impreffions that patronifing us is being for or against the opera, but truly promoting their own diverfions in a more juft and elegant manner than has been hitherto ⚫ performed.

We are, Sir,

• Your most humble fervants,
• Thomas Clayton.

Nicolino Haym.

Charles Dieupart.

There will be no performances in York-buildings until after that of the fubfcription.'

T

N° 279

Saturday, January 19.

Hor. Ars Poet. ver. 316.

Reddere perfonæ fcit convenientia cuique.

He knows what beft befits each character.

WE have already taken a general furvey of the

fable and characters in Milton's Paradife Loft. The parts which remain to be confidered, according to Ariftotle's method, are the fentiments and language. Before I enter upon the firft of thefe, I muft advertise my reader, that it is my defign, as foon as I have finished my general reflexions on these four feveral heads, to give particular inftances out of the poem which is now before us of beauties and imperfections which may be observed under each of them, as alfo of fuch other particulars as may not properly fall under any of them. This I thought fit to premife, that the reader may not judge too haftily of this piece of criticifm, or look upon it as imperfect, before he has feen the whole extent of it.

The fentiments in an epic poem are the thoughts and behaviour which the author afcribes to the perfons whom he introduces, and are juft when they are conformable to the characters of the feveral perfons. The fentiments

have likewife a relation to things as well as perfons, and are then perfect when they are fuch as are adapted to the fubject. If in either of these cafes the poet endeavours to argue or explain, to magnify or diminish, to raise love or hatred, pity or terror, or any other paffion, we ought to confider whether the fentiments he makes ufe of are proper for thofe ends. Homer is cenfured by the critics for his defect as to this particular in feveral parts of the Iliad and Odyffey, though at the fame time thofe, who have treated this great poet with candour, have attributed this defect to the times in which he lived. It was the fault of the age, and not of Homer, if there wants that delicacy in fome of his fentiments, which now appears in the works of men of a much inferior genius. Befides, if there are blemishes in any particular thoughts, there is an infinite beauty in the greatest part of them. In short, if there are many poets who would not have fallen into the meannefs of fome of his sentiments, there are none who could have rifen up to the greatnefs of others. Virgil has excelled all others in the propriety of his fentiments. Milton fhines likewife very much in this particular: nor muft we omit one confideration which adds to his honour and reputation. Homer and Virgil introduced perfons whofe characters are commonly known among men, and fuch as are to be met with either in hiftory, or in ordinary converfation. Milton's characters, most of them lie out of nature, and were to be formed purely by his own invention. It fhews a greater genius in Shakespear to have drawn his Calyban, than his Hotfpur or Julius Cæfar: the one was to be fupplied out of his own imagination, whereas the other might have been formed upon tradition, hiftory and obfervation. It was much easier therefore for Homer to find proper fentiments for an affembly of Grecian generals, than for Milton to diverfify his infernal council with proper characters, and infpire them with a variety of fentiments. The loves of Dido and Æneas are only copies of what has paffed between other perfons. Adam and Eve, before the fall, are a different fpecies from that of mankind, who are defcended from them; and none but a poet of the most unbounded invention, and the most exquifite judgment,

could have filled their converfation and behaviour with fo many apt circumftances during their state of innocence. Nor is it fufficient for an epic poem to be filled with fuch thoughts as are natural, unlefs it abound alfo with fuch as are fublime. Virgil in this particular falls hort of Homer. He has not indeed fo many thoughts that are low and vulgar; but at the fame time has not fo many thoughts that are fublime and noble. The truth of it is, Virgil feldom rifes into very aftonishing fentiments, where he is not fired by the Iliad. He every where charms and pleafes us by the force of his own genius; but feldom elevates and tranfports us where he does not fetch his hints from Homer.

Milton's chief talent, and indeed his diftinguishing excellence, lies in the fublimity of his thoughts. There are others of the moderns who rival him in every other part of poetry; but in the greatness of his fentiments he triumphs over all the poets both modern and ancient, Homer only excepted. It is impoffible for the imagination of man to diftend itself with greater ideas, than those which he has laid together in his firft, fecond, and fixth books. The feventh, which defcribes the creation of the world, is likewife wonderfully fublime, though not fo apt to ftir up emotion in the mind of the reader, nor confequently fo perfect in the epic way of writing, because it is filled with less action. Let the judicious reader compare what Longinus has obferved on feveral paffages in Homer, and he will find parallels for most of them in the Paradife Loft.

From what has been faid we may infer, that as there are two kinds of fentiments, the natural and the fublime, which are always to be purfued in an heroic poem, there are alfo two kinds of thoughts which are carefully to be avoided. The firft are fuch as are affected and unnatural; the fecond fuch as are mean and vulgar. As for the first kind of thoughts, we meet with little or nothing that is like them in Virgil: he has none of thofe trifling points and puerilities that are fo often to be met with in Ovid, none of the epigrammatic turns of Lucan, none of thofe fwelling fentiments which are fo frequent in Statius and Claudian, none of thofe mixed embellishments of Taffo. Every thing is juft and natural. His fentiments:

fentiments-fhew that he had a perfect infight into human nature, and that he knew every thing which was the most proper to affect it.

Mr. Dryden has in fome places, which I may hereafter take notice of, mifreprefented Virgil's way of thinking as to this particular, in the tranflation he has given us of the Æneid. I do not remember that Homer any where falls into the faults above-mentioned, which were indeed the falfe refinements of later ages. Milton, it must be confeft, has fometimes erred in this refpect, as I fhall fhow more at large in another paper; though confidering how all the poets of the age in which he writ were infected with this wrong way of thinking, he is rather to be admired that he did not give more into it, than that he did fometimes comply with the vicious taste which still prevails fo much among modern writers.

But fince feveral thoughts may be natural which are low and groveling, an epic poet fhould not only avoid fuch fentiments as are unnatural or affected, but also fuch as are mean and vulgar. Homer has opened a great field of raillery to men of more delicacy than greatnefs of genius, by the homeliness of fome of his fentiments. But, as I have before faid, thefe are rather to be imputed to the fimplicity of the age in which he lived, to which I may alfo add, of that which he defcribed, than to any imperfection in that divine poet. Zoilus, among the ancients, and Monfieur Perrault, among the moderns, pushed their ridicule very far upon him, on account of fome fuch fentiments. There is no blemish to be observed in Virgil under this head, and but a very few in Milton.

I fhall give but one inftance of this impropriety of thought in Homer, and at the same time compare it with an inftance of the fame nature, both in Virgil and Milton. Sentiments, which raise laughter, can very feldom be admitted with any decency into an heroic poem, whose business it is to excite paffions of a much nobler nature. Homer, however, in his characters of Vulcan and Therfites, in his ftory of Mars and Venus, in his behaviour of Irus, and in other paffages, has been obferved to have lapfed into the burlesque character and to have departed from that ferious air which feems effential to the magnificence of an epic poem. I remember but one laugh in

the

the whole Æneid, which rifes in the fifth book, upon Monotes, where he is reprefented as thrown overboard, and drying himself upon a rock. But this piece of mirth is fo well timed, that the fevereft critic can have nothing to fay against it; for it is in the book of games and diverfions, where the reader's mind may be fuppofed to be fufficiently relaxed for fuch an entertainment. The only piéce of pleafantry in Paradife Loft, is where the evil fpirits are defcribed as rallying the angels upon the fuccefs of their new-invented artillery. This paffage I look upon to be the most exceptionable in the whole poem, as being nothing else but a ftring of puns, and thofe too very indifferent ones.

Satan beheld their plight,

And to his mates thus in derifion call'd.

O friends, why come not on thofe victors proud!' Ere-while they fierce were coming, and when we To entertain them fair with open front,

And breaft, (what could we more?) propounding terms
Of compofition, Atraight they chang'a their minds,
Flew off, and into frange vagaries fell

As they would dance: yet for a dance they feem'd
Somewhat extravagant, and wild; perhaps
For joy of offer'd peace; but I fuppofe
If our propofals once again were heard,
We should compel them to a quick refult.

To whom thus Belial in like gamesome mood:
Leader, the terms we fent were terms of weight,
Of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home;
Such as we might perceive amus'd them all,
And ftumbled many who receives them right,
Had need from head to foot well understand;
Not understood, this gift they have befides,
They fhew us when our foes walk not upright.
Thus they among themselves in pleasant vein.
Stood fcoffing--

L

Monday,