218 



Mr. Thelwall on Mil/on. 



[Oct. 1, 



htiiul, the deficipnry is to Tupplied by 

 imiitiil tiileiU. Ill the prtTmt iiifbuce, 

 however, it a|)pt:irh to iiie tliat it is not 

 Milton, but 111-) commentator, who num- 

 bers : nor would I, for my own p:irt, 

 cbiinfic a fmglc iota of the nohle paliage 

 tjiioud tiy your C'orrcfpoiuk'nt, either 

 for the alteration he has ollored, or for 

 any thing 1 fufpct't cither critic or poet 

 to be capable of fuggclling. I am in- 

 dttd raiicli inclined to fuf|)e6t that this 

 objection (like the generality of thofq ca- 

 vils to which the rhythmus and conftruc- 

 tiou of Milton has been fo freqiicntly cx- 

 pofed,) has orii;inatcd in that fyllcin of 

 eiToneous mcchanifm fo generally afi- 

 j)licd to the a^t of reading our Knglilh 

 poets : a fyllem which, iii many in- 

 liuiiccs, has even deformed our typogra- 

 phy, corrupted our ortliogiaphy,* turned 

 into al»f<>lute dilfonance foine of the moll 

 excjuifite vcrfes in our language, and 

 caufcii to be lecrarded as extremely ditfi- 

 culi, to the reader and the reciter, an 

 author, who, conlidering the fublimity of 

 liis ideas, and the valtiiefs of his erudir 

 tion, is perhaps the eafielt of all authors 

 who ever wrote. Give to the verfes of 

 Milton (what all verfes . ought to have,) 

 tlic eafy (low of a I'pontaneous and ora- 

 torical utterance, — the (jl))eOtions advan- 

 ced by filent, inapprclienfive, finger- 

 counting nJonalHcs, will difappear ; and, 

 iuflcad of condemning, we Ihall learn to 

 ap|ilaiid, that tree fpoiitaiicoiis tlow of 

 oratorical period, whirli the verfification 

 of Milton ii) tranfceiidantly difplays. 



With tills rccolledtion in our minds, 

 let us turn to the palVagc in quetlion, 

 and (trying what can be done by the af- 

 fiftance of a correct orthography and ac- 

 curiite punttuation, towards alliliing the 

 perception of the reader,) bring its me- 

 lody and its conllruction to that tell by 

 which alone they can properly be tried : 

 tiiat tell which can only be fairly appre- 

 ciated by thofe who have learned to con- 

 iider it as the peculiar excellence of the 

 llyje of Milton, that his conllruction w;is 

 always regulated by his perceptions of 

 melody, and that his melody was always 

 the fponta neons emanation of the fenti- 

 mcnt, the pairion, or tli« image, that 

 glowed in his creative mind. The paf- 

 lage, then, I would have printed thus, — 



• I might have added, that it has even de- 

 bafed tiic genius of our verfification, liy occa- 

 fionin;; not a few of what are c.illed our «r- 

 nfl poets anxloully to avoid modes of con- 

 ftruftion and airangem:nt which they ought 

 moll feduloufly to have cultivated. 



the inverted curve (") indicating the ran- 

 trafl'ton, not the elijion, of the refpec'tive 

 vowels over which it is placed. 



Him the Almighty Power 

 Hurl'd, headlong, flaming, from the etherZiI 



/ky,— 

 With hideous ruin and combuftTon, down 

 To bottomlefs perdition : tnere to dwell 

 In adamantine chains and penal fire,— 

 Whodurll defy the Omnipotent to arms ! 



Let any perfon read or recite this paf- 

 fage with an oratorical llow of utterance ; 

 let hiin give to the rcfpcctive lyllable* 

 the quautitics and qualities to which they 

 are liable in fpontaiieous fpcech, and 

 none other ; let him make his paufes 

 there, and there oijjy, where they would 

 fall according to the grammatical con- 

 llruction and divilions of the fenfe io 

 fpontancous profe ; and regulate the 

 time and emphalls by the dictates ot* 

 fun pie ufage, and the import of the re- 

 fpective words ; and then let him accu- 

 rately coiihder, whether, in the lirft 

 place, any alteration of the arrangement 

 could be nuide; without injury to themu- 

 fic of the period .-' and, in the fecond, 

 whether the mind can have any pollible 

 ditiiculty in fupplying that fpecies of 

 grammatical ihlion, without wliich not 

 jjoefry only, but even profe, cannot, with 

 any fort of fmoothnefs or convenience, 

 proceed .' It is true, indeed, that mi« 

 nute analvfis requires the following repe-; 

 til ion to be fupplied " There to dwell in 

 adamantine chains and penal tire : — /ihn 

 (here to dwelt, who dull defy the Omni- 

 tent to arms !" But to me it appears, 

 that, when the paffage is properly read, 

 it is utterly impolfible that a mind of any 

 apprehenlion can fail of inftantaneoully 

 fu|)plying fuch repetition ; and if fo, 

 how much more graceful is this mode of 

 conllruction, which, equally intelligible, 

 is at the fame time fo much more terfe 

 and harmonious than the profing forma- 

 lity that mere grammatical inechanifra 

 might ha\e dictated. The palfiige, I 

 grant, requires to be well and naturally 

 read, in order to be promply compre- 

 hended ; but furely there are very few 

 palfages worth comprehending, either of 

 vcrl'e or profe, that can be promptly un- 

 dcrllood \vhen they are read unnaturally 

 and ill ; and I repeat, that, but for the diffi- 

 culties thrown in our way by falfe prin- 

 ciples of ciiticifm and falfe fyllems of ut- 

 terance, I do not know a fingle writer, 

 either of profe or of verfe, (the fublimity 

 of his fubject and the elevation of his 

 ideas conlidered,) whom it is more eafy 

 to read than JMiitou. I certainly do not 

 remembec 



