"Milton, as he was travelling through Italy in his youth, faw at Florence a comedy called Adamo, written by one Andreini, a player, and dedicated to Mary de Medicis, queen of France. The fubject of the play was the Fall of Man; the actors, God, the Devils, the Angels, Adam, Eve, the Serpent, Death, and the feven mortal Sins: That topick, fo improper for a drama, but fo fuitable to the abfurd genius of the Italian ftage (as it was at that time), was handled in a manner entirely conformable to the extravagance of the defign. The scene opens with a Chorus, of Angels; and a Cherubim thus fpeaks for the reft: Let the rainbow be the fiddleftick of the heavens! let the planets be the notes of our musick! let time beat carefully the measure, and the winds make the Sharps, &c. Thus the play begins, and every scene rises above the last in profufion of impertinence ! "Milton pierced through the absurdity of that performance to the hidden majesty of the fubject, which, being altogether unfit for the ftage, yet might be (for the genius of Milton, and his only,) the foundation of an epick poem. a "A la lira del Ciel Iri fia l'arco, "Sien le paufe e i fofpir l'aure novelle, Choro d' Angeli, &c. Adamo, ed. 1617. The better judgement of the author, Mr. Walker observes,、 determined him to omit this chorus in a fubfequent edition of his drama: accordingly it does not appear in that of Perugia, 1641. See the Hiftorical Memoir on Italian Tragedy, 1799, p. 169. "He took from that ridiculous trifle the firft hint of the nobleft work, which human imagination has ever attempted, and which he executed more than twenty years after. b That Milton had certainly read the facred drama of Andreini, is the opinion both of Dr. Jofeph Warton and of Mr. Hayley. Another elegant critick has obferved, that Voltaire may have related a tradition perhaps current in England at the time it was vifited by him; "a period at which, it may be prefumed, fome of the contemporaries of Milton were living, for he was then only about fifty years dead. Milton, with the candour which is ufually united with true genius, probably acknowledged to his friends his obligations to the Italian dramatift, and the floating tradition met the ardent inquiries of the French poet." It may be worth mentioning here, that Dante, according to the account of fome Italian critieks, took the hint of his Inferno from a nocturnal representation of Hell, exhibited in 1304 on the river Arno at Florence; and that Taffo is faid to have conceived the idea of writing his Aminta at the reprefentation, in 1567, of Lo Sfortunato of Agoftino Argenti in Ferrara. d From the Adamo of Andreini a poetical extract, as well as the fummary of the arguments of each act and fcene, were given by Dr. Warton, in an appendix to the fecond volume of his Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, 1782. Mr. Hift. Mem. on Ital. Tragedy, p. 170. Hayley has cited other fpecimens of the poetry in this "fpirited, though irregular and fantastick, compofition;" from which Milton's fancy is fuppofed to have caught fire. The reader will find a few quotations alfo, from this rare and curious drama, in the Notes on Paradife Loft. But, if the Adamo be examined with the utmost nicety, Milton will be found no fervile copyift: He will be found, as in numberless inftances of his extenfive, his curious, and careful reading, to have improved the flightest hints into the finett defcriptions. Milton indeed, with the skill and grace of an Apelles or a Phidias, has often animated the rude sketch and the shapelefs block. I mean not to detract from the Italian drama; but let it be here remarked once for all, in Milton's own words, that "borrowing, if it f • From the remarks of Prince Giacomo Giuftiniani, (the accomplished governour of Perugia,) on the Adamo, which were tranfmitted to Mr. Walker, and by Mr. Walker obligingly communicated to me, it appears that the criticks of Italy confider Milton not a little indebted to their countryman. I will cite the opinion of the liberal and elegant Tirabofchi: "Certo benche L'Adamo dell' Andreini fia in confronto del Paradifo Perduto ciò che è il Poema di Ennio in confronto a quel di Virgilio, nondimeno non può negarfi che le idee gigantefche, delle quali l'autore Inglese ha abbellito il fuo Poema, di Satana, che entra nel Paradifo terreftre, e arde d' invidia al vedere la felicita dell' Uomo, del congrefio de Demonj, della battaglia degli Angioli contra Lucifero, e più altre fommiglianti immagini veggonfi nell' Adamo adombrate per modo, che a me fembra molto credibile, che anche il Milton dalle immondezze, fe così è lecito dire, dell' Andreini raccoglieffe l'oro, di cui adorno il fuo Poema. Per altro L'Adamo dell' Andreini, benche abbia alcuni tratti di' peffimo gufto, ne hà altri ancora, che fi poffon proporre come modello di eccellente poefia." Eiconoclaftes, Profe-Works, edit. 1698, fol. vol. ii. p. 509. be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted plagiarie." Let the bitterest enemies of Milton prove, if they can, whether the author of this ingenuous remark may be exhibited in fuch a light; rather let them acknowledge that, in fully comparing him with thofe authors who have written on fimilar fubjects, he muft ever be confidered as "above the reft "In fhape and gesture proudly eminent." The drama of Andreini was fo little known when Dr. Birch was writing the Life of Milton, that Warburton, in a letter to that learned biographer, preserved in the British Museum, ridicules the relation of Voltaire. "It is faid that it appeared by a MS. in Trin. Coll. Camb. that Milton intended an opera of the Paradife Loft. Voltaire, on the credit of this circumftance, amongst a heap of impertinency, pretends boldly that he took the hint from a comedy he faw at Florence, called Adamo. Others imagined too he conceived the idea in Italy; now I will give you good proof that all this is a vifion. In one of his political pamphlets, written early by him, I forget which, he tells the world he had conceived a notion of an epick poem on the story of Adam or Arthur. What then will you fay muft we do with this circumftance of the Trin. Col. MS? I believe I can explain that matter. When the parliament got uppermoft, they fup. preffed the playhouses; on which Sir John Denham, I think, and others, contrived to get operas performed. This took with the people, and was much in their tafte; and religious ones being the favourites of that fanctified people, was, I believe, what inclined Milton at that time (and neither before nor after) to make an opera of it."-Even at a much later period, the very existence of the Adamo was denied; for Mr. Mickle, an ardent admirer of Milton, and the very able translator of The Lufiad, calls it "a Comedy which nobody ever faw;" and obferves, "that even fome Italian literati declared that no fuch author [as Andreini] was known in Italy." Dr. Johnfon alfo, in his Life of Milton, calls Voltaire's relation "a wild, unauthorised, story." That Milton had conceived, in his younger days, as Dr. Warburton has obferved, the notion of an epick poem on the ftory of Arthur, is evident from his own words in the Manfus, v. 80, &c. and the Epitaphium Damonis, v. 155, &c: Where fee the Notes, vol. vii. p. 366, and p. 382. Mr. Hayley, with his ufual acutenefs and elegance of language, remarks that" it feems very probable that Milton, in his collection of Italian books, had brought the Adamo of Andreini to England; and that the perufal of an author, wild indeed, and abounding in grotefque extravagance, yet now and then fhining with pure and united rays of fancy and devotion, first gave a new bias to the imagination of the English poet; or, to ufe the expreffive phrafe of Voltaire, first revealed to him the hidden majesty of the fubject. The apoftate angels of Andreini, though fometimes hideously and abfurdly difgufting, yet Differtation prefixed to the Translation of the Lusiad, 2d edit. Ox. p. ccii. |
