poetic fancy, wonderfully brilliant "Invenias etiam difjecti membra poeta!" A local habitation and a name? SHAKSPEARE. Who can forbear applying to the poct, what has been fo justly applied to the great critic, lately quoted, "He is himself the great fublime he draws!" "Horace, likewife, feems to rank himself on this fide of the queftion, in the fourth Satire of his first book, where he endeavours to fettle the point of poetic characters. He, firit, excepts himfelf from the number of thofe, to whom he would allow the name of Poet; becaufe compofitions like his own, fermoni propriora," do not give a juft claim to the appellation. He, then, défcribes the real bard; The true poetic effence, then, confits in elevation, imagery, and grandeur; to which, modulation is no more than an adjunct; neceffary, indeed, because it, in iome degree, neceflarily accompanies animated and poetic fentiment." "To these arguments, it may be replied: "That the modeity of Horace, in excepting himfelf from the rank and honours of poetic character, will not be admitted, even with respect to those verses, as to which alone he made the exception. For, who has not in every age claffed the Epifiles and Satires of Horace, in the number poetic compofitions, though, a he fays, his ftyle only "Pede certo Differt fermoni: fermo merus." "If we adhere rigorously to this definition, fhall we not exclude many candidates, from whom we fhould be forry to pluck the wellearned wreath of poetic fame? All verfes, where the fubject is low or ridiculous, as the Hudibras of Butler; where it is fimple and narra tive, as the fables of Gay; or even, where it is plaintive and melancholy, as the Church-Yard of Gray, must be banished from the region of the Mufc. Parnaffus must be," all cliff," without a firgle vale in all its circuit. None must then be deemed a poet, who cannot foar to its loftiest fummit, on epic, or heroic wing. If we fhould form an index expurgatorius upon this principle, what ha vock should we make among the minor poets? How many should we exclude, whom every lover of the Mufe ranks, with graterul ve neration, in the number of her inspired votaries ? «Elevation Whence MILTON drew fome HINTS for his COMUS. ftory. I cannot but add, that Gray efembles Milton in many inftances. Among others, in their youth they [121] were both ftrongly attached to the cultivation of Latin poetry." "I Whence MILTON drew fome HINTS for his COMUS. [From the fame Work. ] N Fletcher's Faithful Shepen herdefs, an Arcadian comedy recently published, Milton found many touches of paftoral and fuperftitious imagery, congenial with his own conceptions. Many of thefe, yet with the highest improvements, he has transferred into Comus; together with the general caft and colouring of the piece. He catched alfo from the lyric rhymes of Fletcher, that Dorique delicacy, with which fir Henry Wootton was fo much delighted in the fongs of Milton's drama. Fletcher's comedy was coldly received the first night of its performance. But it had ample revenge in this confpicuous and indifputable mark of Milton's approbation. It was afterwards reprefented as a mask at court, before the king and queen on twelfthnight, in 1633. I know not, indeed, if this was any recommendation to Milton; who in the Paradife Loft fpeaks contemptuoutly of these interludes, which were among the chief diverfions of an elegant and liberal monarch. B. iv. 767. Court amours, Mix'd dance, and wanton mask, or midnight-ball, &c. I believe the whole compliment was paid to the genius of Fletcher. Yet it fhould be remembered that Milton had not yet completed his career of puritanifm. In the mean time, it is true that Milton, as an author, gave countenance to this But fpecies of entertainment. Charles's masks did not, like Comus, abound with Platonic recommendations of the doctrine of chaftity. "The ingenious and accurate Mr. Reed has pointed out a rude outline, from which Milton feems partly to have sketched the plan of the fable of Comus. See Biograph. Dramat. ii. p. 441. It is an old play, with this title, "The Old Wives Tale, a pleafant conceited Comedie, plaied by the Queenes Maiefties players. Written by G. P. [i. e. George Peele.] Printed at London by John Danter, and are to be fold by Ralph Hancock and John Hardie, 1595." In quarto. This very fcarce and curious piece exhibits, among other parallel incidents, two brothers wandering in queft of their fifter, whom an enchanter had imprifoned. This mágician had learned his art from his mother Meroe, as Comus had been inftructed by his mother Circe. The brothers call out on the lady's name, and Echo replies. The enchanter had given her a potion which fufpends the powers of reafon, and fuperinduces oblivion of herfelf. The brothers afterwards meet with an old man who is also fkilled in magic; and by liftening to his foothfayings, they recover their loft fifter; but not till the enchanter's wreath had been torn from his head, his sword wrested from his hand, a glass broken, and a light [132] Whence MILTON drew fome HINTS for his COMUS. a light extinguished. The names "In the mean time it must be confeffed, that Milton's magician Comus, with his cup and wand, is ultimately founded on the fable of Circe. The effects of both charac ters are much the fame. They are both to be oppofed at firft with force and violence. Circe is fubdued by the virtues of the herb moly, which Mercury gives to Ulyffes, and Comus by the plant haemony, which the Spirit gives to the two brothers. About the year 1615, a mafque called the Inner Temple Mafque, written by William Browne, author of Britannia's Paftorals, which I have frequently cited, was prefented by the ftudents of the Inner Temple. It has been lately printed from a manufcript in the library of Emanuel College: but I have been informed, that a few copies were printed foon after the prefentation. It is formed on the ftory of Circe, and perhaps might have fuggefted fome few hints to Milton. I will give fome proofs of parallelifm as we go along. "The genius of the best poets is often determined, if not directed, by circumftances and accident. It is natural, that even fo original a writer as Milton should have been biaffed by the reigning poetry of the day, by the compofition moft in fashion, and by fubjects recently brought forward, but foon giv ing way to others, and almost as foon totally neglected and forgot ten." DO CHARAC WE CHARACTER OF COMUS. E must not read Comus with an eye to the ftage, or with the expectation of dramatic poetry. Under this reftriction, the abfuidity of the Spirit peaking to an audience in a folitary foreft at midnight, and the want of reciprocation in the dialogue, are overlooked. Comus is a fuite of fpeeches, not interesting by difcrimination of charader; not conveying a variety of incidents, nor gradually exciting curiofity: but perpetually attracting attention by fublime fentiment, by fanciful imagery of the richet vein, by an exuberance of picturefque defcription, poetical alJuticn, and ornamental expreffion. While it widely departs from the gro efque anomalies of the mafk new in fafhion, it does not nearly approach to the natural conflituton of a regular play. There is a chastity in the application and concuct of the machinery and Sabrina is introduced with much addrefs, after the brothers had imprudently fuffered the inchantment of Comus to take effect. This is the first time the old English mafk was in fome degree reduced to the principles and form of rational compofition. A great critic obferves, that the difpute between the lady and Comus is the most animated and affecting fcene of the piece. Perhaps fome other fcenes, either confifting only of a foliloquy, or of three or four fpeeches only, have afforded more true pleafure. The action is faid to be improbable: because the brothers, when their fifter finks with fatigue in a pathlefs wildernefs, wander both away together in fearch of berries, too far to find their way back, and leave a helpless lady to all the fadnefs and danger of folitude. But here is no defertion, or neglect of the lady. The brothers leave their fifter under a spreading pine in the foreft, fainting for refrefhment: they go to procure ber ries or fome other fruit for her im mediate relief, and, with great probability, lofe their way in going or returning. To fay nothing of the poet's art, in making this very natural and fimple accident to be productive of the diftrefs, which forms the future bufinefs and complication of the fable. It is certainly a fault, that the brothers, although with fome indications of anxiety, fhould enter with fo much tranquillity, when their fifter is loft, and at leifure pronounce philofophical panegyrics on the myfteries of virginity. But we must not too fcrupuloufly attend to the exigencies of fituation, nor fuffer ourselves to fuppofe that we are reading a play, which Milton did not mean to write. Thefe fplendid infertions will pleafe, independently of the ftory, from which however they refult: and their elegance and fublimity will overbalance their want of place. In a Greek tragedy, fuch fentimental harangues, arifing from the fubject, would have been given to a chorus. "On the whole, whether Comus, be or be not, deficient as a drama, whether it is confidered as an epic drama, a series of lines, a mafk, or a poem, I am of opinion, that our author is here only inferior to his own Paradife Loft." GENERAL of an English mob around their fellow-creatures, when engaged in furious battle, in which it is poffible, that fome of the combatants may receive a mortal blow, and be hurried, dreadful thought! in this awful state, to the bar of his Judge. "Let us furvey the multitudes which, in every part of the king dom, always attend an execution. It may perhaps be faid, that, in all places the vulgar have little of the fenfibility and tenderness of more polifhed bofoms. But, in the fast mentioned inftance, an execution, there is no exultation in the fufferings of the poor criminal. He is regarded by every eye with the moit melting compaffion. The whole affembly fympathizes with him in his unhappy fituation. An awful fillness prevails at the dreadful moment. Many are wrung with unutterable fenfations: and prayer and filence declare, more loudly than any language could, the intereft they feel in his diftrefs. Should a reprieve come to rescue him from death, how great is the general triumph and congratulation! And, probably, in this multitude you will find, not the mere vulgar herd alone, but the man of fuperior knowledge, and of more refined fenfibility; who, led by fome ftrong principle, which we with to explain, feels a pleasure greater than all the pain, great and exquifite as one fhould imagine it to be, from fuch a spectacle. "The man who condemns many of the scenes we have already mentioned as barbarous and fhocking, would, probably, run with the greatet eagernefs to fome high cliff, overhanging the ocean, to fee it fwelled into tempeft, though a poor veffel, or even a fleet of veffels, were to appear as one part of the dreadful fcenery, now lifted to the heavens on the foaming furge, now plunged deep into the fathomlefs abyfs, and now dashed upon the rocks, where they are, in a moment, fhivered into fragments, and, with all their mariners, entombed in the wave. Or, to vary the quef tion a little; Who would not be forward to stand fafe, on the top of fome mountain or tower, adjoining to a field of battle, in which two armies meet in defperate conflict, though, probably, thoufands may foon lie before him proftrate on the ground, and the whole field prefent the most horrid fcenes of carnage and defola ion? "That, in all thefe cafes, plea fure predominates in the com pounded feeling, is plain from hence, because you continue to furvey the fcene; whereas when pain became the stronger fenfation, you would certainly retire. I was lately in company with a gentle man, who defcribed to me, in very glowing and picturefque colours, an engagement between two privateers, of which he had been a fpectator from one of the cliffs on the eaftern coaft of England. Several lives were loft; and the conteft was long, doubtful, and fevere. Having this fubject in my thoughts,. I asked him, whether he felt ple fure in the fpectacle. He answered with great energy, that he would not have miffed the fight for a very confiderable fum. His tone and manner proved that he spoke from his heart. "Cultivation may, indeed, have produced fome minuter differences in the tafte and feelings of different minds. Thofe, whofe fenfibilities have not been refined by education or fcience, may feel the pleasure in a more grofs and brutal form. But do not the most polished na tures |
