SCENE 4. The World in the fhape of a man, exulting in his own finery.

SCENE 5. Eve and the World-He calls forth a rich palace from the ground, and tempts Eve

with fplendor. SCENE 6. and Adam.

Chorus of Nymphs, Eve, the World,

He exhorts Eve to refift, thefe allurements-the World call the demons from hell to enchain his victims-Eve prays for mercy: Adam encourages her.

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SCENE 7. Lucifer, Death, chorus of Demons.They prepare to feize Adam and Eve.

SCENE 8. The archangel Michael, with a chorus of good Angels. After a spirited altercation, Michael fubdues and triumphs over Lucifer.

SCENE 9. Adam, Eve, chorus of Angels.-They rejoice in the victory of Michael: he animates the offenders with a promise of favour from God, and future refidence in heaven:-they express their hope and gratitude. The Angels clofe the drama, -by finging the praise of the Redeemer.

After this minute account of Andreini's plan, the reader may be curious to see fome fpecimens of his poetry in an English verfion. I fhall felect three: First, the chorus of angels, which ferves as a prologue to the drama, and has been fo ludicrously described by Voltaire; fecondly, the foliloquy of Lucifer on his first appearance; and, thirdly, the scene in which Eve induces Adam to tafte the fruit. I shall prefix to them the preface of Andreini; but as thefe fpecimens of his compofition

might feem tedious here, and too much interrupt the course of this Effay, I fhall detach them from it, and infert them as an Appendix.

The majesty of Milton appears to the utmoft advantage when he is fully compared with every writer, whofe poetical powers have been exercifed on the subject, to which only his genius was equal. Let me obferve, however, for the credit of Andreini, that although he has been contemptuously called a ftroller, he had fome tincture of claffical learning, and confiderable piety. He occafionally imitates Virgil, and quotes the fathers. He was born in Florence, 1578; his mother was an actress, highly celebrated for the excellence of her talents, and the purity of her life; fhe appeared alfo as an authoress, and printed a volume of letters and effays, to which two great poets of her country, Taffo and Marini, contributed each a fonnet. Her memory was celebrated by her fon, who published, at her death, a collection of poems in her praife. Having distinguished himself as a comedian at Milan, he travelled into France, in the train of the famous Mary de Medici, and obtained, as an actor, the favour of Lewis XIIIth. The biographical work of Count Mazzuchelli on the writers of Italy, includes an account of Andreini, with a lift of his various productions; they amount to the number of thirty, and form a fingular medley of comedies and devout poems. His Adamo alone feems likely to preferve his name from oblivion; and that indeed can never cease to be regarded as a literary curiofity, while it

is believed to have given a fortunate impulfe to the fancy of Milton.

If it is highly probable, as I think it will appear to every poetical reader, who peruses the Adamo, that Andreini turned the thoughts of Milton from Alfred to Adam, and led him to sketch the first outlines of Paradife Loft in various plans of allegorical dramas, it is poffible that an Italian writer, lefs known than Andreini, first threw into the mind of Milton the idea of converting Adam into an epic perfonage. I have now before me a literary curio fity, which my accomplished friend, Mr. Walker, to whom the literature of Ireland has many obligations, very kindly fent me, on his return from an excurfion to Italy, where it happened to ftrike a traveller, whofe mind is peculiarly awakened to elegant purfuits. The book I am speaking of is entitled La Scena Tragica d'Adamo ed Eva, Eftratta dalli primi tre capi della Sacra Genefi, e ridotta a fignificato Morale da Troilo Lancetta, Benacense. Venetia 1644. This little work is dedicated to Maria Gonzaga, Dutchefs of Mantua, and is nothing more than a drama in profe, of the ancient form, entitled a morality, on the expulfion of our first parents from Paradife. The author does not mention Andreini, nor has he any mixture of verse in his compofition; but, in his addrefs to the reader, he has the following very remarkable paffage: after fuggefting that the Mofaic hiftory of Adam and Eve is purely allegorical, and defigned as an incentive to virtue, he fays, " Una notte fognai, che

"Moifè

"Moifè mi porse gratiofa efpofitione, e misterioso fignificato con parole tali apunto :

66

σε

"Dio fà parte all' huom di fe fteffo con l' intera

vento della ragione, e difpone con infallibile "fentenza, che fignoreggiando in lui la medesma fopra le fenfuali voglie, prefervato il pomo del "proprio core dalli appetiti difordinati, per gui "derdone di giusta obbedienza li trasforma il "mondo in Paradifo.-Di quefto s'io parlaffi, al "ficuro formarei heroico poema convenevole a "femidei."

"One night I dreamt that Mofes explained to "me the mystery, almost in these words:

"God reveals himself to man by the intervention "of reafon, and thus infallibly ordains that reason, "while fhe supports her fovereignty over the fen "fual inclinations in man, and preferves the apple "of his heart from licentious appetites, in reward "of his just obedience transforms the world into "Paradife.Of this were I to fpeak, affuredly "I might form an heroic poem worthy of demi"gods."

It strikes me as poffible that these last words, affigned to Mofes in his vifion by Troilo Lancetta might operate on the mind of Milton like the queftion of Ellwood, and prove, in his prolific fancy, a kind of rich graft on the idea he derived from Andreini, and the germ of his greatest production.

A fceptical critic, inclined to discountenance this conjecture, might indeed obferve, it is more probable that Milton never faw a little volume not publifhed until after his return from Italy, and written by

an

an author fo obfcure, that his name does not occur in Tirabofchi's elaborate hiftory of Italian literature; nor in the patient Italian chronicler of poets, Quadrio, though he beftows a chapter on early dramatic compofitions in profe.-But the mind, that' has once started a conjecture of this nature, muft ́ be weak indeed, if it cannot produce new fhadows of argument in aid of a favourite hypothefis.-Let' me therefore be allowed to advance, as a prefumptive proof of Milton's having feen the work of Lancetta, that he makes a fimilar ufe of Mofes, and introduces him to speak a prologue in the fketch of his various plans for an allegorical drama. It is indeed poffible that Milton might never see the performances either of Lancetta or Andreini-yet conjecture has ground enough to conclude very fairly, that he was acquainted with both; for Andreini wrote a long allegorical drama on Paradise, and we know that the fancy of Milton first began to play with the fubject according to that peculiar form of compofition.-Lancetta treated it alfo in the fhape of a dramatic allegory; but faid, at the fame time, under the character of Mofes, that the fubject might form an incomparable epic poem; and Milton, quitting his own hafty sketches of allegorical dramas, accomplished a work which answers to that intimation.

After all, I allow that the province of conjecture is the region of fhadows; and as I offer my ideas on this topic rather as phantoms that may amuse a lover of poetical speculation, than as folid proofs to determine a cause of great moment, I am perfuaded

every