Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

much surprise that he had never heard Pope speak of them, went home and immediately gave them an attentive reading, and afked Pope if he knew any thing of this hidden treasure. Pope availed himself of the queftion: and accordingly, we find him foon afterwards fprinkling his ELOISA TO ABELARD with epithets and phrases of a new form and found, pilfered from COMUS and the PENSEROSO. It is a phenomenon in the history of English poetry, that Pope, a poet not of Milton's pedigree, should be their firft copier. He was however conscious, that he might borrow from a book then scarcely remembered, without the hazard of a discovery, or the imputation of plagiarism. Yet the theft was fo flight, as hardly to deferve the name and it must be allowed, that the experiment was happily and judiciously applied, in delineating the fombrous fcenes of the penfive Eloifa's convent, the folitary Paraclete.

At length, we perceive these poems emerging in the criticifm of the times. In 1733, doctor Pearce published his Review of the Text of PARADISE LOST, where they frequently furnish collateral evidences in favour of the established state of that text, and in refutation of Bently's chimerical corrections. In the following year, the joint labour of the two Richardfons produced Explanatory Notes on the PARADISE LOST, where they repeatedly lend their affiftance, and are treated in fuch a style of criticism, as fhews that their beauties were

[blocks in formation]

truly felt. Soon afterwards, fuch refpectable names as Jortin, Warburton, and Hurd, confpired in examining their excellencies, in adjusting their claims to praise, and extending their reputation. They were yet further recommended to the public regard. In 1738, COMUS was presented on the ftage at Drury-Lane, with mufical accompaniments, and the application of additional songs, selected and adapted from L'ALLEGRO, and other pieces of this volume: and although not calculated to fhine in theatric exhibition for those very reafons which conftitute its effential and fpecific merit, from this introduction to notice it grew popular as a poem. L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSO were fet to music by Handel; and his expreffive harmonies here received the honour which they have fo feldom found, but which they fo juftly deferve, of being married to immortal verse. Not long afterwards, LYCIDAS was imitated by Mr. Mafon. In the mean time, the PARADISE LOST was acquiring more numerous readers: the manly melodies of blank-verfe, which after its revival by Philips had been long neglected, caught the public ear and the whole of Milton's poetical works, affociating their respective powers as in one common intereft, jointly and reciprocally cooperated in diffufing and forming juft ideas of a more perfect fpecies of poetry. A vifible revolution fucceeded in the general caft and character of the national compofition. Our verfification contracted a new colouring, a new ftructure and phrafeology;

and

and the school of Milton rose in emulation of the school of Pope.

An editor of Milton's juvenile poems cannot but exprefs his concern, in which however he may have been anticipated by his reader, that their number is fo inconfiderable. With Milton's mellow bangings, delicious as they are, we reasonably reft contented; but we are juftified in regretting that he has left fo few of his early bloffoms, not only because they are fo exquifitely fweet, but because so many more might have naturally been expected. And this regret is yet aggravated, when we confider the cause which prevented the produc, tion of more, and intercepted the progress of so promising a spring: when we recollect, that the vigorous portion of his life, that those years in which imagination is on the wing, were unwor¬ thily and unprofitably wafted on temporary topics, on elaborate but perishable differtations in defence of innovation and anarchy. To this employment he facrificed his eyes, his health, his repose, his native propenfities, his elegant ftudies. Smit with the deplorable polemics of puritanism, he fuddenly ceased to gaze on fuch fights as youthful poets dream. The numerous and noble plans of tragedy which he had deliberately formed with the difcernment and selection of a great poetical mind, were at once interrupted and abandoned; and have now left to a difappointed pofterity only a few naked outlines, and confused sketches. Inftead of embellishing

b 2

embellishing original tales of chivalry, of cloathing the fabulous atchievements of the early British kings and champions in the gorgeous trappings of epic attire, he wrote SMECTYMNUUS and TETRACHORDON, apologies for fanatical preachers and the doctrine of divorce. In his travels, he had intended to vifit Sicily and Athens, countries connected with his finer feelings, interwoven with his poetical ideas, and impressed upon his imagination by his habits of reading, and by long and intimate converfe with the Grecian literature. But fo prevalent were his patriotic attachments, that hearing in Italy of the commencement of the national quarrel, instead of proceeding forward to feast his fancy with the contemplation of fcenes familiar to Theocritus and Homer, the pines of Etna and the pastures of Peneus, he abruptly changed his course, and hastily returned home to plead the caufe of ideal liberty. Yet in this chaos of controversy, amidst endless disputes concerning religious and political reformation, independency, prelacy, tythes, toleration, and tyranny, he fometimes feems to have heaved a figh for the peaceable enjoyments of lettered folitude, for his congenial purfuits, and the more mild and ingenuous exercises of the mufe. In one of his profe-tracts he fays, "I may one day "hope to have ye again in a ftill time, when there

fhall be no Chiding. Not in these Noises." And in another, having mentioned fome of his schemes for epic poetry and tragedy, "of highest APOL. SMECTYMN. See PROSE-WORKS, vol. i. p. 103.

"hope

66

"hope and hardest attempting" he adds, "With "what small willingness I endure to interrupt the "pursuit of no lefs hopes than these, and leave a "calm and pleasing folitarineffe, fed with chear"full and confident thoughts, to imbark in a "troubled fea of noises and hoarse disputes, from beholding the bright countenance of truth in "the quiet and still air of delightfull ftudies, "&c." He ftill, however, obftinately perfifted in what he thought his duty. But furely these fpeculations should have been configned to the enthusiasts of the age, to such restless and wayward fpirits as Prynne, Hugh Peters, Goodwyn, and Baxter. Minds lefs refined, and faculties lefs elegantly cultivated, would have been better employed in this task.

Coarfe complexions,
And cheeks of forry grain, will serve to ply
The fampler, and to tease the hufwife's wool:
What need a vermeil-tinctur'd lip for that,
Love-darting eyes, and treffes like the morn"?

For obvious reafons, the Latin poems of this volume can never acquire the popularity of the English. But as it is my wish that they may be better known than before, and as they are in this edition, partly on that account, and for the firft time, accompanied with a series of Notes of proportionably equal extent with those attached to the English

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »