⚫ up against the Opera in it felf. What we pretend to • affert is, That the Songs of different Authors injudiciously put together, and a foreign Tone and Manner which are expected in every Thing now performed amongst us, has put Mufick it felf to a ftand ; infomuch that the Ears of the People cannot now be entertained ⚫ with any thing but what has an impertinent Gaiety, without any juft Spirit, or a Languishment of Notes, without any Paffion or common Senfe. We hope thofe Perfons ⚫ of Senfe and Quality who have done us the Honour to fubfcribe, will not be afhamed of their Patronage towards us, and not receive Impreffions that patronifing us is being for or against the Opera, but truly promoting their own Diverfions in a more juft and elegant Man⚫ner than has been hitherto performed. We are, SIR, There will be no Performances in York-Buildings till after that of the Subfcription. T No 279. Saturday, January 19. Reddere perfona feit convenientia cuique. WR Hor. E have already taken a general Survey of the Fable and Characters in Milton'sParadife Loft. The Parts which remain to be confidered, according to Ariftotle's Method, are the Sentiments and the Language. Before I enter upon the first of thefe, I muft advertise my Reader, that it is my Defign as foon as I have finished my general Reflections on thele four feveral Heads, to give particular Inftances out of the Poem which is now before us of Beauties and Imperfections which may be obferved under each of them, as alfo of fuch other Particulars as may may not properly fall under any of them. This I thought fit to premife, that the Reader may not judge too hastily of this Piece of Criticism, or look upon it as imperfect, before he has feen the whole Extent of it. THE Sentiments in an Epic Poem are the Thoughts and Behaviour which the Author afcribes to the Perfons whom he introduces, and are just when they are conformable to the Characters of the feveral Perfons. The Sentiments have likewise a relation to Things as well as Perfons, and are then perfect when they are fuch as are adapted to the Subject. If in either of these Cafes the Poet endeavours to argue or explain, to magnify or diminish, to raise Love or Hatred, Pity or Terror, or any other Paffion, we ought to confider whether the Sentiments he makes use of are proper for thofe Ends. Homer is cenfured by the Criticks for his Defect as to this Particular in feveral Parts of the Iliad and Odyssey, tho' at the fame time those who have treated this great Poet with Candour, have attributed this Defect to the Times in which he lived. It was the fault of the Age, and not of Homer, if there wants that Delicacy in fome of his Sentiments which now appears in the Works of Men of a much inferior Genius. Befides, if there are Blemishes in any particular Thoughts, there is an infinite Beauty in the greatest Part of them. In short, if there are many Poets who would not have fallen into the Meannefs of fome of his Sentiments, there are none who could have rifen up to the Greatness of others. Virgil has excelled all others in the Propriety of his Sentiments. Milton fhines likewife very much in this Particular: Nor muft we omit one Confideration which adds to his Honour and Reputation. Homer and Virgil introduced Perfons whofe Characters are commonly known among Men, and fuch as are to be met with either in Hif tory, or in ordinary Converfation. Milton's Characters, most of them, lie out of Nature, and were to be formed purely by his own Invention. It fhews a greater Genius in Shakespear to have drawn his Calyban, than his Hot fpur or Julius Cæfar: The one was to be fupplied out of his own Imagination, whereas the other might have been formed upon Tradition, Hiftory and Obfervation. It was much easier therefore for Homer to find proper Sentiments for an Affembly of Grecian Generals, than for Milton ta diverfify diverfify his infernal Council with proper Characters, and infpire them with a Variety of Sentiments. The Loves of Dido and Eneas are only Copies of what has paffed between other Perfons. Adam and Eve, before the Fall, are a different Species from that of Mankind, who are defcended from them; and none but a Poet of the moft unbounded Invention, and the most exquifite Judgment, could have filled their Converfation and Behaviour with fo many apt Circumftances during their State of Inno cence. NOR is it fufficient for an Epic Poem to be filled with fuch Thoughts as are Natural, unless it abound also with fuch as are Sublime. Virgil in this Particular falls short of Homer. He has not indeed fo many Thoughts that are Low and Vulgar; but at the fame time has not fo many Thoughts that are fublime and noble. The Truth of it is, Virgil feldom rifes into very aftonishing Sentiments, where he is not fired by the Iliad. He every where charms and pleases us by the Force of his own Genius but feldom elevates and transports us where he does not fetch his Hints from Homer. ; MILTON's chief Talent, and indeed his diftinguishing Excellence, lies in the Sublimity of his Thoughts. There are others of the Moderns who rival him in every other Part of Poetry; but in the Greatnefs of his Sentiments he triumphs over all the Poets both Modern and Ancient, Homer only excepted. It is impoffible for the Imagination of Man to diftend it felf with greater Ideas, than thofe which he has laid together in his firft, fecond, and fixth Books. The feventh, which defcribes the Creation of the World, is likewife wonderfully fublime, tho' not fo apt to ftir up Emotion in the Mind of the Reader, nor confequently fo perfect in the Epic Way of Writing, because it is filled with lefs Action. Let the judicious Reader compare what Longinus has obferved on feveral Paffages in Homer, and he will find Parallels for most of them in the Paradife Loft. FROM what has been faid we may infer, that as there are two kinds of Sentiments, the Natural and the Sublime, which are always to be purfued in an Heroic Poem, there are alfo two kinds of Thoughts which are carefully to be avoided. The firft are fuch as are affected and and unnatural; the fecond fuch as are mean and vulgar. As for the first kind of Thoughts, we meet with little or nothing that is like them in Virgil: He has none of those trifling Points and Puerilities that are fo often to be met with in Ovid, none of the Epigrammatick Turns of Lucan, none of those swelling Sentiments which are fo frequent in Statius and Claudian, none of those mixed Embellishments of Tafso. Every thing is just and natural. His Sentiments fhew that he had a perfect Infight into human Nature, and that he knew every thing which was the moft proper to affect it. Mr. Dryden has in fome Places, which I may hereafter take Notice of, mifrepresented Virgil's way of thinking as to this Particular, in the Tranflation he has given us of the Æneid. I do not remember that Homer any where falls into the Faults above-mentioned, which were indeed the false Refinements of later Ages. Milton, it must be confeft, has sometimes erred in this refpect, as I fhall fhew more at large in another Paper; tho' confidering how all the Poets of the Age in which he writ were infected with this wrong way of thinking, he is rather to be admired that he did not give more into it, than that he did fometimes comply with the vicious Tafte which ftill prevails fo much among Modern Writers. BUT fince feveral Thoughts may be natural which are low and groveling, an Epic Poet fhould not only avoid fuch Sentiments as are unnatural or affected, but alfo fuch as are mean and vulgar. Homer has opened a great Field of Raillery to Men of more Delicacy than Greatness of Genius, by the Homeliness of fome of his Sentiments. But, as I have before faid, these are rather to be imputed to the Simplicity of the Age in which he lived, to which I may also add, of that which he defcribed, than to any Imperfection in that divine Poet. Zoilus, among the Ancients, and Monfieur Perrault, among the Moderns, pufhed their Ridicule very far upon him, on Account of fome fuch Sentiments. There is no Blemish to be obferved in Virgil under this Head, and but a very few in Milton.. I fhall give but one Inftance of this Impropriety of Thought in Homer, and at the fame Time compare it with an Inftance of the fame Nature, both in Virgil and Milton. Milton. Sentiments which raise Laughter, can very feldom be admitted with any Decency into an Heroic Poem, whofe Business it is to excite Paffions of a much nobler Nature. Homer, however, in his Characters of Vulcan and Therfites, in his Story of Mars and Venus, in his Behaviour of Irus, and in other Paffages, has been obferved to have lapfed into the Burlesque Character, and to have departed from that serious Air which feems effential to the Magnificence of an Epic Poem. I remember but one Laugh in the whole Eneid, which rifes in the fifth Book, upon Monates, where he is reprefented as thrown over→ board, and drying himself upon a Rock. But this Piece of Mirth is fo well timed, that the feverest Critick can have nothing to fay against it, for it is in the Book of Games and Diverfions, where the Reader's Mind may be fuppofed to be fufficiently relaxed for fuch an Entertainment. The only Piece of Pleasantry in Paradife Loft, is where the Evil Spirits are defcribed as rallying the Angels upon the Succefs of their new-invented Artillery. This Paffage I look upon to be the most exceptionable in the whole Poem, as being nothing elfe but a String of Punns, and those too very indifferent ones. Satan beheld their Plight, ..And to his Mates thus in derifion call'd. O Friends, why come not on thofe Victors proud? Ere-while they fierce were coming, and when we, To entertain them fair with open Front, And Breaft, (what could we more?) propounded terms As they would dance: yet for a Dance they feem'd To whom thus Belial in like gamefome Mood: Not |