Note 353 — PART THE SECOND. (continued 8)
Reading edition
Addison was the first, by his excellent critiques in the Spectator, to excite public attention to a more just sense of the immortal poem of the Paradise Lost. But it was reserved for Johnson (Rambler, Nos. 86, 88, 90, 94) to point out the beauty of Milton's versification. He showed that it was formed, as far as our language admits, upon the best models of Greece and Rome, united to the softness of the Italian, the most mellifluous of all modern poetry. To these examples we may add the name of Spenser, who is distinguished for a most melodious flow of versification. Johnson emphatically remarks, that Milton's "skill in harmony was not less than his invention or his learning." Dr. J. Wharton also observes, that his verses vary, and resound as much, and display as much majesty and energy, as any that can be found in Dryden.
We subjoin the following passages as illustrating the melody of his numbers, the grace and dignity of his style, the correspondence of sound with the sentiment, the easy flow of his verses into one another, and the beauty of his cadences.
THE DESCENT OF THE ANGEL RAPHAEL INTO PARADISE.
A seraph wing'd: six wings he wore, to shade His lineaments divine; the pair that clad Each shoulder broad, came mantling o'er his breast With regal ornament; the middle pair Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold, And odours dipt in Heaven; the third his feet Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail, Sky tinctured grain. Like Maia's son he stood, And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance fill'd The circuit wide.
Book v.
How sweetly did they float upon the wings Of silence, through the empty vaulted night; At every fall, smoothing the raven down Of darkness, till it smiled.
THE BIRTH OF DEATH.
I fled, and cried out Death: Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd From all her caves, and back resounded Death!
EVE EATING THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT.
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate. Earth felt the wound, and Nature, from her seat Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe, That all was lost.
Book ix.
ADAM PARTICIPATING IN THE GREAT TRANSGRESSION.
He scrupled not to eat Against his better knowledge— Earth trembled from her entrails, as again In pangs; and Nature gave a second groan; Sky lour'd; and, muttering thunder, some sad drops Wept at completing of the mortal sin— Original.
Book ix.