Atterbury, and among the rest Sir Roger Lestrange, though he had formerly written a piece entitled No blind Guides, &c. against Milton's Notes upon Dr. Griffith's sermon". There were two editions more in P Later biographers have very successfully shewn that the complaints of the original unpopularity of the Paradise Lost have been without foundation, or, at the least, have been greatly exaggerated. Dr. Johnson has several judicious observations on the proof of the early estimation of the poem arising from the sale itself. "The sale, if it be con"sidered, will justify the public. "... The call for books was not "in Milton's age what it is at "present. . . . To prove the pau"city of readers, it may be suffi"cient to remark, that the na"tion had been satisfied from "1623 to 1664, that is, forty-one years, with only two editions "of the works of Shakespeare, "which probably did not to"gether make one thousand co"pies. The sale of thirteen "hundred copies of the Paradise "Lost in two years, in opposition "to so much recent enmity, and to a style of versification new "to all and disgusting to many, was an uncommon example of "the prevalence of genius. The "demand did not immediately "increase; for many more readers "than were supplied at first the "nation did not afford." Life of Milton. Hence it may be presumed that E. Philips had grounds for his assertion, when in an article on his Brother in his Theatrum Poetarum, printed the year after Milton's death, he declares (as Mr. Hayley remarks) that "many "both learned and judicious per"sons" are of opinion that Milton was "the exactest of heroic poets, either of the ancients or "moderns, either of our own or "whatever nation else." Mr. Todd observes, that Dryden's Preface to his State of Innocence appeared almost imme. diately after the death of Milton, and in this the Paradise Lost is described as " undoubtedly one "of the greatest, most noble, and "most sublime poems, which "either this age or nation has "produced." Among other early notices and commendations of Paradise Lost, Mr. Todd points out a Translation of the first Book into Latin, which appeared in 1685. And before this time, Mr. Godwin observes, it had been commended by the Duke of Buckinghamshire, and in Lord Roscommon's Essay on translated verse. In the space indeed of little more than eleven years, as Dr. Symmons calculates, 4500 copies were purchased by different individuals; and before the expiration of twenty years the poem passed through six editions, "a circumstance," he continues, "which abundantly proves that "it was not destitute of popula"rity before it obtained its full "and final dominion over the folio, one I think in 1692, the other in 1695, which was the sixth edition; for the poem was now so well received, that notwithstanding the price of it was four times greater than before, the sale increased double the number every year; as the bookseller, who should best know, has informed us in his dedication of the smaller editions to Lord Sommers. Since that time not only various editions have been printed, but also various notes and translations. The first person who wrote annotations upon Paradise Lost was P. H. or Patrick Hume, of whom we know nothing, unless his name may lead us to some knowledge of his country, but he has the merit of being the first (as I say) who wrote notes upon Paradise Lost, and his notes were printed at the end of the folio edition in 1695. Mr. Addison's Spectators upon the subject contributed not a little to establishing the character, and illustrating the beauties, of the poem. In 1732 appeared Dr. Bentley's new edition with notes: and the year following Dr. Pearce published his Review of the text, in which the chief of Dr. Bentley's emendations are considered, and several other emendations and observations are offered to the public. And the year after that Messieurs Richardson, father and son, published their Explanatory notes and remarks. The poem has been also translated into several languages, Latin, Italian, French, and Dutch; and proposals have been made for translating it into Greek. The Dutch translation is in blank verse, and printed at Haerlem. The French have a translation by Mons. Dupré de St. Maur; but nothing showeth the weakness and imperfection of their language more, than that they have few or no good poetical versions of the greatest poets; they are forced to translate Homer, Virgil, and Milton into prose: blank verse their language has not harmony and dignity enough to support; their tragedies, and many of their comedies, are in rhyme. Rolli, the famous Italian master here in England, made an Italian translation; and Mr. Richardson the son saw another at Florence in manuscript by the learned Abbé Salvini, the same who translated Addison's Cato into Italian. One William Hog or Hogæus translated Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes into Latin verse in 1690; but this version is very unworthy of the originals. There is a better translation of the Paradise Lost by Mr. Thomas Power, Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, the first book of which was printed in 1691, and the rest in manuscript is in the library of that College. The learned Dr. Trapp has also published translation into Latin verse; and the world is in expectation of another, that will surpass all the rest, by Mr. William Dobson, of New College in Oxford'. So 9 M. Monneron, a member of the Legislative Body, has published a version of the Paradise Lost; and, what is of more consequence, a translation of our great epic has just been given to the world by L'Abbé Delille. Symmons. According to Oldys it had also been translated by M. de Bocage and by M. Durand. There are now numerous translations of the Paradise Lost into most of the languages of Europe. See a list of them annexed to Mr. Todd's Life of Milton. E. The first six books were published at Oxford in 4to. in 1750, and the rest in 1753. This being reputed the best translation, Mr. Dobson received a thousand pounds, which had been proposed for this undertaking in 1735 by Mr. Benson, Auditor of the Imprest. Biogr. Brit. Art. Milton. In 1736, the celebrated Richard Dawes published proposals for printing by subscription a Greek version of the first book of Par. Lost. He gave a specimen of his translation of B. i. from v. 249 to 263, which Dr. Birch has preserved in his Life of Milton, p. lxi. ed. 1753; but the work was never completed. E. that by one means or other Milton is now considered as an English classic; and the Paradise Lost is generally esteemed the noblest and most sublime of modern poems, and equal at least to the best of the ancient; the honour of this country, and the envy and admiration of all others! In 1670 he published his History of Britain, that part especially now called England. He began it above twenty years before, but was frequently interrupted by other avocations; and he designed to have brought it down to his own times, but stopped at the Norman conquest; for indeed he was not well able to pursue it any farther by reason of his blindness, and he was engaged in other more delightful studies; having a genius turned for poetry rather than history. When his History was printed, it was not printed perfect and entire; for the licenser expunged several passages, which reflecting upon the pride and superstition of the Monks in the Saxon times, were understood as a concealed satire upon the Bishops in Charles the Second's reign. But the author himself gave a copy of his unlicensed papers to the Earl of Anglesea, who, as well as several of the nobility and gentry, constantly visited him: and in 1681 a considerable passage which had been suppressed at the beginning of the third book was published, containing a character of the Long Parliament and Assembly of Divines in 1641, which was inserted in its proper place in the last edition of 1738. Bishop Kennet begins his Complete History of England with this work of Milton, as being the best draught, the clearest and most authentic account of those early times: and his style is freer and easier than in most of his other works, more plain and simple, less figurative and metaphorical, and better suited to the nature of history, has enough of the Latin turn and idiom to give it an air of antiquity, and sometimes rises to a surprising dignity and majesty. In 1670 likewise his Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes were licensed together, but were not published till the year following". It is somewhat remarkable, that these two poems were not printed by Simmons, the same who printed the Paradise Lost, but by J. M. for one Starkey in Fleet-street: and what could induce Milton to have recourse to another printer? was it because the former was not enough encouraged by the sale of Paradise Lost to become a purchaser of the other copies? The first thought of Paradise Regained was owing to Elwood the quaker, as he himself relates the occasion in the history of his life. When Milton had lent him the manuscript of Paradise Lost at St. Giles Chalfont, as we said before, and he returned it, Milton asked him how he liked it, and what he thought of it: "Which I modestly, but "freely told him, says Elwood; and after some further "discourse about it, I pleasantly said to him, Thou "hast said much of Paradise Lost, but what hast thou "to say of Paradise Found? He made me no answer, "but sat some time in a muse; then broke off that discourse, and fell upon another subject." When Elwood afterwards waited upon him in London, Milton showed him his Paradise Regained, and in a pleasant tone said to him, "This is owing to you, for you put * At the price, bound, of two Catalogue, 1675. Todd. shillings and sixpence, Clavel's |