of his proofs: but what now if he fhall be found to have fuborned falfe evidence in fupport of his accufation, and instead of convicting Milton of plagia rifm, to have fixed an eternal brand of forgery upon himself? It was certainly very artful in Mr. Lauder to derive fo many of his authorities from books, which are fo little known, and copies of which are so very fcarce, that the principal of them cannot be found in the best and greatest libraries: and this ftratagem had a double afe, for at the fame time that it ferved to difplay his uncommon reading, it was alfo the means of his eluding the fearch of the most curious of his readers. I fhould myself have examined his authori ties, if I could have procured the books; but for want of them I took it for granted, and thought I might fafely take it for granted, that the paffages which he had quoted from fuch and fuch authors were really in thofe authors; and could not have harboured a fufpi cion, that a man of any learning and ingenuity, for the fake of defaming the venerable dead, could have been guilty of fuch monftrous forgeries, as have fince been proved upon him, and as he himself indeed has confeffed. For a learned and ingenious Gentleman being at Oxford the last summer had the curiofity to fearch in the Bodleian library for fome of these Ger man and Dutch poets, who according to Mr. Lauder held out the lighted torch to Milton: and after fearching in vain for Mafenius and the Adamus Exul of Grotius, he was fo fortunate as to find the fame ed tion, as Mr. Lauder had quoted, of Staphorftius's Latin poem intitled Triumphus pacis on the conclufion of the peace between the States of Holland and the Commonwealth of England in 1655. It appears to be be e a prolix as well as a wretched dull compofition, nd fuch as could not poffibly have afforded any afftance to Milton: and it being one of Mr. Lauder's tifices in his quotations never to refer to particular laces or pages for the better direction of his readers, he Gentleman had the trouble of turning over the hole and of examining page after poem, page, ore he could find the paffages which Mr. Lauder had uoted: and upon comparing his quotations with the rinted copy he discovered to his surprise that Mr. Lauer had taken the liberty of omitting and inferting nes at pleasure, to make out a likeness; and particurly that the eight lines on marriage (which I have ited in the note on IV.753. and which are all that I ave cited from Staphorftius, as indeed they are all hat bear any strong resemblance to Milton) have no xistence in Staphorftius, but were interpolated by Mr. Lauder; and well indeed might they bear a strong efemblance to Milton, Mr. Lauder having had the flurance to transcribe them word for word from the Latin tranflation of the Paradife Loft by Hog or Hogaus printed in 1690. This difcovery incited the Gentleman to make farther researches, and farther efearches produced more difcoveries, which the Gentleman has fairly laid before the world in an excellent pamphlet lately published and intitled Milton vindicated from the charge of plagiarism brought against him by Mr. Lauder, and Lauder himself convicted of feveral forgeries and grofs impofitions on the public. In a letter humbly addrelled to the Right Honorable the Earl of Bath. By John Douglas M. A. Rector of Eton Conftantine, Salop. Printed for A. Millar in the Strand. Such a vindication of Milton muft be be pleafing to every Briton, who hath any love for poetry, or any regard for the honor of his country and if Scotland fuffers the mortification of feeing of her fons guilty of bringing an injurious flander upon our country, fhe enjoys the fatisfaction likewi of feeing another deferving of the highest comme dation for refuting the calumny and wiping the ftan away: and there cannot be a better recommendation of the vindication, nor a stronger proof of its being well written, than its having brought the Offender himself to a proper fenfe and acknowledgment of his various frauds and impofitions upon the public. For Mr. Lauder, looking upon me, I suppose, as a perfon peculiarly interested in the fame and reputation of Milton, has been with me to plead guilty to the charge which Mr. Douglas has brought against him, and to beg pr don of me and of the public. And in the forw and fincerity of his heart he has made fome farther confeffions to me. For I told him plainly, that his forgeries had been detected in fo many inftances, the one could not help fufpecting him in all the reft, and particularly in Masenius and Grotius, whofe books for ought that appeared no body in England had fe befides himself: I thought that the merit of his E confifted chiefly in his quotations from the Adam Exul of Grotius, which were more for his purpo than any others; but he had said himself (Effay.p.49) that he could not procure a printed copy of that tr gedy either in Britain or Holland, and had only tranfcript of it from Abraham Gronovius, keeper d the public library at Leyden: and I could affure him, that an extract of thofe paffages was fent over to tleman in Holland, who was employed to inquire f Gronovius whether they were genuin or not; and herefore he might as well confefs the truth himself, hich would be known in a little time without his onfeffion. He acknowledged that he had himself omposed several verfes, which he had quoted as from Grotius. I inquired particularly after thofe verfes fo early refembling that paffage in Milton, Better to reign in Hell, than ferve in Heaven: nd he confeffed that he had made those very verses, nd indeed all which had any particular likenefs to ny thing in Milton. I expreffed my fufpicions likewife about Mafenius, especially as he had loft the ook fo long ago, and as Mr. Douglas had proved that ne of his quotations from Mafenius, confifting of ight lines, (which I have cited likewise in a note on .710.) was taken litterally from the Latin tranflaion of the Paradife Loft by Hogaus; and it was not probable that the fame eight lines fhould be in Hoæus, and in Mafenius too. He owned honestly that hey were not, nor feveral things which he had fcribed to Mafenius. I afked particularly whether he word Pandamonium was in Masenius, for I had ll along fufpected that it was not, Concilium inferoum five Pandamonium: and he acknowledged that t was an interpolation of his own. I queftioned whether Mafenius had enumerated the four blind Doets, Tiresias, Phineus, Thamyrifque, et magnus Homerus: and he answered that there was fome foundation for that; Mafenius had reckoned up three of them, and he had inferted the fourth: and commonly I found, that that when he had caufed any thing to be printed capital letters or Italic characters, as worthy of the peculiar notice and obfervation of his readers, the was interpolated and forged by himself. Well mig Mr. Lauder felect this verfe for the motto to his book, Things unattempted yet in profe or rhime; for tho' there have been frequent forgeries in the terary world, yet fuch as these I believe not only were never practiced before, but were never a tempted: but aliter non fit, Avite, liber; he had recourfe to thefe artifices, as he himself confeffes, because he plainly perceived that he could not other wife have proved his point to the fatisfaction of any body. But I forbear to aggravate matters. I would not inflame the reader's indignation. Th man has already been fufficiently expofed, and epreffes forrow for his offense, and promifes to mak a public recantation acknowledging his crimes, and begging pardon of the world: and tho' he has entity ruined his character, as a man of probity; yet it mat be faid for him, that he has given fome proofs his abilities, as a man of learning. THOMAS NEWTON December 5. 1750 |