123 PARADISE LOST. N° O more of talk where God or Angel guest Το But as Mr. Thyer adds, however fome critics and Monfieur Voltaire may condemn a poet's fometimes digreffing from his fubject to speak of himself, it is very certain that Milton was of a very different opinion long before he thought of writing this poem. For in his difcourfe of the Reason of Church-Government &c. apologizing for faying fo much of himself as he there does, he adds, "For although a poet, foaring in the "high region of his fancies, with "his garland and finging robes about "him, might, without apology, speak 1. No more of talk &c.] Thefe prologues or prefaces of Milton to fome of his books, fpeaking of his own perfon, lamenting his blindness, and preferring his fubject to thofe of Homer and Virgil and the greatest poets before him, are condemn'd by fome critics: and it must be allow'd that we find no fuch digreffion in the Iliad or Æneid; it is a liberty that can be taken only by fuch a genius as Milton, and I queftion whether it would have fucceeded in any hands but his. As Monfieur Voltaire fays upon the occafion, I cannot but own that an author is gene- more of himself than I mean to do; rally guilty of an unpardonable felf- "yet for me fitting here below in love, when he lays afide his fubject "the cool element of profe, a morto defcant upon his own perfon: "tal thing among many readers of but that human frailty is to be for- "no empyreal conceit, to venture given in Milton; nay I am pleafed" and divulge unufual things of mywith it. He gratifies the curiofity "felf, I fhall petition to the gentler he has raised in me about his person; "fort, it may not be envy to me." when I admire the author, I defire Vol. 1. p. 59. Edit. 1738. to know fomething of the man; and he, whom all readers would be glad to know, is allow'd to speak of himfelf. But this however is a very dangerous example for a genius of an inferior order, and is only to be juftified by fuccefs. See Voltaire's Effay on epic poetry, p. 111. J. where God or Angel guest] Dr. Bentley fays that God did not partake rural repaft with Adam, and therefore he thinks that the author gave it where focial Angel gueft &c. But focial is useless here, because familiar follows in the next verfe. The fense seems to be this; Where God, or To fit indulgent, and with him partake Venial discourse unblam'd: I now must change 5 Those notes to tragic; foul diftruft, and breach And disobedience; on the part of Heaven Now or rather the Angel fent by him and diction. But why God or Angel gueft? acting as his proxy, us'd to fit fami- Read that chapter, and 'twill be liarly with Man as with his friend &c. feen that this remarkable expreffion Hence Raphael is called Adam's is taken from the ambiguity there. Godlike Gueft, V. 351. Pearce. Milton, who knew and ftudy'd the understood to be Angels) are used The Lord and the Young Men (always Scripture thoroughly, and continu- as words of the fame fignification, ally profits himself of its vaft fubli- denoting that the divine prefence mity, as well as of the more noble was fo effectually with his meffentreasures it contains, and to which gers, that Himself was also there; his poem owes its greatest luftre, has Such privilege hath omniprefence; He done it here very remarkably. The went, yet fray'd, as in VII. 589. The episode, which has employ'd almoft fame Milton intimates in the paffage a third part of the work, and is a before us; and 'tis a master stroke difcourfe betwixt the Angel Raphael of fublimity. and Adam, is plainly copy'd from Mr. Richardfon, in saying The Lord Richardson. the XVIIIth Chapter of Genefis, and the Young Men (always under flood which (by the way) has a fublimity to be Angels) are used as words of the and air of antiquity to which Homer fame fignification, does not feem to himfelf is flat and modern: Here be appris'd, that it was an ancient God or Angel gueft holds difcourfe opinion, and believed too by many, with Abraham as friend with friend, of the more modern scholars, that fits indulgent, partakes rural repaft, the Lord in this paffage was God permitting him the while difcourfe in the Son, and the two others only his turn. No more must now be Angels. fung of fuch a heavenly converfation. Thyer. God himself indeed is not properly a fpeaker in it, though Adam in his part of it relates his having been honor'd with the divine prefence, and a celeftial colloquy, VIII. 455. as feveral others, XI. 318, &c. All hitherto is evident beyond contra Befides it may be question'd, whether Milton refin'd in this manner; and it feems to me as if a difficulty was made where no difficulty is. The poet fays, that he must now treat no more of familiar difcourfe with either God or Angel. For Adam had held difcourfe with God, as Now alienated, distance and distaste, as we read in the preceding book, and the whole foregoing epifode is. a conversation with the Angel, and as this takes up fo large a part of the poem, this is particularly defcrib'd and infifted upon here. The Lord God and the Angel Michael both indeed afterwards difcourfe with Adam in the following books, but thofe difcourfes are not familiar conversation as with a friend, they are of a different ftrain, the one coming to judge, and the other to expel him from Paradife, I now muft change Thofe notes to tragic;] As the author is now changing his fubject, he profeffes likewife to change his ftile agreeably to it. The reader thereagreeably to it. The reader therefore must not expect fuch lofty images and descriptions, as before. What itrain follows is more of the tragic ferve than of the epic. Which may as an answer to those critics, who cenfure the latter books of the Paradife Loft as falling below the former. 11. That brought into this world a world of woe,] The pun or what fhall I call it in this line may be avoided, as a great man observed to me, by diftinguishing thus, 10 Of But in these instances Milton was corrupted by the bad tafte of the times, and by reading the Italian poets, who abound with fuch verbal quaintneffes. 12. and Mifery Death's harbinger :] Dr. Bentley reads Malady; becaufe, as there is Mifery after death, fo there is Mifery which does not ufher in death, but invoke it in vain. But by Mifery here, Milton means fickness, disease, and all forts of mortal pains. So when in XI. Michael is going to name the feveral diseases in the lazarhouse represented to Adam in a vifion, he fays ver. 475. |