D. А РОЕМ, IN TWELVE BOOKS. BY JOHN MILTON. PRINTED FROM THE TEXT OF TONSON'S CORRECT EDITION OF 1711 A NEW EDITION, WITH PLATES. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON; G. AND J. ROBINSON; W. J. AND J. RICHARD- By C. Whittingham, Dean Street, Fetter Lane. THE VERSE. 1 THE measure is English heroic verse without rhyme, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; rhyme being no necessary adjunct, or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame metre; graced indeed since by the use of some famous modern poets, carried away by custom, but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse, than else they would have expressed them. Not without cause therefore some, both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note, have rejected rhyme both in longer and shorter works, as have also long since our best English tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true musical delight: |