The Sun.
London, England, 1834-07-08 00:00:00

,-.

LITERATURE.

MILTON'S PROSE AND POETICAL WORKS,
I. Vol. London, 1834.

We have here the entire works of Milton, incorporated,
-to suit the taste and economical tendency of the times, in
one handsome, cheap volume, not the least recommendation
of which is Mr. Fletcher's introductory essay, who has
brought to his task, tact, diligence, research, and that which
imparts life and freshness to such qualifications, a hearty
love of his subject. It is in this spirit that we would have
Milton canvassed, for his merits can scarcely be overrated,
and even if they could be, still the language of exaggeration
becomes almost an act of duty, when it is remembered what
obloquy he has sustained at the hands of Horsley, War-
burton, Todd, and a host of high churchmen, who have not
I...thought it inconsistent with Christian charity to spit their
venom on his grave. With the exception 9f Dr. Chan-
Ting of Boston, Mr. Fletcher is the most eloquent, as he is
unquestionably the most uncompromising, of all Milton's
defenders. His praise knows neither draw-back, nor reser-
vation. Whatever his idol says—whatever he does, is sure
to be " wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best." He is a sun
without a speck. Having said thus much, we need scarcely
add that Mr. Fletcher is no churchman. Indeed the stern,
bold hand of dissent betrays itself in every page of his essay,
to a degree in point of zeal, that even Milton himself
scarcely surpassed. At times this zeal is pushed to the
verY verge of injustice, as in the sneering allusion to Walter
Scott, and more especially to Johnson, which last, though
no Mend to Milton, is still not a man to be spoken of with
.contempt. Mr. Fletcher, however, thinks otherwise. His
Polemic zeal here knows no bounds. He says of the great
lexicographer that he had "an ear for no music, a soul
in no unison with the sympathies of humanity," and that he
was " fitly doomed to be the giant drudge of the Della
..Crusea.school." Now a more erroneous cluster of asser-
Agoni than these was never yet brought together. So far
!I.°n Johnson having an" ear for no music," his prose abounds
some. of the grandest and most euphonious passages in
-4:01e. language ; witness, his reply to Junius in the pamphlet on
16-Falkland Islands ; his speculations on the temper in
Which Milton " surveyed the silent progress" of his great
work; and his account of the favourite employment of Col-
lin; who loved to " gaze on the golden magnificence of fairy
Palaces, and be lulled to repose by the water-falls of Ely-
- . slum ;"—so far from his having " a soul in no unison with
the sympathies of humanity," he was, though_ rough in
• Manner, the most kind and beneficent of men, as his con-
duct to Miss Williams, to his black servant, to Dr. Dodd,
said almost every page of Boswell, attest ;—so far from his
being the giant drudge of the Della Crusca school," he
was reared And matured in the sound, healthy school of
Dryden and Pope, between whom and the poetasters of the
• %vied and Mwviad, a gulph is fixed, as broad as that of
• Lyons, The truth is, Johnson hated Milton's politics, and
for this Mr. Fletcher lays on the lash, though he should
remember, in justice to the Doctor, that, with all his pre-
judices, he has paid a nobler compliment to Milton than
even his most zealous advocates, observing of him, that
difficulties vanish at his touch ; he was born for whatever
arduous,.and his work is not the greatest of heroic poems,
only because it is not the first "
- If we except this passing sneer at the sage of 80lt-court,
Mr. Fletcher's essay is all that it should be. He confines
himself, however, wholly to Milton's prose, which we regret,
for he has etinced a taste—a perspicacity—a feeling—and
quick apprehension of the sublime, that would have enabled
him to throw new light on the myriad beauties of his poetry.
He Well observes, ‘‘ Milton's name is a synonym for vast-
ness of attainment, sublimity of conception, and splendour
°f.eaPression." His prose, indeed, richly merits this praise.
It has no one marked feature of style, but teems with pro-
. 'digal variety. In one place it is quaint, obscure, wordy ;
-fin another, precise and sententious ; now stern in its sim-
, „°citY, nowlavish in its imagery ; here, drawing its allusions
from republican usages ; and there, from those of chivalry.
Still it never has been—never will be popular, except
°long scholars. It over-taxes thought. It abounds
•- in Archaisms and Latinisms. The same objection
Plies, though in a less degree, to Milton's poetry. It
pre-supposes, in its readers, an acquaintance with classic
literature, consequently must be caviare to a large portion
of them. For instance, what mere English scholar can ap-
preciate the full force of these expressions, which are used
not in an English, but in a derivative sense ?-
-" Let none admire
- That riches grow in hell"—
" The undaunted fiend what this might be, admired,
Admired, not feared—"
" Flowed from their lips, in prose or numerous verse"—
`: Matter to me of glory, whom their hate
Illustrates"—
" Light issues forth, and at the other door
Obsequious darkness enters"—
. " Now night her course begun, and over heav'n
Inducing darkness—"
" With serpent error, Thewa humblentieri —"
,shrub
`•' • And bush with frizzled hair implicit"—
. " Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid"-
- • " Not yet in horrid shade, nor dismal den,
,Nor nocent yet."—
Now was the sun in western cadence low"
. • 7e have picked out these instances at random from Para-
dise Lost, but a hundred others might be as easily adduced
• from his prose works, to show that Milton, who was as
d•elgr imbued with the classic tongues as he was with his
Olin language, often uses terms in reference rather to their
,-than their English, signification. Another reason for
Zei° comparative neglect in which Mr. Fletcher laments that
m.tuten's works are held, is that they do not appeal suffi-
c'ehtlY to the ordinary sympathies of humanity. They are
too rapt--too abstract—too devotional in their character.
stirring
passions and emotions of actual life have little
or nothing to do with them. They institute no curious or
r°uund anatomical-researches into the human heart ; they
not turn it inside out, and place it naked and bleeding
bermeus, like the tragedies of Shakspeare ; they are pure,
uerial emanations of a serene and untroubled intellect,
thnt
dwells " like a star apart" in a region of its own.
ihese remarks apply more especially to the larger poems,
twifih, in addition, show every where the impress of severe
_l.abour,
The lines labour—the thoughts seem dug out of
the brain with difficulty ; though Milton, in his Paradise
assured us that they are " easy and unpremedi-
fo7 The truth is, he never penned a sentence
mere amusement, but always from a strict, solemn
-of duty. He looked on literature as a
tieredu.-vocation, to which he had received a divine call.
'"eieil we turn to him with reverence rather than with
l,ret The very perusal, of his works is an act of devo-
.;.We feel- as if in communion with an inspired spirit,
11
e sensible of none- but the most solemn impressions.
.1) mien bas borrowedmore than Milton. No man has
turned h.
impressof
his individual mind is stamped on every line.
'46 original
even when he is making use of the intellect
in °,taere. It is singular, as Mr. Fletcher remarks, that
his Inaugural Discourse at Glasgow, Lord Brougham,
though he makes honourable mention of Hooker, Taylor,
and,,.. other great ecclesiastical writers, says not a word of
alßton. The great schoolmaster of the Common-wealth is
Passed by in silence by the great schoolmaster of Reform.
Vie. regret this neglect, for never was one man better qua-
ilted to estimate the mind of another, than Brougham
that of Milton.
It is an old story, that though Milton's polemic works
Pecially his reply to Salmasius—resounded throu h-
eut Europe, • his " Paradise Lost" fell stillii-born from gthe
Press. Notwithstanding its bold, startling c erecter—not_ Withsturr „
umg that language seems positively to stagger and
it br down under the overwhelming grandeur ofits thoughts,
144idttivvicileasd7noant age by no means deficient in penetration,
the slightest effect. Yet at the moment while
dm; lying unnoticed on the booksellers' shelves, a
and!as alive whose works were the delight of the Court,
El the more educated circles. We allude to Waller,
apostate—the petite maitre—the poetaster. This man,
nweu:esre. hterarY, was as worthless as his political, life ; who
Penned. a line worth reading ; whose fancy is feeble
••••ou
_swea
se ito:atu_ithle e
ryand
nameu-ho whose ognal
ve itsi notion
mistress,o ftv o woman, as may
Sachari;sa,"b
e
writing to saheef was
as sweet as a sugar-lum r lollipop,
friend at Court thus speaks of " Paradise
Lost" Th
illasterswito
bathre is also one John Milton, a blind old school-
'luerk to r writ a poem, which hath length, if not
like ecornmend it !" Conceive the fame of a giant
conceiveody..io.g
at the mercy of a dwarf like Waller !
a irilized sore dwelling in transport on the pretti-
"vss of the " Ode to''a Rose," yet unable to appreciate the
cha
raeter of Satun ! Yet why should we wonder at such blind-