OBSERVATIONS ON THE VERSIFICATION OF MILTON", BY DR. JOHNSON, AND OTHERS. ONE of the ancients has observed, that the burthen of government is encreased upon princes by the virtues of their immediate predecessours. It is, indeed, always dangerous to be placed in a share of unavoidable comparison with excellence; and the danger is still greater when that excellence is consecrated by death, when envy and interest cease to act against it, and those passions by which it was at first vilified and opposed now stand in the defence, and turn their vehemence against honest emulation. He, that succeeds a celebrated writer, has the same difficulties to encounter: He stands under the shade of exalted merit, and is hindered from rising to his natural height, by the interception of those beams which should invigorate and quicken him. He applies to that attention which is already engaged, and unwilling to be drawn off from certain satisfaction; or perhaps to an attention already wearied, and not to be recalled to the same object. 4 Dr. Warton is justly surprised, that Pope should notice two great masters of VERSIFICATION, Waller and Dryden, and yet omit the name of Milton. "What! did Milton contribute nothing to the harmony and extent of our language ?— Surely his verses vary, and resound as much, and display as much majesty and energy, as any that can be found in Dryden." See Essay on Pope, vol. ii. p. 351, edit. 1782. I shall enlarge these remarks of Dr. Johnson by occasionally introducing other opinions respecting MILTON'S VERSIFICATION; together with various proofs, that the poet's "skill in harmony was not less than his invention or his learning." TODD. One of the old poets congratulates himself that he has the untrodden regions of Parnassus before him, and that his garland will be gathered from plantations which no writer had yet culled. But the imitator treads a beaten walk; and, with all his diligence, can only hope to find a few flowers or branches untouched by his predecessour; the refuse of contempt, or the omissions of negligence. The Macedonian conquerour, when he was once invited to hear a man that sung like a nightingale, replied with contempt, that he had heard the nightingale herself; and the same treatment must every man expect, whose praise is, that he imitates another. Yet, in the midst of these discouraging reflections, I am about to offer to the reader some observations upon Paradise Lost; and hope, that, however I may fall below the illustrious writer who has so long dictated to the commonwealth of learning, my attempt may not be wholly useless. There are, in every age, new errours to be rectified, and new prejudices to be opposed. False taste is also busy to mislead those that are entering upon the regions of learning; and the traveller, uncertain of his way, and forsaken by the sun, will be pleased to see a fainter orb arise on the horizon, that may rescue him from total darkness, though with weak and borrowed lustre. Addison, though he has considered this Poem under most of the general topicks of criticism, has barely touched upon the VERSIFICATION; not probably because he thought the art of numbers unworthy of his notice, for he knew with how minute attention the ancient criticks considered the disposition of syllables, and had himself given hopes of some metrical observations upon the great Roman poet; but being the first who undertook to display the beauties, and point out the defects, of Milton, he had many objects at once before him, and passed willingly over those which were most barren of ideas, and required labour rather than genius. Yet versification, or the art of modulating his numbers, is indispensably necessary to a poet. Every other power by which the understanding is enlightened, or the imagination enchanted, may be exercised in prose. But the poet has this peculiar superiority, that, to all the powers which the perfection of every other composition can require, he adds the faculty of joining musick with reason, and of acting at once upon the senses and the passions. I suppose there are few who do not feel themselves touched by poetical melody, and who will not confess that they are more or less moved by the same thoughts, as they are conveyed by different sounds; and more affected by the same words in one order, than in another. The perception of harmony is indeed conferred upon men in degrees very unequal; but there are none who do not perceive it, or to whom a regular series of proportionate sounds cannot give delight. In treating ON THE VERSIFICATION OF MILTON, I am desirous to be generally understood, and shall therefore studiously decline the dialect of grammarians; though, indeed, it is always difficult, and sometimes scarcely possible, to deliver the precepts of an art without the terms by which the peculiar ideas of that art are expressed, and which had not been invented but because the language, already in use, was insufficient. If therefore I shall sometimes seem obscure, may it be imputed to this voluntary interdiction, and to a desire of avoiding that offence which is always given by unusual words. The heroick measure of the English language may be properly considered as pure or mixed. It is pure, when the accent rests upon every second syllable through the whole line: "Courage uncertain dangers may abate, "But who can beár th' approach of cértain fáte.” Dryden. "Here Love his golden shafts employs, here lights Reigns here and revels; not in the bought smile "Of hárlots, loveless, jóyless, únendeár'd." Milton. The accent may be observed in the second line of Dryden, and in the second and fourth of Milton, to repose upon every second syllable. The repetition of this sound or percussion at equal times, is the most complete harmony of which a single verse is capable, and should therefore be exactly kept in distichs, and generally in the last line of a paragraph, that the ear may rest without any sense of imperfection. But, to preserve the series of sounds untransposed in a long composition, is not only very difficult, but tiresome and disgusting; for we are soon wearied with the perpetual recurrence of the same cadence. Necessity has therefore enforced the mixed measure, in which some variation of the accents is allowed: This, though it always injures the harmony of the line considered by itself, yet compensates the loss by relieving us from the continual tyranny of the same sound; and makes us more sensible of the harmony of the pure measure. Of these mixed numbers every poet affords us innumerable instances; and Milton seldom has two pure lines together, as will appear if any one of his paragraphs be read with attention merely to the musick: "Thus, at their shady lodge arriv'd, both stood, "The God that made both sky, air, earth, and heaven, "And starry pole: Thou also mad'st the night, In this passage it will be at first observed, that all the lines are not equally harmonious; and upon a nearer examination it will be found that only the fifth and ninth lines are regular, and the rest are more or less licentious with respect to the accent. In some the accent is equally upon two syllables together, and in both strong. As "Thus at their shady lodge arriv'd, both stood, “Both turn'd, and under open sky ador'd "The God that made both sky, air, earth, and heaven." In others the accent is equally upon two syllables, but upon both weak: 66 a race "To fill the earth, who shall with us extol In the first pair of syllables the accent may deviate from the rigour of exactness, without any unpleasing diminution of harmony, as may be observed in the lines already cited, and more remarkably in this; "Thou also mad'st the night, "Maker Omnipotent, and thou the day." But, excepting in the first pair of syllables, which may be considered as arbitrary, a poet, who, not having the invention or knowledge of Milton, has more need to allure his audience by musical cadences, should seldom suffer more than one aberration from the rule in any single verse. There are two lines in this passage more remarkably unhar monious: "this delicious place "For us too large, where thy abundance wants measures. r Partakers, and uncropt falls to the ground.] Milton was fond of the ancient See his prefaces to Par. Lost and Sams. Agonistes; and indeed Dr. Johnson's own remark, p. cxii. These lines exhibit choriambicks in the third and fourth, and in the fourth and fifth places: "For us too large, where thÿ dhundance wants So, in Par. Reg. B. iv. 412, in the fourth and fifth places: "Fierce rain with lightning mix'd, wäter with fire." Milton often introduces this measure into his verses. Thus in Comus, in the first and second places: Why are you vix'd Lady? why do you frown?" Again, in Par. Reg. B. ii. 180. "Cäst wanton eyes on the daughters of men." |