46 Milton D. Baumgartner 



English moral weeklies, and the references to it in the introduc- 

 tion of Paradise Lost which he translated along with the epic 

 itself in 1724.^ The introduction contains the account of Milton's 

 original intention of writing a play on the fall of man and the 

 later rejection of this plan which Dryden took up, transforming 

 the material into an opera. It also contains a characterization of 

 Dryden's work : " Darinn findet sich zwar eine neuere und feinere 

 Sprachart als in Miltons Paradiese, aber in den verliebten Theilen 

 aussert sich mehr Kiinsteley und mehr Galanterie als mit dem 

 Stande der Unschuld iiberein kommt. Die Vorrechte der Weis- 

 heit Adams und die Schonheit der Eva werden nicht geschickt 

 genug aus einander gesetzt." 



Bodmer frequently quoted passages from Tlic State of Inno- 

 cence, or The Fall of Man, as the Germans usually designated it, 

 and almost invariably translated them. Most of these passages 

 are to be found in the Tatler and the Spectator, but it scarcely 

 seems possible that he was not familiar with the opera itself, since 

 he was so deeply interested in the theme of the fall of man. As 

 early as 1740 some of these passages and an original criticism of 

 The Fall of Man appeared in his treatise Von dem Wunderharen 

 in der Poesie, which he published in conjunction with his defense 

 of Paradise Lost and Addison's essay on its beauties.* The criti- 

 cism is in connection with the scene in which Adam accepts the 

 forbidden fruit from Eve. He regards Dryden's characteriza- 

 tion of Adam in the scene superior to that of Milton because it is 

 consistent with his character of a romantic lover throughout the 

 play. " Hingegen hat der lose Dryden seinem Adam durch sein 

 gantzes Gedicht eine verzartelte und aus sich selbst gesetzte Liebe 



^ Johann Miltons Verlust dcs Paradieses. Ein Hcldengcdicht. In tin- 

 gebundener Rede ubersetzet. Zurich, Gedruckt bey Marcus Rordorf, 1732. 

 Bodmer completed the translation eight years before it was published. 

 See Th. Vetter in Johann Jakob Bodmer Denkschrift Zum CC. Geburt- 

 stag, p. 349, Zurich, 1900. 



4Joh. Jacob Bodmers Critische Abhandhing von dem Wunderbaren in 

 der Poesie und dessen Verbindung mit dem Wahrscheinlichen in einer 

 Vcrteidigung des Gedichtes John Miltons von dem Verlornen Paradiese; 

 Der beygcfiiget ist Joseph Addisons Abhandlung von den Schonheiten in 

 diesem Gcdichte, verlegts Conrad Orell und Comp., Ziirich, 1740. 



334 



