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in imitation of these two great poets, opens his Paradife Loft with an infernal council plotting the fall of Man, which is the action he propofed to celebrate; and as for thofe great actions, the battle of the Angels, and the creation of the world, (which preceded in point of time, and which, in my opinion, would have entirely deftroyed the unity of his principal action, had he related them in the fame order that they happened) he caft them into the fifth, fixth and feventh books, by way of episode to this noble poem.

Ariftotle himself allows, that Homer has nothing to boaft of as to the unity of his fable, tho' at the fame time that great critic and philofopher endevors to palliate this imperfection in the Greek poet by imputing it in fome measure to the very nature of an epic poem. Some have been of opinion, that the Æneid also labors in this particular, and has episodes which may be looked upon as excrefcencies rather than as parts of the action. On the contrary, the poem, which we have now under our confideration, hath no other episodes than fuch as naturally arife from the fubject, and yet is filled with fuch a multitude of aftonishing incidents, that it gives us at the fame time a pleasure of the greatest variety, and of the greateft fimplicity; uniform in its nature, tho' diverfified in the execution.

I muft obferve alfo, that, as Virgil in the poem which was defigned to celebrate the original of the Roman empire, has defcribed the birth of its great rival, the Carthaginian common-wealth: Milton, with the

like art in his poem on the fall of Man, has related the fall of thofe Angels who are his profeffed enemies. Befide the many other beauties in fuch an episode, its running parallel with the great action of the poem, hinders it from breaking the unity fo much as another episode would have done, that had not fo great an affinity with the principal fubject. In short, this is the fame kind of beauty which the critics admire in the Spanish Fryar, or the Double Discovery, where the two different plots look like counterparts and copies of one another.

The fecond qualification required in the action of an epic poem is, that it should be an entire action: An action is entire when it is complete in all its parts; or as Ariftotle describes it, when it confifts of a beginning, a middle, and an end. Nothing fhould go before it, be intermix'd with it, or follow after it, that is not related to it. As on the contrary, no fingle ftep fhould be omitted in that juft and regular progrefs which it must be fuppofed to take from its original to its confummation. Thus we fee the anger of Achilles in its birth, its continuance, and effects; and Æneas's fettlement in Italy, carried on through all the oppofitions in his way to it both by fea and land. The action in Milton excels (I think) both the former in this particular; we see it contrived in Hell, executed upon Earth, and punished by Heaven. The parts of it are told in the most diftinét manner, and grow out of one another in the most natural order.

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The third qualification of an a much greater than could have epic poem is its greatness. The been formed upon any Pagan anger of Achilles was of fuch confequence, that it embroiled the kings of Greece, deftroyed the heroes of Afia, and engaged all the Gods in factions. Eneas's fettlement in Italy produced the Cæfars, and gave birth to the Roman empire. Milton's fubject was ftill greater than either of the former; it does not determin the fate of fingle perfons or nations, but of a whole fpecies. The united Powers of Hell are joined together for the deftruction of mankind, which they effected in part, and would have completed, had not Omnipotence itself interpofed. The principal actors are Man in his greateft perfection, and Woman in her highest beauty. Their enemies are the fallen Angels: The Meffiah their friend, and the Almighty their protector. In short, every thing that is great in the whole circle of being, whether within the verge of nature, or out of it, has a proper part affigned it in this admirable poem.

In poetry, as in architecture, not only the whole, but the principal members, and every part of them, fhould be great. I will not prefume to say, that the book of games in the Æneid, or that in the Iliad, are not of this nature, nor to reprehend Virgil's fimile of the top, and many other of the fame kind in the Iliad, as liable to any cenfure in this particular; but I think we may fay, without derogating from those wonderful performances, that there is an indifputable and unqueftioned magnificence in every part of Paradife Loft, and indeed

But Ariftotle, by the greatness of the action, does not only mean that it fhould be great in its nature, but alfo in its duration; or in other words, that it should have a due length in it, as well as what we properly call greatnefs. The juft measure of this kind of magnitude, he explains by the following fimilitude. An animal, no bigger than a mite, cannot appear perfect to the eye, because the fight takes it in at once, and has only a confused idea of the whole, and not a distinct idea of all its parts; If on the contrary you fhould fuppofe an animal of ten thousand furlongs in length, the eye would be fo filled with a fingle part of it, that it could not give the mind an idea of the whole. What these animals are to the eye, a very fhort or a very long action would be to the memory. The firft would be, as it were, loft and fwallowed up by it, and the other difficult to be contained in it. Homer and Virgil have fhown their principal art in this particular; the action of the Iliad, and that of the Æneid, were in themselves exceeding fhort, but are fo beautifully extended and diverfified by the invention of epifodes, and the machinery of Gods, with the like poetical ornaments, that they make up an agreeable ftory fufficient to employ the memory without overcharging it. Milton's action is enriched with fuch a variety of circumftances, that I have taken as much pleasure in reading the contents of his books, as in the best invented story I ever met with.

It is poffible, that the traditions, on which the Iliad and Æneid were built, had more circumftances in them than the hiftory of the fall of Man, as it is related in Scripture. Befides it was easier for Homer and Virgil to dash the truth with fiction, as they were in no danger of offending the religion of their country by it. But as for Milton, he had not only a very few circumstances upon which to raife his poem, but was alfo obliged to proceed with the greateft caution in every thing that he added out of his own invention. And, indeed, notwithstanding all the reftraints he was under, he has filled his story with fo many furprifing incidents, which bear fo close analogy with what is delivered in holy Writ, that it is capable of pleafing the most delicate reader, without giving offense to the moft fcrupulous.

The modern critics have collected from feveral hints in the Iliad and Æneid the space of time, which is taken up by the action of each of thofe poems; but as a great part of Milton's ftory was tranfacted in regions that lie out of the reach of the fun and the sphere of day, it is impoffible to gratify the reader with fuch a calculation, which indeed would be more curious than inftructive; none of the critics, either ancient or modern, having laid down rules to circumfcribe the action of an epic poem within any determined number of years, days, or hours.

HAVING examined the action of Paradife Loft, let us in the next place confider the actors. This is Ariftotle's method of confidering; firft the fable, and fecondly the manners, or as we generally call them in English, the fable and the characters.

Homer has excelled all the heroic poets that ever wrote, in the multitude and variety of his characters. Every God that is admitted into his poem, acts a part which would have been fuitable to no' other Deity. His princes are as much diftinguifhed by their manners as by their dominions; and' even thofe among them, whose characters feem wholly made up of courage, differ from one another as to the particular kinds of courage in which they excel. In short, there is fcarce a speech or action in the Iliad, which the reader may not ascribe to the perfon that speaks or acts, without feeing his name at the head of it.

Homer does not only out-fhine all other poets in the variety, but alfo in the novelty of his characters. He has introduced among his Grecian princes a perfon, who had lived in three ages of men, and converfed with Thefeus, Hercules, Polyphemus, and the firft race of heroes. His principal actor is the fon of a Goddefs, not to mention the ofspring of other Deities, who have likewife a place in his poem, and the venerable Trojan prince who was the father of fo many kings and heroes. There is in these feveral characters of Homer, a certain dignity as well

But of this more particularly as novelty, which adapts them in hereafter. a more peculiar manner to the H 4 nature

nature of an heroic poem. Tho'
at the fame time, to give them the
greater variety, he has defcribed a
Vulcan, that is, a buffoon among
his Gods, and a Therfites among
his mortals.

Virgil falls infinitely fhort of
Homer in the characters of his
poem, both as to their variety and
novelty. Æneas is indeed a perfect
character, but as for Achates, tho'
he is filed the heroe's friend, he
does nothing in the whole poem
which may deferve that title. Gyas,
Mneftheus, Sergeftus, and Cloan-
thus, are all of them men of the
fame stamp and character,
----fortemque Gyan, fortemque
Virg.

Cloanthum.

There are indeed several very natural incidents in the part of Afcanius; as that of Dido cannot be fufficiently admired. I do not fee any thing new or particular in Turnus. Pallas and Evander are remote copies of Hector and Priam, as Laufus and Mezentius are almost parallels to Pallas and Evander. The characters of Nifus and Eurialus are beautiful, but common. We must not forget the parts of Sinon, Camilla, and fome few others, which are fine improvements on the Greek poet. In fhort, there is neither that variety nor novelty in the perfons of the Æneid, which we meet with in thofe of the Iliad.

If we look into the characters of Milton, we shall find that he has introduced all the variety his fable was capable of receiving. The whole fpecies of mankind was in two perfons at the time to which the fubject of his poem is confined. We have, however, four diftinct

characters in these two perfons. We fee Man and Woman in the highest innocence and perfection, and in the most abject state of guilt and infirmity. The two laft characters vious, but the two firft are not only are, indeed, very common and obmore magnificent, but more new than any characters either in Virgil or Homer, or indeed in the whole circle of nature.

Milton was fo fenfible of this defect in the fubject of his poem, and of the few characters it would afford him, that he has brought into it two actors of a fhadowy and fictitious nature, in the perfons of Sin and Death, by which means he has wrought into the body of his invented allegory. fable a very beautiful and wellftanding the fineness of this allegory But notwithmay atone for it in some measure; I cannot think that persons of fuch a chimerical existence are proper actors in an epic poem; because there is not that measure of probability annexed to them, which is requifite in writings of this kind, as I fhall fhow more at large hereafter.

Fame as an actress in the Æneid, Virgil has, indeed, admitted but the part fhe acts is very fhort, and none of the most admired circumftances in that divine work. We find in mock-heroic poems, the Lutrin, feveral allegorical perparticularly in the Difpenfary and fons of this nature, which are very beautiful in those compofitions, and may, perhaps, be used as an argument, that the authors of them were of opinion, fuch characters might have a place in an epic work. For my own part, I fhould be glad

the

the reader would think fo, for the fake of the poem I am now examining, and muft further add, that if fuch empty unfubftantial beings may be ever made ufe of on this occafion, never were any more nicely imagined, and employed in more proper actions, than those of which I am now speaking.

Another principal actor in this poem is the great enemy of mankind. The part of Ulyffes in Homer's Odyffey is very much admired by Ariftotle, as perplexing that fable with very agreeable plots and intricacies, not only by the many adventures in his voyage, and the fubtlety of his behaviour, but by the various concealments and discoveries of his perfon in feveral parts of that poem. But the crafty being I have now mentioned, makes a much longer voyage than Ulyffes, puts in practice many more wiles and ftratagems, and hides himself under a greater variety of fhapes and appearances, all of which are feverally detected, to the great delight and furprise of the reader.

We may likewife obferve with how much art the poet has varied several characters of the perfons that speak in his infernal affembly. On the contrary, how has he reprefented the whole Godhead exerting itself towards Man in its full benevolence under the three-fold diftinction of a Creator, a Redeemer, and a Comforter!

Nor muft we omit the perfon of Raphael, who, amidst his tendernefs and friendship for Man, fhows fuch a dignity and condefcenfion in all his fpeech and behaviour, as are fuitable to a fuperior nature. The

Angels are indeed as much diverfified in Milton, and distinguished by their proper parts, as the Gods are in Homer or Virgil. The reader will find nothing afcribed to Uriel, Gabriel, Michael, or Raphael, which is not in a particular manner fuitable to their respective cha

racters.

There is another circumftance in the principal actors of the Iliad and Eneid, which gives a peculiar beauty to thofe two poems, and was therefore contrived with very great judgment. I mean the authors having chofen for their heroes perfons who were fo nearly related to the people for whom they wrote. Achilles was a Greek, and Æneas the remote founder of Rome. By this means their countrymen (whom they principally propo fed to themselves for their readers) were particularly attentive to all the parts of their story, and fympathized with their heroes in all their adventures. A Roman could not but rejoice in the escapes, fucceffes, and victories of Æneas, and be grieved at any defeats, misfortunes, or disappointments that befel him; as a Greek must have had the fame regard for Achilles. And it is plain, that each of those poems have loft this great advantage, among thofe readers to whom their heroes are as ftrangers, or indifferent perfons.

Milton's poem is admirable in this refpect, fince it is impoffible for any of its readers, whatever nation, country or people he may belong to, not to be related to the perfons who are the principal actors in it; but what is ftill infinitely more to its advantage, the principal

actors

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