312 



MILTON. 



Milton, vrere by no means accommodated to the new rciarn, 

 """V"*' and he had offended too deeply to l>e more than lor- 

 given. He had now to resume the character of a 

 poet, which for many years had been sunk in tliat of a 

 politician and controversialist, for his few composi- 

 tions in verse during this period, though exquisitely 

 beautiful, were not sufficiently attended to, to add to 

 his poetical reputation. When he first formed the re- 

 solution of writing an epic poem, he thought of some 

 subject in the heroic times of English history. Iteli- 

 gion and the study of the Hebrew Scriptures decided 

 him in favour of a religious subject. His mind, now 

 concentrated and undisturbed, 'fulfilled the great con- 

 ceptions which he had designed of Pa.-adise L st. The 

 exact time employed in the composition of this poem 

 is not ascertained, but it probably occupied his thoughts 

 with no considerable interruptions of any other litera- 

 ry subject for eleven years, from 165^ to 1665, at 

 which period Elwood the quaker says it was finished ; 

 a time when Milton, to avoid the contagion of the 

 plague in London, made a retreat to Chalfont in Buck- 

 inghamshire. Paradise Lost was first printed in 1667, 

 in small quarto, and divided into ten books ; and his 

 biographers have been very minute in recording the 

 trifling sum which he received for the copy-right of it. 

 Much discussion has also taken place respecting the 

 original conception of this grand performance. Vol- 

 taire first suggested, that the hint had been given by 

 the Adamo, a poor drama, full of allegory, conceit, and 

 bombast, written by one Andfeini, a strolling player 

 of Italy. Dr. Johnson rejected the hypothesis with 

 contempt, but from the circumstance distinctly prov- 

 ed, of Milton's poem being first projected by him in a 

 dramatic shape, and from the similarity of the allegori- 

 cal beings first sketched by Milton with those of An- 

 tlreini, it seems by no means improbable, that the 

 supposition suggested by Voltaire, and illustrated by 

 Mr. Hayley, is correct. 



In the second edition of the Paradise Lost, which 

 was published in 1674, the author divided the seventh 

 and tenth books, for the purpose of breaking the 

 length of their narrative, each into two, and thus 

 changed the original distribution of his work, from 

 ten to twelve books. On this new arrangement the 

 addition of a few lines became necessary to form a 

 regular opening to the eighth and the eleventh books ; 

 and these nine verses, with six others, inserted partly 

 in the fifth and partly in the eleventh, constituted all 

 the alterations for this mighty production, on which 

 his own and the epic fame of his country was to rest. 



Paradise Regained, written upon a suggestion of 

 Elwood's, and apparently regarded by the author as 

 the theological completion of his plan, followed in 1670. 

 He is said to have viewed this production with the 

 partial fondness of a parent for his latest offspring. 

 He could not bear the disparaging comparison of it 

 with his great work, which was generally made. The 

 general opinion of this poem certainly places it at an 

 Rumble distance from Paradise Lost. The extreme 

 narrowness of its plan, the small proportion of it 

 vhich is assigned to action, and the larger portion 

 which is given to disputations and didactic dialogue, 

 its paucity of characters and poetical imagery, and its 

 general deficiency in the charm of numbers, exclude 

 it from a wide range of popularity. It is embellished, 

 however, with several exquisite passages, which dis- 

 cover the still existing author of the Paradise Lost. 

 Sampson Agonistes was published at the same time, a 

 manly, noble, and pathetic drama; though it cannot 

 be asserted that its action is undelcctive, or that all its 



scenes tend harmoniously to the developement of the Milton. 

 fable. The unlimited and capricious wanderings of ' 

 the choral measures are also tuch as would be likely 

 to offend u> if we were not prejudiced by the con- 

 sciousness of reading Milton. 



The poet, in this respect, imitated the Greek drama, 

 which unites in its choruses verses of all descriptions, 

 without miy rule which modern scholarship can ascer- 

 tain. Bur the vocal structure of tl.e Greek language 

 nrght admit of harmony with great irregui:<;i-y of 

 measures ; and Athenian ears might 1-ani by habit to 

 delight in such anomalous harmony (if it was anoma- 

 lous,) whilst our more obdurate tongue requires the 

 precincts of verse to be distinct and definite ; and we 

 are habituated to delight chiefly in the flow of mea- 

 sure which the ear competently understands, and which 

 it in some degree anticipates. 



With this piece the history of Milton's poetry closes; 

 but writing was become so much a habit with him, 

 that he was continually making additions to his work:! 

 in prose. In 107~, he published a system of logic, af- 

 ter the method of Ramus, and in the following year 

 he again ventured into the field of polemics with a 

 treatise Of True Religion, Heresy, Schism, and Tolera- 

 tion, and the best means to Prevent the Growth of Pope- 

 ry. So imperfectly was toleration then understood, that 

 Milton persuaded himself he was consistent in denying 

 it to Papists, although he declares that he would not 

 even towards them exercise any personal severity. 



In 1674 he published his familiar letters, and some 

 of his university exercises ; the former with the title 

 of Epislolarwn Familiaritm Liber nnus, and the latter 

 with that of Prolusiones quaedam Oratoriae in Collegia 

 Christi hahitae. It has beers commonly affirmed that 

 he translated into English the declaration of the Poles 

 on their elevating the heroic John Sobiesko to their elec- 

 tive throne; but Dr. Symmons throws some doubt 

 upon the fact, as the Latin document could have ar- 

 rived in England only a very short time before his 

 death ; and as the translation bears no resemblance to 

 his character of composition. It is more certain that 

 in some part of the same year, the last of his life, he 

 wrote a brief history of Muscovy, which was publish- 

 ed about eight years posterior to his death. 



With this work terminated his literary labours; 

 the gout, which had for several years afflicted him. 

 in spite of his extreme temperance, seems to have 

 brought on rather premature senility and exhausted 

 his vital powers. In his sixty-sixth year, and on the 

 8th of November 176-t, he expired so quietly that those 

 who waited in his chamber were not conscious of his 

 death. His funeral was attended by many great and 

 learned individuals, and not without a friendly con- 

 course of the vulgar ; his remains were deposited by 

 the side of his father's, in the upper part of the chan- 

 cel of St. Giles's, Cripplegate. In consequence of an 

 alteration made in that part of the church, the stone 

 originally inscribed with his name was removed at 

 the end of a few years, and was never replaced. 

 But this unintended injury was in later days com- 

 pensated by the erection of his bust, (the work of 

 Bacon) at the expence of the elder Mr. Whitbrcad. 

 Mr. Benson, one of the auditors of the impost, had. in 

 1737, introduced a similar memorial of Milton into 

 Westminster Abbey. By his will he left nearly 2000, 

 besides 1000, his first wife's portion, which remained 

 in the hands of the Powells, and which ought to have 

 been paid, if it was not, to his daughters. He had lost 

 20CK), the emoluments of his office, which he had 

 placed on government security. 



