“Seeing Foreign Parts” 1638–1639ling reputation with the learned of Europe. It is nonetheless revealing, as it registers
Milton’s obvious delight in many new friendships founded upon mutual admira-
tion of learning and talent. He reveled in the attentions paid him by both great men
and young prodigies, and in their gratifying praises of his poetry. The academies,
especially those in Florence, he saw as an ideal environment to nurture poetic
creativity and scholarly achievement; these private associations of scholars and literati
combined during their frequent meetings social warmth, intellectual exchange, poetic
performance, and literary criticism. But his remarks are general and often impre-
cise. It is usually not possible to trace the details of Milton’s travels – when he
arrived and left each place, what he saw and did, when he met the persons he
mentions. It is even more difficult to determine his reactions to much that he saw –
for example, Italian art, which he nowhere mentions. His polemic purposes did not
invite such commentary, and there are no travel diaries or intimate personal letters
to family or friends. Writing this phase of Milton’s life involves treading a fine line
between judicious speculation and unwarranted guesses.
Milton’s poems of this period are the product of his Latin Muse, and they
exhibit his mastery of several genres of conventional coterie compliment and
tribute. Their dense classical echoes and allusiveness display his learning and po-
etic skill to his Italian friends, who were evidently impressed. But they are much
more than conventional exercises: often they address themes developed in earlier
poems and continue Milton’s practice of setting up within and between his poems
alternative versions of life and art. Also, they often challenge genre and conven-
tion as they probe topics of profound personal significance to Milton – music,
death, friendship, poetry. And the most impressive of them – Mansus and the
Epitaphium Damonis – explore issues of Milton’s poetics and his self-construction
as a poet.
“I Have Sat Among their Lerned Men, For that Honor I Had”
Milton’s projected route through France, Italy, and Switzerland closely parallels the
itinerary of most other touring Englishmen of the era (plate 4). With his gentleman
servant, he set off from London soon after the middle of April to (probably) Dover,
crossed the Channel by boat to Calais, then proceeded as rapidly as possible to Paris,
his first major stop. Milton says nothing of travel conditions in France and Italy, but
they were often difficult: overland travel was chiefly on horseback; decent accom-
modation was hard to find; travelers had to comply with different police regulations
in the several states; money had to be exchanged; certificates of health had to be
obtained for the Italian cities; highwaymen and gypsies posed real dangers. Milton
carried a letter of introduction from Henry Wotton, “a most distinguished gentle-
man” whose letters “gave signal proof of his esteem for me,” to the British embassy
in Paris, and he obtained others from the English ambassador to France, John