New-York tribune., 1868-08-07
LTTERART.
mILTON's EPITAPH.
Iffh Af tANAAfhf ehNr't'fA ''tts
No. 6 ST. JAMEs's TERRACE. Ju'

No. ST. JAMEs's TERRACE, July p, 1858.
The merit of adding a new piece to the col
lection Of Nous works is not that can fan upon
many men. and Prof Morley must expect to have his
happy restoration Of beautiful poem as the newly
traced Epaph crCey contested The more hercey IS
contested, the better for him and for literature.
For full seven days the battle Of the Eptaph has been
raging in the newspapers the Indian Summer the Cor
rupt Practices b and the hero Of Magdala being all IN
fair way Of falling under public neglect IN the heat and
hustle OF the fray. Prof Morley holds to ms fret
opinion; Prof Mason j. neutral ana sAeltiodli Ir Lye
MIR Eopd and Lord WMchlSca arc-eaCh IN q dlNcItlIt
way-iudicnant; and the pOetca peer Is furious The
being determined or the Yea, would end the matter Is
the poem in Mons styiet Is tic copy OF 1t iA MHtonS
The first point could only be resolved authortatvey
AMI cadence. aided by large scholarship aud close ac-
0uautaucc with MtOuc verse. What has been done, III
objects 10 certain rhymes m The EpItaph as being non
Mhtuuc; h, tis argument poOru tEe cds" WeIep0yed'
tca rhymes from tie poets unqucstioncd works II
deed Lord Nmchise"s letters "it cuIiositlcS M telr
@ Milen i w. "T I yo1id nave shown him mat tJcse
very forms nscd 10y Milton more than once.
No popular faaCy more common than the idea that
Milton was n purst I'm rhyme He was. indeed perfect
master OF rlyihui and cadence; but he was careless
nay. coutemn nUousOf mere rhyme he spoke Of " Ike
eudircsr as Jingle and OF care and craft in rhyme rs
signs Of low genius I0c tue divine art of song am in
chuCd think that r was pullOsey crude ~ tiS matter;
certainly no poet M language has printed many
Ne y-,ri flritv teuouatioi,s Such AN argurcuf s
that Of lord Wnchsea would be fatal In the case of
ver,!ftr like Tom Moore-it has very little weight when
directed against Milton.
on Tie wGoc I think that the rhymng Of the Epltaph
evidence Of sylc the Of language and metaphor, the
march. the music tie wOrdpainiing run nearly all IN te
same direction. The whole poem, THINK, rs not III MI
toms highest mauuer. Neither il u in his lowest. Per
hans IL was the unfinished draft Of piece which lie
of Iycdas-a fact which would for ms rejection
Of u when he prepared the second edition Of his Poems
for press lei who will deny that 1t contains many
beautiful lnes3 Who except Milton would have wEtten
OFT Of this Hermitage Of eayi
Would any other poet have made Apollo
pat cypress iOr bis taysf
The sacred sisters tame Their qaiib.
IS Only Mone, but extremely eharacterstcof Of his
,.sIci M, ] "i r So ~ .. .,y3top olf arc ~ t,c %
Surely great poet must have written
A semina fnn within the deeps
ftIs little chaos sleeps
The closing lines Of the Epitdph arc certainly not
worthy OF Milton and fancy they are very much "in
what some people call flaws the Epitsph seem to me
MitOnic II has b0en objected that Milton would not
Make tier own tears their IIeicoD,
since so good scholar must have known that Hccon
I'LL, not Il stream. or course, Milton knew that
wei But Milton also knew that the hl-or chain OF
hnls-cOnyaiued the famous fountain, Acanippe, the
more famous fountain Of Hippocrene. Now Milton,
whether rightly not in the habit Of usng poets
license to persOnfy thsse sacred fountains under the
name Of Helicon. Thus, he wrote
Kept Tor thee 10 lehcon.
If this license ne fault Il, for one think Otcrwse) II
evidently MIltOnic fault; and its use In the Epaph
Is an argument for the authenticity OF that poem.
On the question OF handwriting. opinions widely differ.
sneak with dhdence Many OF close familiarity
with tho writing OF Milton and his cOtempOraiies make
me cautious prOnOuncing any strong verdict
uont but having spent couple OF hours this morning
in comparing the Epaph with the unquestouabe writ
ing OF MtOU cannot refrain from saying that my
opmoD is in agreement with that OF Prof. Morley.
MltOns writing. though IL may seem az first glance TO
be commonplace in character is in fact, organcaly per
sona Some OF his letteTs-mOre than Others his capitals
stand quite alone T, d. and are especially his own.
These letters may be freely used tests aud such
OF them will help 10 prove that the Ep,aph In the
poets autograph, erdDped by tho size Of tie page
which 1t had 10 be inscribed.
Some question has arisen 10 whether the signature
- J. NJ Mr Bond thinks II is Z. NJ My examination
made III good light, With tYO magnifyng glasses,
~ tho presence OF four Ocels OF the British Museum.
We all resolved the signature into J. NJ MltOns J. s
very peculiar; but comparison of the j. NJ IN SOthebys
the name Sir John chcese will show that the pecuar
in the Epitaph is Characteristic Millions hand Two
capital Ps the plate these letters are
10 my eyes, utterly unlike the Of the signature
Ny examination has led Inc 10 a belief that the auto
graph is Millions, and that the signature Is j. NJ
". HEPwoRTH DIXON
NEW POEM BY MILTON.
70 ne Edftr eJ IL, LondoH TimsG
SIR: have been examining the Ms. of the
Epitapb" appended 20 the volume OF Mlions Poems
BOIL Et0lish and Latin IN the Kings Library OF the
a.. a1..lA