NUMB. 140. SATURDAY, July 20, 1751. IT -Quis tam Lucili fautor inepte eft, Ut non hoc fateatur. What doating bigot, to his faults fo blind, As not to grant me this, can Milton find? HOR. T is common, fays Bacon, to defire the end without enduring the means. Every member of fociety feels and acknowledges the neceflity of detecting crimes, yet fcarce any degree of virtue or reputation is able to fecure an informer from publick hatred. The learned world has always admitted the usefulness of critical difquifitions, yet he that attempts to fhew, however modeftly, the failures of a celebrated writer, shall surely irritate his admirers, and incur the imputation of envy, captiousness, and malignity. With this danger full in my view, I fhall proceed to examine the fentiments of Milton's tragedy, which, though much lefs liable to cenfure than the difpofition of his plan, are, like thofe of other writers, fometimes expofed to juft exception for want of care, or want of difcernment. Sentiments are proper and improper as they confift more or lefs with the character and circumftances of the perfon to whom they are attributed, with the rules of the compofition in which they arefound, or with the fettled and unalterable nature of things. It is common among the tragick poets to introduce their perfons alluding to events or opinions,. of which they could not poflibly have any knowledge. The barbarians of remote or newly difco vered regions often difplay their skill in European learning. The god of love is mentioned in Tamerlane, with all the familiarity of a Roman epigrammatift; and a late writer has put Harvey's doctrine of the circulation of the blood into the mouth of a Turkish statesman, who lived near two centuries before it was known even to philofophers or anatomists. Milton's learning, which acquainted him with the manners of the antient eastern nations, and his invention, which required no affiftance from the common cant of poetry, have preserved him from frequent outrages of local or chronological propriety. Yet he has mentioned Chalybean Steel, of which it is not very likely that his chorus fhould have heard, and has made Alp the general name of a mountain, in a region where the Alps could fcarcely be known. No medicinal liquor can affwage,. Nor breath of cooling air from snowy Alp. He has taught Samfon the tales of Circe and the Syrens, at which he apparently hints in his colloquy with Dalilah. I know thy trains, Tho' dearly to my coft, thy gins and toils But the groffeft error of this kind is the folemn introduction of the Phoenix in the laft fcene; which is faulty, not only as it is incongruous to the perfonage to whom it is afcribed, but as it is fo evidently contrary to reafon and nature, that it ought ought never to be mentioned but as a fable in any ferious poem. Virtue giv'n for loft, Depreft, and overthrown, as feem'd, In the Arabian woods embost That no fecond knows, nor third, And though her body die, her fame survives, Another fpecies of impropriety, is the unfuitableness of thoughts to the general character of the poem. The seriousness and folemnity of tragedy neceffarily rejects all pointed or epigrammatical expreffions, all remote conceits and oppofition of ideas. Samfon's complaint is therefore too elaborate to be natural. As in the land of darkness, yet in light, By privilege of death and burial, From worlt of other evils; pains and wrongs. All allufions to low and trivial objects, with which contempt is ufually affociated, are doubtlefs. unsuitable to a species of compofition which ought to be always awful, though not always magnificent.. The The remark therefore of the chorus on good and bad news, feems to want elevation. Manoah. A little stay will bring fome notice hither. Chor. Of good or bad fo great, of bad the fooner; For evil news rides poft, while good news baits. But of all meannefs, that has least to plead which is produced by mere verbal conceits, which depending only upon founds, lofe their existence by the change of a fyllable. Of this kind is the following dialogue. Chor. But had we best retire? I fee a form. rain. Chor. But this another kind of tempeft brings. The bait of honied words; a rougher tongue And yet more despicable are the lines in which Manoah's paternal kindness is commended by the chorus. Fathers are wont to lay up for their fons, Samfon's complaint of the inconveniencies. of imprisonment is not wholly without verbal quaintnefs. -I a prifoner chain'd fcarce freely draw The air imprifon'd alfo, close and damp. From From the fentiments we may properly defcend to the confideration of the language, which, in imitation of the ancients, is through the whole dialogue remarkably fimple and unadorned, feldom heightened by epithets, or varied by figures; yet fometimes metaphors find admiffion, even where their confiftency is not accurately preferved. Thus Samfon confounds loquacity with a fhipwreck. How could I once look up, or heave the head, Gloriously rigg'd; and for a word, a tear, And the chorus talks of adding fuel to flame in a report. He's gone, and who knows how he may report Thy words, by adding fuel to the flame? The verification is in the dialogue much more fmooth and harmonious than in the parts allotted to the chorus, which are often fo harfh and diffonant, as fcarce to preferve, whether the lines end' with or without rhymes, any appearance of metrical regularity. Or do my eyes mifreprefent? Can this be he, That heroick, that renown'd, Irrefiftible Samfen; whom unarm’d No ftrength of man, or fierceft wild beaft, could withstand; Who tore the lion, as the lion tears the kid ? |