CRITICISM
A poet at once so learned and so great as Milton inevitably invited criticism. The first and most generous of his critics {253} was his great rival Dryden, who, in a few words of the preface to The State of Innocence, published the year after Milton's death, led the note of praise, which has been echoed ever since by speaking of Paradise Lost as "one of the greatest, most noble and most sublime poems which either this age or nation has produced." The next great name in the list is that of Addison, who contributed a series of papers on Milton to the Spectator in 1712. Like all criticism except the work of the supreme masters, they are written too exclusively from the point of view of their own day to retain more than a small fraction of their value after two hundred years have passed. But they are of considerable historical interest and may still be read with pleasure, like everything written by Addison. A less sympathetic but finer piece of work is the critical part of Johnson's famous Life. It is full of crudities of every sort, such as the notorious remark that "no man could have fancied that he read Lycidas with pleasure had he not known the author"; and perhaps nothing Johnson over wrote displayed more nakedly the narrow limits of his appreciation of poetry. But, in spite of all its defects, it exhibits its writer's great gifts; and its absolute and unshrinking sincerity, its half-reluctant utterance of some of the truest praise ever spoken of Milton, its profound knowledge of the way in which the human mind approaches both literature and life, will always preserve it as one of the most interesting criticisms which Milton has provoked. Johnson's friend, Thomas Warton, in his edition of the minor poems issued in 1785, led the way to an understanding of much in Milton to which Johnson and his school were entirely blind. This movement has continued ever since, and is seen in the immense influence Milton had upon the poets of the nineteenth century, especially upon Wordsworth and Keats; an influence of exactly the opposite sort to that which he exercised with such disastrous effect upon many poets of the century immediately succeeding his own. It is also seen in the finer intelligence of the critical studies of his work. These are far too many to mention here. Among the best are Hazlitt's Lecture on Shakspeare and Milton in his Lectures on the English Poets; Matthew Arnold's speech at the unveiling of a Milton memorial, printed in the second series of his Essays in Criticism; Sir Walter Raleigh's volume, Milton, published in 1900, and The Epic, by Lascelles Abercrombie, 1914, which is full of fine and suggestive criticism of Milton. Milton's Prosody by Robert Bridges, 1901, is the best study of the metre and scansion of Milton's later poems, especially of Paradise Lost.
{254}
INDEX TO PRINCIPAL PERSONS, PLACES, AND WORKS MENTIONED
Abercrombie, L., 136-7, 253 Absalom and Achitophel, 105 Achilles in Scyros, 246 Addison, Joseph, 77, 253 Adonais, 125 Ad Patrem, 39-40. Aeneid, The, 150, 175, 196 Aeschylus, 245 À Kempis, Thomas, 147 Aldersgate Street, 46 All for Love, 243 Allegro, L', 41, 70, 93, 99, 106 et sqq., 123, 239 Anglesey, Earl of, 72, 82 Annesley, Arthur, 72 Aquinas, Thomas, 157 Arbuthnot, Epistle to, 105 Arcades, 41, 42 Arcadia, 58 Areopagitica, 44, 49, 64 Arianism, 204 Ariosto, 153 Aristotle, 86, 200 Arnold Matthew, 164, 253 Arthurian Epic (planned), 45, 148-9 At a Solemn Music, 13, 42, 97, 100, 103, 147 Athens, 205-6, 209 Aubrey, John, 29, 252
Barbican, the, 54
Baroni, Leonora, 44-5
Barrow, Samuel, 82
Beeching, Rev. H. C., 251
Bentley, Richard, 250
Bibliography, 250-3
Blake, Admiral, 57
Bohn's Standard Library, 252
Bow Church, 25
Bread Street, 24, 75
Bridges, Robert, 26, 108, 222, 223, 246, 253
Brief Lives, 252
Buckingham, Duke of, 58
Byron, Lord, 90
Cambridge, 28, 29, 30, 31-7, 39, 42, 85, 120, 121, 124, 250, 252
Carlyle, Thomas, 262
Caroline, Queen, 77
Charles I, 11, 28, 58, 59, 60, 63, 64, 67, 71, 72, 86
Charles II, 47, 60, 65, 71, 73, 82, 86
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 90, 111
Christina, Queen of Sweden, 60
Christ's College, Cambridge, 28, 29, 120, 121, 124, 252
Clarendon, Earl of, 73
Clarges, Sir Thomas, 72
Coleridge, S. T., 206
Comus, 13, 41, 42, 95, 100, 110, 112-13 et sqq., 128, 242
Constable, 135
Coriolanus, 85
Cowper, William, 69, 251
Criticisms, 252-3
Cromwell, Oliver, 55, 57, 63, 64, 67, 68, 69, 71, 133, 139, 176
Dante, 10, 11-12, 33, 120, 153-7 Daphnaïda, 125 Davenant, William, 72 Defensio Regia, 60, 61 Defensio Secunda, 61 De Quincey, Thomas, 96 Diodati, Charles, 42, 124, 125 Divina Commedia, La, 120, 157 Divorce pamphlets, 50 et sqq. Doctrina Christiana, De, 252 Dorset, Earl of, 81 Dowland, Robert, 28 Drayton, Michael, 124 Drummond, William, 124, 135 Dryden, John, 80-2, 90, 103, 104-5, 117, 241, 253
Eikon Basilike, the, 57-8 Eikonoklastes, 58, 61 Electra, The, 245 Elizabeth, Queen, 85 English Men of Letters Series, 252 Epic, The, 253 Epigrams, Latin, on La Baroni, 45 Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, 36, 37, 97, 103 Epitaphium Damonis, 124 Essays in Criticism, 253 Euripides, 77, 82, 245 Excursion, The, 136, 228-9
Faerie Queen, The, 115 Fairfax, General, 139, 171 Faithful Shepherdess, The, 115 Fasti Oxonienses, 252 Faust, 196 Fire of London, 75 Flaxman, John, 251 Fletcher, John, 107, 115 Florence, 43, 44, 46 France, 43, 46, 59
Galileo, 44, 45
Gerusalemme Conquistata (Tasso), 45
Gibbons, Orlando, 28
Goethe, J. W. von, 230, 244
Gorges, Mrs., 125
Grotius, Hugo, 43
Hamlet, 24, 243
Hampden, John, 171
Hayley, William, 251
Hazlitt, William, 253
Hippolytus, 245
History of Britain, 78
Homer, 77, 82, 84, 89, 152, 153, 155, 171, 230
Horace, 69
Horton, 37, 40, 41, 42, 111
Hume, Patrick, 250
Iliad, The, 154, 155, 157, 162
Imitation, The, of Christ, 147-8
Indemnity, Act of, 72, 73, 74
Independent Army, The, 55, 56
Italian travels, 43-6
James I, 58
Jebb, Prof., 242-3, 244
Job, Book of, 21, 82
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 125, 126, 160, 162, 175, 194, 196, 206,
207, 227, 252, 253
Jones, Inigo, 16, 114
Jonson, Ben, 114, 115
Keats, John, 79, 90, 102, 110, 125, 253
Keightley, Thomas, 251
King, Edward, 42, 91, 124, 125, 127, 128-31
Landor, Walter Savage, 132 Lawes, Henry, 41, 82, 91, 116, 119 Lawrence, Henry, 69-70, 133 Lectures on the English Poets, 253 Lee, Sir Sidney, 252 Letters of State, 252 Lives of Milton, 251, 252, 253 Lives of the Poets, 252 London, 25, 49; fire of, 75 Long Parliament, 47, 63, 64, 171 Lycidas, 13, 41, 42, 90, 91, 100, 106, 123 et sqq.
Mackail, J. W., 94-5, 206, 211
Manso, Giovanni, 45
Marini, 45
Marlowe, Christopher, 107
Marvell, Andrew, 69, 73
Massacres in Piedmont, sonnets on, 68, 133, 139, 140-1
Masson, D., 24, 52, 68, 73, 75, 251
Medea, The, 245
Meredith, George, 134
Milton, 253
Milton's Prosody, 224, 253
Milton's relations:—
Daughters, 11, 54, 69, 75-77, 218
Deborah, 77-8
Father, 27, 29, 37, 38-40, 42, 43, 49, 54, 75
Infant son, 76
Mother, 40
Nephews, 46, 54, 61, 70, 252
Wives—
First, see Powell, Mary.
Second, 54, 69, 71
Third, 54
Mitford, John, 252
Monk, General, 72
Morley, Thomas, 28
Morrice, —, 72
Morus, 69
Napoleon, 9, 139
Newbolt, Henry, 120
Newton, Thomas, 251
Ode on the Nativity, 35-6, 37, 91, 93-4, 97, 98-103
Odyssey, The, 162, 196
Oedipus Coloneus, 237, 248
Oedipus Tyrannus, 233, 238, 243
On Attaining the Age of Twenty-three, sonnet, 91, 133
On His Blindness, sonnet, 62-3, 133
On the Death of a Fair Infant, 35, 97-9
Orations, 34-5
Othello, 150
Ovid, 33, 77, 124
Pamphlets, 49, 56, 69, 71
Paradise Lost, 13, 24, 25, 28, 44, 47, 55, 71, 78, 79,
80, 82, 88, 89, 90, 94, 95, 97, 101, 104, 106, 112, 113,
118, 120, 123, 125, 137, 142 et sqq., 196, 197 et sqq.,
239, 240, 247, 248, 250, 251, 253
Paradise Regained, 13, 24, 44, 78, 167, 196 et sqq.,
227, 248, 250, 251
Passion, The, 103
Pattison, Mark, 131, 132, 197, 252
Penseroso, Il, 41, 70, 93, 100, 106 et sqq., 239
Persae, The, 245
Petrarch, 33, 134, 135
Phillips, Edward, 252
Pickering, William, 252
Pindar, 117
Plato, 8, 9-10, 21, 111, 156
Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue, 115
Poems, editions of, 250-1, 252
Poetical Works, The, of Mr. John Milton, 250
Pope, A., 85, 90, 91, 105, 222, 223
Portraits, 252
Powell family, 50, 53
Powell, Mary, 50-4, 69, 71
Prelude, The, 136, 228-9
Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, 60, 61
Prometheus the Fire-Giver, 246
Prometheus Unbound, 102
Prometheus Vinctus, 21, 243, 245
Prose Works, 47 et sqq., 251-2
Psalms, the, 139-40; paraphrases of, 95
Purcell, Henry, 16
Pym, John, 171
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 198, 253
Ranelagh, Lady, 69
Ready and Easy Way A, to
Establish a Free Commonwealth, 65
Reason, The, of Church Government, 13, 37
Regicides, the, 55, 63, 71, 74
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 16
Rome, 44, 209
Rossetti, Dante G., 133, 135
St. Brides', Fleet Street, 46
St. Giles' Church, Cripplegate, 79
St. John, J. A., 252
St. Paul, 9, 144, 218
St. Paul's Cathedral, 89, 193
Salmasius, 59-62, 69, 218
Samson Agonistes, 13, 20, 24, 78, 83, 99, 199, 219 et sqq., 250
Sansovino's Library, Venice, 193
Saumaise, see Salmasius.
Scudamore, Lord, 43
Shakspeare, W., 9, 14, 17, 32, 35, 36, 80, 85, 90, 103, 114, 118,
145, 166, 247; sonnets, 133-5, 253
Shelley, P. B., 20, 29, 50, 79, 90, 99, 102, 111, 125, 228
Shelley, Mrs. P. B., 50
Sidney, Sir Philip, 58, 98, 124, 135
Skinner, Cyriack, 62, 133
Smithfield, 72
Song on May Morning, 36, 107
Sonnets, 47, 54, 62-3, 68, 69, 91, 106, 131 et sqq.
Sophocles, 82, 233, 245
Spectator, The, 253
Spenser, Edmund, 93, 97, 98, 111, 115, 116, 124, 125, 153
State, The, of Innocence, 240, 253
Statius, 157
Strafford, Earl of, 171
Sumner, Rev. C. R., 252
Symmons, Charles, 252
Tasso, Torquato, 45, 82, 153, 164
Tennyson, Alfred, 69, 90, 197
Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, 56, 58, 75
Theocritus, 124
Todd, Rev. H. J., 251
Toland, John, 251
Tonson, Jacob, 250
Treatise of Christian Doctrine, 252
Trinity College Library, 89, 250
Turner, J. W. M., 16
Tyburn, 71, 90
Verrall, A. W., 240
Virgil, 82, 84, 89, 91, 124, 139, 150, 152, 153, 155, 157, 163, 175
Vita Nuova, La, 120
Waller, Edmund, 104
Warton, Joseph, 118, 126, 214
Warton, Thomas, 253
Whitehall, 58, 70, 74, 219
Williamson, Dr. G. C., 252
Winchester, Marchioness of, 36
Windsor, 37
Windsor Castle, 40
Wood, Anthony à, 31, 35, 252
Wordsworth, W., 26, 34, 79, 90, 131, 133, 135, 137, 140, 141,
206, 227-30; sonnets, 137-41, 253
Works, The, of John Milton, in Prose and Verse, 252
Wren, Sir Christopher, 16, 89
Wright, W. Aldis, 251
Young, Thomas, 27