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To fit indulgent, and with him partake
Rural repaft, permitting him the while

Venial difcourfe unblam'd: I now must change
Thofe notes to tragic; foul diftruft, and breach
Difloyal on the part of Man, revolt,

And disobedience; on the part of Heaven

or rather the Angel fent by him and acting as his proxy, us'd to fit familiarly with Man as with his friend &c. Hence Raphael is called Adam's Godlike Gueft, V. 351.

Pearce.

Milton, who knew and ftudy'd the Scripture thoroughly, and continually profits himself of its vaft fublimity, as well as of the more noble treasures it contains, and to which his poem owes its greatest luftre, has done it here very remarkably. The episode, which has employ'd almoft a third part of the work, and is a difcourfe betwixt the Angel Raphael and Adam, is plainly copy'd from the XVIIIth Chapter of Genefis, which (by the way) has a fublimity and air of antiquity to which Homer himself is flat and modern: Here God or Angel gueft holds difcourfe with Abraham as friend with friend, fits indulgent, partakes rural repaft, permitting him the while difcourfe in his turn. No more must now be fung of fuch a heavenly conversation. God himself indeed is not properly a speaker in it, though Adam in his part of it relates his having been honor'd with the divine prefence, and a celeftial colloquy, VIII. 455. as feveral others, XI. 318, &c. All hitherto is evident beyond contra

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diction. But why God or Angel gue? Read that chapter, and twill be feen that this remarkable expreffion is taken from the ambiguity there. The Lord and the Young Men (always understood to be Angels) are ufed as words of the fame fignification, denoting that the divine prefence was fo effectually with his meffengers, that Himself was also there; Such privilege bath omniprefence; He went, yet ftay'd, as in VII. 589. The fame Milton intimates in the paffage before us; and 'tis a mafter stroke of fublimity. Richardfon. Mr. Richardson, in saying The Lard and the Young Men (always underflood to be Angels) are used as words of the fame fignification, does not feem to be appris'd, that it was an ancient opinion, and believed too by many of the more modern scholars, that the Lord in this paffage was God the Son, and the two others only Angels. Thyer.

Befides it may be queftion'd, whe ther Milton refin'd in this manner; and it feems to me as if a difficulty was made where no difficulty is. The poet fays, that he muft now treat no more of familiar difcourfe with either God or Angel. For Adam had held difcourfe with God,

Now alienated, distance and diftafte,
Anger and just rebuke, and judgment given,
That brought into this world a world of woe,
Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery
Death's harbinger: Sad task, yet argument
Not lefs but more heroic than the wrath

as we read in the preceding book,
and the whole foregoing epifode is
a conversation with the Angel, and
as this takes up fo large a part of
the poem, this is particularly de-
fcrib'd and infifted here. The
upon
Lord God and the Angel Michael
both indeed afterwards difcourfe with
Adam in the following books, but
those discourses are not familiar con-
verfation as with a friend, they are
of a different ftrain, the one coming
to judge, and the other to expel him
from Paradise.

5. I now must change Thofe notes to tragic;] As the author is now changing his fubject, he profeffes likewife to change his ftile agreeably to it. The reader therefore muft not expect fuch lofty images and descriptions, as before. What follows is more of the tragic ftrain than of the epic. Which may ferve as an answer to thofe critics, who cenfure the latter books of the Pa=radife Loft as falling below the former.

11. That brought into this world a

world of woe,] The pun or what fhall I call it in this line may be avoided, as a great man obferved to me, by diftinguishing thus,

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and Mifery

Death's harbinger :] Dr. Bentley reads Malady; becaufe, as there is Mifery after death, fo there is Mifery, which does not usher in death, but invoke it in vain. But by Mifery here, Milton means fickness, disease, and all forts of mortal pains. So when in XI. Michael is going to name the feveral difeafes in the lazarhouse represented to Adam in a vifion, he fays ver. 475.

that thou may'st know What mifery th' inabstinence of Eve Shall bring on men. Pearce.

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Of stern Achilles on his foe purfu'd
Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage
Of Turnus for Lavinia difefpous'd,
Or Neptune's ire or Juno's, that fo long
Perplex'd the Greek and Cytherea's Son;
If answerable ftile I can obtain
Of my celestial patronefs, who deigns
Her nightly vifitation unimplor'd,

part of it, concerning God's anger
and Adam's diftrefs, is a more heroic
fubject than the wrath of Achilles on
bis for, Hector whom he purfued
three times round the walls of Troy
according to Homer, or than the
rage of Turnus for Lavinia difefpous'd,
having been first betroth'd to him,
and afterwards promis'd to Æneas
according to Virgil, or Neptune's ire
that fe long perplex'd the Greek, Ulyffes
fo
as we read in the Odyffey, or Juno's
ire that for fo many years perplex'd
Cytherea's fon. Eneas as we read at
large in the Æneid. The anger that
he is about to fing is an argument
more heroic not only than the an-
ger of men, of Achilles and Turnus,

but than that even of the Gods, of
Neptune and Juno. The anger of
the true God is a more noble fubject
than of the falfe Gods. In this re-
fpect he has the advantage of Homer
and Virgil, his argument is more
heroic as he fays, if he can but make
his ftile anfwerable.

my celeftial patronefs,] His heav'nly Mufe, his Urania, whom he had invok'd I. 6. VII. 1, 31. And

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And dictates to me flumb'ring, or infpires

Easy my unpremeditated verfe:

Since first this subject for heroic fong

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pretty early to write an epic poem, It is indeed, as Mr. Warburton most and proposed the ftory of king Arthur for the fubject of it: but that was laid afide probably for the reafons here intimated. The Paradife Loft he defigned at firft as a tragedy; it was not till long after that he began to form it into an epic poem: and indeed for several years he was fo hotly engaged in the controverfies of the times, that he was not at leifure to think of a work of this nature, and did not begin to fashion it in its prefent form till after the Salmafian controverfy which ended in 1655, and probably did not fet about the work in earnest till after the Restoration, fo that he was long choofing and beginning late.

28. bitherto the only argument Heroic deem'd,] By the Moderns as well as by the Ancients; wars being the principal fubject of all the heroic poems from Homer down to this time. But Milton's fubject was different, and whatever others may call it, we see he reckons it himself An heroic poem, tho' he names it only A poem in his title page.

excellently obferves in his Divine Legation of Mofes, Book 2. Sect. 4. the third fpecies of epic poetry. For juft as Virgil rivaled Homer, so Milton emulated both. He found Homer poffeffed of the province of morality, Virgil of politics, and nothing left for him but that of religion. This he feifed, as afpiring to fhare with them in the government of the poetic world; and by means of the fuperior dignity of his fubject, got to the head of that triumvirate which took fo many ages in forming. These are the three fpecies of the epic poem; for its largest province is human action, which can be confidered but in a moral, a political, or religious view; and thefe the three great creators of them; for each of these poems was firuck out at an heat, and came to perfection from its firft effay. Here then the grand scene is closed, and all farther improvements of the epic at an end.

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In battels feign'd; the better fortitude
Of patience and heroic martyrdom
Unfung; or to describe races and games,
Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd fhields,
Impreffes quaint, caparisons and steeds;
Bases and tinfel trappings, gorgeous knights
At joust and torneament; then marshal'd feast
Serv'd up in hall with fewers, and seneshals;

wrong who thought the diffecting of knights was a principal part of the skill of a poet, defcribing wounds as a furgeon. He doubtlefs here glanc'd at Homer's perpetual affectation of this fort of knowledge, which certainly debases his poetry. Richardson.

33. or to defcribe races and games,] As the ancient poets have done; Homer in the twentythird book of the Iliad, Virgil in the fifth book of the Eneid, and Statius in the fixth book of his The baid: Or tilts and torneaments, which are often the subject of the modern poets, as Ariofto, Spenfer, and the like.

34. imblazon'd fields,] The Italian poets in general are much too circumftantial about these trifling particulars. But I can't help thinking that our author had principally in view Boiardo, who in his catalogue of Agramante's troops gives us a most faftidious detail of imblazonry, having for above a hundred verfes together nothing elfe fcarcely but

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35. Impreses quaint, &c.] Uncommon witty devices or emblems, painted on their fhields ufually with a motto. We remember one which was not painted; 'twas a blank fhield, the motto imported that the wearer would win by his valor wherewith to adorn it. Bafes from Bas (French) they fall low to the ground; they are alfo call'd the boufing from bouffé, bedaggled. Sewers from affeoir (French) to fet down; for thofe officers fet the dishes on the table; in old French affeours. Senehals from two German words and was apply'd by way of emifignifying a fervant of a family; fteward. nence to the principal fervant, the Richardfon.

We may obferve that Milton fpells the word imprefes after the Italian imprefa, and not as we commonly do impreffes, as if it was of Latin

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