that there are no flats among his elevations, when it is evident he creeps along sometimes for above a hundred lines together?' (Works, ed. 1808, vol. xiii. 20, xii. 281.)

P. 78, l. 13. Paradise Lost, iii. 496. Orlando Furioso, Bk. xxxiv.

1. 17. Addison, at the close of his third paper on Paradise Lost, and in his sixth paper, gives instances of Milton's play on words and use of technical language. (Spectator, Nos. 279, 297.) See also Bentley's notes on Paradise Lost, i. 642; vi. 615. On the latter Bentley remarks: 'These passages, of Satan and Belial's insulting and jesting mockery, have been often censured, especially by an ingenious gentleman, who had a settled aversion to all puns, as they are called; which niceness, if carried to extremity, will depreciate half of the good sayings of the old Greek or Latin wits. I'll not engage in the opinions of either side. But, for my author's vindication, I'll observe, that he copied from his great predecessor Homer; who makes Patroclus, after he had slain Cebriones, Hector's Charioteer, to take the like jocose insulting humour.'

1. 32. The difference in style between Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained has been admirably summed up by Pattison (Milton, 191-195). The frigidity of Paradise Regained is not simply the result of the poet's increasing age and declining powers, nor is it merely the common defect of continuations. It is partly studied severity of style adapted to a different form of composition. As Coleridge has pointed out, Paradise Regained is essentially a didactic rather than a narrative poem. Milton in 1641 enumerated amongst the different forms of poetical composition he proposed attempting, 'that epic form, whereof the two poems of Homer, and those other two of Virgil and Tasso, are a diffuse, and the book of Job a brief, model.' (The Reason of Church Government.) 'I do not doubt,' remarks Coleridge, 'that Milton intended his "Paradise Lost" as an epic of the first class, and that the poetic dialogue of the book of Job was his model for the general scheme of his "Paradise Regained." Readers would not be disappointed in this latter poem, if they proceeded to a perusal of it with a

proper preconception of the kind of interest intended to be excited in that admirable work. In its kind it is the most perfect poem extant, though its kind may be inferior in interest-being in its essence didactic-to that other sort, in which instruction is conveyed more effectively, because less directly, in connection with stronger and more pleasurable emotions, and thereby in a closer affinity with action.' (Lectures and Notes on Shakspere and other English Poets; ed. Ashe, 1885, p. 527.) Landor's criticism may be found in his works, ed. 1876, vol. iv. 479-489; vol. viii. 387-393.

P. 79, 1. 9. Johnson devoted two papers of the 'Rambler' (Nos. 139, 140) to a detailed criticism of 'Samson Agonistes.' 'The tragedy of Samson Agonistes has been celebrated as the second work of the great author of Paradise Lost, and opposed with all the confidence of triumph to the dramatic performances of other nations. It contains indeed just sentiments, maxims of wisdom, and oracles of piety, and many passages written with the ancient spirit of choral poetry, in which there is a just and pleasing mixture of Seneca's moral declamation, with the wild enthusiasm of the Greek writers. It is therefore worthy of examination, whether a performance thus illuminated with genius, and enriched with learning, is composed according to the indispensable laws of Aristotelian criticism: and, omitting at present all other considerations, whether it exhibits a beginning, a middle, and an end.... After examining the play throughout, he concludes that 'the catastrophe is undoubtedly just and regular, and the poem, therefore, has a beginning and an end which Aristotle himself could not have disapproved; but it must be allowed to want a middle, since nothing passes between the first act and the last, that either hastens or delays the death of Samson. The whole drama, if its superfluities were cut off, would scarcely fill a single act; yet this is the tragedy which ignorance has admired, and bigotry applauded.'

1. 26. Dryden observes: 'His antiquated words were his choice, not his necessity; for therein he imitated Spenser, as Spenser did Chaucer. And though, perhaps, the love of their masters may have transported both too far, in the frequent

use of them, yet, in my opinion, obsolete words may then be laudably revived, when either they are more sounding, or more significant, than those in practice; and when their obscurity is taken away, by joining other words to them, which clear the sense; according to the rule of Horace, for the admission of new words.' (Preface to Juvenal; Works, xiii. 20.)

1. 29. 'The language of this great poet. . is often too much laboured and sometimes obscured by old words, transpositions and foreign idioms. . . . Milton's sentiments and ideas were so wonderfully sublime, that it would have been impossible for him to have represented them in their full strength and beauty, without having recourse to these foreign assistances. Our language sunk under him, and was unequal to that greatness of soul, which furnished him with such glorious conceptions.' (Addison, Spectator, 297.) The language and versification of the Paradise Lost are peculiar in being so much more necessarily correspondent to each other than those in any other poem or poet. The connection of the sentences and the position of the words are exquisitely artificial; but the position is rather according to the logic of passion or universal logic, than to the logic of grammar. Milton attempted to make the English language obey the logic of passion as perfectly as the Greek and Latin. Hence the occasional harshness in the construction.' (Coleridge, Lectures and Notes on Shakspeare and other English Poets, on ed. 1885, p. 524.)

P. 80, l. 13. 'Spenser in affecting the ancients writ no language; yet I would have him read for his matter, but as Virgil read Ennius.' (Jonson, Discoveries; Works, iii. 412, ed. Cunningham.)

1. 14. Butler says of the language of Sir Hudibras :'When he pleased to shew't, his speech

In loftiness of sound was rich,

A Babylonish dialect,

Which learned pedants much affect.
It was a particoloured dress

Of patch'd and piebald languages,

'Twas English cut on Greek and Latin,

Like fustian heretofore on satin.'

(Hudibras, Part I, Canto i, 1. 89.)

1. 22. In the same way Johnson says of Pope: 'He cultivated our language with so much diligence and art, that he has left in his Homer a treasure of poetical elegances to posterity. His version may be said to have tuned the English tongue; for since its appearance no writer, however deficient in other powers, has wanted melody.' (Lives of the Poets, iv. 180, ed. 1794.)

1. 25. See the preface on 'The Verse' prefixed to 'Paradise Lost.' Milton quotes as precedents: 'Italian and Spanish poets of prime note,' and 'our best English tragedies.' The Earl of Surrey translated the second and fourth books of the Aeneid into blank verse; the fourth book was printed separately about 1548, the second did not appear till 1557 when both were printed together. Warton describes the translation as 'a noble attempt to break the bondage of rhyme.' (History of English Poetry, iv. 38, ed. Hazlitt.) The first tragedy written in blank verse was 'Gorboduc,' by Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, and Thomas Norton. It was acted in 1562 and printed in 1565. (Ibid. p. 255.) The earliest poems written in blank verse are those by Nicholas Grimoald in Tottel's Miscellany (1557), and Gascoigne's 'Steel Glass' (1576). The poem on Guiana referred to by Johnson is probably George Chapman's 'De Guiana, Carmen epicum,' published in 1596, prefixed to 'A relation of the Second Voyage to Guiana,' by Lawrence Keymis. Giovanni Trissino (1478-1550), who is termed by Hallam 'the father of blank verse,' published his 'Italia Liberata' in 1548. (Hallam, Literature of Europe, i. 577.)

P. 81, 1. 2. The theory that Milton adopted blank verse because it was easier than rhyme, had been before put forward by Dryden: 'Neither will I justify Milton for his blank verse, though I may excuse him, by the example of Hannibal Caro, and other Italians, who have used it; for whatever causes he alleges for the abolishing of rhyme, (which I have not now the leisure to examine,) his own particular reason is plainly this, that rhyme was not his talent; he had neither the case of doing it, nor the graces of it; which is manifest in his “Juvenilia," or verses written in his youth, where his

rhyme is always constrained and forced, and comes hardly from him, at an age when the soul is most pliant, and the passion of love makes almost every man a rhymer, though not a poet.' (Preface to Juvenal; Works, xiii. 21, ed. 1808.) In a similar spirit Voltaire remarks: 'Je crois la rime nécessaire à tous les peuples qui n'ont pas dans leur langue une mélodie sensible, marquée par les longues et par les brèves, et qui ne peuvent employer ces dactyles et ces spondées qui font un effet si merveilleux dans le latin. Je me souviendrai toujours que je demandai au célèbre Pope, pourquoi Milton n'avait pas rimé son Paradis Perdu, et qu'il me répondit, Because he could not, parcequ'il ne le pouvait pas.' (Voltaire, Dictionnaire Philosophique, Art. 'Epopée'; Works, xxxv. 435, ed. 1819.)

1. 19. Cunningham quotes Cowper's comments on this passage: 'Was there ever anything so delightful as the music of the "Paradise Lost"? It is like that of a fine organ; has the fullest and deepest tones of majesty, with all the softness and elegance of the Dorian flute. Variety without end, and never equalled unless perhaps by Virgil. Yet the Doctor has little or nothing to say upon this copious theme, but talks something about the unfitness of the English language for blank verse, and how apt it is, in the mouth of some readers, to degenerate into declamation. Oh! I could thresh his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pocket.' (Cowper to Unwin, October 31, 1779.)

1. 22. 'The gentleman whom he thus characterises is (as he told Mr. Seward) Mr. Lock, of Norbury Park, in Surrey, whose knowledge and taste in the fine arts is universally celebrated.' (Boswell, Life of Johnson, iv. 43, ed. Hill.)

1. 25. Johnson condemns Somerville and Roscommon for the use of blank verse, but thinks it properly used in Thomson's 'Seasons' and Young's 'Night Thoughts.' Of the latter work he says: 'This is one of the few poems in which blank verse could not be changed for rhyme, but with disadvantage.' (Life of Young; Lives of the Poets, ed. 1794, iv. 392.) Johnson devotes four papers of the 'Rambler (Nos. 86, 88, 90, 94) to an examination of Milton's versi