Percciuing Eve his flatting gloze digest He prosecutes ; and, jocund doth not rest, "No, fair," (quoth he) "beleeue not that the care Shall soon disperse the cloud of idiocy, Which dims your eyes; and, further, make you seem O World's rare glory! reach thy happy hand, Of an vncertain God-head, onely great Though self-aw'd zeal : put on the glistering pall Of immortality: do not forestall (As envious stepdames) thy posteritie The soverain honour of Divinitie." SYLVESTER'S DU BARTAS, Edit. 1621. pp. 192, 193. As Milton has been supposed to have been much obliged to other poets in de scribing the unsubdued spirit of Satan, especially where he says, Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven: I am tempted to make an extract or two from Stafford's Niobe, a prose-work already mentioned, in which Satan speaks the following words; not dissimilar to passages in Fletcher and Crashaw, which have been cited, on the same subject. "They say forsooth, that pride was the cause of my fall; and that I dwell where there is nothing but weeping, howling, and gnashing of teeth; of which that falsehood was the authour, I will make you plainelie perceiue. True it is, sir, that I (storming at the name of supremacie) sought to depose my Creatour; which the watchful, all-seeing eye of Prouidence finding, degraded me of my angelicall dignitie, dispossessed me of all pleasures; and the Seraphin and Cherubin, Throni, Dominationes, Virtutes, Potestates, Principatus, Arch-angeli, Angeli, and all the celestiall Hierarchyes, with a shout of applause sung my departure out of Heauen: my Alleluia was turned into an Ehu; and too soone I found, that I was corruptibilis ab alio, though Now for as not in alio; and that he, that gaue me my being, could againe take it from mee. much as I was once an angell of light, it was the will of Wisedome to confine me to darknes and to create mee prince thereof: that so I, who could not obey in Heauen, might commaund in Hell. And, belieue mee, sir, I had rather controule within my dark diocese, than to reinhabite cœlum empyrium, and there liue in subjection, vnder check," Edit. 1611, pp. 16-18 part the second. Stafford calls Satan the "grim visag'd Goblin," ibid. p. 85. And, in the first part of the book, he describes the devil as having "committed incest with his daughter, the World." p. 3. He also attributes the gunpowder plot to the devil, "with his unhallowed senate of popes, the inuentors and fautours of this vnheard-of attempt in Hell." p. 149. I have thus brought together opinions, delivered at different periods respecting the origin of Paradise Lost; and have humbly endeavoured to trace, in part, the reading of the great poet, subservient to his plan. More successful discoverie $ See the note p. 336. 342 TODD'S ORIGIN OF PARADISE LOST. will probably arise from the pursuits of those, who are devoted to patient and liberal investigation. Videlicet hoc illud est præcipuè studiorum genus, quod vigiliis augescat; ut cui subinde ceu fluminibus ex decursu, sic accedit ex lectione minutatim quo fiat uberius. To such persons may be recommended the masterly observations of him, who was once so far imposed upon as to believe Lauder an honest man, and Milton a plagiary: but who expressed, when "Douglas and Truth appeared,"" the strongest indignation against the envious impostor: for they are observations resulting from a wish not to depreciate, but zealously to praise, the Paradise Lost. "Among the inquiries, to which this ardour of criticism has naturally given occasion, none is more obscure in itself, or more worthy of rational curiosity, than a retrospect of the progress of this mighty genius in the construction of his work; a view of the fabric gradually rising, perhaps, from small beginnings, till its foundation rests in the center, and its turrets sparkle in the skies; to trace back the structure, through all its varieties, to the simpli city of its first plan; to find what was first projected, whence the scheme was taken, how it was improved, by what assistance it was executed, and from what stores the materials were collected; whether its founder dug them from the quar ries of Nature, or demolished other buildings to embellish his own"." I may venture to add that, in such inquiries, patience will be invigorated rather than dispirited; and every new discovery will teach us more and more to admire the genius, the erudition, and the memory of the inimitable Milton. 6 Politian. Miscellaneorum Præf. 7 The Progress of Envy, an excellent poem occasioned by Lauder's attack on the character of Milton. See Lloyd's Poems, last line of Progress of Envy. So bishop Douglas told the affectionate biographer of Dr. Johnson. See Boswell's Life of Johnson, Vol. I. p. 197, Edit. 1799. 9 See Boswell's Life of Johnson, Vol. I. p. 199. COMMENDATORY VERSES ON MILTON. quam, Et sine fine Chaos, et sine fine Deus; Et sine fine magis, si quid magis est sine fine, In Christo erga homines conciliatus amor. Hæc qui speraret quis crederet esse futurum ? Et tamen hæc hodiè terra Britanna legit. O quantos in bella duces! que protulit arma! Quæ canit, et quantâ prælia dira tubâ! Cœlestes acies! atque in certamine cœlum ! Et quæ cœlestes pugna deceret agros ! Quantus in æthereis tollit se Lucifer armis! Atque ipso graditur vix Michaële minor ! Quantis, et quàm funestis concurritur iris, Dum ferus hic stellas protegit, ille rapit ! Dum vulsos montes ceu tela reciproca torquent, This poem by Dr. Barrow, and the next by Milton's friend Andrew Marvel, have been usually published in the editions of Paradise Lost, since the edition of 1674, to which they are both prefixed. TODD. Et non mortali desuper igne pluunt: At simul in cœlis Messiæ insignia fulgent, Et currus animes, armáque digna Deo, Horrendúmque rotæ strident, et sæva rotarum Erumpunt torvis fulgura luminibus, Et flammæ vibrant, et vera tonitrua rauco Et quos fama recens vel celebravit annus. ON PARADISE LOST. WHEN I beheld the poet blind, yet bold, 2 Of Dr. Samuel Barrow, the author of these verses, no account has been given by the editors of Milton. Toland only calls him a doctor of physic. Perhaps he was the physician to the army of general Monk. TODD. Yet as I read, still growing less severe, I lik'd his project, the success did fear; Through that wild field how he his way should find, O'er which lame Faith leads Understanding blind; Lest he'd perplex the things he would explain, And what was easy he should render vain. Or if a work so infinite he spann'd, Jealous I was that some less skilful hand (Such as disquiet always what is well, And, by ill imitating, would excell) Might hence presume the whole creation's day Pardon me, mighty poet, nor despise Thou hast not miss'd one thought that could be fit, And all that was improper dost omit : So that no room is here for writers left, That majesty, which through thy work doth reign, Draws the devout, deterring the profane. How couldst thou hope to please this tinsel race? Though blind, yet, with the penetrating eye F. C. 1680. THREE poets, in three distant ages born, DRYDEN. FROM AN ACCOUNT OF THE GREATEST ENGLISH POET And things divine thou treat'st of in such state Bur Milton next, with high and haughty stalks Whence furnish such a vast expense of mind? Well might'st thou scorn thy readers to allure With tinkling rhyme, of thy own sense secure; While the Town-Bays writes all the while and spells, And, like a pack-horse, tires without his bells: And, while I meant to praise thee, must commend. Thy verse created, like thy theme, sublime, ANDREW MARVELL, TO MR. JOHN MILTON, ON HIS POEM ENTITLED PARADISE LOST 3. THOU ! the wonder of the present age, 3 These verses by F. C. are prefixed to Milton's poetical works in the edition of the English poets, 1779. They had before appeared in Fawkes and Woty's Poetical Calendar, 1763, vo'. viii. 69. But we are not told who F. C. was. As I have not yet met with these verses in any other publication, I may be permitted to offer a conjec Unfetter'd, in majestic numbers, walks: 4 The expressions, in this line, occur in one of Constable's Sonnets. The pen wherewith thow dost so heauenly singe Made of a quill pluckt from an angell's winge. So, in Davies's Bien Venu, 1606. But poet's pens pluckt from archangels' wings. 5 This celebrated epigram on Milton appears under the well-engraved bead of the poet by R White, prefixed to the folio edition of Paradise Lost in 1688. It has been thus published in many succeeding editions of the same poem. Dryden, I should add, is a subscriber to the edition of 168. TODD. ADDRESS TO GREAT BRITAIN. -For lofty sense, Of blowing Eden fair; as Heaven sublime! ODE TO THE MUSE. SAY, goddess, can the festal board, To win thee back with some celestial strain? O powerful strain! O sacred soul! His numbers every sense control: And now again my bosom burns; The Muse, the Muse herself, returns! AKENSIDE. OUR stedfast bard, to his own genius true, Scorning the judgement of a trifling age, Heaven, Hell, Earth, Chaos, he survey'd around; thrown, Beheld; and made, what it beheld, his own. More wide the manna through the nation spread. From spell of magic vice, by reason's aid.— DR. DALTON'S PROLOGUE TO COMUS, 1738. Whose generous zeal, unbought by flattering Shames the mean pensions of Augustan times; That never Britain can in vain excel; At length our mighty bard's victorious lays NOR second he that rode sublime He pass'd the flaming bounds of place and time: GRAY'S PROGRESS OF POESY. ODE ON THE POETICAL CHARACTER. HIGH on soine cliff, to Heaven up-pil'd, An Eden, like his own, lies spread; I view that oak the fancied glades among, |