and use it not very much, as he that faid by way of epithete, The fmoakie fighes: the trickling teares. And fuch like, for fuch compofition makes the meetre "runne away smoother, and paffeth from the lippes with 66 more facilitie by ITERATION of a letter than by ALTE"RATION, which alteration of a letter requires an exchange of ministery and office in the lippes, teeth or palate, "and doth not the ITERATION." The reader may fee this affected iteration in Douglas's prologue prefixed to the VIII. book of Virgil's Æneid: And in the Plowman's prologue and tale in Chaucer, p. 179. edit. Urry. Pierce Plowman is written wholly after this manner without rime; which is mention'd in the preface." He wrote altogither "in miter, but not after the maner of our rimers that "wryté nowe adaies (for his verses ende not alike) but the nature of hys miter is, to have three wordes at the leafte in every verfe which begyn with fome one letter, as for "enfample, the firfte two verses of the boke renne upon S, as thus ; "In a fomer feafon when fette was the funne "I hope me into fhrobbes, as I a shepe were. The next runeth upon H, as thus ; "In habite as an hermite unholy of werekes, &c. "This thing noted the metre fhall be very plesaunt to read.” Page 365. DRYDEN fays that MILTON acknowledged to him, that SPENCER was his original: but his original in what, Mr. DRYDEN does not tell us : certainly he was not his original in throwing afide that Gothic bondage of jingle at the end end of every line; 'twas the example of our BEST ENGLISH TRAGEDIES bere be followed; HIS HONOURED SHAKESPEARE.] 'Tis hardly poffible, but that a reader of Shakespeare and Milton must have observed a great resemblance both of ftile and fentiment in these two poets: fee above page 217, 218, what is cited from them concerning the variety of the punishments of the damned: other paffages may be eafily pointed out; as for example. O for a faulkner's voice "To lure this taffel gentle back again." Sh. Romeo and Juliet, A& II. "O for that warning voice, which he who faw "Th' Apocalyps, heard cry in heav'n aloud." "The heavenly-harness'd team Milton, IV, 1. "Begins his golden progrefs in the east." "The Morn-begins "Her rofy progrefs fmiling." K. Henry IV. A& III. Milt. XI, 175. "As eafy may'ft thou the intrenchant air "With thy keen fword imprefs." Macbeth, A& IV. -When vapours fir'd impress the air.” 66 Milt. IV, 558. "And with indented glides did flip away." 66 As you Like it, A& IV. -Not with indented wave t In the fame fublime manner EXPECTATION is perfonalized in Milton. VI, 306. 66 While EXPECTATION ftood "In horror." So VICTORY is perfonalized, In K., Richard III. A& V. "VICTORY fits on our helms.e' Again, In Antony and Cleopatra, A& I. "On your fword "Sit lawrell'd VICTORY." Hence Milton. VI, 762. "At his right hand VICTORY "Sat eage-wing'd." In the IVth book, where Satan falls into thofe doubts with himself, and paffions of fear and despair, Milton uses the fame image, as Shakespeare in describing the perturbed and distracted ftate of Macbeth. "And like a devilish engine back recoils Upon himself horror and doubt distract "His troubled foul." B. IV, 16. "Who then shall blarne "His pefter'd fenfes to recoyl and start "When all that is within him does condemn "Itself for being there?" Macbeth, A& V. Milton, in the description of Eve's bower [B. IV, 703.] fays, Other creatures here "Beaft, bird, infect or worm, durft enter none; "Such was their awe of Man." So in the fong, inserted in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Act II. Infects and worms are forbid to approach the Bower Bower of the Queen of Fairies. Callimachus has a thought not unlike, speaking of the place where Rhea brought forth Jove.. Ενθεν ὁ χῶρος Ιερός· ἐδέ τί μιν κεχρημένον Εἰλειθυίης Hym. I, 11. Inde locus eft facer: neque prægnans aliquod animal, neque mulier eum adit ulla. Eprelov, is whatever walks or creeps, bird, beaft, infect or worm, as Milton expreffes it; who doubtless had both Callimachus and Shakespeare in his mind. And this is very ufual for Milton, in the compass of a few lines to rifle the beauties of various authors, and hence to make them his own by his properly applying and improving them as his divine subject required. This having not been, as I know of, fufficiently attended to, I will instance in one or two paffages. "Like that Pygmean race "Beyond the Indian mount; or Fairy elves, "Whofe midnight revels by a forest fide, "Or fountain, fome belated peasant sees " "Or dreams he fees; while over-head the moon "Sits arbitrefs, &c." Milton is fpeaking of the fallen Angels, who had reduced their immense shapes-firft he fays they resembled the PygSee Homer II., 6., and Euftath, fol. 281. mean race. "Or Fairy elves "Whose midnight revels by a foreft fide "Or fountain, &c." Shakespeare in A Midfummer Night's Dream, A& II. "And never fince that middle Summer's spring "That we on hill, in dale, forest or mead, I "By paved fountain, or by rafhy brook, "Or on the beached margent of the fea "To dance our ringlets to the whisling wind, &e." Again, the following in Milton.Some belated peasant fees or dreams he fees: is literally from Virgil, Aen. VI, 454. Aut videt aut vidiffe putat. And, while over head the Moon fits arbitrefs: from Horace. L. I. Od. IV. Fam Cytherea Choros ducit Venus, IMMINENTE LUNA. Milton, B. V. .5. "Which th' only found "Of leaves, and fuming rills, (Aurora's fan) Lightly difpers'd, and the thrill matin fong "Of birds on every bough, This is partly Virgil. VIII, 456... Evandrum ex humili tecto lux fufcitat alma, Et MATUTINI VOLUCRUM fub' culmine CANTUS. And partly Taffo [B. VII. ft. 5.] thus rendered by Fairfax, "The birds awakt her with their morning fong, "Their warbling muficke pierft her tender eare, "The murmuring brooks, and whistling winds among "The ratling boughes and leaves their parts did beare, &c." From Virgil Milton has literally the matin fong of birds: from Taffo, the found of leaves and rills: his own addition is, Aurora's fan: a pretty poetical image applied to the fanning winds among the leaves of the trees, and the cooling fumes arifing from the rills. I will add but one paffage more which has already been cited. "Heav'n open'd wide "Her ever during gates, harmonious found "On golden hinges moving B. VII, 205. |