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the reader concerning the argument and the reason why the poem rimes not; and then followed the argument of the feveral books, and the preface concerning the kind of verfe, and the table of errata: others again had the argument, and the preface, and the table of errata, without that fhort advertisement of the printer to the reader: and this was all the difference between them, except now and then of a point or a letter, which were altered as the sheets were printing off. So that, notwithstanding these variations, there was ftill only one impreffion in quarto; and two years almost elapfed, before 1300 copies could be fold, or before the author was intitled to his fecond five pounds, for which his receipt is ftill in being, and is dated April 26, 1669. And this was probably all that he received; for he lived not to enjoy the benefits of the fecond edition, which was not publifhed till the year 1674, and that fame year he died. The second edition was printed in a small octavo, and was corrected by the author himself, and the number of books was augmented from ten to twelve, with the addition of fome few verses: and this alteration was made with great judgment, not for the fake of fuch a fanciful beauty as refembling the number of books in the Eneid, but for the more regular difpofition of the poem, because the feventh and tenth books were before too long, and are more fitly divided each into two. The third edition was published in 1678 and it appears that Milton had left his remaining right in the copy to his widow, and the agreed with Simmons the printer to accept eight pounds in full of all demands, and her receipt

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for the money is dated December 21, 1680. But a little before this Simmons had covenanted to affign the whole right of copy to Brabazon Aylmer the bookfeller for twenty five pounds; and Aylmer afterwards fold it to old Jacob Tonfon at two different times, one half on the 17th of Auguft 1683, and the other half on the 24th of March 1690, with a confiderable advance of the price and except one fourth of it which has been affigned to feveral perfons, his family have enjoyed the right of copy ever fince. By the laft aflignment it appears, that the book was growing into repute and rifing in valuation; and to what perverseness could it be owing that it was not better received at firft? We conceive there were principally two reafons; the judices against the author on account of his principles and party; and many no doubt were offended with the novelty of a poem that was not in rime. Rymer, who was a redoubted critic in thofe days, would not fo much as allow it to be a poem on this account; and declared war againft Milton as well as against Shakespear; and threatened that he would write reflections upon the Paradife Loft, which fome (fays he*) are pleafed to call a poem, and would affert rime against the flender fophiftry wherewith the author attacks it. And fuch a man as bishop Burnet maketh it a fort of objection to Milton, that he affected to write in blank verfe without rime. And the fame reafon induced Dryden to turn the principal parts of Paradife Loft into rime in his Opera called the ftate of innocence and Fall of man; to tag his lines, as Milton himfelf expreffed

* See Rymer's Tragedies of the last age confuler'd, p. 143.

it, alluding to the fashion then of wearing tags of metal at the end of their ribbons. We are told indeed by Mr. Richardfon, that Sir George Hungerford, an ancient member of parlament, told him, that Sir John Denham came into the house one morning with a sheet of Paradife Loft wet from the prefs in his hand; and being asked what he had there, faid that he had part of the nobleft poem that ever was written in any language or in any age. However it is certain that the book was unknown till about two years after, when the Earl of Dorfet produced it, as Mr. Richardson was informed by Dr. Tancred Robinson the physician, who had heard the ftory often from Fleetwood Shephard himfelf, that the Earl, in company with Mr. Shephard, looking about for books in Little Britain, accidentally met with Paradise Loft; and being furprised at fome paffages in dipping here and there, he bought it. The bookfeller begged his Lordship to fpeak in its favor if he liked it, for the impreffion lay on his hands as waste paper. The Earl having read it fent it to Dryden, who in a fhort time returned it with this anfwer, "This man cuts us all out, and the Ancients too." Dryden's epigram upon Milton is too well known to be repeated; and thofe Latin verfes by Dr. Barrow the physician, and the English ones by Andrew Marvel Efq; ufually prefixed to the Paradife Loft, were written before the fecond edition, and were published with it. But ftill the poem was not generally known and esteemed, nor met with the deferved applause, till after the edition in folio, which was published in 1688 by fubfcription. The Duke of Buckingham in his Effay on poetry prefers Taffo and Spenfer to MilVOL. I.

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ton and it is related in the life of the witty Earl of Rochefter, that he had no notion of a better poet than Cowley. In 1686, or thereabout, Sir William Temple published the fecond part of his Mifcellanies, and it may furprife any reader, that in his Effay on poetry he taketh no notice at all of Milton; nay he faith exprefsly that after Arioflo, Taffo, and Spenfer, he knoweth none of the Moderns who have made any achievements in heroic poetry worth recording. And what can we think, that he had not read or heard of the Paradife Loft, or that the author's politics had prejudiced him against his poetry? It was happy that ali great men were not of his mind. The bookfeller was advif.d and encouraged to undertake the folio edition by Mr. Sommers, afterwards Lord Sommers, who not only fubfcribed himfelf, but was zealous in promoting the fubfcription: and in the lift of fubfcribers we find fome of the most eminent names of that time, as the Earl of Dorfet, Waller, Dryden, Dr. Aldrich, Mr. Atterbury, and among the reft Sir Roger Leftrange, tho' he had formerly written a piece intitled No blind Guides, &c. against Milton's Notes upon Dr. Griffith's fermon. There were two editions more in folio, one I think in 1692, the other in 1695, which was the fixth edition; for the poem was now fo well received, that notwithstanding the price of it was four times greater than before, the fale increafed double the number every year; as the bookfeller, who fhould beft know, has informed us in his dedication of the finaller editions to Lord Sommers. Since that time not only various editions have been printed, but alfo various notes and tranflations. The firft perfon who wrote annotations upon Paradife Loft was

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P. H. or Patrick Hume, of whom we know nothing, unlefs his name may lead us to fome knowledge of his country, but he has the merit of being the fift (as I fay) who wrote notes upon Paradife Loft, and his notes were printed at the end of the folio edition in 1695. Mr. Additon's Spectators upon the fubje& contributed not.a little to eftablishing the character, and iiluftrating the beauties of the poem. In In 1732 appeared Dr. Bentley's new edition with notes: and the year following Dr. Pearce published his Review of the text, in which the chief of Dr. Bentley's emendations are confidered, and feveral other emendations and obfervations are offered to the public. And the year after that Meffieurs Richardfon, father and fon, published their Explanatory notes and remarks. The poem has been alfo tranflated into feveral languages, Latin, Italian, French, and Dutch; and propofals have been made for tranflating it into Greck. The Dutch tranflation is in blank verfe, and printed at Harlem. The French have a tranflation by Monf. Dupré de St. Maur; but nothing fhoweth the weaknefs and imperfection of their language more, than that they have few or no good poetical verfions of the greatest poets; they are forced to tranflate Homer, Virgil, and Milton into profe: blank verfe their language has not harmony and dignity enough to fupport; their tragedies, and many of their comedies are in rime. Rolli, the famous Italian mafter here in England, made an Italian tranflation; and Mr. Richardfon the fon faw another at Florence in manufcript by the learned Abbè Salvini, the fame who tranflated Addifon's Cato into Italian. One William Hog or Hogaus tranflated Paradife Loft, Paradife

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