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The skill of artifice or office mean,
Not that which juftly gives heroic name
To perfon or to poem. Me of these
Nor skill'd nor ftudious, higher argument
Remains, fufficient of itself to raise

That name,
Climate, or years damp my intended wing
Deprefs'd, and much they may, if all be mine,

unless an age too late, or cold

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Not

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Climate,] He has a thought of the fame kind in his profe works. The Reafon of Church government. Book the fecond, p. 60. Edit. 1738. "As Taffo gave to a prince of "Italy his choice, whether he "would command him to write of

extraction: but as he has used the
words imprefs'd III. 388. and in
other places, and imprefs IV. 558.
we have caused it to be printed im-
preffes out of regard to the unifor-
mity of fpelling. And fo torneament
he spells here after the Italian tor-
neamento, though in XI. 652. he
writes it tournament, which feems to
be after the French tournoy: but the
fame regard to the uniformity of
fpelling obliges us to print it in both
places alike; and we prefer tornea
ment, because we fuppofe the Italian
to have been the original word; as
we write impresses according to the
Latin, becaufe that word is origi-
nally derived from the Latin. Shake
fpear too uses the word impress as
a fubitantive in the fame fenfe,"
Richard II. A& III.

" Godfrey's expedition against the "infidels, or Belifarius against the "Goths, or Charlemain again the "Lombards; if to the inftinct of "nature and the imboldning of art "ought may be trusted, and that "there be nothing adverse in our "climate, or the fate of this age, it haply would be no rafhness "from an equal diligence and inclination to prefent the like offer

"in our

own ancient ftories." Or years damp &c. for he was near

From mine own windows torn my fixty when this poem was publish'd.

houthold coat,

Ras'd out my imprefs.

And Fairfax in Taffo, Cant. 20.
St. 28.

Their arms, impreffes, colors, gold

and tone. VOL. II.

And it is furprifing, that at that time of life, and after fuch troublefome days as he had paffed through, he fhould have fo much poetical fire remaining.

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Not hers who brings it nightly to my ear.

The fun was funk, and after him the ftar Of Hefperus, whose office is to bring Twilight upon the earth, short arbiter

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fhort arbiter

"Twixt day and night,] This expreffion was probably borrow'd from the beginning of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, where fpeaking of the fun about the time of the equinox, he calls him an indifferent arbiter between the night and the day.

53. When Satan who late fled &c.] If we look into the three great heroic poems which have appeared in the world, we may observe that they are built upon very flight foundations. Homer lived near 300 years after the Trojan war; and, as the writing of history was not then in ufe among the Greeks, we may very well fuppofe, that the tradition of Achilles and Ulyffes had brought down but very few particulars to his knowledge; tho' there is no queftion but he has wrought into his two poems fuch of their remarkable adventures, as were ftill talked of among his contemporaries. The story of Æneas, on which Virgil founded his poem, was likewife very bare of circumstances, and by that means afforded him an opportunity of embellishing it with fiction, and giving a full range to his own invention. We find however that he has interwoven in the course of his fable the principal particulars which were generally believed among the Romans of Æneas's voyage and fettlement in Italy. The reader may

50 "Twixt

find an abridgement of the whole ftory as collected out of the ancient hiftorians, and as it was received among the Romans, in Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus. Since none of the critics have confider'd Virgil's fable, with relation to this hiftory of Æneas; it may not perhaps be amifs to examin it in this light, fo far as regards my prefent purpose. Whoever looks into the abridgement above mention'd, will find that the character of Eneas is filled with piety to the Gods, and a fuperftitious obfervation of prodigies, oracles and predictions. Virgil has not only preferved this character in the perfon of Æneas, but has given a place in his poem to thofe particular prophecies, which he found recorded of him in hiftory and tradition. The poet took the matters of fact as they came down to him, and circumftanced them after his own manner, to make them appear the more natural, agreeable or furprifing. I believe very many readers have been fhocked at that ludicrous prophecy which one of the Harpyies pronounces to the Trojans in the third book, namely, that before they had built their intended city, they fhould be reduced by hunger to eat their very tables. when they hear that this was one of the circumftances that had been tranfmitted to the Romans in the history of Eneas, they will think

But

the

'Twixt day and night, and now from end to end
Night's hemifphere had veil'd th' horizon round:
When Satan who late fled before the threats
Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd

the poet did very well in taking notice of it. The hiftorian above mention'd acquaints us, a prophetess had foretold Eneas, that he fhould take his voyage weftward, till his companions fhould eat their tables; and that accordingly, upon his landing in Italy, as they were eating their flesh upon cakes of bread, for want of other conveniencies, they afterwards fed on the cakes them felves; upon which one of the company faid merrily, We are eating our tables. They immediately took the hint, says the historian, and concluded the prophecy to be fulfill'd. As Virgil did not think it proper to omit fo material a particular in the hiftory of Æneas, it may be worth while to confider with how much judgment he has qualified it, and takes off every thing that might have appeared improper for a paffage in an heroic poem. The prophetefs who foretells it is an hungry Harpy, as the person who discovers it is young Afcanius:

Heus etiam menfas confumimus, inquit Iülus.

Such an obfervation, which is beautiful in the mouth of a boy, would have been ridiculous from any other of the company. I am apt to think that the changing of the Trojan fleet into water-nymphs, which is the most violent machine in the

In

whole Æneid, and has given offense to feveral critics, may be accounted for the fame way. Virgil himself, before he begins that relation, premises, that what he was going to tell appeared incredible, but that it was juftified by tradition. What farther confirms me that this change of the fleet was a celebrated circumftance in the hiftory of Æneas is, that Ovid has given a place to the fame metamorphofis in his account of the Heathen mythology. None of the critics I have met with having confidered the fable of the Eneid in this light, and taken notice how the tradition, on which it was founded, authorizes those parts in it which appear most exceptionable; I hope the length of this reflection will not make it unacceptable to the curious part of my readers. The hiftory, which was the bafis of Milton's poem, is ftill fhorter than either that of the Iliad or Æneid. The poet has likewife taken care to infert every circumftance of it in the body of his fable. The ninth book, which we are here to confider, is raised upon that brief account in Scripture, wherein we are told that the Serpent was more subtle than any beaft of the field, that he tempted the woman to eat of the forbidden fruit, that he was overcome by this temptation, and that Adam followed her example. From these few par

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ticulars,

In meditated fraud and malice, bent

On Man's deftruction, maugre what might hap

Of heavier on himself, fearless return'd.
By night he fled, and at midnight return'd
From compaffing the earth, cautious of day,
Since Uriel regent of the fun defcry'd

His entrance, and forewarn'd the Cherubim

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That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driven,
The space of sev'n continued nights he rode
With darkness, thrice the equinoctial line

ticulars, Milton has formed one of the most entertaining fables that invention ever produced. He has difpofed of these several circumstances among fo many beautiful and natural fictions of his own, that his whole story looks only like a comment upon facred Writ, or rather feems to be a full and complete relation of what the other is only an epitome. I have infifted the longer on this confideration, as I look upon the difpofition and contrivance of the fable to be the principal beauty of the ninth book, which has more ftory in it, and is fuller of incidents, than any other in the whole poem. Satan's traverfing the globe, and ftill keeping within the fhadow of the night, as fearing to be discover'd by the Angel of the fun, who had before detected him, is one of thofe beautiful imaginations, with which he introduces this his fecond series of adventures. Having examin'd the

He

nature of every creature, and found out one which was the most proper for his purpose, he again returns to Paradife; and to avoid difcovery, finks by night with a river that ran under the garden, and rifes up again through a fountain that iffued from it by the tree of life. The poet, who, as we have before taken notice, fpeaks as little as poffible in his own perfon, and after the example of Homer fills every part of his work with manners and characters, introduces a foliloquy of this infernal agent, who was thus reftlefs in the deftruction of Man. He is then defcribed as gliding through the garden, under the refemblance of a mist, in order to find out that creature in which he defign'd to tempt our firft parents. This defcription has fomething in it very poetical and furprising. Addifon. 63. The space of feu'n continued nights he rode

He circled, four times crofs'd the car of night
From pole to pole, travérfing each colúre ;
On th' eighth return'd, and on the coast averse
From entrance or Cherubic watch, by stealth
Found unfufpected way. There was a place,

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Now not, though fin, not time, firft wrought the

change,

Where Tigris at the foot of Paradise

Into a gulf shot under ground, till part
Rofe up a fountain by the tree of life;

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In

With darkness, &c.] It was about each other at right angles in the noon that Satan came to the earth, poles of the world, and incompafand having been discover'd by Uriel, fing the earth from north to fouth, he was driven out of Paradife the and from fouth to north again: and fame night, as we read in book the therefore as Satan was moving from fourth. From that time he was a pole to pole, at the fame time the whole week in continual darkness car of night was moving from east for fear of another discovery. Thrice to weft, if he would keep ftill in the equinoctial line he circled; he tra- the fhade of night as he defir'd, he vel'd on with the night three times could not move in a strait line, but round the equator; he was three muft move obliquely, and thereby days moving round from eaft to weft cross the two colures. We have exas the fun does, but always on the prefs'd ourselves as plainly as we oppofit fide of the globe in dark can for the fake of those readers, nels. Four times cross'd the car of who are not acquainted with these night from pole to pole; did not move aftronomical terms; and the fact in directly on with the night as before, fhort is that Satan was three days but croffed over from the northern to compaffing the earth from east to the southern, and from the fouthern weft, and four days from north to to the northern pole. Traverfing each fouth, but ftill kept always in the colure. As the equinoctial line or fhade of night, and after a whole equator is a great circle incompaffing week's peregrination in this manner the earth from east to west and from on the eighth night return'd by weft to eaft again; fo the colures ftealth into Paradise. are two great circles, interfecting

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