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PARADISE LOST.

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BOOK I

F Man's firft difobedience, and the fruit

Fan's forbidden tree, whose

Of that forbidden tree, whofe mortal taste

1. Of Mans firft disobedience, &c.] Milton has propofed the fubject of his poem in the following verfes. These lines are perhaps as plain, fimple, and unadorned as any of the whole poem, in which particular the author has conformed himself to the example of Homer and the precept of Horace. His invocation to a work, which turns in a great measure upon the creation of the world, is very properly made to the Mufe who infpired Mofes in those books from whence our author drew his fubject, and to the Holy Spirit who is therein reprefented as operating after a particular manner in the first production of nature. This whole exordium rifes very happily into noble language and fentiment, as I think the tranfition to the fable is exquifitely beautiful and natural. Addifon. Befides the plainnefs and fimplicity of these lines, there is a farther beauty in the variety of the numbers, which of themselves charm every reader without any fublimity of thought or pomp of expreffion: and this variety of the

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And fwims, or finks, or wades or creeps, or flies: II. 950. Exhaufted, fpiritlefs, | afflicted,1 fall'n. VI. 852.

of two fhort fyllables, as in

v. 64.

Serv'd only to discover fights of

woe.

Sometimes the Dactyle or foot of one long and two fhort fyllables as in v. 45.

,

But befides this variety of the
paufes, there are other excellencies
in Milton's verfification. The Eng-
lish heroic verse approaches nearest
to the Iambic of the Ancients, of
which it wants only a foot; but
then it is to be meafur'd by the tone
and accent, as well as by the time
and quantity. An Iambic foot is, as in v. 87.
one fhort and one long fyllable" ~
and fix fuch feet conflitute an Iam
bic verfe: but the Ancients feldom
made ufe of the pure Iambic, efpe-
cially in works of any confiderable
length, but oftner of the mix'd
Iambic, that is with a proper in-
termixture of other measures; and
of these perhaps Milton has ex-
prefs'd as happy a variety as any
poet whatever, or indeed as the na-
ture of a verfe will admit, that con-
fifts only of five feet, and ten fyl-
lables for the most part. Sometimes
he gives us almoft pure Iambics, as
in I. 314.

Hurl'd headlong flaming from the-
thereal sky.

Sometimes the Anapest or foot of two fhort and one long fyllable

Myriads though bright! If he whom mutual league

He call'd fo loud, that all the hōl, low deep

Of Hell refounded.

Sometimes he intermixes the Tro. chee or foot of one long and one fhort fyllable, as in v. 49.

Who durft defy th' Omnipotent to

arms.

Sometimes the Spondee or foot of two long fyllables , as in v. 21. Dove-like satft brooding on the vast abyss.

Sometimes the Tribrachus or foot
of three short fyllables
in v. 709.

as

To many a row of pipes the found

board breathes.

And fometimes there is variety of these measures in the fame verfe, and feldom or never the fame meafures in two verfes together. And thefe changes are not only rung for the fake of the greater variety, but are fo contriv'd as to make the found more expreffive of the fenfe. And this is another great art of verfification, the adapting of the very founds, as well as words, to the fubject matter, the ftile of found, as Mr. Pope calls it: and in this Milton is excellent as in all the ftances of it in the course of these reft, and we shall give feveral in

remarks. So that he has abundantly exemplified in his own practice the rules laid down by himself in his preface, his verfification having all the requifites of true mufical delight, which as he Sometimes the Pyrrichius or foot fays confifts only in apt numbers, fit

quantity

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