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tryman , u the last in Europe who wrote an Epic Poem ; ' * Voltaire ' s «< intention being not to descant on the many who have contended for the prize , but to speak only of the very few who have gained it in their respective countries . " P . 103 .
" Milton , as he was travelling through Italy , in his youth , saw at Florence , a comedy called < Adamo , ' writ by one Andreino , a player , and dedicated to Mary de Medicis , Queen
of France . The subject of the play was the * Fall of Man ; ' the actors , God , the Devils , the Angels , Adam , Eve , the serpent , death , and the seven mortal sins . That topic so improper for a drama , but so suitable to the
absurd genius of the Italian stage , ( as it was at that time , ) was handled in a manner entirely conformable to the extravagance of the design . The scene opens with a Chorus of Angels and a Cherubim thus speaks for the rest : * Let the rainbow be the fiddlestick
of the fiddle 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 first in profusion of impertinence . Milton pierced through
the absurdity of that performance to the hidden majesty of the subject , which being altogether unfit for the stage , yet might be ( for the genius of Milton , and for his only ) the foundation of an epick poem . He took from that ridiculous trifle the first
hint of the noblest work , whicji human imagination hath ever attempted , and which he executed more than twenty years after . " What Milton so boldly undertook , he performed with a superior strength of judgment , and with an imagination
productive of beauties not dreamed pf before him . The meanness ( if there is any ) of some parts of the subject , | s lost in the immensity of the poetical invention . There is something above the reach of human forces to have attempted the creation without bombast
* o have described the gluttony and curiosity of a woman without flatness , fo have brought probability and reason amidst the hurry of imaginary Unrigs , belonging to another world , a »<* as far remote from the limits of our motions , as they are from our ^ rth ; in short , to force the reader to s ' if God , if the aiurels . if Satan
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would speak , I believe they would speak as they do in Milton . * " I have often admired how barren the subject appears , and how fruitful it grows under his hands .
" The * Paradise Lost' is the only poem wherein are to he found , in a perfect degree , that uniformity which satisfies the mind , and that variety which pleases the imagination : all
its Episodes being necessary lines which aim at the centre of a perfect circle . Where is the nation who would not be pleased with the interview of Adam and the angel ? With the mountain of vision , with the bold
strokes which make up the relentless , undaunted , and sly character of Satan ? But , above all , with that sublime wisdom which Milton exerts , whenever he dare * to describe God ,
and to make him speak ? He seems indeed to draw the picture of the Almighty as like as human nature can reach to , through the mortal dust in which we are clouded .
" The Heathens always , the Jews often , and our Christian priests sometimes , represent God as a tyrant infinitely powerful . But the God of Milton is always a Creator , a Father , and a Judge ; nor is his vengeance jarring with his mercy , nor his
predeterminations repugnant to the liberty of man . These are the picture * which lift up indeed the soul of the reader . Milton , in that point , as well as in many others , is as far above the ancient poets as the Christian religion is above the Heathen fables .
" But he hath especially an indisputable claim to the unanimous admiration of mankind , when he descends from those high flights to the natural description of human things . It is observable that in all other poems love is represented as a vice , in
Milton cnly 'tis a virtue . The pictures he draws of it are naked as the persons he speaks oi \ and as venerable . He removes with a chaste hand , the veil which covers every where else
the enjoyments of that passion . There is softness , tenderness , and warmth without lascivioiisncss . The poet transports himself and us into that state of innocent happiness in which Adam and Eve continued for a short
time . He soars not above human , but abo * ve corrupt nature 5 and as there is no instance of such love , there is none of such poetry .
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Book-Worm . No . XVIII . q
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vor ... x . o
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1815, page 97, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1757/page/33/
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