THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN MILTON. VOLUME THE FOURTH. CONTAINING PARADISE REGAINED. SAMSON AGONISTES. PLANS OF OTHER TRAGEDIES. LONDON: Printed for J. Johnson, W. J. and J. Richardfon, R. Baldwin, Otridge and Son, By Bye and Law, St. John's-Square, Clerkenwell. M. DCCC.J PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON PARADISE REGAINED *, THAT the Paradise Regained has been confiderably underrated by the world, seems of late to be an opinion almost gene. rally admitted. But perhaps we shall state the fact more correctly, if we say that it has been neglected, rather than under-rated; that it has been more unknown, than not admired. This is fo much the cafe, that I apprehend some of the warmest panegyrists of the Paradise Loft have never honoured this Poem with a perusal; or only with a casual and most unfair one, under a cloud of prejudices againft it. A critick, whose taste, judgement, and candour are unquestioned, has given it absolutely no place at all among the Works of its Author. " If I might venture to place Milton's Works according to their degrees of poetick excellence," says Dr. Joseph Warton, "it should be perhaps in the following order, PARADISE LOST, COMUS, SAMSON AGONISTES, LYCIDAS, L'ALLEGRO, IL PENSEROSO." (See concluding note to the Lycidas, in Warton's Edition of Milton's Juvenile Poems!) I should hope that PARADISE REGAINED flipped accidentally out of the lift: indeed what the late Mr. Warton has faid of the Comus, I do not hefi tate to apply to the Poem before us, and to hazard freely my unqualified opinion, that " the Author is here inferiour only to his own Paradise Lost." * I have ventured to form the remarks of the learned editor of Paradife Regained, fubjoined in his elegant edition of 1795 to the end of each book, into a Preliminary Difcourse; as corresponding, in this modification, with the design of Mr. Addison's critical essay on Paradise Loft, which is, to point out strongly the particular beauties of the Poem to the reader's notice; or, in other words, to tell him the delicious fare which he may expect, and to bid him " fit down, and feed, and welcome at the table." If we confider the FIRST BOOK, we shall find much to admire, and little to cenfure. The Propofition of the Subject is clear and dignified, and is beautifully wound up in the concluding line, "And Eden rais'd in the waste wilderness." The Invocation of the Holy Spirit is equally devout and po. etical. The Baptifm of John carries us with the best effect in medias res. Satan's Infernal Council is briefly, but finely, assembled; his fpeech is admirable; and the effect of it is strongly de. picted. This is strikingly contrasted by the succeeding beautiful description of the Deity furrounded by his Angels; his Speech to them; and the triumphant Hymn of the Cœleftial Choir. Indeed the whole opening of this Poem is executed in so masterly a manner, that, making allowance for a certain wish to compress, which is palpably visible, very few parts of the Paradise Loft can in any respect claim a pre-eminence. The brief description of our Lord's entering "now the bordering desart wild, and with dark shades and rocks environ'd round;" and again, where " looking round on every fide he beholds a pathless desart, dusk with horrid shades," are scenes worthy the pencil of Salvator. Our Lord's Soliloquy is a material part of the Poem, and briefly narrates the early part of his life. In the Paradise Lost, where the Divine Persons are speakers, Milton has so chastened his pen, that we meet with few poetical images, and chiefly scriptural sentiments, delivered, as near as may be, in scriptural, and al. most always in unornamented, language. But the poet seems to consider this circumstance of the Temptation, (if I may venture so to express myself,) as the last, perfect, completion of the Initiation of the Man Jesus in the mystery of his own divine nature and office: at least he feels himself entitled to make our Saviour while on earth, and "inshrined in fleshly tabernacle," speak in a certain degree, ανθρωπίνως, or, after the manner of men, Ac. cordingly all the speeches of our blessed Lord, in this Poem, are far more elevated than any language that is put into the mouth of the Divine Speakers in any part of the Paradise Lost. The in. grafting Mary's Speech into that of her Son, it must be allowed, is not a happy circumstance. It has an awkward effect, loads the rest of the Speech, and might have been avoided, and better managed. The defcription of the probable manner of our Lord' passing the forty days in the wilderness is very picturesque; and the return of the wild beasts to their Paradisiacal mildness is finely touched. The appearance of the Tempter in his affumed character; the deep art of his two first speeches, covered, but not totally concealed, by a semblance of fimplicity; his bold avowal and plausible vindication of himself; the subsequent detection of his fallacies, and the pointed reproofs of his impudence and hypocrify, on the part of our Blessed Lord, -cannot be too much admired. Indeed, the whole conclufion of this Book abounds fo much in closeness of reasoning, grandeur of sentiment, elevation of style, and harmony of numbers, that it may well be questioned whether poetry on such a subject, and especially in the form of dialogue, ever produced any thing superiour to it. The fingular beauty of the brief description of night coming on in the defart, closes the Book with such admirable effect, that it leaves us con la bocca dolce. The opening of the SECOND BOok is not calculated to engage attention, by any particular beauty of the picturesque or defcrip. tive kind; but by recurring to what passed at the river Jordan among Jesus's new disciples and followers upon his abfence, and by making Mary express her maternal feelings upon it, the poet has given an extent and variety to his subject: It might perhaps be wished, that all which he has put into the mouth of the Virgin, respecting the early life of her Son, had been confined folely to this place, instead of a part being incorporated in our Lord's foliloquy in the first Book. There it seems aukwardly introduced, but here I conceive her speech might have been extended with good effect. Our Lord, (ver. 110.) is, in a brief but appropriate description, again presented to us in the wilderness. The poet, in the mean time, makes Satan return to his infernal council, to report the bad success of his first attempt, and to demand their counsel, and assistance, in an enterprise of so much difficulty. This he does in a brief and energetick speech. Hence arises a debate; or at least a proposition on the part of Belial, and a rejection of it by Satan, of which I cannot sufficiently express my admiration. The language of Belial is exquifitely descriptive of the power of beauty, without a single word introduced, or even a thought conveyed, that is unbecoming its place in this divine Poem. Satan's reply is eminently fine: his imputing to Belial, as the most dif |