[²] Bible Truths with Shakespearean Parallels. [James Brown.] London, 1862. Preface, pp. xv.–xvii.
The influence of this Hebrew spirit is clearly visible in John Milton’s (1608–1674) poetry. “Paradise Lost,”[¹] the most glorious cosmological epic of the world’s literature, could have been written only by a man who knew the Bible by heart, and whose verse, when he so chose, could consist simply and solely of combinations of texts from the Bible or images influenced by Biblical ideas. The way in which he tells his stories, the elevation of his style, the music of his verse, changing from the roar of the hurricane and the tramp of bannered hosts to the hum of bees and the song of birds, the numerous gem-like phrases and passages which are sure to be quoted for all time—all these wonderful qualities are Biblical. Milton knew Hebrew, and his verse is throughout inspired by the genius of that language. And the spirit which found voice in Milton caused England to take the lead in bringing about religious liberty. This recognition of righteousness and fair play among the nations of the world benefited not only the Jewish nation: some months before Manasseh Ben Israel visited England, the Commonwealth had made a most vigorous protest against the outrage on humanity perpetrated by the persecutors of Protestants in Piedmont.
[¹] Paradise Lost. | A | Poem | Written in | Ten Books | By John Milton | Licensed and Entered according | to Order.
London | Printed, and are to be sold by Peter Parker | under Creed Church neer Aldgate; And by | Robert Boulter at the Turks Head in Bishopsgate-street; | And Matthias Walker, under St. Dunstons Church | in Fleet-street, 1667.
(4to. Title page + A–Z + AA–V in 4 s.)
In 1871 a version in the Holy Language was issued:—
Milton’s Paradise Lost In Hebrew Blank Verse. Translator J. E. S....
שיר יסודתו בכתוב ויגרש את האדם נחלק לשנים עשר ספרים ... ומתורגם יהודית בשפה ברורה ובחרט כתבי הקודש י,ע,ס ...
(8º. 4 ll. + 351 pp.). “The second English edition, 1674, was divided in twelve books.”
Twenty-one years later a free Hebrew rendering was published, under the following title:—
תולדות אדם וחוה ... נעתק חפשי לשפת עבר ... ע״י שמואל בן משה ראפאלאוויץ נדפס פעה״ק ירושלים תובב״ה בשנת תרנ״ב לפ״ק
Milton’s Paradise Lost. Translated in Hebrew by Samuel Raffalovich, Jerusalem, 1892. (8º. 63 pp.)