composition', MLN, LXXI [1956], 322-324) and William Riley Parker ('Milton and the News of Charles Diodati's Death', MLN, LXXII [1957], 486-488) argue that the poem was written in Oct. or Nov. 1639. Meanwhile Milton met Manso in Nov. or Dec. 1638, and probably wrote 'Mansus’ soon after. See William Riley Parker, ‘Notes on the Chronology of Milton's Latin Poems’ in A Tribute to George Coffin Taylor, ed. Arnold Williams (Chapel Hill, 1952). PP. 130-131.

70 ‘And his shade has not been deceived by your loyal devotion’ (15).

71 ‘But this service did not seem enough for either poet, and your pious offices did not end at the tomb. For, so far as you could, you desired to preserve them from Orcus unharmed and evade the greedy laws of the Fates’ (17-19).

72 See e.g. Katherine Philips, ‘In Memory of Mrs E. H.', The Caroline Poets, 1, $66, line 50.

73 The absence of explicit Christianity from ‘Mansus’ is of course in marked contrast to 'Lycidas’ and ‘Epitaphium Damonis', especially in view of the similarity of the three poems in having a concluding vision of life after death. Perhaps two forces are at work: (I) The atmosphere of harmony throughout ‘Mansus', so different from the initial discord which must be resolved in the other two poems, may have seemed to Milton to create a structural situation in which a justification of God's ways to men through Christianity was poetically unnecessary; (2) Milton's fervent Protestantism and Manso's equally fervent Roman Catholicism may have led Milton to feel that Christianity was a subject better avoided in the poem. Milton himself writes of his visit to Naples: ‘By him [Manso] I was treated, while I stayed there, with all the warmth of friendship: for he conducted me himself over the city and the viceregent's court, and more than once came to visit me at my own lodgings. On my leaving Naples, he gravely apologized for showing me no more attention, alleging that although it was what he wished above all things, it was not in his power in that city, because I had not thought proper to be more guarded on the point of religion.’ Defensio Secunda, The Works of John Milton, ed. Frank Patterson, trans. George Burnett (New York, 1933), VIII, 125.

74 ‘Then neither the bank of the stream nor the rocks fixed in the lowest abyss remained in their places; the Trachinian cliff swayed and no longer felt the huge weight of its accustomed woods; the ash-trees, dislodged, hastened from their hills, and the spotted lynxes were tamed by the wondrous song’ (65-69).

75 “The great-hearted heroes united in the invincible fellowship of the table’ (82-83).