1802.] 
fer, and Shakefpeare, areas well under- 
ftood as at the time in which they were 
written, whether confidered with regard 
to language and verfification, or to re- 
mote cucumftances to which they allude. 
As Milton’s “ ftrain is of a higher mood,” 
uncontaminated by low conceit, or local 
allufion, the attention of his commentator 
is chiefly to be direéted to his fentiments 
and diction, Criticifm is always grati- 
fied by the difcovery of literary coinci- 
dence. Every intelligent redder muft feel 
a pleafure in tracing, in fuch a writer as 
Milton, an idea, -lifelefs and unimpreffive 
in the hands of its original, though per- 
haps. more feeble, poffeflor, when re- 
moulded by his fublime conception, burft- 
-ing into ftrains of pure morality, or ex- 
panded into glowing animated deicription. 
From the indulgence of this propenfity 
my books are filled with marginal re- 
ferences and notes, a few of which, from 
an interlined copy of Mr. Todd’s edition of ° 
Comus, if | fhall not be accuted of heap- 
ing Pelion upon Offa, I will tranfcribe, 
Still I would not have it concluded, that 
I confider every paflage where Milton re- 
fembles another asa proof of imitation. 
Ideas affociated in the mind at an early 
period, become afterwards fo commixed 
with our own natural thoughts, that me- 
mory in vain endeavours to trace them to 
their original reference. Yet though the 
impreffion is changed in the lap{e of time, 
as fhadows aflume other fhapes as the fun 
revolves; notwithftanding, imagination 
Still retains a latent femblance of its pri- 
mitive form, which it is an exquilite prin- 
ciple in criticifin to difcover. ‘The imi- 
tations, indeed, of Milton, as his editor 
-bas obferved, are’ fo. generally. adorned 
.with new modes of fentiment or. phrafe- 
ology, that they lofe the nature of -bor- 
rowings, and difplay the {kill and origi- 
ality of a matter. F 
The Spirit opens. this beautiful Matk in 
this imprefive manner— 
Before the ftarry threthold of Jove’s court 
My manfion-is, where thofe immortal fhapes 
Of bright aereal fpirits live infpher’d 
An regions mild of calm and ferene air, 
Above the {moke and ftir of this dim fpot, 
Which mea cail earth,and with low-thoughted 
care 
~ Confiis’d and pefter’d in this pinfold here, | 
Strive to keep up a frail and feverifh being. 
The laft line of this extra& approaches 3 
FNS UGTIGaTEwWS aune, 
te one of Shakefpeare’s happy expreflions— 
Duncan is in his grave. 
After life's fitful fever he fleeps well. 
ay Macbeth, Ad, 3; fc. he 
Annotations upon Milton, 
347 
The Spirit proceeds, from the laf line 
above, at verle 9— : 
Unmindful of the crown that virtue gives, 
After this mortal change, to her true fervants, 
Among the enthron’d Gods on fainted feats, 
I am clearly of opinion that Milton here 
allegorically alludes to the confolation of 
St. Paul in his 2d Epiftle to Timothy, 
c. iv. ver. 7 & 8—**T have fought a good 
fight, I have finifhed my courfe, I have 
kept the faith: Henceforth there zs laid up 
for me a crowz of righteoujnefs, which the 
Lord, the righteous Judge, fhall give me 
at that day: and not to me only but unto 
all them alfo that love his appearing.” 
The laft verfe bears a refemolance to a 
‘line in Shakefpeare’s ‘* Meafure for Meas 
fure,”? where Lucio fays to Ifabella— 
I hold you as a thing enfky'd and fainted. 
Pa Sy 
The Spirit, defcribing Comusas offering 
his charmed cup ‘to every weary travel- 
ler,’” adds——= 
P. 68. Soon as the potion works, their buman 
countenance, 
The exprefs refemblance of the Gods, is 
chang’d 
Into fome brutish form. 
The language here alfo is from St. Paul, 
Ep. to Hebr. c.i, ver. 3, de(cribing our Sa- 
viour: * Who being the brightnefs of his 
(God’s) glory, and the expre/s image of his 
perfon, &c.’* ‘The numerous aliufions 
to Scripture in this Mafk, written at the 
age of twenty-five, evince Milton’s early 
partiality to the Sacred Writings ; and ta 
this inclination we are indebted for many 
beautiful pafflages in Comus, and for the 
_moit fublime of all modern Epic Poems, — 
6s Paradife Loft.” 
His commentators have negle“ted to re- 
‘mark, that the beginning of the fong of 
the Rout in Comus is taken from the 
opening of the fecond aé& of Fletcher’s 
*¢ Faithful Shepherdefs ;°? various other 
paflages, particularly of the invitations to 
pleafure, are owing to the fame fource, but 
Milton has elevated and purified the fen- 
timents and the diction. 
VY. 125. Come let us our rights begin, &c, 
Fenton altered rights to rites. He was 
followed by Newton, and by Warton, in 
* Tam of opinion that the Greek yapaxlnp 
would be better tranf-. 
lated ‘* rhe-form of bis effence,”” as being more 
analogous to the general tenor of Scripture. 
But this fubje&t may be, perhaps, refumed 
‘in a future letter, 
his 
