Note 30 — TO CHARLES SIMPSON, Esq. BARRISTER; WITH THOS. WARTON’S EDITION OF MILTON’S LESSER POEMS, ENRICHED BY THE EDITOR’S CRITICAL NOTES.
Reading edition
l. 3. More learn’d—It is well known that, with the exception of Chaucer, Johnson knew little of our early obsolete poetry. Mr T. Warton, in this his ingenious and learned work, shews us the prima stamina of an infinite number of those poetic flowers which adorn the juvenilia of Milton’s muse. The style of Mr T. Warton’s notes is eloquent in the first degree. We often find passages whose oratoric force and beauty equal the finest sentences of Dr Johnson.