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"Had Milton liv'd to fee how thou haft writ,

"He'd, for the charms thou giv'ft it, Rhime admit."

And he is called by another, " Milton and Dreydon in epitome." Nothing indeed can be more certain, than that he is indebted often enough to thefe poets. But let the reader folace himself with a fpecimen of the charms which would have won the heart of Milton, and forced him, in fpite of himself, to write in couplets! "The scene being opened, Hell is reprefented with Spirits in feveral postures of torments, &c.

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Lucifer. Bid 'em their shrieks and howlings now refrain,

And let each foul make mufick with his chain;

For at this juncture all from pains are free,

And Hell itself shall keep a jubilee.

"Belial. It shall be done.

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I plainly fee't, i' th' records of the sky:
The characters of Heaven with care are found:
Read there-the Univerfe will foon be drown'd."

This, however, is modeft when compared to the complacency with which the author of the Royal Grammar, published in 1715, fpeaks of rectifying Milton's defect: "It is not impoffible, but the Paradife may admit a fecond cultivation, and perhaps receive new beauties from another dress; at least be generally read with more pleafure; and, which is no fmall benefit of rhyme, be retained with more eafe: of which take this fhort Effay upon that paffage, B. ii. p. 42. edit. 1674. Ofhame to men! Devil with devil damn'd, &c.

"Ofhame! O curfe! O more than hellish fpight!
"Damn'd Devils with each other never fight.

"Tho' God bids peace with promises of life,
"Men onely reafon arm for deadly strife;

"By bloody wars earth making defolate,

"And facrificing thoufauds to their hate, &c."

I confign to the reader's laughter, or contempt, these new beauties; which, like the charms in Noah's Flood, may not improperly be termed, in the forcible expreffion of a modern author,

"The feverous efflux of a rhyme-fed brain."

Knight's Progrefs of Civ. Society.

I must not omit to mention, that, in a pamphlet published in 1732, under the title of "Milton reftor'd and Bentley depos'd," a part of the first book of Paradife Loft is " attempted in rime," and pretended to be "addreffed to Dr. Bentley from Dean Swift," in the following letter:

“Sir,

New-Year's day, 1732.

"I am overjoy'd to hear, that a very ingenious youth of this city [Dublin] is now upon the ufeful defign (for which he is never enough to be commended) of beftowing rime on Milton's Paradife Loft, which will make the Poem, in that only defective, more heroic and fonorous than it has hitherto been. I with the gentleman fuccefs in the performance; and as it is a work in which a young man could not be more happily employ'd, or appear in with greater advantage to his character, fo I am concern'd that it did not fall out to be your province. I am your's &c. J. Swift."

Such a defign had been announced, and is admirably ridiculed by Swift in his Advice to a Young Poet. The attempt justmentioned is wretched in the extreme.-Milton has been amply vindicated in his rejection of rhyme, not only by the remarks of Rofcommon, Addifon, and other eminent criticks, but also by the attention and the fuccefs with which, in later times, his unfettered and noble verfification has been studied:

"Hither, as to their fountain, other stars

"Repairing, in their golden urns draw light."

On this fubject I fubjoin the remarks of an elegant poet, and moft accomplished fcholar; as juft as they are beautiful. See the late Dr. Roberts's "Poetical Epiftle to Chriftopher Anftey Efq. on the English Poets, chiefly thofe who have written in blank verfe," 1772.

"Poet of other times, to thee I bow

"With lowlieft reverence. Oft thou tak'ft my soul,
"And waft'ft it by thy potent harmony

"To that empyreal mansion, where thine ear
"Caught the foft warblings of a Seraph's harp,
"What time the nightly vifitant unlock'd
"The gates of Heaven, and to the mental fight
"Difplay'd celeftial fcenes. She from thy lyre
"With indignation tore the tinkling bells,

"And tuned it to fublimeft argument.

"Sooner the bird, that ushering in the spring "Strikes the fame notes with one unvarying paufe, "Shall vie with Philomel, when the purfues "Her evening fong through every winding maze "Of melody, than rhyme fhall foothe the foul "With mufick fweet as thine!" TODD.

THE

FIRST BOOK

OF

PARADISE LOST.

THE ARGUMENT.

The first Book proposes, firft in brief, the whole fubject, Man's difobedience, and the lofs thereupon of Paradife wherein he was placed: Then touches the prime caufe of his Fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent; who, revolting from God, and drawing to his fide many legions of Angels, was, by the command of God, driven out of Heaven, with all his crew, into the great deep. Which action paffed over, the Poem haftens into the midft of things, prefenting Satan with his Angels now falling into Hell described here, not in the center (for Heaven and Earth may be fuppofed as yet not made, certainly not yet accurfed,) but in a place of utter darkness, fitlieft called Chaos: Here Satan with his Angels lying on the burning lake, thunderftruck and aftonished, after a certain space recovers, as from confufion, calls up him who next in order and dignity lay by him: They confer of their miferable fall; Satan awakens all his legions, who lay till then in the fame manner confounded. They rife; their numbers; array of battle; their chief leaders named, according to the idols known afterwards in Canaan and the countries adjoining. To thefe Satan directs his speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them laftly of a new world and new kind of creature to be created, according to an ancient prophecy or report in Heaven; for, that Angels were long before this vifible creation, was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to determine thereon, he refers to a full council. What his affociates thence attempt. Pandemonium, the palace of Satan, rifes, fuddenly built out of the deep: The infernal peers there fit in council.

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