Ad eandem. English translation. Back to Latin text. Open Latin text in new window.
Introduction. This group of three elegies celebrate the Roman singer Leonora Baroni. When Milton visited Rome in 1639 she and her mother, Adriana Basile, were at the height of their popularity. Baroni attracted the attention and praise of aristocrats, cardinals and poets. She was eighteen years old at the time. Italian poems in praise of her person and voice were collected in a volume entitled Applausi poetici alle glorie della Signora Leonora Baroni, published in 1639 and reprinted in 1641. Milton may well have heard her sing in the Palazzo Barberini.
Though Milton's praises, like those in the Italian collection, show some signs of formulaic hyperbole, Milton was always interested in the power of music to intimate heavenly harmony to earthly mortals, as with Sabrina in A Mask and "At a Solemn Musick."
Baroni was an accomplished composer and instrumentalist as well as a singer, and she was the only woman member of the elite academy known as the Umoristi or Humorists. For more on Milton's experiences of music in Italy, see Margaret Byard, "'Adventrous Song': Milton and the Music of Rome."
The translation follows that of Walter MacKellar with a few changes based on consulting The Columbia Milton and Merritt Y. Hughes.
Parthenope. All the sirens were said to be daughters of Achelous. Parthenope, a siren, was also the patron goddess of Naples, oringinally named Parthenope.
Chalcidian. Naples was said to have been settled by Greek colonists from Euboea, whose principle city is Chalcis; hence they would have been Chalcideans. The siren Parthenope was believed to have washed ashore near Naples and so she became the patron goddess of Naples.
Posilipo. Posillipo is a rocky height at the western end of the Bay of Naples. The Greeks were said to have named this place Pauilypion, or respite from worry.