was an enthusiastick admirer of Milton's poem, mentions a circumstance relative to this piece, worth recording. "Dryden,” (he observes,)" in his Preface before THE STATE OF INNOCENCE, appears to have been the first, those gentlemen excepted whose verses are before Milton's poem, who discovered in so publick a manner an extraordinary opinion of Milton's extraordinary merit. And yet Mr. Dryden at that time knew not half the extent of his excellence, as more than twenty years afterwards he confessed to me, and is pretty plain from his writing THE STATE OF Innocence." Had he known the full extent of Milton's excellence, Dennis thought he would not have ventured on this undertaking, unless he designed to be a foil to him: "but they (he adds) who knew Mr. Drydren, know very well that he was not of a temper to design to be a foil to any one.""

So little at this time was Milton's great work known or admired, that Rymer, who promised in 1678 to publish some strictures upon it, (a promise which he never fulfilled,) speaks of it with extreme contempt, as a worthless piece which some are pleased to call a poem; nor was it much attended to till about fourteen years after it had been converted into an opera. Our author, however, with equal candour, modesty, and good taste, thus highly extols it: "I cannot, without injury to the deceased author of PARADISE LOST, but acknow

6 Dennis's Letters, vol. i. p. 75, 8vo. 1721.

ledge that this poem [THE STATE OF INNOCENCE] has received its entire foundation, part of the design, and many of the ornaments, from him. What I have borrowed will be so easily discerned from my mean productions, that I shall not need to point the reader to the places. And truly I should be sorry for my own sake, that any one should take the pains to compare them together, the original being undoubtedly one of the greatest, most noble, and sublime poems, which either this age or nation has produced."

In consequence of some manuscript copies of this opera having got abroad, it seems to have been attacked before it had yet appeared in print; for he tells us that "Milton had been taxed by some false criticks for choosing a supernatural argument ;" and he quotes four of his own lines, which, he says, had been "sufficiently canvassed by his ill-natured censurers :"

"Cherub and Seraph, careless of their charge,

66

66

And wanton in full ease now live at large;

Unguarded leave the passes of the sky,

"And all dissolved in hallelujahs lie."

The critical pamphlet which contains these remarks, I have never seen.

Before we quit the subject of Milton's poem, an anecdote concerning it, in which our author makes a considerable figure, may not improperly be noticed; though, like many other traditional stories, it will not bear a very rigid examination. The

elder Richardson, speaking of the tardy reputation of PARADISE LOST, tells us, (and the tale has been repeated in various Lives of Milton,) that he was informed by Sir George Hungerford, an ancient member of parliament, (many years previous to 1734,) that Sir John Denham came into the House one morning with a sheet of PARADISE LOST wet from the press, in his hand; and being asked what it was, he replied, " part of the noblest poem that ever was written in any language or in any age." However, the book remained unknown till it was produced about two years afterwards by Lord Buckhurst on the following occasion. That nobleman, in company with Mr. Fleetwood Shephard, (who frequently told the story to Dr. Tancred Robinson, an eminent physician, and Mr. Richardson's informer,) looking over some books in Little Britain, met with PARADISE LOST; and being surprised with some passages in turning it over, bought it. The bookseller requested his Lordship to speak in its favour, if he liked it; for the impression lay on his hands as waste paper. Lord Buckhurst, (whom Richardson inaccurately calls the Earl of Dorset, for he did not succeed to that title till some years afterwards,) having read the poem, sent it to Dryden, who in a short time returned it with this answer: "This man cuts us all out, and the ancients too."-" Much the same character (adds Mr. Richardson) he gave of it to a north-country gentleman, to whom I mentioned the book, he being a great reader, but not in a right train,

coming to town seldom, and keeping little company. Dryden amazed him with speaking so loftily of it. "Why, Mr. Dryden, says he, (Sir W. L. told me the thing himself,) 'tis not in rhyme." "No; [replied Dryden,] nor would 1 have done my Virgil in rhyme, if I was to begin it again." This conversation, which is said to have passed between the gentleman here alluded to under the initial letters W. L., and our author, while he was engaged in his translation of Virgil, will be more properly considered in another place : but the former anecdote requires some little ob

servation.

How Sir John Denham should get into his hands one of the sheets of PARADISE LOST, while it was working off at the press, it is not very easy to conceive. The proof-sheets of every book, as well as the finished sheets when worked off, previous to publication are subject to the inspection of no person but the author, or the persons to whom he may confide them; and there is no evidence or probability that any intimacy subsisted between Sir John Denham and Milton. Here then is the first difficulty. The next is, that during a great part of the year 1667, when Milton's poem probably was passing through the press, the Knight was disordered in his understanding: but a stronger objection remains behind; for on examination, it

7 46

Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's PaRADISE LOST," &c. 8vo. 1734; P. cxix.

will be found that Denham, who is said to have thus blazoned PARADISE LOST in the House of Commons, was never in parliament. Let us, however, wave this objection, and suppose this eulogy to have been pronounced in a full House of Commons in 1667, in which year Milton's great poem according to some of the titlepages first appeared, whilst others have the dates of 1668 and 1669.* So little effect had Denham's commendation, that we find in two years afterwards almost the whole impression lying on the bookseller's hands as wastepaper during which time Dryden, a poet himself, living among poets, and personally acquainted with Milton, had never seen it! And to crown all, by the original contract between Milton and Simmons, the printer, dated April 27, 1667, it was stipulated, that whenever thirteen hundred books were sold, he should receive five pounds, in addition to the sum originally paid on the sale of the copy: and this second sum of five pounds was paid to him, as appears from the receipt, on the 26th of April, 1669: so that in two years after the original publication, we find, that instead of almost the whole impression then lying on the bookseller's hands, thirteen hundred out of fifteen hundred copies of this poem had been dispersed. Unless

PARADISE LOST, a poem by J. M. was entered in the Stationers' Books by Samuel Symons, Aug. 20, 1669. It was sold for three shillings, as appears from a note in the titlepage of my copy.