(see p. 52, s. 33), from Geoffrey of Monmouth, from Spenser's Faery Queene, b. ii., c. x., or Holinshed. Sidney's Arcadia, perhaps, suggested an episode.

XXXIV. OTHELLO, Tragedy (written before 1604).—Based upon Cinthio's Hecatommithi, Part i., Deca Terza, Nov. 7.

XXXV. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Tragedy (probably written in 1607). Story taken from the Life of Antonius, in North's Plutarch. Period occupied, B.C. 40 to B.C. 30.

XXXVI. CYMBELINE, Tragi-comedy (supposed to be written in 1609).--The main incident appears to have been taken from the Decameron, D. ii., N. ix. 'The historical facts and allusions ... were seemingly derived from Holinshed' (Staunton).

XXXVII. PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE, Comedy (date doubtful), ---The original source is the romance of Apollonius of Tyre (see p. 14, s. 7), but it is taken directly from Gower's Confessio Amantis, and a translation of Apollonius, by Laurence Twine, 1576.

The following is Milton's Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatic Poet, W. Shakespear, prefixed to the Folio of 1632 :—

'What needs my Shakespear for his honour'd bones,

The labor of an age in piled stones,

Or that his hallow'd reliques should be hid

Under a star-ypointing pyramid ?

Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,

What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment

Hast built thyself a live-long monument:

For whilst to th' shame of slow-endeavouring art
Thy easy numbers flow; and that each heart
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalu'd book
Those Delphic lines with deep impression took ;
Then thou our fancy of itself bereaving,

Dost make us marble with too much conceiving;
And so sepulcher'd in such pomp dost lie,
That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.'

APPENDIX D.

́ PARADISE LOST' AND 'PARADISE REGAINED.'

THE first of Milton's epics, as we have already said, was written between 1658 and 1665, when its author,-that 'Puritan among poets' and 'poet among Puritans'-was poor, blind, and advanced in years. It was published, in ten books, in 1667. The measure,' in the words of the prefatory notice, 'is English heroic verse without rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; rime being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially. 'This neglect then of rime so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it is rather to be esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem, from the troublesome and modern bondage of riming.' How grandly and majestically the muse of Milton wears that 'ancient liberty' has long been conceded; and we question whether anyone since the days of Byron has been found bold enough to hint that rhyming couplets would be a fitter vehicle for that sublimest story than the various and harmonious measure employed by the poet. To analyse Miltonic blank verse' (we borrow a passage that it is hard to excel) 'in all its details would be the work of much study and prolonged labour. It is enough to indicate the fact that the most sonorous passages commence and terminate with interrupted lines, including in one organic structure, periods, parentheses, and paragraphs of fluent melody, that the harmonies are wrought by subtle and most complex alliterative systems, by delicate changes in the length and volume of syllables, and by the choice of names magnificent for their mere gorgeousness of sound. In these structures there are many pauses which enable the ear and voice to rest themselves, but none are perfect, none satisfy the want created by the opening hemistich, until the final and deliberate close is reached. Then the sense of harmony is gratified and we proceed with pleasure to a new and

different sequence. If the truth of this remark is not confirmed by the following celebrated and essentially Miltonic passage, it must fall without further justification :

:

Met such imbodied force, as nam'd with these
Could merit more than that small infantry
Warr'd on by cranes; though all the giant brood
Of Phlegra, with th' heroic race were joined
That fought at Thebes or Ilium, on each side
Mixed with auxiliar Gods; and what resounds
In fable or romance of Uther's son,

Begirt with British and Armoric knights;
And all who since, baptiz'd or infidel,
Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban,
Damasco, or Morocco, or Trebizond;

Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore,
When Charlemain with all his peerage fell
By Fontarabbia.*

[Paradise Lost, I. 11. 571-87.]

In the early days of Paradise Lost, we are told, 'few either read, liked, or understood it.' 'The old blind schoolmaster, John Milton,' wrote Waller, hath published a tedious poem on the Fall of Man : if its length be not considered a merit, it hath no other.' But even Johnson's prejudice,—so obstinate as to provoke De Quincey's saying of it that it made that arch-critic a 'dishonest man'-was ultimately overcome. His abstract of the subject may be quoted. 'It is,' says he, the fate of worlds, the revolutions of Heaven and of earth; rebellion against the Supreme King, raised by the highest order of created beings; the overthrow of their host and the punishment of their crimes; the creation of a new race of reasonable creatures; their original happiness and innocence, their forfeiture of immortality and their restoration to hope and peace.'

6

The contents of the twelve books into which Paradise Lost was divided in the edition of 1674 may be shortly summed up as follows:

Book I.-Satan, expelled from Heaven, and lying in Chaos, consoles his legions with the hope of regaining their lost estate, and then tells them of a new kind of creature to be made according to an ancient prophecy or report in Heaven.' To confer on the full meaning of this prophecy he institutes a council. Pandemonium is raised out of the deep, and here the council sits,——

'A thousand demigods on gold'n seats,
Frequent and full.'

*From a paper on Blank Verse, Cornhill Magazine, xv. 635-6.

Book II.-The result of the consultation is that Satan undertakes to verify the tradition concerning the existence of another world and another kind of creature-Man. He arrives at the gates of Hell, and thence Sin and Death

'Pav'd after him a broad and beat'n way

Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf
Tamely endur'd a bridge of wondrous length
From Hell continu'd, reaching th' utmost orb
Of this frail World; by which the spirits perverse
With easy intercourse pass to and fro

To tempt or punish mortals, except whom

God and good angels guard by special grace.'

Book III.-As Satan flies towards this world God the Father shows him to the Son, and foretells his success in tempting man, who was made

'just and right,

Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.'

The Father then declares that man who falls deceived' shall find grace if

'Some other able, and as willing, pay

The rigid satisfaction, death for death.'

The Son of God offers himself a ransom: the Father accepts him. Satan, meanwhile, reaches the outermost orb of the world, and passing through the Limbo of Vanity, directed by Uriel, alights on Mount Niphates (in Armenia).

Book IV. introduces the Arch-Enemy in the Garden of Eden, where, in the guise of a cormorant, he sits on the tree of Life,,

'devising death

To them who liv'd,'

and gathering from the discourse of Adam and Eve that the tree of Knowledge was forbidden them under penalty of death, resolves through it to tempt them to transgress. His presence in Paradise being announced by Uriel to Gabriel, he is at length discovered by two of the latter's ministers, 'squat like a toad,' whispering temptation in the ear of sleeping Eve.

Book V. With the morning Eve relates to Adam her dream and is comforted. Raphael, sent of God, descends to Eden, to remind Adam of his free estate, to enjoin obedience and to warn him of an enemy at hand; and, at his request, tells him who the Enemy is, relates the story of his revolt in Heaven, his inciting his legions to rebel, and of the seraph Abdiel's opposition to and desertion of him.

In Book VI. Raphael describes the war in heaven. He tells Adam that Michael and Gabriel were sent forth to fight against

Satan and his host, that they found the task insuperable until, on the third day the Messiah, in the power of His Father, unaided by His 'host on either hand,' drove his enemies to the wall of heaven, which opening, caused them to plunge. with confusion into the bottomless pit.

'Hell at last

Yawning received them whole, and on them clos'd;

Hell their fit habitation fraught with fire
Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.'

Book VII. is occupied with Raphael's narrative of the creation of the world.

Book VIII.-Adam's enquiries of Raphael concerning celestial motions are met by the reply:

'Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid,

Leave them to God above, him serve and fear,'

Adam relates to the angel all he remembers since his creation, and Raphael, after admonition, leaves him.

BOOK IX.-Satan returns into Eden as a mist and enters into the serpent. Eve having elected to pursue her daily work alone, is accosted by him. Surprised at hearing the serpent speak, she enquires how he became possessed of such understanding, and is informed that he obtained the wisdom by eating of the fruit of a tree which Eve discovers to be the tree of Knowledge. She is at length persuaded to eat of the fruit, and Adam, though he knew her to be lost, resolves, for the love he bears her, to perish with her, and eats also of the forbidden fruit. The book ends with their mutual accusations and their attempt to cover their newly-discovered nakedness.

Book X.-The guardian angels return from Paradise to Heaven and the Son of God descends to judge the transgressors, and having clothed them, returns to Heaven. Sin and Death, resolved to sit no longer at the gates of Hell, make a bridge over Chaos to this world. Satan returns to Pandemonium, where both he and his attendants are transformed into serpents. God the Father foretells the victory of His Son over Sin and Death. Adam, after bewailing his lost condition, exhorts Eve to seek, with him, their peace with God.

Book XI.-The Son of God intercedes with His Father on behalf of suppliant Man whose prayers are, therefore, accepted. Adam and Eve are nevertheless expelled from Paradise by the angel Michael, who afterwards takes Adam to a high hill and shows him in vision what shall take place before the Flood, and the appearance cf the 'triple-coloured bow' in the clouds.