Note 24 — TABLE I.
Reading edition
Milton stands in his age like an oak among hazel-bushes. The nobility of his character, the sublimity of his thought, and the classic beauty of his style give him, in spite of some coldness and some lack of naturalness in his conception of the characters of Adam and Eve, the second place in English literature. His "Lycidas" is a beautiful elegy. His "Comus" is the best masque in English, and certainly a charming picture of chastity and its triumph over temptation. It should be read along with Spenser's "Britomart." His "L' Allegro" and "Il Penseroso," on mirth and melancholy, are among the best lyrics of the world. His "Paradise Lost" is the greatest epic in English, and the greatest that any literature has had since Dante's "Divine Comedy." The two books should be read together. Milton shows us Satan in all the pride and pomp and power this world oft throws around his cloven Majesty. Dante tears away the wrappings, and we see the horrid heart and actual loathsomeness of sin. (Eng., 17th cent.) See Table III. No. 2.
The writings of Stopford Brooke, Macaulay, Dr. Johnson, De Quincey, and Pattison about Milton may be profitably referred to.