Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III), Samuel Johnson [good summer reads .TXT] 📗

Spirit Is Too Long; An Objection That May Be Made

To Almost All The Following speeches; They Have Not The Sprightliness

Of A Dialogue Animated by Reciprocal Contention, But Seem Rather

Declamations Deliberately Composed, And Formally Repeated, On A Moral

Question. The Auditor, Therefore, Listens As To A Lecture, Without

Passion, Without Anxiety.

 

 

 

The Song Of Comus Has Airiness And Jollity; But, What May Recommend

Milton'S Morals, As Well As His Poetry, The Invitations To Pleasure Are

So General, That They Excite No Distinct Images Of Corrupt Enjoyment,

And Take No Dangerous Hold On The Fancy.

 

 

 

The Following soliloquies Of Comus And The Lady Are Elegant, But

Tedious. The Song Must Owe Much To The Voice, If It Ever Can Delight. At

Last, The Brothers Enter With Too Much Tranquillity; And, When They Have

Feared, Lest Their Sister Should Be In danger, And Hoped that She Is

Not In danger, The Elder Makes A Speech In praise Of Chastity, And The

Younger Finds How Fine It Is To Be A Philosopher.

 

 

 

Then Descends The Spirit, In form Of A Shepherd; And The Brother,

Instead Of Being in haste To Ask His Help, Praises His Singing, And

Inquires His Business In that Place. It Is Remarkable, That, At This

Interview, The Brother, Is Taken With A Short Fit Of Rhyming. The Spirit

Relates That The Lady Is In the Power Of Comus; The Brother Moralizes

Again; And The Spirit Makes A Long Narration, Of No Use, Because It Is

False, And, Therefore, Unsuitable To A Good Being.

 

 

 

In All These Parts The Language Is Poetical, And The Sentiments Are

Generous; But There Is Something wanting to Allure Attention.

 

 

 

The Dispute Between The Lady And Comus Is The Most Animated and

Affecting scene Of The Drama, And Wants Nothing but A Brisker

Reciprocation Of Objections And Replies To Invite Attention And Detain

It.

 

 

 

The Songs Are Vigorous And Full Of Imagery; But They Are Harsh In their

Diction, And Not Very Musical In their Numbers.

 

 

 

Throughout The Whole The Figures Are Too Bold, And The Language Too

Luxuriant, For Dialogue. It Is A Drama In the Epick Style, Inelegantly

Splendid, And Tediously Instructive.

 

 

 

The Sonnets Were Written In different Parts Of Milton'S Life, Upon

Different Occasions. They Deserve Not Any Particular Criticism; For Of

The Best It Can Only Be Said, That They Are Not Bad; And, Perhaps, Only

The Eighth And The Twenty-First Are Truly Entitled to This Slender

Commendation. The Fabrick Of A Sonnet, However Adapted to The Italian

Language, Has Never Succeeded in ours, Which, Having greater Variety Of

Termination, Requires The Rhymes To Be Often Changed.

 

 

 

Those Little Pieces May Be Despatched without Much Anxiety; A Greater

Work Calls For Greater Care. I Am Now To Examine Paradise Lost, A Poem,

Which, Considered with Respect To Design, May Claim The First Place, And

With Respect To Performance The Second, Among The Productions Of The

Human Mind.

 

 

 

By The General Consent Of Criticks, The First Praise Of Genius Is Due

To The Writer Of An Epick Poem, As It Requires An Assemblage Of All The

Powers Which Are Singly Sufficient For Other Compositions. Poetry Is The

Art Of Uniting pleasure With Truth, By Calling imagination To The Help

Of Reason. Epick Poetry Undertakes To Teach The Most Important Truths By

The Most Pleasing precepts, And, Therefore, Relates Some Great Event

In The Most Affecting manner. History Must Supply The Writer With The

Rudiments Of Narration, Which He Must Improve And Exalt By A Nobler Art,

Must Animate By Dramatick Energy, And Diversify By Retrospection And

Anticipation; Morality Must Teach Him The Exact Bounds, And Different

Shades, Of Vice And Virtue; From Policy And The Practice Of Life, He

Has To Learn The Discriminations Of Character, And The Tendency Of The

Passions, Either Single Or Combined; And Physiology Must Supply Him With

Illustrations And Images. To Put These Materials To Poetical Use, Is

Required an Imagination Capable Of Painting nature, And Realizing

Fiction. Nor Is He Yet A Poet Till He Has Attained the Whole Extension

Of His Language, Distinguished all The Delicacies Of Phrase, And All The

Colours Of Words, And Learned to Adjust Their Different Sounds To All

The Varieties Of Metrical Modulation.

 

 

 

Bossu Is Of Opinion, That The Poet'S First Work Is To Find A Moral,

Which His Fable Is Afterwards To Illustrate And Establish. This Seems

To Have Been The Process Only Of Milton; The Moral Of Other Poems

Is Incidental And Consequent; In milton'S Only It Is Essential And

Intrinsick. His Purpose Was The Most Useful And The Most Arduous:

"To Vindicate The Ways Of God To Man;" To Show The Reasonableness Of

Religion, And The Necessity Of Obedience To The Divine Law.

 

 

 

To Convey This Moral, There Must Be A Fable, A Narration Artfully

Constructed, So As To Excite Curiosity, And Surprise Expectation. In

This Part Of His Work, Milton Must Be Confessed to Have Equalled every

Other Poet. He Has Involved, In his Account Of The Fall Of Man, The

Events Which Preceded, And Those That Were To Follow It; He Has

Interwoven The Whole System Of Theology With Such Propriety, That Every

Part Appears To Be Necessary; And Scarcely Any Recital Is Wished shorter

For The Sake Of Quickening the Progress Of The Main Action.

 

 

 

The Subject Of An Epick Poem Is Naturally An Event Of Great Importance.

That Of Milton Is Not The Destruction Of A City, The Conduct Of A

Colony, Or The Foundation Of An Empire. His Subject Is The Fate Of

Worlds, The Revolutions Of Heaven And Of Earth; Rebellion Against

The Supreme King, Raised by The Highest Order Of Created beings; The

Overthrow Of Their Host, And The Punishment Of Their Crime; The Creation

Of A New Race Of Reasonable Creatures; Their Original Happiness And

Innocence, Their Forfeiture Of Immortality, And Their Restoration To

Hope And Peace.

 

 

 

Great Events Can Be Hastened or Retarded only By Persons Of Elevated

Dignity. Before The Greatness Displayed in milton'S Poem, All Other

Greatness Shrinks Away. The Weakest Of His Agents Are The Highest And

Noblest Of Human Beings, The Original Parents Of Mankind; With Whose

Actions The Elements Consented; On Whose Rectitude, Or Deviation Of

Will, Depended the State Of Terrestrial Nature, And The Condition Of All

The Future Inhabitants Of The Globe. Of The Other Agents In the Poem,

The Chief Are Such As It Is Irreverence To Name On Slight Occasions. The

Rest Were Lower Powers;

 

 

 

  ----Of Which The Least Could Wield

  Those Elements, And Arm Him With The Force

  Of All Their Regions;

 

 

 

Powers, Which Only The Control Of Omnipotence Restrains From Laying

Creation Waste, And Filling the Vast Expanse Of Space With Ruin And

Confusion. To Display The Motives And Actions Of Beings Thus Superiour,

So Far As Human Reason Can Examine Them, Or Human Imagination Represent

Them, Is The Task Which This Mighty Poet Has Undertaken And Performed.

 

 

 

In The Examination Of Epick Poems Much Speculation Is Commonly Employed

Upon The Characters. The Characters In the Paradise Lost, Which Admit Of

Examination, Are Those Of Angels And Of Man; Of Angels Good And Evil; Of

Man In his Innocent And Sinful State.

 

 

 

Among The Angels, The Virtue Of Raphael Is Mild And Placid, Of Easy

Condescension And Free Communication; That Of Michael Is Regal And

Lofty, And, As May Seem, Attentive To The Dignity Of His Own Nature.

Abdiel And Gabriel Appear Occasionally, And Act As Every Incident

Requires; The Solitary Fidelity Of Abdiel Is Very Amiably Painted.

 

 

 

Of The Evil Angels The Characters Are More Diversified. To Satan, As

Addison Observes, Such Sentiments Are Given As Suit "The Most Exalted

And Most Depraved being." Milton Has Been Censured by Clarke[59], For

The Impiety Which, Sometimes, Breaks From Satan'S Mouth; For There Are

Thoughts, As He Justly Remarks, Which No Observation Of Character Can

Justify, Because No Good Man Would Willingly Permit Them To Pass,

However Transiently, Through His Own Mind. To Make Satan Speak As

A Rebel, Without Any Such Expressions As Might Taint The Reader'S

Imagination, Was, Indeed, One Of The Great Difficulties In milton'S

Undertaking; And I Cannot But Think That He Has Extricated himself With

Great Happiness. There Is In satan'S Speeches Little That Can Give Pain

To A Pious Ear. The Language Of Rebellion Cannot Be The Same With That

Of Obedience. The Malignity Of Satan Foams In haughtiness And Obstinacy;

But His Expressions Are Commonly General, And No Otherwise Offensive

Than As They Are Wicked.

 

 

 

The Other Chiefs Of The Celestial Rebellion Are Very Judiciously

Discriminated in the First And Second Books; And The Ferocious Character

Of Moloch Appears, Both In the Battle And The Council, With Exact

Consistency.

 

 

 

To Adam And To Eve Are Given, During their Innocence, Such Sentiments

As Innocence Can Generate And Utter. Their Love Is Pure Benevolence And

Mutual Veneration; Their Repasts Are Without Luxury, And Their Diligence

Without Toil. Their Addresses To Their Maker Have Little More Than The

Voice Of Admiration And Gratitude. Fruition Left Them Nothing to Ask;

And Innocence Left Them Nothing to Fear.

 

 

 

But With Guilt Enter Distrust And Discord, Mutual Accusation, And

Stubborn Self-Defence; They Regard Each Other With Alienated minds, And

Dread Their Creator As The Avenger Of Their Transgression. At Last

They Seek Shelter In his Mercy, Soften To Repentance, And Melt In

Supplication. Both Before And After The Fall, The Superiority Of Adam Is

Diligently Sustained.

 

 

 

Of The Probable And The Marvellous, Two Parts Of A Vulgar Epick Poem,

Which Immerge The Critick In deep Consideration, The Paradise Lost

Requires Little To Be Said. It Contains The History Of A Miracle, Of

Creation And Redemption; It Displays The Power And The Mercy Of

The Supreme Being; The Probable, Therefore, Is Marvellous, And The

Marvellous Is Probable. The Substance Of The Narrative Is Truth; And, As

Truth Allows No Choice, It Is, Like Necessity, Superiour To Rule. To The

Accidental Or Adventitious Parts, As To Every Thing human, Some Slight

Exceptions May Be Made; But The Main Fabrick Is Immovably Supported. It

Is Justly Remarked by Addison, That This Poem Has, By The Nature Of Its

Subject, The Advantage Above All Others, That It Is Universally And

Perpetually Interesting. All Mankind Will, Through All Ages, Bear The

Same Relation To Adam And To Eve, And Must Partake Of That Good And Evil

Which Extend To Themselves.

 

 

 

Of The Machinery, So Called from 'Theos Apo Maechanaes', By Which

Is Meant The Occasional Interposition Of Supernatural Power, Another

Fertile Topick Of Critical Remarks, Here Is No Room To Speak, Because

Every Thing is Done Under The Immediate And Visible Direction Of Heaven;

But The Rule Is So Far Observed, That No Part Of The Action Could Have

Been Accomplished by Any Other Means.

 

 

 

Of Episodes, I Think, There Are Only Two, Contained in raphael'S

Relation Of The War In heaven, And Michael'S Prophetick Account Of The

Changes To Happen In this World. Both Are Closely Connected with The

Great Action; One Was Necessary To Adam, As A Warning, The Other, As A

Consolation.

 

 

 

To The Completeness Or Integrity Of The Design, Nothing can Be Objected;

It Has, Distinctly And Clearly, What Aristotle Requires, A Beginning, A

Middle, And An End. There Is, Perhaps, No Poem, Of The Same Length, From

Which So Little Can Be Taken Without Apparent Mutilation. Here Are No

Funeral Games, Nor Is There Any Long Description Of A Shield. The Short

Digressions At The Beginning of The Third, Seventh, And Ninth Books,

Might, Doubtless, Be Spared; But Superfluities So Beautiful, Who Would

Take Away? Or Who Does Not Wish That The Author Of The Iliad Had

Gratified succeeding ages With A Little Knowledge Of Himself? Perhaps

No Passages Are More Frequently Or More Attentively Read, Than Those

Extrinsick Paragraphs; And, Since The End Of Poetry Is Pleasure, That

Cannot Be Unpoetical With Which All Are Pleased.

 

 

 

The Questions, Whether The Action Of The Poem Be Strictly One, Whether

The Poem Can Be Properly Termed heroick, And Who Is The Hero, Are Raised

By Such Readers As Draw Their Principles Of Judgment Rather From Books

Than From Reason. Milton, Though He Entitled paradise Lost Only A Poem,

Yet Calls It Himself Heroick Song. Dryden Petulantly And Indecently

Denies The Heroism Of Adam, Because He Was Overcome; But There Is No

Reason Why The Hero Should Not Be Unfortunate, Except Established

Practice, Since Success And Virtue Do Not Go Necessarily Together. Cato

Is The Hero Of Lucan; But Lucan'S Authority Will Not Be Suffered by

Quintilian To Decide. However, If Success Be Necessary, Adam'S Deceiver

Was At Last Crushed; Adam Was Restored to His Maker'S Favour, And,

Therefore, May Securely Resume His Human Rank.

 

 

 

After The Scheme And Fabrick Of The Poem, Must Be Considered its

Component Parts, The Sentiments And The Diction.

 

 

 

The Sentiments, As Expressive Of Manners, Or Appropriated to Characters,

Are, For The Greater Part, Unexceptionably Just.

 

 

 

Splendid Passages, Containing lessons Of Morality, Or Precepts Of

Prudence, Occur Seldom. Such Is The Original Formation Of This Poem,

That, As It Admits No Human Manners, Till The Fall, It Can Give Little

Assistance To Human Conduct. Its End Is To Raise The Thoughts