The San Francisco call., 1898-11-20

stance, plot and expression StartnnS analogy to the Paradise Lost"
 It is known literary fact that Milton schemed his great poem as early as 1641 -tWenty-tWO years before the appear ance of the Dutchman's masterpiece. In fact, Milton's manuscript is now in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, to incontestibly prove that not only the idea, and indeed the title of Paradise Lost" had occurred to him in the year 1641, but that at that time he had draft ed a scenario of the poem.
 Still, twentytwo years had to elapse before it's completion and publication and VondeIs Lucifer' appeared in 1854, some time before the earliest date to which the commencement of Para disc Lost can be assigned. The pre- sumptive evidence that Milton had made the acquaintance of the Dutch drama before commencing his own epic is altogether too strong to be resisted. We know that he had mastered the Dutch language, and that he was III frequent communication with Holland; there is good reason to believe that, years before, he had heard of Vondel and his work through Grotius, the Dutch poets friend and protector.
 To quote Mr Edmundson'S summing up of his case on this point, ''negotia- tions with Dutch envoyS, controversies with Dutch professors, intercourse with a circle of Quasi-Dutch friends, corre- spondence with Dutch residents, quar- reIs with Dutch booksellers, all con- spired to familiarize Milton with Dutch affairs, and to make him only less well acquainted with the courts and in- trigues-nay, the very gossip Of the chief centers of Dutch life than with the current topics of London.
 The publication of the 'Lucifer" pro duced an immense stir in Holland, and evoked a storm of. ecclesiastical enmlty which could not possibly have. failed to reach Milton's ears; and with his avowed views on borrowing not pia- giarie," it is incredible that he should not have procured, even if he did not receive in the natural course Of things from one of his Dutch correspondents, a copy of the work which had antlcl- pated his oWn
 Fragments of the "Lucifer" were translated into English many years ago by Mir. Gosse in his Studies in North ern Literature,' and later MT. Edmund son, in his Milton and Vondel." "A Curiosity of Literature" gave English metrical versions of many passages se- lected from this and other poems of Vondel's, as pieces de conviction against Milton.
 This was rather hard on Vondel. For whatever merit the translations had they were not sufficient to cope with the original English of Milton.
 The ''Lucifer' is grandly, or, at any rate, grandiOSely, constructed celestial melodrama, composed with a steady eye to actual performance, which it, in fact, obtained-it was brought out, says MT. Gosse, with great display of scenic heavens, but after two nights withdrawn on account of the great ex- pense it involved''-and, in view of this | theatrical purpose, supplied plentifully
 IcS-1 h
 would call strong situations" How ever after Milton's introduction ot 1 real gunpowder" into Seraphic and 1 diabolic battle, not dramatically repre- sented but only epically described, il | will hardly do for us to dwell too cen | seriously upon Vondel'S weakness fol i stage effect
 ! There is, at any rate, no appeal to th' | groundIings in the style and quality O. | the verse, which in MT. Van Noppent l spirited translation has march of sus l tained, or, at least, of rarely failing
 dignity throughout, and in its inter ! calated choric passages is by no mean: ! wanting in lyrical charm. That ever 1 in its highest flights the poem ever ! touches the actual sublime it were toe | much to say. Sublimity is a big worC l for a rare thing, and the poet whose
 sublimity would not evaporate in the 1 translators distillery, leaving only z
 rhetorical 'sublimate" at the end O. the process, is rarer still. Short of this | the 'Lucifer'' is undoubtedly a grea poem-even in English.
 But, after all, it is impossible to keel away froan the question-What did Mil 1 ton owe to Vondel? Anything or noth 1 ing? and, if anything, how much?
 MT. Van Noppen, having a long poen 1 to translate and a voluminous memoi l to write, and an elaborate commentar.
 to compose. declines-wisely enougl | from his own point of view-tO star | that ancient hare again. But the ami
 nal has now had a rest for a goot
 many years, and readers of transla