Thefe and fome other obfervations, too numerous to be mention'd here, paffed off very well; they carried an air of ingenuity with them, if not of truth. But when Iopas was Virgil, Dido Cleopatra, Achates Maecenas or Agrippa, Iapis Antonius Mufa, &c. what was this but playing the Procruftes with hiftorical facts? SUPPOSE, in like manner, one had a mind to try the fame experiment on Milton, and to imagine that frequently he hinted at thofe times, in which he himself had fo great a fhare both as a writer, and an actor. Thus, for instance, Abdiel may be the be the poet himself: "Nor number nor example with him wrought "To fwerve from truth, or change his conftant "mind "Tho' fingle. "This was all thy care, "To ftand approv'd in fight of God, tho' "" worlds "Judg'd thee perverse. 'Tis not to be fuppofed that the common wealthfman Milton could bear to fee an earthly monarch idolized, deified, called the lord, the anointed, the reprefentative of God: no, that fight he endured not; he drew his pen, and anfwer'd himself the royal writer, 3 ΩΣ ΕΙΠΩΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΟΝ ΜΕΓΑΛΗΤΟΡΑ ΘΥΜΟΝ, thus exploring his own undaunted heart, "O heav'n, that fuch resemblance of the highest "Should yet remain, where faith and realty "Remain not!" Who cannot fee whom he meant, and what particular facts he pointed at in these lines? "So fpake the fiend, and with Neceffity “The Tyrant's plea, excus'd his devilish deeds. · Nor can any one want an interpretation for Nimrod, on whose character he dwells fo long. "Till one fhall rife "Of proud ambitious heart, who (not content "With fair equality, fraternal ftate) "Will arrogate dominion undeferv'd Concord, and law of nature from the earth; "Hunting, (and men, not beafts fhall be his game) "With war and hoftile fnare, fuch as refuse Subjection to his empire tyrannous. "A mighty hunter thence he shall be stil'd "Before the Lord, as in defpite of heav'n "Or of heav'n claiming second fov'reignty: "And from rebellion fhall derive his name, Tho' of rebellion others be accufe. 3. Hom. Il. 403. Could Could the character of Charles the fecond, with his rabble rout of riotous courtiers, or the cavalier fpirit and party just after the restoration be mark'd ftronger and plainer, than in the beginning of the seventh book? "But drive far off the barbarous diffonance "Of Bacchus and his revellers, &c. It needs not be told what nation he points at in the twelfth book. "Yet fometimes nations will decline fo low "From virtue (which is reafon) that no wrong, "But juftice, and fome fatal curse annex'd, "Deprives them of their outward liberty, "Their inward loft. Again, how plain are the civil wars imagined in the fixth book? The Michaels and Gabriels, &c. would have lengthen'd out the battles endless, nor would any folution been found; had not Cromwell, putting on celestial armour, ΤΗΝ ΠΑΝΟΠΛΙΑΝ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ, for this was + Milton's opinion) like the Meffiah all armed in 4. Milton points out this allegory himfelf, in his defence of Smedtym. p. 180, fol. edit. "Then (that I may have "leave to foare awhile as the poets use) then ZEAL, "whofe fubftance is ethereal, arming in compleat diamond, “afcends his fiery chariot drawn with two blazing meteors, 66 " figured in heavenly panoply, and afcending his fiery chariot, driven over the malignant heads of thofe who would maintain tyrannic fway. 66 figured like beafts, but of a higher breed, than any the "zodiack yields, resembling two of those four which "Ezechiel and St. John faw, the one vifaged like a lion, to exprefs a power, high autority and indignation; the "other of count'nance like a man, to caft derifion and scorn upon perverfe and fraudulent feducers: with these the "invincible warriour ZEAL. fhaking loosely the flack reins "drives over the heads of fcarlet prelats and fuch as are "infolent to maintain traditions, brufing their stiff necks " ander his flaming wheels." I have often thought that Milton plan'd his poem long before he was blind, and had written many paffages. There is now extant the first book written in his own hand. He let the world know he was about an epic poem ; but defignedly kept the fubject a secret. In his effay on church government, p. 222. fol. edit. speaking of epic poems, "If to the instinct of nature and the "imboldning of art ought may be trufted, and that there "be nothing advers in our climat or the fate of this age, it "haply would be no rashness from an equal diligence and "inclination, to prefent the like offer in our ancient stories." How near is this to what he writes? IX, 44. Unless an age too late, or cold Climate, or years, damp my intended wing 'Tis easy to fhew from other places in his profe works many the like allufions to his epic poem; which in his blindnefs and retreat from the noifie world, he compleated and brought to a perfection perhaps equal with Homer's or Virgil's. M Let Let us confider his tragedy in this allegorical view. Sampfon imprifon'd and blind, and the captive state of Ifrael, lively reprefents our blind poet with the republican party after the restoration, afflicted and perfecuted. But these revelling idolators will foon pull an old house on their heads; and God will fend his people a deliverer. How would it have rejoiced the heart of the blind feer, had he lived to have feen, with his mind's eye, the accomplishment of his prophetic predictions? when a deliverer came and refcued us from the Philiftine oppreffors. And had he known the fobriety, the toleration and decency of the church, with a Tillotfon at it's head; our laws, our liberties, and our conftitution afcertain'd; and had confidered too the wildness of fanaticifm and enthusiasm; doubtless he would never have been an enemy to fuch a church, and fuch a king. However thefe myftical and allegorical reveries have more amufement in them, than folid truth; and favour but Hittle of cool criticism, where the head is required to be free from fumes and vapours, and rather fceptical than dogmatical. Ne 5 Veri fpeciem dignofcere calles, 5. Perfeus. V, 105. SECT. |