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Act I. Scene 1.

"Chorus of Angels, singing the glory of God.-After their hymn, which serves as a prologue, God the Father, Angels, Adam and Eve. God calls to Lucifer, and bids him survey with confusion the wonders of his power. He creates Adam and Eve-their delight and gratitude.

Scene 2. "Lucifer, arising from Hell-he expresses his enmity against God, the good Angels, and Man.

Scene 3. "Lucifer, Satan, and Beelzebub.-Lucifer excites his associates to the destruction of Man, and calls other demons from the abyss to conspire for that purpose.

Scenes 4, 5, and 6. "Lucifer, summoning seven distinct Spirits, commissions them to act under the character of the seven mortal Sins, with the following

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Act II. Scene I. "The Angels, to the number of fifteen, separately sing the grandeur of God, and his munificence to Man.

Scene 2. "Adam and Eve, with Lurcone and Guliar watching unseen.Adam and Eve express their devotion to God so fervently, that the evil spirits, though invisible, are put to flight by their prayer.

Scene 3. "The Serpent, Satan, Spirits.-The Serpent or Lucifer, announces his design of circumventing Woman.

Scene 4. "The Serpent, Spirits, and Volano.-Volano arrives from Hell, and declares that the confederate powers of the abyss designed to send a god. dess from the deep, entitled Vain Glory, to vanquish Man.

Scene 5. "Vain Glory, drawn by a giant, Volano, the Serpent, Satan, and Spirits. The Serpent welcomes Vain Glory as his confederate, then hides himself in the tree to watch and tempt Eve.

Scene 6. "The Serpent and Vain Glory at first concealed; the Serpent discovers himself to Eve, tempts and seduces her.-Vain Glory closes the Act with expressions of triumph.

Act III. Scene 1. "Adam and Eve.-After a dialogue of tenderness she produces the fruit.-Adam expresses horrour, but at last yields to her temptation.-When both have tasted the fruit, they are overwhelmed with remorse and terrour: they fly to conceal themselves.

Scene 2.

"Volano proclaims the Fall of Man, and invites the powers of darkness to rejoice, and pay their homage to the prince of Hell.

Scene 3. "Volano, Satan, chorus of Spirits, with ensigns of victory.-Expression of their joy.

Scene 4. "Serpent, Vain Glory, Satan, and Spirits.-The Serpent commands Canoro, a musical spirit, to sing his triumph, which is celebrated with songs and dances in the 4th and 5th scenes; the latter closes with expressions of horrour from the triumphant demons, on the approach of God.

Scene 6. "God the Father, Angels, Adam and Eve.-God summons and rebukes the sinners, then leaves them, after pronouncing his malediction. Scene 7. "An Angel, Adam and Eve.-The angel gives them rough skins for clothing, and exhorts them to penitence.

Scene 8. "The Archangel Michael, Adam and Eve.-Michael drives them from Paradise with a scourge of fire. Angels close the Act with a chorus, exciting the offenders to hope in repentance.

Act IV. Scene 1. "Volano, chorus of fiery, airy, earthly, and aquatic Spirits. They express their obedience to Lucifer.

Scene 2. "Lucifer rises, and utters his abhorrence of the light; the demons console him-he questions them on the meaning of God's words and conduct to. wards Man-He spurns their conjectures, and announces the incarnation, then proceeds to new machinations against Man.

Scene 3.

"Infernal Cyclops, summoned by Lucifer, make a new world at his command. He then commissions three demons against Man, under the characters of the World, the Flesh and Death.

Scene 4. ❝ Adam alone.—He laments his fate, and at last feels his sufferings aggravated, in beholding Eve flying in terrour from the hostile animals.

Scene 5.

"Adam and Eve.-She excites her companion to suicide.

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Scene 6. "Famine, Thirst, Lassitude, Despair, Adam and Eve.-Famine explains her own nature, and that of her associates.

Scene 7. 66 Death, Adam and Eve.-Death reproaches Eve with the horrours she has occasioned-Adam closes the Act by exhorting Eve to take refuge in the mountains.

Act V. Scene 1. "The Flesh, in the shape of a woman; and Adam.—He resists her temptation.

Scene 2. "Lucifer, the Flesh, and Adam.-Lucifer pretends to be a man, and the elder brother of Adam.

Scene 3. "A Cherub, Adam, the Flesh, and Lucifer.-The cherub secretly warns Adam against his foes; and at last defends him with manifest power.

Scene 4. "The World, in the shape of a man, exulting in his own finery. Scene 5. "Eve and the World. He calls forth a rich palace from the ground, and tempts Eve with splendour.

Scene 6. "Chorus of Nymphs, Eve, the World, and Adam.-He exhorts Eve to resist these allurements-the World calls the demons from Hell to enchain his victims-Eve prays for mercy: Adam encourages her.

Scene 7. "Lucifer, Death, chorus of Demons.-They prepare to seize Adam and Eve.

Scene 8. The Archangel Michael, with a chorus of good Angels.-After a spirited altercation, Michael subdues and triumphs over Lucifer.

Scene 9. "Adam, Eve, chorus of Angels.-They rejoice in the victory of Mi. chael: he animates the offenders with a promise of favour from God, and future residence in Heaven: they express their hope and gratitude.-The angels close the drama, by singing the praise of the Redeemer."

When the reader compares the allegorical characters in this drama with those in Milton's sketches on similar subjects, intended once for tragedies, he will again see reason to admit that the Adamo had made considerable impression, either in re presentation or by perusal, on the mind of the English poet. See the Appendix, at the end of Paradise Lost, in the third volume of this edition.

Of Andreini, who has been contemptuously called a stroller, Mr. Hayley has vindicated the fame. "He had some tincture of classical learning, and considera. ble piety. He occasionally imitates Virgil, and quotes the Fathers." In one of the passages, cited from his Adamo by Mr. Hayley, Mr. Walker observes that the course of a river is described with a richness of fancy, and a "dance of words," that prove Andreini to have been endowed with no common poetic powers. Of the Adamo there have been four editions, those of Milan in 1613, and 1617, printed in quarto; that of Perugia in 1641, printed in duodecimo; and that of Modena in 1685, printed in the same form. The edition of 1641 is considered the most rare. The description to which Mr. Walker alludes, is beautifully am plified in that edition; and has been given in the Appendix to the Historical Me moir on Italian Tragedy, 1799, p. xliv. Andreini was the son of the celebrated actress, Isabella Andreini 9. His various productions, says Mr. Hayley, "amount

8 Hist. Memoir on Ital. Tragedy, p. 160.

9 Giovanni Battista Andreini, Fiorentino, o piuttosto Pistojese, fù figlio dela celebre Comica Isabella Andreini (della quale si veda il bayle, e il Mazzuchelli,) e nacque nel 1578. Dopo essersi

to the number of thirty; and form a singular medley of comedies and devout poems." The writer of the article Andreini (Isabelle) in the Nouveau Dict. Hist. à Caen, 1786, adds, to the account of her son's theatrical pieces, On a encore d'Andreini trois Traités en faveur de la Comédie & des Comédiens, publiés à Paris en 1625; ils sont fort rares.

II. The next remark respecting the Origin of Paradise Lost is that of Dr. Pearce, who, in the Preface to his Review of the Text of the twelve books, &c. published in 1733, says, "It is probable that Milton took the first hint of the poem from an Italian tragedy, called Il Paradiso Perso; for I am informed that there is such an one extant, printed many years before Milton entered upon his design." Mr. Hayley, in a very extensive research, has been able to discover no such performance. Nor have my inquiries been more successful.

III. We are next informed, in the Preface to the poetical works of the Rev. J. Sterling, printed at Dublin in 1734, that "The great Milton is said to have ingenuously confessed that he owed his immortal work of Paradise Lost to Mr. Fletcher's Locusta." The person here mentioned is Phineas Fletcher, better known by his poem, entitled the Purple Island; and the Locustæ is a spirited Latin poem, writen against the Jesuits, and published at Cambridge, while Milton was a student there, in 1627; as was also the same author's Locusts, or Apollyonists, an English poem, consisting of five cantos. That Milton had read both the Latin and English poem of Fletcher, I make no doubt. And I have accordingly offered, to the reader's observation, some passages from both in the Notes on his poetical works, with which Milton appears to have been pleased. But Milton's obligations to Fletcher are too confined to admit so extensive an acknowledgment, as that which is contained in Mr. Sterling's Preface; and indeed the authority of the anecdote has not been given. Mr. Sterling has translated with great spirit the speech of Lucifer to his Angels in the Locustæ, vel Pietas Jesuitica. See his poems, p. 43. As Fletcher's Latin poem is little known, it may be here proper to select, from this speech, the lines which seem to have influ enced the imagination of Milton, and perhaps to have given rise to the preceding anecdote.

Nos contrà immemori per tuta silentia somno
Sternimur interea, et, mediâ jam luce supini
Stertentes, festam trahimus, pia turba, quietem.
Quòd si animos sine honore acti sine fine laboris
Pœnitet, et proni imperii regníque labantis
Nil miseret, positis flagris, odiisque remissis,
Oramus veniam, et dextras præbemus inermes.
Fors ille audacis facti, et justæ immemor iræ,
Placatus, facilisque manus et fœdera junget.
Fors solito lapsos (peccati oblitus) honori

acquistato molto credito sulle Scene Italiane porrossi in Francia, ove si meritò la stima di Luigi XIII. Visse per lo meno sino al 1652. From the remarks mentioned in the note 5, p. 318.It is not impossible, that Milton might have seen and conversed with Andreini, when he visited France and Italy.

The Jesuits were called Locusts, in the theological language of this period. See Sundrie Sermons by bishop Lake, fol. 1629, p. 205. "There is a kind of metaphoricall Locusts and Caterpillers, Locusts that came out of the bottomlesse pit; I meane Popish Priests and Iesuits; the Catterpillars of the Commonweale, Proiectors and Inuentors of new tricks how to exhaust the purses of the subiects, couering private ends with publicke pretences.”

Restituet, cœlum nobis soliúmque relinquet,
At me nulla dies animi, cœptíque prioris,
Dissimilem arguerit: quin nunc rescindere cœlum.
Et conjurato victricem milite pacem

Rumpere, ferventíque juvat miscere tumultu.

Quò tanti cecidere animi? Quò pristina virtus
Cessit, in æternam quâ mecum irrumpere lucem
Tentâstis, trepidúmque armis perfringere cœlum ?
Nunc verò indecores felicia ponitis arma,

Et toties victo imbelles conceditis hosti."
Per vos, per domitas cœlesti fulmine vires,
Indomitúmque odium, projecta resumite tela:
Dum fas, dum breve tempus adest, accondite pugnas,
Restaurate acies, fractúmque reponite Martem.
Ni facitis, mox soli, et (quod magis urit) inulti,
Aeternùm (heu) vacuo flammis cruciabimur antro.
Ille quidem nullâ, heu, nullâ violabilis arte,
Securum sine fine tenet, sine milite regnum;
A nullo patitur, nullo violatur ab hoste :
Compatitur tamen, ínque suis violabile membris
Corpus habet: nunc ô totis consurgite telis,
Quà patet ad vulnus nudum sine tegmine corpus,
Imprimite ultrices, penitúsque recondite, flammas.
Accelerat funesta dies, jam limine tempus
Insistit, cùm nexa ipso cum vertice membra
Naturam induerint cœlestem, ubi gloria votum

Atque animum splendor superent, ubi gaudia damno
Crescant, deliciaéque modum, finémque recusent.
At nos supplicio aeterno, Stygiísque catenis
Compressi, flammis et vivo sulphure tecti,
Perpetuas duro solvemus carcere poenas.
Hic anima, extremos jam tum perpessa dolores,
Majores semper metuit, queritúrque remotam,
Quam toto admisit præsentem pectore, mortem,
Oráque cæruleas perreptans flamma medullas
Torquet anhela siti, fibrásque atque ilia lambit.
Mors vivit, moritúrque inter mala mille superstes
Vita, vicésque ipsâ cum morte, et nomina mutat.
Cùm verò nullum moriendi conscia finem
Mens reputat, cùm mille annis mille addidit annos,
Præteritúmque nihil venturo detrahit ævum,
Mox etiam stellas, etiam superaddit arenas ;

Pœna tamen damno crescit, per flagra, per ignes,

Per quicquid miserum est, præceps ruit, anxia lentam

Provocat infelix mortem; si fortè relabi

Possit, et in nihilum rursus dispersa resolvi.

Aequemus meritis pœnas, atque ultima passis Plura tamen magnis exactor debeat ausis ; Tartareis mala speluncis, vindictáque cœlo Deficiat; nunquam, nunquam crudelis inultos, Immeritosve, Erebus capiet: meruisse nefandum Supplicium medios inter solabitur ignes, Et, licèt immensos, factis superâsse dolores. Nunc agite, ô Proceres, omnésque effundite technas, Consulite, imperióque alacres succurrite lapso,

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