185?6.] Milton's A/molafors and Commentators. i|A 



It follows that Milton, who composed " his poetry chiefly in winter, and 

 on his waking in a morning," must have " copied, imitated, borrmved," 

 &c. in nearly every line, all authors, ancient and modem, J'rom 

 mem art/ / / 



The absurdity of these declarations is evident ; it would be a work of 

 supererogation to seriously refute them by argument. If 3Iilton had 

 possessed the memory of Person tenfold doubled, he could not have used, 

 in the manner that has been calumniously affirmed, the works of those 

 who wrote before him. It would be illiberal to infer that this host of 

 annotators intended to depreciate the genius of Milton, when the whole 

 of them declare that he was not a plagiary, although in every separate 

 comment they, directly or indirectly, virtually charge him with pla- 

 giarism. I will give only one brief example of the system which I de- 

 precate, and leave our readers to decide, if the vanity of erudition and 

 the arrogance of pedantry have not been the latent motives for their 

 filling their pages with so much dusty lore. 



In the Fourth Book of Paradise Lost, line 639, Eve thus replies to 

 Adam : — 



t< 



With thee conversing, I forget all time ; 

 All seasons and their change ; all please alike. 

 Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet. 

 With chaiTii of earliest birds : pleasant the sun, 

 When first on this delightful land he spreads 

 His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit and flower, 

 Glistering with dew." 



Without even supposing that this beautiful combination of rural 

 imagery was connected in the mind of the poet, peculiarly susceptible 

 of such impressions, and the recollection rendered more intense from 

 his blindness, Hurd, Warton and Todd, commenting on the clause, 

 <■' sweet is the breath of morn," unrelentingly affirm, that it was sha- 

 dowed out from a passage in the Danae of Euripides — that he also had 

 in view the eighth Idyllium of Theocritus, and that it has a prototype 

 in Drummond I Milton was deeply versed in Holy Writ, and had por- 

 tions from it read to him daily. I therefore humhJy presume, if he did 

 remember at the time he wrote these lines the words of any other 

 writer, that they were not those of Euripides, nor Theocritus, or Drum- 

 mond — but this passage from Ecclesiastes, xi. — 7 : 



" Traly the light (the morn) is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes 



to behold the sun." 



This example is chosen without taking the- trouble to select ; it 

 would not be difficult to choose an hundred more far-fetched and 

 absurd. 



To what conclusion must we come if we admit that these literati are 

 correct ? — that Milton remembered with accuracy, and applied in everj' 

 line he dictated, some passage or passages trom all the celebrated and 

 many secondary w-riters of every age, country and language ; and that 

 lie has united in his works the beauties of them all. We leave those who, 

 under the guidance of these commentators, believe his imperishable 

 poems to be onl)' a wonderful piece of mosaic work, compiled from 

 memory, in the quiet and unenvied enjoyment of their opinion. 



Milton contemplated, very early in life, a work on either " Alfred 

 or Adam :" " he was long chusing and began late ;" living in the hope 



M. M. New Series.— Vol. I. No. L H 



