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but their mother-tongue. This employment, however, was too unpleasant to be continued for any long process of time; and therefore He difmifs'd them to receive an education more agreeable to their fex, and temper.

We come now to take a furvey of him in that point of view, in which He will be look'd on by all fucceeding ages with equal delight, and admiration. An interval of above twenty years had elaps'd fince He wrote the Mask of * Comus, L'Allegro, Il Penferofo, and † Lycidas; all in fuch an exqui

An.t.

* 26.

+ 29.

fite ftrain! that though He had left no other monuments of his Genius behind him, his name had been immortal. But, neither the infirmities of age and conftitution, nor the viciffitudes of fortune, cou'd depress the vigor of his mind; or divert it from executing a defign He had long conceiv'd of writing an Heroic Poem. The Fall of Man was a

fubject which He had fome years before fix'd on for a Tragedy, which He intended to form by the models of Antiquity: and fome, not without probability, fay the Play open'd with that Speech in the fourth Book of PARADISE LOST, ver 32, which is address'd

Par. Loft. B. 9. V. 26,

by Satan to the Sun. Were it material, I believe I cou'd produce other paffages which more plainly appear to have been originally intended for the fcene. But whatever truth there may be in this report, 'tis certain that He did not begin to mold his Subject in the form which it bears now, before He had concluded his controverfy with Salmafius and More; when He had wholly loft the use of his eyes; and was forc'd to employ in the office of an Amanuenfis any friend who accidentally paid him a vifit. Yet, under all thefe difcouragements, and tions, in the

various interrupYear 1669 He An. Etat. 61. publish'd his PARADISE LOST ; the nobleft Poem, next to those of Homer and Virgil, that ever the wit of man produc'd in any age or nation. Need I mention any other evidence of its inestimable worth, than that the finest Geniuses whe have fucceeded him have ever efteem'd it a merit to relish, and illustrate its beauties? Whilst the Critic who gaz'd, with so much wanton malice, on the nakednefs of ShakeSpear when he flept, after having + formally declar'd war against it, wanted courage to

*Milton's Contract with his Bookfeller S. Simmons for the Copy bears Date April 27, 1667.

↑ The Tragedies of the laft age confider'd, p. 143.

*

make his attack; flufh'd though he was with his conquefts over Julius Cæfar, and The Moor: which infolence his Muse, like the other affaffines of Cafar, feverely revenged on herself; and not long after her triumph became her own executioner. Nor is it unworthy our observation, that though, perhaps, no One of our English Poets hath excited so many admirers to imitate his Manner, yet I think never any was known to aspire to emulation: even the late ingenious Mr. Philips, who, in the colors of ftyle, came the nearest of all the Copiers to resemble the great Original, made his diftant advances with a filial reverence; and reftrain'd his ambition within the fame bounds which Lucretius prefcrib'd to his own imitation :

Non ita certandi cupidus, quàm propter amorem Quòd TE imitari aveo: quid enim contendat birundo

Cycnis?

And now perhaps it may pafs for fiction, what with great veracity I affirm to be fact, that MILTON, after having with much dif ficulty prevail'd to have this Divine Poem li

Vide EDGAR,

cens'd for the Prefs, cou'd fell the Copy for no more than Fifteen Pounds: the payment of which valuable confideration depended on the fale of three numerous impreffions. So unreasonably may perfonal prejudice. affect the moft excellent performances !

About * two years after, toAn. Etat. 63. gether with SAMSON AGONISTES (a Tragedy not unworthy the Grecian Stage when Athens was in her glory) He publifh'd PARADISE REGAIN'D. But, Oh! what a falling-off was there! Of which I will fay no more, than that there is fcarcely a more remarkable inftance of the frailty of human reason, than our Author gave in prefering this Poem to PARADISE LOST; nor a more instructive caution to the best writers, to be very diffident in deciding the merit of their own productions. And thus having attended him to the Sixty Sixth year of his age, as closely as fuch imperfect lights as men of Letters, and retirement, ufually leave to guide our inquiry wou'd allow; it now only

R

An. Etat. 66-7.

remains to be re

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*They were Licensed July 2, 1670, but not printed before the year enfuing.

near London; from whence his body was convey'd to St. Giles's Church by Cripplegate, where it lyes interr'd in the Chancel; but neither has, nor wants, a Monument to perpetuate his memory.

In his youth he is faid to have been extremely handsome: the color of his hair was a light-brown; the fymmetry of his features. exact; enliven'd with an agreeable air, and a beautiful mixture of fair and ruddy: which occafion'd the Marquifs of Villa to give his * Epigram the fame Turn of Thought, which Gregory Arch-Deacon of Rome had employ'd above a thousand years before, in praifing the amiable complexions of fome English Youths, before their converfion to Christianity. His ftature († as we find it meafur'd by himself) did not exceed the middle-fize; neither too lean, nor corpulent: his limbs well proportion'd, nervous, and active: ferviceable in all respects to his exercifing the fword, in which He much delighted; and wanted neither skill, nor courage, to refent an affront from men of the most athletic conftitutions. In his diet He was abftemious; not delicate in the choice of his dishes; and ftrong liquors of all kinds

*Ut mens, forma, decor, facies, mos, fi pietas fic,

Non Anglus, verùm berclè Angelus ipfe fores. †Defenfio fecunda, p. 87. Fol.

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