Another way of raising the language, and giving it a poetical turn, is to make use of the idioms of other tongues. Virgil is full of the Greek forms of speech, which the critics call Hellenisms, as Horace in his odes abounds with them, much more than 5 Virgil. I need not mention the several dialects which Homer has made use of for this end. Milton in conformity with the practice of the ancient poets, and with Aristotle's rule, has infused a great many Latinisms as well as Græcisms, and sometimes He- 10 braisms, into the language of his poem; as towards the beginning of it: Nor did they not perceive the evil plight In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel. "Who shall tempt, with wandering feet, The dark, unbottomed, infinite abyss, And through the palpable obscure find out 11 Over the vast abrupt!" So both ascend In the visions of God.12 B. ii. Under this head may be reckoned the placing the adjective after the substantive, the transposition of words, the turning the adjective into a substan- 15 tive, with several other foreign modes of speech, which this poet has naturalized to give his verse the greater sound, and throw it out of prose. The third method mentioned by Aristotle, is what 13 agrees with the genius of the Greek language more than with that of any other tongue, and is therefore more used by Homer than by any other 5 poet. I mean the lengthening of a phrase by the addition of words, which may either be inserted or omitted, as also by the extending or contracting of particular words by the insertion or omission of certain syllables. Milton has put in practice this method of raising his language, as far as the nature 10 of our tongue will permit, as in the passage above mentioned, ermite, for what is 14 hermit in common discourse. If you observe the measure of his verse, he has with great judgment suppressed a syllable in several words, and shortened those of 15 two syllables into one, by which method, besides the above-mentioned advantage, he has given a greater variety to his numbers. But this practice is more particularly remarkable in the names of persons and of counties, as Beëlzebub, Hessebon, 20 and in many other particulars, wherein he has either changed the name, or made use of that which is not the most commonly known, that he might the better depart 15 from the language of the vulgar. The same reason recommended to him several 25 old words, which also makes his poem appear the more venerable, and gives it a greater air of antiquity. I must likewise take notice, that there are in Milton several words of his own coining, as "Cer30 berean," miscreated," "hell-doomed," 66 embryon 14 15 is that which agrees. atoms," and many others. If the reader is offended at this liberty in our English poet, I would recommend him to a discourse in Plutarch, which shows us how frequently Homer has made use of the same liberty. 5 Milton by the above-mentioned helps, and by the choice of the noblest words and phrases which our tongue would afford him, has carried our language to a greater height than any of the English poets have ever done before or after him, and made the 10 sublimity of his style equal to that of his sentiments. I have been the more particular in these observations on Milton's style,16 because it is that part of him in which he appears the most singular. The remarks I have here made upon the practice of other 15 poets, with my observations out of Aristotle, will perhaps alleviate the prejudice which some have taken to his poem upon this account; though after all, I must confess, that I think his style, though admirable in general, is in some places too much 20 stiffened and obscured by the frequent use of those methods, which Aristotle has prescribed for the raising of it. 17 This redundancy of those several ways of speech which Aristotle calls "foreign language," and with 25 which Milton has so very much enriched, and in some places darkened the language of his poem, was the more proper for his use, because his poem is written in blank verse: Rime, without any other assistance, throws the language off from 30 prose, and very often makes an indifferent phrase pass unregarded; but where the verse is not built 16 of Milton's style. 1712, 17 1712, is the more proper. upon rimes, there pomp of sound, and energy of expression, are indispensably necessary to support the style, and keep it from falling into the flatness of prose. 5 Those who have not a taste for this elevation of style, and are apt to ridicule a poet when he goes out of 18 the common forms of expression, would do well to see how Aristotle has treated an ancient author, called Euclid, for his insipid mirth upon this 10 occasion. Mr. Dryden used to call this sort of men his prose-critics. I should, under this head of the language, consider Milton's numbers, in which he has made use of several elisions, that are not customary 15 among other English poets, as may be particularly observed in his cutting off the letter "y," when it precedes a vowel. This, and some other innovations in the measure of his verse, has varied his numbers, in such a manner, as makes them incapable 20 of satiating the ear and cloying the reader, which the same uniform measure would certainly have done, and which the perpetual returns of rime never fail to do in long narrative poems. I shall close these reflections upon the language of Paradise Lost, with observing that Milton has copied 25 after Homer, rather than Virgil, in the length of his periods, the copiousness of his phrases, and the running of his verses into one another. No. 303. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16. [1712.] Volet hæc sub luce videri, Judicis argutum quæ non formidat acumen.-HOR. I HAVE seen in the works of a modern philosopher, a map of the spots in the sun. My last paper of the faults and blemishes in Milton's Paradise Lost, may be considered as a piece of the same nature. To pursue the allusion: as it is observed, that 5 among the bright parts of the luminous body abovementioned, there are some which glow more intensely, and dart a stronger light than others; so, notwithstanding I have already shown Milton's poem to be very beautiful in general, I shall now 10 proceed to take notice of such beauties as appear to be1 more exquisite than the rest. Milton has proposed the subject of his poem in the following verses. Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, These lines are perhaps as plain, simple and un- 15 adorned 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 20 1 1712, appear to me. |