THE POETICAL WORKS OF MILTON.

PLOT OF PARADISE LOST.

THIS was not all. The poetical compositions of Milton were as gigantic as his prose studies. They were not the fantastic visions of fruitful mediocrity, whose verses flow as easily as its words ; whether he quitted the lyre for the pen, or the pen for the lyre, Milton, always, in some way, augmented the harvest of posterity. One would think that he had resolved, like certain fathers of the Church, to turn the whole Bible into tragedies. The poet's manuscripts are preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. Among these papers are to be found the titles of thirty-six tragedies, to be taken from the History of England, from Vortigern to Edward the Confessor; and forty-eight to be founded on Holy Writ.

Some notes, beginnings of speeches, songs, and characters, are frequently added to these titles. Among the sacred subjects chosen by Milton, I

remarked that of Athaliah. Milton could not have surpassed Racine; but it would have been curious to see how this manly genius would have conducted the action which has produced the master-piece of our stage.

Could the republican poet have given kings warnings more noble and severe than did our royalist?

Reared far from courts, alas! thou knowest not
The poisoning charms of royal dignity ;
Know'st not the spells of arbitrary power,
Or the enchanting voice of parasites.
Soon they will tell thee that the holiest laws,
Made to control the rabble, bow to kings;
That will alone should be the monarch's curb;
That he should sacrifice whate'er would thwart

His sovereign majesty; that toil and tears
Must be the people's lot; that he must rule them
With iron sceptre; for, if not oppress'd

Sooner or later they become oppressors.

Milton had also formed the design of translating Homer.

Here are two plans for Paradise Lost, as a tragedy, as they exist in the poet's hand-writing, among the manuscripts of Trinity College.

THE PERSONS.

MICHAEL.

CHORUS OF ANGELS.

DIVINE JUSTICE, WISDOM, HEAVENLY LOVE.

THE EVENING STAR, HESPERUS.

PARADISE LOST.

THE PERSONS.

Moses Tрoλoyet, recounting how he assumed his true body; that it corrupts not, because it is with God in the mount; declares the like of Enoch and Eliah; besides the purity of the place, that certain pure winds, dews, and clouds, preserve it from corruption; whence exhorts to the sight of God; tells they cannot see Adam in the state of innocence, by reason of their sin.

JUSTICE

MERCY
WISDOM

debating what should become of man, if he fall.

CHORUS OF ANGELS, singing a hymn of the Creation,

ACT II.

HEAVENLY LOVE.

EVENING STAR.

CHORUS, sing the marriage-song, and describe Paradise.

ACT III.

LUCIFER contriving Adam's ruin.

CHORUS, fears for Adam, & relates Lucifer's rebellion & fall.

CONSCI ENCE cites them to God's examination.

CHORUS bewails and tells the good Adam has lost.

ACT V.

ADAM and EVE driven out of Paradise. presented by an Angel with LABOUR, GRIEF, HATRED, ENVY,

WAR, FAMINE, PESTILENCE, SICK-
NESS, DISCONTENT, IGNORANCE,
FEAR, DEATH.

Mutes.

To whom he gives their names, likewise WINTER, HEAT, TEMPEST, &c.

Such was Milton's first design, in which most of the supernatural personages of Paradise Lost are replaced by allegorical ones. Lucifer, in the tragedy, projects the ruin of Adam, as Satan contrives it in the poem; but all the great scenes in hell are suppressed, as well as those in Heaven; here are not displayed the councils, held in the Abyss; we hear not the oracles of the Father, the speeches of the Son on the Sacred Mountain. The Drama could not have admitted these developments of the Epopee. The Chorus relates the rebellion and fall of Lucifer; but it is evident that this could only have been done in a very brief way; not in a long recital, like that of Raphael. In the tragedy, Heavenly Love and the Evening Star sing the nuptial song; in the