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Psalm LXIV. and the scrap entitled Philosophus ad Regem Quendam, &c.; after which are the two Latin pieces, Ad Salsillum and Mansus, written in Italy, and the Epitaphium Damonis, written immediately after the return to England. This last stands a little apart from the body of the "Sylvae," as if Milton attached a peculiar sacredness to it.
Well fare the soul of unfastidious Vincent Bourne, most classical, and at the same time, most English, of the Latinists! who has treated of this human and quadrupedal alliance, this dog and man friendship, in the sweetest of his poems, the Epitaphium in Canem, or, Dog's Epitaph.
For a reason which will appear Milton did not even do this. He seems, however, to have procured from the printer some copies of the last eleven pages of the Latin part, which contained the Epitaphium Damonis by itself, and to have sent these to Florence.
Milton, who had called himself Thyrsis in the Epitaphium Damonis, here adopts in the happiest manner the words of the young poet-shepherd Thyrsis in Virgil's pastoral. Thyrsis there, contending with Corydon for the prize in poetry, begs from his brother shepherds, if not the ivy of perfectly approved excellence, at least "Some green thing round the brow, Lest ill tongues hurt the poet yet to be."
The same announcement is reproduced in the Epitaphium Damonis, 1639, and, in Pamphlet No. 4, in the often-quoted words: Between the publication of the collected Poems in 1645, and the appearance of Paradise Lost in 1687, a period of twenty-two years, Milton gave no public sign of redeeming this pledge.
The Epitaphium Damonis is further memorable as Milton's last attempt in serious Latin verse. He discovered in this experiment that Latin was not an adequate vehicle of the feeling he desired to give vent to. Milton was back in England in August, 1639.
It was a heavy blow to him, for one of the chief pleasures of being at home again would have been to pour into a sympathetic Italian ear the story of his adventures. The sadness of the homeward journey from Geneva is recorded for us in the Epitaphium Damonis. This piece is an elegy to the memory of Charles Diodati.
Burnet speaks of many Inscriptions at Lyons of the late and barbarous ages, as 'Bonum Memoriam', and 'Epitaphium hunc'. Of 23 Inscriptions in the Garden of the Fathers of Mercy, he quotes one which must be towards the barbarous age, as appears by the false Latin in 'Nimia' He quotes it because he has 'made a little reflection on it, which is, that its subject, Sutia Anthis, to whose memory her husband Cecalius Calistis dedicates the inscription which says
Est in hac quoque regione, vel suburbijs Leodij, Guilielmitarum Coenobium, in quo Epitaphium hoc Ioannis a Mandeuille, excepimus. Anno Dom. 1371. Mensis Nouembris, Die 17. Haec in lapide: in quo caelata viri armati imago, Leonem calcantis, barba bifurcata, ad caput manus benedicens, et vernacula haec verba: Vos qui paseis sor mi, pour l'amour deix proies por mi.
Not only were there included among the English Poems the five Italian Sonnets and the Italian Canzone which Milton is believed to have written in Italy; not only were the encomiums of his Italian friends, Manso of Naples, Salzilli and Selvaggi of Rome, and Francini and Dati of Florence, prefixed to the Latin Poems, with a note of explanation; not only among these Latin poems did he print the three pieces to the singer Leonora, the Scazontes to Salzilli, and the fine farewell to Manso; but in the Epitaphium Damonis, or pastoral on Charles Diodati's death, which ended the volume, and which had been written immediately after his return to England, there were references throughout to his Italian experiences, and passages of express mention of Dati, Francini, the Florentine group generally, and the venerable Manso.
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