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end of every line; 'twas the example of our BEST ENGLISH TRAGEDIES bere be followed; HIS HO NOURED SHAKESPEARE.]

'Tis hardly poffible, but that a reader of Shakespeare and Milton must have observed a great resemblance both of ftile and fentiment in these two poets: fee above page 217, 218, what is cited from them concerning the variety of the punishments of the damned: other paffages may be eafily pointed out; as for example.

"O for a faulkner's voice

"To lure this taffel gentle back again."

Sh. Romeo and Juliet, A& II.

"O for that warning voice, which he who faw

"Th' Apocalyps, heard cry in heav'n aloud.”

"The heavenly-harnefs'd team

Milton, IV, 1.

"Begins his golden progrefs in the east.”

"The Morn-begins

"Her rofy progrefs fmiling."

K. Henry IV. A& III.

Milt. XI, 175.

"As eafy may'ft thou the intrenchant air

"With thy keen fword imprefs." Macbeth, A& IV. When vapours fir'd impress the air."

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Milt. IV, 558.

"And with indented glides did flip away."

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In the fame fublime manner EXPECTATION is personalized in Milton. VI, 306.

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So VICTORY is perfonalized, In K. Richard III. A& V. "VICTORY fits on our helms.e'

Again, In Antony and Cleopatra, A& I.

"On your fword

"Sit lawrell'd VICTORY."

Hence Milton. VI, 762.

"At his right hand VICTORY

"Sat eage-wing'd."

In the IVth book, where Satan falls into those doubts with himself, and paffions of fear and despair, Milton uses the fame image, as Shakespeare in defcribing the perturbed and distracted state of Macbeth.

"And like a devilish engine back recoils

"

Upon himself: horror and doubt distract

"His troubled foul." B. IV, 16.

"Who then shall blare

"His pefter'd fenses to recoyl and start

"When all that is within him does condemn

"Itfelf for being there?"

Macbeth, A& V.

Milton, in the defcription of Eve's bower [B. IV, 703.]

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"Beast, bird, infect or worm, durft enter none; "Such was their awe of Man."

So in the fong, inferted in A Midfummer-Night's Dream, Act II. Infects and worms are forbid to approach the

Bower

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Bower of the Queen of Fairies. Callimachus has a thought not unlike, fpeaking of the place where Rhea brought forth Jove.

Ενθεν ὁ χῶρος

Ιερός· ἐδέ τί μιν κεχρημένον Εἰλειθυίης
Ερπεῖὸν, ἐδὶ γυνὴ ἐπινίσσεται.

Hym. I, 11.

Inde locus eft facer: neque prægnans aliquod animal, neque mulier eum adit ulla. Eprelov, is whatever walks or creeps, bird, beaft, infect or worm, as Milton expreffes it; who doubtlefs had both Callimachus and Shakespeare in his mind. And this is very ufual for Milton, in the compass of a few lines to rifle the beauties of various authors, and hence to make them his own by his properly applying and improving them as his divine subject required. This having not been, as I know of, fufficiently attended to, I will instance in one or two paffages.

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"Like that Pygmean race

Beyond the Indian mount; or Fairy elves, "Whose midnight revels by a forest side,

"Or fountain, fome belated peasant sees

"Or dreams he fees; while over-head the moon "Sits arbitress, &c."

Milton is fpeaking of the fallen Angels, who had reduced their immense shapes-firft he says they resembled the PygSee Homer II. y. 6. and Euftath. fol. 281.

mean race.

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"Or Fairy elves

"Whose midnight revels by a forest fide

"Or fountain, &c."

Shakespeare in A Midfummer Night's Dream, A&t II.

"And never fince that middle Summer's spring "That we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,

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"By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,

"Or on the beached margent of the fea

"To dance our ringlets to the whifling wind, &c.””

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Again, the following in Milton.-Some belated peasant fees or dreams he fees is literally from Virgil, Aen. VI, 454. Aut videt aut vidiffe putat. And, while over head the Moon fits arbitrefs: from Horace. L. I. Od. IV.

Fam Cytherea Choros ducit Venus, IMMINENTE LUNA. Milton, B. V. . 5.

"Which th' only found

"Of leaves, and fuming rills, (Aurora's fan) "Lightly difpers'd, and the thrill matin fong "Of birds on every bough.

This is partly Virgil. VIII, 456.

Evandrum ex humili tecto lux fufcitat alma,

Et MATUTINI VOLUCRUM fub culmine CANTUs.

And partly Taffo [B. VII. ft. 5.] thus rendered by Fairfax, "The birds awakt her with their morning fong, "Their warbling muficke pierft her tender eare, "The murmuring brooks, and whistling winds among "The ratling boughes and leaves their parts did beare, &c." From Virgil Milton has literally the matin fong of birds : from Taffo, the found of leaves and rills: his own addition is, Aurora's fan: a pretty poetical image applied to the fanning winds among the leaves of the trees, and the cooling fumes arifing from the rills.

I will add but one paffage more which has already been cited. "Heav'n open'd wide

"Her ever during gates, harmonious found

"On golden hinges moving B. VII, 205.

This, by way of contraft, fhould be compar'd with B. II,

881.

"On a fudden open fly

"With impetuous recoil and jarring found

"Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate "Harfh thunder."

The reader, if he has any ear, will plainly perceive how the found of these verses corresponds to the sense; and how finely they are improved from Virgil. Aen. VI, 573"Tum demum horrifono ftridentes cardine facrae

Panduntur portae.”

Hell gates grate harsh thunder; the gates of Heaven open with harmonious found. This' (to omit Homer and the Pfalmift mentioned already) he had from Amadis de Gaul, B. IV. Ch. XI. where he describes the palace of Apolidon. And the Witty Rabelais [B. V. Ch. 37.] has the self-fame image.- In these two last instances here brought no mention is made of Shakespeare, but this fmall digreffion, perhaps, the reader will excufe as it fhews in a new light fome fine paffages of our epic poet.

INDE X.

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