72 



his own Mikonic powers. He entitles it, " Milton's {lyle imitated In a 

 triuiflation of a flory out of the third iEneid." 



" 'Tis faid, that thunder-ftruck Enceladus 



" Groveling beneath th' incumbent mountain's weight, 



" Lies ftretch'd fupine, th' eternal prey of flames. " 



Obc jam fails ! But we have another proof in the Splendid Shillhig, 

 whofe Miltonics, as the author had intended, become downright burlefque 

 when applied to familiar fubjefts. Philips brought it to the teft, and 

 fliewed in the happieft manner that the Greek and Roman phrafe em- 

 ployed by Milton, was nor deCgned by that bard for others to imi- 

 tate : but rather as a fuccedaneum for the rhimc he difdained and had 

 ftudioufly rejefled. Yet fuch is the nature of the Britifli mufe, that it is 

 with difficulty even the great Milton himfelf, with all his elaborate Hel- 

 lenifms and Latinifms, fometimes efcapes the rhime, which at every tura 

 obtrudes itfelf on him. And to avoid a word that both tafte and con- 

 venience had offered to him, this very champion of blank-verfe, this Herctdes 

 Miifarum has more than once found himfelf compelled to adopt another word 

 Icfs beautiful and expreffive : a proof that the great adverfary of rhime felt 

 bis trammels more difficult than thofe he had gloried to burfl: : like the 

 honeft Irifliman, v/ho, having fallen in love with his jailor's daughter, 

 that had affifted his flight, exclaimed, " By my confcience I was never 

 more a prifoner than now my feet are at liberty." When to fuch a 

 man, even in his own laboured conflruftion of a language whofe very 

 turn, one would think, extruded the rhime, it was difficult to efchew 

 the correfpondent found, let minor poets, beware how they at- 

 tempt the bow of UJyfles, and abandon that eafy grace now embo- 

 died into Englifli poety. And while tragedy from cuftom, as well as 

 from the loftinefs of her tone, and the very nature of dialogue, is al- 

 lowed to rejeft the rhime ; I trufl: we ihall never again, till anotlier 

 Milton fljall arife, fee an Englifli poem in profe viefuree. 



I have 



