T 761 - By place or choice the worthieft; they anon I' With hundreds and with thousands trooping came Attended all accefs was throng'd, the gates a And porches wide, but chief the fpacious hall (Though like a cover'd field, where champions bold Wont ride in arm'd, and at the Soldan's chair Defy'd the best of Panim chivalry To mortal combat, or carreer with lance) 765 In HUTE SOVEC HOL μexico any ads- Dufky they fpread, a clofe im body'd croud, And o'er the vale defcends the There are fuch fimiles likewife in Qualis apes æftate novâ per florea In fpring time, when the fun with Taurus rides,wa And again, Æn. VI. 707, Ac veluti in pratis, ubi apes ferena æftate Floribus infidunt variis &c. But our poet carries the fimilitude farther than either of his great mafters, and mentions the bees conferring their fate affairs, as he is going to give an account of the confultations of the Devils. New Cum prima novi ducent examina reges Vere fuo, Judetque favis emiffa juventus. 777. Behold a wonder ♪ &c.] The paffage in the catalogue, explaining the manner how Spirits tranfform themselves by contractions or inlargement of their dimenfions, is introduced with great judgment, to make way for several furprising accidents in the fequel of the poem. 769. In spring time, when the fun. There follows one, at the very end with Taurus rides,] Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum Taurus. Georg. I. 217. In April. Hume. Dr. Bentley reads in Taurus rides, and fays, Does Taurus ride too, a conftellation fix'd? Yes, or else Ovid is wrong throughout his whole Fafti, where he defcribes the rifing and fetting of the figns of the zodiac: See what he fays of the rifing of Taurus, V. 603. and our author in X. 663, fpeaking of the fix'd ftars, fays, Which of them rifing with the fun or falling, &c. Pearce. 770. Pour forth their populous youth about the hive] Virg. Georg. IV. 21. of the first book, which is what but at the fame time probable by the French critics call marvelous, tion'd. As foen as the infernal reafon of the paffage laft menpalace is finish'd, we are told the mul titude and rabble of Spirits immediately fhrunk themselves into a fmall compafs, that there might be room for fuch a numberlefs af fembly in this capacious hall. But it is the poet's refinement upon this thought which I moft admire, and which is indeed very noble in itfelf. For he tells us, that notwithftanding the vulgar, among the fallen Spirits, contracted their forms, thofe of the firft rank and dignity ftill preferved their natural dimenfions. Addifen. Monfieur Voltaire is of a different opinion New rubb'd with bahm, expatiate and confer opinion with regard to the contrivance of Pandemonium and the transformation of the Devils into dwarfs; and poflibly more may concur with him than with Mr. Addifon. I dare affirm, fays he, that the contrivance of the Pandemonium would have been entirely difapproved of by critics like Boileau, Racine, &c. That feat built for the parlament of the Devils feems very prepofterous; fince Satan hath fummon'd them altogether, and harangu'd them juft before in an ample field. The council was neceflary; but where it was to be held, 'twas very indifferent. But when afterwards the Devils turn dwarfs to fill their places in the house, as if it was impracticable to build a room large enough to contain them in their natural fize; it is an idle ftory, which would match the most extravagant tales. And to crown all, Satan and the chief Lords preferving their own monitrous forms, while the rabble of the Devils fhrink into pygmies, hightens the ridicule of the whole contrivance to an unexpreffible degree. Methinks the true criterion for difcerning what is really ridiculous in an epic poem, is to examin if the fame 775 Now thing would not fit exactly the mock-heroic. Then I dare fay that nothing is fo adapted to that ludicrous way of writing, as the metamorphofis is of the Devils into dwarfs. See his Effay on epic poetry, p. 113, 114. I have been favored with a letter from William Duncombe Efq; juftifying Milton against Monfieur Voltaire's objec tions. As to the contrivance of Pandemonium, he thinks it agreeable to the rules of decency and decorum to provide a faloon for his Satanic majesty and his mighty compeers (the progeny of Heaven) in fome measure adapted to the dignity of their characters; and the defcription is not inferior to any thing in Homer or Virgil of the like kind. We may farther add, that as Satan had his palace in Heaven, it was more likely that he fhould have one in Hell likewife; and as he had before harangued the fallen Angels in the open field, it was proper for the fake of variety as well as for other reafons that the council fhould be held in Pandemonium. As to the fallen Angels contracting their shapes while their chiefs preferved their natural dimenfions, Mr. Duncombe obferves with Mr. Addison, that Now lefs than fmalleft dwarfs, in narrow room 780 Or that Milton had artfully prepared the hint till he has raised out of it the readers for this incident by fome glorious image or fentiment, marking their power to contract or proper to inflame the mind of the inlarge their fubftance; and Milton reader, and to give it that fublime feems to have intended hereby to kind of entertainment, which is diftinguish and aggrandize the idea fuitable to the nature of an heroic of the chieftains, and to defcribe poem. Thofe, who are acquainted ing a more probable manner the with Homer's and Virgil's way of numberless myriads of fallen An- writing, cannot but be pleased with gels contain'd in one capacious this kind of ftructure in Milton's hall. If Miltoni had reprefented fimilitudes. I am the more parti the whole hoft in their enormous cular on this head, because igno. fizes, crouded in one room, the rant readers, who have formed fiction would have been more fhock their tafte upon the quaint fimiles ing and more unnatural than as it and little turns of wit, which are ftands at prefent. Thefe argu- fo much in vogue among modern ments feem to carry fome weight poets, cannot relish thefe beauties with them, and upon thefe we which are of a much higher namuft reft Milton's defenfe, and ture, and are therefore apt to cenleave the determination to the fure Milton's comparisons in which reader. they do not fee any furprifing points of likeness. Monfieur Perrault was a man of this vitiated relifh, and for that very reafon has ende vor'd to turn into ridicule feveral of Homer's fimilitudes, which he calls comparaisons a longue queue, long-tail'd comparisons. I hall conclude this paper on the first book of Milton with the answer, which Monfieur Boileau makes to Perrault on this occafion." Compa 780.-like that pygmean race &c.] There are alfo feveral noble fimiles and allufions in the first book of Paradife Loft. And here I must obferve, that when Milton alludes either to things or perfans, he never quits his fimile till it rifes to fome very great idea, which is often foreign to the occafion that gave birth to it. The refemblance does not, perhaps, last above a line or two, but the poet runs on with rifons, fays he, in odes and epic "poems, Or dreams he fees, while over-head the moon wo Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth M 260-785 Wheels her pale courfe, they on their mirth and dance Intent, with jocond mufic charm his earguod & At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.rdt vo Thus poems, are not introduced only variety, their episodes are fo many to illustrate and embellish the fhort fables, and their fimiles fo "difcourfe, but to amuse and re- many fhort episodes; to which you lax the mind of the reader, by may add, if you please, that their frequently difengaging him from metaphors are fo many fhort fi "too painful an attention to the miles. If the reader confiders the * principal fubject, and by leading comparifons in the first book of him into other agreeable images. Milton, of the fun in an eclipfe, Homer, fays he, excell'd in this of the fleeping leviathan, of the *particular, whofe comparisons bees fwarming about their hive, of abound with fuch images of na- the faery dance, in the view whereture as are proper to relieve in I have here placed them, he and diverfify his fubjects. He will eafily difcover the great beau continually inftructs the reader, ties that are in each of those paf and makes him take notice, fages. Addifons: even in objects which are every "day before our eyes, of fuch cir* cumftances as we fhould not otherwife have obferved." To this he adds as a maxim univerfally acknowledged, "That it is " not neceffary in poetry for the points of the comparison to cor"refpond with one another ex"actly, but that a general refem"blance is fufficient, and that too much nicety in this particular "favors of the rhetorician and "epigrammatift." In fhort, if we look into the conduct of Homer, Virgil, and Milton, as the great fable is the foul of each poem, fo to give their works an agreeable 6 THE 783 454. Aut videt, aut vidiffe putat 19 here fignifies witnefs, fpectatrefs. O rebus meis Heylin |