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ceive there were principally two reafons; the prejudices 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 those days, would not fo much as allow it to be a poem on this account; and declared war againft Milton as well as againft 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 State of innocence and Fall of man; to tag his lines, as Milton himself expreffed it, alluding to the fashion then of wearing tags of metal at the end of their ribbons. We are told indeed by Mr. Richardson, that Sir George Hungerford, an ancient member of parlament, told him, that Sir John Denham came into the Houfe one morning with a fheet of Paradife Loft wet from the prefs in his hand; and being afked what he had there, said that he had part of the noblest 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. Richardfon was informed by Dr. Tancred Robinson the phyfician, who had heard the story often from Fleetwood Shephard himself,

See Rymer's Tragedies of the laft age confider'd. p. 143.

that

that the Earl, in company with Mr. Shephard, look ing 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 wafte paper. The Earl having read it fent it to Dryden, who in a fhort time returned it with this answer, "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 phyfician, and the English ones by Andrew Marvel Efq;, ufually prefixed to the Paradise 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 deserved applaufe, 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 Milton and it is related in the life of the witty Earl of Rochester, that he had no notion of a better poet than Cowley. In 1686 or thereabout Sir William Temple published the second part of his Mifcellanies, and it may furprise any reader, that in his Effay on poetry he taketh no notice at all of Milton; nay he faith exprefsly that after Ariofto, Taffo, and Spenser, 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 Paradise Loft, or that the author's politics had prejudiced him against his poetry? It was happy that all great men were not of his mind. The

bookfeller

bookfeller was advised and encouraged to undertake the folio edition by Mr. Sommers, afterwards Lord Sommers, who not only fubfcribed himself, but was zealous in promoting the fubfcription: and in the list 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 increased double the number every year; as the bookfeller, who fhould best know, has informed us in his dedication of the fmaller editions to Lord Sommers. Since that time not only various editions have been printed, but also various notes and tranflations. The firft perfon who wrote annotations upon Paradife Loft was P. H. or Patrick Hume, of whom we know nothing, unless his name may lead us to fome knowledge of his country, but he has the merit of being the first (as I fay) who wrote notes upon Paradife Loft, and his notes were printed at the end of the folio edition in 1695. Mr. Addifon's Spectators upon the subject contributed not a little to establishing the character, and illustrating the beauties of the 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 emendaVOL. I.

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poem.

tions

tions and obfervations are offered to the public. And the year after that Meffieurs Richardson, father and fon, published their Explanatory notes and remarks. The poem has alfo been tranflated into feveral languages, Latin, Italian, French, and Dutch; and propofals have been made for tranflating it into Greek. The Dutch tranflation is in blank verfe, and printed at Harlem. The French have a tranflation by Monf. Dupré de S. Maur; but nothing fhoweth the weakness 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: and 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. Richardson the fon faw another at Florence in manufcript by the learned Abbè Salvini, the fame who tranflated Addison's Cato into Italian. One William Hog or Hogaus tranflated Paradife Loft, Paradife Regain'd, and Samfon Agonistes into Latin verfe in 1690; but this verfion is very unworthy of the originals. There is a better tranflation of the Paradife Loft by Mr. Thomas Power Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, the first book of which was printed in 1691, and the rest in manufcript is in the library of that College. The learned Dr. Trap has alfo publifhed a tranflation into Latin verfe; and the world is in expectation of another, that will furpass all the reft, by Mr. William Dobfon of New College in Oxford. So that by one means or other Milton is now confidered

fidered as an English claffic; and the Paradise Loft is generally esteemed the nobleft and moft fublime of modern poems, and equal at leaft to the beft of the ancient; the honor of this country, and the envy and admiration of all others!

In 1670 he published his History of Britain, that part efpecially now called England. He began it above twenty years before, but was frequently interrupted by other avocations; and he defigned to have brought it down to his own times, but stopped at the Norman conqueft; for indeed he was not well able to pursue it any farther by reafon of his blindnefs, and he was engaged in other more delightful ftudies, having a genius turned for poetry rather than history. When his History was printed, it was not printed perfect and entire; for the licencer expunged feveral paffages, which reflecting upon the pride and fuperftition of the Monks in the Saxon times, were understood as a concealed fatir upon the Bishops in Charles the fecond's reign. But the author himself gave a copy of his unlicenced papers to the Earl of Anglefea, who, as well as feveral of the nobility and gentry, conftantly vifited him: and in 1681 a confiderable paffage, which had been fuppreffed at the beginning of the third book, was published, containing a character of the Long Parlament and Affembly of Divines in 1641, which was inferted in its proper place in the laft edition of 1738. Bifhop Kennet begins his Complete History of England with this work of Milton, as being the beft draught, the cleareft and moft authentic account of thofe early times: and his ftile is freer and eafier than in moft of his other works, more plain F 2

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