I must own I have not learnt a good deal by it, and the Reading of it has not excited any Impatience in me to read any new Heroick Poem. I have long despair'd to see another good Dramatick, and much more an Epick Poem in English, and cannot hope now to see one in French, which never yet was seen: However, I wish so well to all such generous Enterprizes, that I think it barbarous to give them the least Discouragement.
My Objections to this Gentleman's Criticisms are for what he says too ill of Milton's Poem, and too good of Clarendon's History, which he highly commends for the fine Characters, tho' he seems not to understand them, or not to have inform'd himself sufficiently of the Facts on which they are founded. He assures us the Lord Clarendon has unravell'd all the Springs of the Civil Wars. I pass by the Expression to unravel a Spring, for that probably it sounds better in the French Idiom than in the English: But the Sense of it is not true in Fact. He has drawn, at full Length, the pictures of those whose Ambition shook the Foundation of his Country. He has drawn them at full Length indeed, but as Milton drew his shadowy Beings, Death, Sin, Chaos, by the Extent of his Imagination, and with little Regard to Historical Likeness, or copying after Nature; his Pictures on the King's Side being to a Man, all so many Heroes; on that of the Parliament so many Scoundrels; which was impossible to be true: For, besides that it was not in the Course, so it was not in the Nature of the Thing, that so many heroical Persons should take Party for Oppression and Superstition, and so many Blockheads and Poltrons espouse the Cause of Religion and Liberty.
But I do not wonder that this Critick is so extreamly civil to the Author of the History of the Rebellion. He censures Milton for drawing the Pictures of Death and the Devil with so much Deformity. Satan, Sin, and Death, must needs shock the Readers of a delicate Taste. As if it was possible for the Imagination to paint any Thing so ugly as the Devil is in every One's Conception, and that the more shocking such Painting is, it was not the more natural, as being the more conformable to the Idea which every one has conceiv'd of the Original. 'Tis true, the Devil and Death are not Subjects to touch the Delicacy of Readers, but are extreamly proper to move Horrour and Detestation, which are there the Moral of that Divine Poem. If the Scene of Paradise was opening, the Reader might have expected something to have touch'd his Delicacy; but when he came, as in Milton, to the Gates of Hell wide open, he certainly should have left his Delicacy behind him. Hans Holben's Death's Dance is a merry Piece, but was no more proper to admit of Delicacy than the Droll Pieces of Heemskirk; and it would not be more extravagant to put Perfumes among the Ingredients of a Stink-Pot, than to put Delicacy in a Picture of the Devil. One of the most masterly Pieces of the greatest Matter of the Lombard School, a Carcass on a Butcher's Stall with the Gutts and Garbage about it, was much admir'd by the Italians, whose Delicacy is exemplary to other Nations; whence one may conclude, that whatever Subject has Truth and Likeness in it according to Nature, or our Conception of it, will always please, as an exact: and lively Imitation. I shall take no more Notice of the Criticisms on Milton in this Place, nor perhaps in any other; but I can never read the Remarks of the Criticks on the Paradise Lost, without calling to Mind the Boast of King Alphonso, who criticising on the Form of the Creation, said, If he had been consulted in it, it should have been more perfect.
FINIS.
Transcriber's Notes
The following printer's errors have been corrected:
Page ii. "What" changed to "Want" (not for Want of Will)
"Maniere" changed to "Manière" (La Manière De Bien Penser)
Page 2. "they they" changed to "they" ("for that they are put into Rhime")
Page 3. "Aristtotle" changed to "Aristotle" (given by Aristotle, Horace, &c.)
Page 7. "Spectator" emphasized (The Spectator, with all his Modesty)
"parricularly" changed to "particularly" (and particularly how beautiful his Imagination was)
"Spectator" emphasized (read in the Spectator, No 291)
Page 8. "Catherines" changed to "Catherine's" (her Husband at St. Catherine's)
Page 12. "Aristtotle" changed to "Aristotle" (We all know Aristotle)
"Aristottle" changed to "Aristotle" (what will become of Aristotle)
Page 16. "Spectator" emphasized (The Spectator gives us another Mark)
"Spectator" emphasized (deprived the Spectator himself)
Page 22. "Spectator" emphasized (the Spectator has entered a Caveat)
"geat" changed to "great" (The great Creator from his Work returned)
Page 23. "Spectator" emphasized (the Ode in the Spectator, No 465)
"Phæbus" changed to "Phœbus" (Phœbus is arriv'd)
Page 28. "Spectator" emphasized (especially those Verses in the Spectator)
Page 31. "Jove" emphasized (Thou once didst leave Almighty Jove,)
"Spectator" emphasized (In the Spectator, No 388)
Page 32. "Agreeble" changed to "Agreeable" (Agreeable Thoughts may be also reckon'd)
Page 33. "Spectator" emphasized (before the Spectator was thought of)
Page 34. "Spectator" emphasized (because they are in the Spectator)
"No Sidley" changed to "No [400.] Sidley" (missing number supplied)
Page 39. "llght" changed to "light" (They light the Nuptial Torch)
Page 40. "mady" changed to "many" (the gay, and many more)
Page 41. "Cilenos" changed to "Cileno's" (There where Cileno's foul and loathsome Rout;)
Page 42. "Which" changed to "Which" (Which / Medusa with Gorgonian Terror)
Page 44. "the Spectator" changed to "the Spectator" (Nay some, says the Spectator)
"Stile" changed to "Stile." (the Puerile Stile.)
"inftead" changed to "instead" (instead of dismaying the Combatants)
Page 48. "mishapen" changed to "misshapen" (Purpose, misshapen, ill-favoured)
"Interpretions" changed to "Interpretations" (two or three Interpretations only)
Page 53. "Piso's" changed to "Piso's" (the Piso's was written by Direction of the Academy)
"aod" changed to "and" (with like Profit and Pleasure)
"Ablancourt's Thucydides" changed to "Ablancourt's Thucydides"
Page 54. "Du Ryer's Livy" changed to "Du Ryer's Livy"
"Segrais Virgil" changed to "Seagrais's Virgil"
Page 56. "Pindars" changed to "Pindar's" (as good as Pindar's or Horace's)
Page 58. "Philosoper" changed to "Philosopher" (The Philosopher Seneca's Works he pretended)
Page 59. "Philip's" changed to "Philips's" (Mr. Philips's Poems, the splendid Shilling and Cyder)
"Ariconian" emphasized (Of Ariconian Products)
"Philps" changed to "Philips" (stile of Milton as Philips has done)
Page 60. "ourtaking" changed to "our taking" (to what most of our taking Authors have been)
Page 66. "Spectator" emphasized (the Spectator has disgraced the Use)
Page 68. "Translator" changed to "Translation" and "Translation" changed to "Translator" (undertake a Translation with more Advantage than the last Translator)
"no" changed to "to" (down to Dacier)
Page 69. "tonjours" changed to "toujours" (J'ay toujours fait beaucoup de cas)
Page 73. "Spectator" emphasized (In the Spectator, No 297. you read thus)
Page 74. "goods" changed to "gods" (the Break, good gods! has more)
"Spectator" emphasized (Which the Spectator speaks of as inexpressibly beautiful)
"Spectator" emphasized (Laugh and Clap. Spectator, No 39)
"Bouhours" changed to "Bouhour's" (in one Verse in all Father Bouhour's)
Page 75. "qnælibet" changed to "quælibet" (Et Vini bonitas, & quælibet altera Causa.)
Page 76. "Whiston's" changed to "Whistons" (the Whistons into Mathematicks)
Page 83. "suth" changed to "such" (such as the Port Royal)
"Histories" emphasized (the Grand Rebellion, the Histories, &c.)
Page 87. "hy" changed to "by" (very well markt by Boileau)
"Spectator" changed to "Spectator" (The antient Criticks, says the Spectator)
The following errors were not corrected, as they likely reflect Oldmixon's own ignorance of Greek: