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however, you may fee an Inftance or two [meet with fome Instances, as] in the following Passages.

Embrio's and Idiots, Eremites and Fryars

White, Black, and Grey, with all their Trumpery, Here Pilgrims roam

Awhile Difcourfe they hold,

No fear left Dinner cool; when thus began
Our Author-

Who of all Ages to fucceed, but feeling
The Evil on him brought by me, will curfe
My Head, ill fare our Anceflor impure,
For this we may thank Adam-

The great Masters in Compofition know very well that many an elegant Phrase becomes improper for a Poet or an Orator, when it has been debased by com mon use. For this reason the Works of Ancient Authors, which are written in dead Languages, have great Advantage over those which are written in Lar guages that are now spoken. Were there any mean Phrases or Idioms in Virgil and Homer, they would not shock the Ear of the most delicate Modern Reader, f much as they would have done that of an old Gre or Roman, because we never hear them pronounce in our Streets, or in ordinary Conversation.

It is not therefore fufficient, that the Language d an Epic Poem be Perfpicuous, unless it be alfo Sub lime. To this end it ought to deviate from the com mon Forms and ordinary Phrases of Speech. The Judgment of a Poet very much discovers it self in fhunning the common Roads of Expreffion, witho falling into fuch ways of Speech as may seem stiff and unnatural; he must not swell into a falfe Sublime, b endeavouring to avoid the other Extream. Amon the Greeks, Efchylus, and fometimes Sophocles, wer guilty of this Fault; among the Latins, Claudian an Statius; and among our own Countrymen, Shakesp and Lee. In these Authors the Affectation of Great nefs often hurts the Perfpicuity of the Stile, as

USING METAPHORS, FOREIGN IDIOMS, ETC.

35

many others the Endeavour after Perfpicuity prejudices its Greatness.

Ariftotle has obferved, that the Idiomatick Stile may be avoided, and the Sublime formed, by the following Methods. First, by the use of Metaphors, like those of Milton.

Imparadis'd in one anothers Arms,
-And in his Hand a Reed

Stood waving tipt with Fire;-
The graffie Clods now calv'd.

In these and several [innumerable] other Inftances, the Metaphors are very bold but beautiful; I must however obferve, that the Metaphors are not thick fown in Milton, which always favours too much of Wit; that they never clash with one another, which as Ariftotle observes, turns a Sentence into a kind of an Enigma or Riddle; and that he seldom makes use of them where the proper and natural Words will do as well.

Another way of raising the Language, and giving it a Poetical Turn, is to make use of the Idioms of other Tongues. Virgil is full of the Greek Forms of Speech, which the Criticks call Hellenifms, as Horace in his Odes abounds with them much more than Virgil. I need not mention the feveral Dialects which Homer has made ufe of for this end. Milton, in conformity with the Practice of the Ancient Poets, and with Ariftotle's Rule has infused a great many Latinifms, as well as Græcifms, [and fometimes Hebraifms,] into the Language of his Poem; as towards the Beginning

of it.

Nor did they not perceive the evil plight

In which they were, or the fierce Pains not feel. [Yet to their Gen'ral's Voice they foon obey'd.] Who fhall tempt with wandring Feet

The dark unbottom'd Infinite Abyfs,

And through the palpable Obfcure find out his way,

His uncouth way, or fpread his airy Flight
Upborn with indefatigable Wings
Over the vaft Abrupt !-

[

-So both afcend

In the Vifions of God

B. 2.]

Under this Head may be reckoned the placing the Adjective after the Subftantive, the tranfpofition of Words, the turning the Adjective into a Subftantive, with feveral other Foreign Modes of Speech, which this Poet has naturalized to give his Verse the greater Sound, and throw it out of Prose.

The third Method mentioned by Ariftotle, is that which [what] agrees with the Genius of the Greek Language more than with that of any other Tongue, and is therefore more ufed by Homer than by any other Poet. I mean the lengthning of a Phrafe by the Addition of Words, which may either be inserted or omitted, as also by the extending or contracting of particular Words by the Infertion or Omiffion of certain Syllables. Milton has put in practice this Method of raifing his Language, as far as the nature of our Tongue will permit, as in the Paffage above-mentioned, Eremite, [for] what is Hermit[e], in common Discourse. If you obferve the Measure of his Verfe, he has with great Judgment fuppreffed a Syllable in feveral Words, and fhortned thofe of two Syllables into one, by which Method, befides the abovementioned Advantage, he has given a greater Variety to his Numbers. But this Practice is more particularly remarkable in the Names of Perfons and of Countries, as Beelzebub Hefjebon, and in many other Particulars, wherein he has either changed the Name, or made use of that which is not the most commonly known, that he might the better deviate from the Language of the Vulgar.

The fame Reason recommended to him feveral old Words, which also makes his Poem appear the more venerable, and gives it a greater Air of Antiquity.

I must likewise take notice, that there are in Milton

OR LENGTHENING PHRASES. MILTON COINS WORDS. 37 feveral Words of his own Coining, as Cerberean, mifcreated, Hell-doom'd, Embryon Atoms, and many others. If the Reader is offended at this Liberty in our English Poet, I would recommend him to a Discourse in Plutarch, which fhews us how frequently Homer has made use of the fame Liberty.

Milton, by the above-mentioned Helps, and by the choice of the noblest Words and Phrases which our Tongue wou'd afford him, has carried our Language to a greater height than any of the English Poets have ever done before or after him, and made the Sublimity of his Stile equal to that of his Sentiments.

I have been the more particular in these Obfervations of Milton's Stile, because it is that part of him in which he appears the most fingular. The Remarks I have here made upon the Practice of other Poets, with my Observations out of Ariftotle, will perhaps alleviate the Prejudice which fome have taken to his Poem upon this Account; tho' after all, I must confefs, that I think his Stile, tho' admirable in general, is in fome places too much stiffened and obfcured by the frequent ufe of those Methods, which Ariftotle has prescribed for the raising of it.

This Redundancy of those several ways of Speech which Aristotle calls foreign Language, and with which Milton has so very much enriched, and in some places darkned the Language of his Poem, is [was] the more proper for his ufe, because his Poem is written in Blank Verse. Rhyme, without any other Affistance, throws the Language off from Profe, and very often makes an indifferent Phrase pass unregarded; but where the Verse is not built upon Rhymes, there Pomp of Sound, and Energy of Expreffion, are indifpenfably neceffary to fupport the Stile, and keep it from falling into the Flatnefs of Profe.

Those who have not a Tafte for this Elevation of Stile, and are apt to ridicule a Poet when he departs from the common Forms of Expreffion, would do well to see how Ariftotle has treated an ancient Author,

called Euclid, for his infipid Mirth upon this Occafion. Mr. Dryden ufed to call this fort of Men his ProfeCriticks.

I fhould, under this Head of the Language, confider Milton's Numbers, in which he has made use of feveral Elifions, that are not cuftomary among other English Poets, as may be particularly obferved in his cutting off the Letter Y, when it precedes a Vowel. This, and fome other Innovations in the Measure of his Verfe, has varied his Numbers in fuch a manner, as makes them incapable of fatiating the Ear and cloying the Reader, which the fame uniform Measure would certainly have done, and which the perpetual Returns of Rhyme never fail to do in long Narrative Poems. I fhall close these Reflections upon the Language of Paradife Loft, with obferving that Milton has copied after Homer, rather than Virgil, in the length of his Periods, the Copiousness of his Phrases, and the running of his Verses into one another.

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