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English 324: Reserve Text: Excerpts from Addison's Critical Essays on Paradise Lost, reprinted in Timothy Miller, The Critical Response to John Milton's Paradise Lost. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997. [page 66] The Spectator, Number 262 As the First Place among our English Poets is due to Milton, and as I have drawn more Quotations out of him than from any other, I shall enter into a regular Criticism upon his Paradise Lost, which I shall publish every Saturday till I have given my Thoughts upon that Poem. I shall not however presume to impose upon others my own particular Judgment on this Author, but only to deliver it as my private Opinion. Criticism is of a very large Extent, and every particular Master in this Art has his favourite Passages in an Author, which do not equally strike the best Judges. It will be sufficient for me if I discover many beauties or Imperfections which others have not attended to, and I should be very glad to see any of orlr eminent Writers publish their Discoveries on the same Subject In short, I would always be understood to write my Papers of Criticism in the spirit which Horace has expressed in those two famous Lines. ----Si quid
novisti rectius istis If you have made better Remarks of your own, communicate them with Candour; if not, make use of these I present you with. |
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The Spectator, Number 267 THERE is nothing in Nature so irksome as general Discourses, especially when they turn chiefly upon Words. For this Reason I shall wave the Discussion of that Point which was started some Years since, Whether Milton 's Paradise Lost may be called an Heroick Poem? Those who will not give it that Title, may call it (if they please) a Divine Poem. It will be sufficient to its Perfection, if it has in it all the Beauties of the highest kind of Poetry; and as far those who allege it is not an Heroick Poem, they advance no more to the Diminution of it, than if they should say Adam is not Aeneas, nor Eve Helen. 1 shall therefore examine it by the Rules of Epic Poetry, and see whether it falls short of the Iliad or Aneid, in the Beauties which are essential to that kind of writing. The first Thing to be considered in an Epic Poem, is the Fable, which is perfect or irmperfect, according as the Action which it relates is more or less s. This Action should have three Qualifications in it. First. It should be but one Action. Secondly, it should be an enthe Action; and Thirdly, it should be a great Action. To consider the Action of the Iliad, Aeneid, and Paradise Lost in these three several lights. Homer to preserve the Unity of his Action hastens into the midst of things, as Horace has observed. Had he gone up to Leda 's egg, or begun much later. even at the Rape of Helen, or the Investing of Troy, it is [67] manifest that the Story of the Poem would have been a Series of several Actions. He therefore opens his Poem with the Discord of his Princes, and with great Art interweaves in the several succeeding parts of it, an account of every thing material which relates to them, and had passed before that fatal Dissention. After the same manner Aeneas makes his first appearance in the Tyrrhene Seas, and within sight of Italy, because the Action proposed to be celebrated was that of his Settling himself in Latium. But because it was necessary for the Reader to know what had happened to him in the taking of Troy, and in the preceding parts of his Voyage, Virgil makes his Hero relate it by way of Episode in the second and third Books of the Aeneid. The Contents of both which Books come before those of the first Book in the Thread of the Story, the' for preserving of this Unity of Action, they follow them in the Disposition of the Poem. Milton, in Imitation of these two great Poets, opens his Paradise Lost with an Infernal Council plotting the Fall of Man, which is the Action he proposed to celebrate; and as for those great Actions, which preceded in point of time, the Battle of the Angels, and the Creation of the World, (which would have enthely destroyed the Unity of his Principal Action, had he related them in the same Order that they happened) he cast them into the fifth, sixth and seventh Books, by way of Episode to this noble Poem. Arisrotle himself allows, that Homer has nothing to boast of as to the Unity of his Fable, the' at the same time that great Critick and Philosopher endeavours to palliate this Imperfection in the Greek Poet, by imputing it in some Measure to the very Nature of an Epic Poem. Some have been of Opinion, that the Aeneid labours also in this particular, and has Episodes which may be looked upon as Excrescencies rather than as Parts of the Action On the contrary, the Poem which we have now under our Consideration, hath no other Episodes than such as naturally arise from the Subject, and yet is filled with such a multitude of astonishing Incidents, that it gives us at the same time a Pleasure of the greatest Variety, and of the greatest Simplicity; uniform in its Nature, though diversified in the Execution. I must observe also, that as Virgil in the Poem which was designed to celebrate the Original of the Roman Empire, has described the Birth of its great Rival, the Carthaginian Commonwealth. Milton with the like Art in his Poem on the Fall of Man, has related the Fall of those Angels who are his professed Enemies. Besides the many other Beauties in such all Episode, it's running Parallel with the great Action of the Poem, hinders it from breaking the Unity so much as another Episode would have done, that had not so great an Affinity with the principal Subject. In short, this is the same kind of Beauty which the Criticks admire in the The Spanish Fryar, or the Double Discovery, where the two different Plots look like Counterparts and Copies of one another. The second Qualification required in the Action of an Epic Poem is, that it should be an entire Action. An Action is entire when it is compleat in all its Parts; or as Aristotle describes it, when it consists of a Beginning, a Middle, and |
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The Spectator, Number 267 THERE is nothing in Nature so irksome as general Discourses, especially when they turn chiefly upon Words. For this Reason I shall wave the Discussion of that Point which was started some Years since, Whether Milton 's Paradise Lost may be called an Heroick Poem? Those who will not give it that Title, may call it (if they please) a Divine Poem. It will be sufficient to its Perfection, if it has in it all the Beauties of the highest kind of Poetry; and as far those who allege it is not an Heroick Poem, they advance no more to the Diminution of it, than if they should say Adam is not Aeneas, nor Eve Helen. 1 shall therefore examine it by the Rules of Epic Poetry, and see whether it falls short of the Iliad or Aneid, in the Beauties which are essential to that kind of writing. The first Thing to be considered in an Epic Poem, is the Fable, which is perfect or irmperfect, according as the Action which it relates is more or less s. This Action should have three Qualifications in it. First. It should be but one Action. Secondly, it should be an enthe Action; and Thirdly, it should be a great Action. To consider the Action of the Iliad, Aeneid, and Paradise Lost in these three several lights. Homer to preserve the Unity of his Action hastens into the midst of things, as Horace has observed. Had he gone up to Leda 's egg, or begun much later. even at the Rape of Helen, or the Investing of Troy, it is
[67]
manifest that the Story of the Poem would have been a Series of several Actions. He therefore opens his Poem with the Discord of his Princes, and with great Art interweaves in the several succeeding parts of it, an account of every thing material which relates to them, and had passed before that fatal Dissention. After the same manner Aeneas makes his first appearance in the Tyrrhene Seas, and within sight of Italy, because the Action proposed to be celebrated was that of his Settling himself in Latium. But because it was necessary for the Reader to know what had happened to him in the taking of Troy, and in the preceding parts of his Voyage, Virgil makes his Hero relate it by way of Episode in the second and third Books of the Aeneid. The Contents of both which Books come before those of the first Book in the Thread of the Story, the' for preserving of this Unity of Action, they follow them in the Disposition of the Poem. Milton, in Imitation of these two great Poets, opens his Paradise Lost with an Infernal Council plotting the Fall of Man, which is the Action he proposed to celebrate; and as for those great Actions, which preceded in point of time, the Battle of the Angels, and the Creation of the World, (which would have enthely destroyed the Unity of his Principal Action, had he related them in the same Order that they happened) he cast them into the fifth, sixth and seventh Books, by way of Episode to this noble Poem. Arisrotle himself allows, that Homer has nothing to boast of as to the Unity of his Fable, the' at the same time that great Critick and Philosopher endeavours to palliate this Imperfection in the Greek Poet, by imputing it in some Measure to the very Nature of an Epic Poem. Some have been of Opinion, that the Aeneid labours also in this particular, and has Episodes which may be looked upon as Excrescencies rather than as Parts of the Action On the contrary, the Poem which we have now under our Consideration, hath no other Episodes than such as naturally arise from the Subject, and yet is filled with such a multitude of astonishing Incidents, that it gives us at the same time a Pleasure of the greatest Variety, and of the greatest Simplicity; uniform in its Nature, though diversified in the Execution. I must observe also, that as Virgil in the Poem which was designed to celebrate the Original of the Roman Empire, has described the Birth of its great Rival, the Carthaginian Commonwealth. Milton with the like Art in his Poem on the Fall of Man, has related the Fall of those Angels who are his professed Enemies. Besides the many other Beauties in such all Episode, it's running Parallel with the great Action of the Poem, hinders it from breaking the Unity so much as another Episode would have done, that had not so great an Affinity with the principal Subject. In short, this is the same kind of Beauty which the Criticks admire in the The Spanish Fryar, or the Double Discovery, where the two different Plots look like Counterparts and Copies of one another. The second Qualification required in the Action of an Epic Poem is, that it should be an entire Action. An Action is entire when it is compleat in all its Parts; or as Aristotle describes it, when it consists of a Beginning, a Middle, and |
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The Spectator, Number 267 THERE is nothing in Nature so irksome as general Discourses, especially when they turn chiefly upon Words. For this Reason I shall wave the Discussion of that Point which was started some Years since, Whether Milton 's Paradise Lost may be called an Heroick Poem? Those who will not give it that Title, may call it (if they please) a Divine Poem. It will be sufficient to its Perfection, if it has in it all the Beauties of the highest kind of Poetry; and as far those who allege it is not an Heroick Poem, they advance no more to the Diminution of it, than if they should say Adam is not Aeneas, nor Eve Helen. 1 shall therefore examine it by the Rules of Epic Poetry, and see whether it falls short of the Iliad or Aneid, in the Beauties which are essential to that kind of writing. The first Thing to be considered in an Epic Poem, is the Fable, which is perfect or irmperfect, according as the Action which it relates is more or less s. This Action should have three Qualifications in it. First. It should be but one Action. Secondly, it should be an enthe Action; and Thirdly, it should be a great Action. To consider the Action of the Iliad, Aeneid, and Paradise Lost in these three several lights. Homer to preserve the Unity of his Action hastens into the midst of things, as Horace has observed. Had he gone up to Leda 's egg, or begun much later. even at the Rape of Helen, or the Investing of Troy, it is
[67]
manifest that the Story of the Poem would have been a Series of several Actions. He therefore opens his Poem with the Discord of his Princes, and with great Art interweaves in the several succeeding parts of it, an account of every thing material which relates to them, and had passed before that fatal Dissention. After the same manner Aeneas makes his first appearance in the Tyrrhene Seas, and within sight of Italy, because the Action proposed to be celebrated was that of his Settling himself in Latium. But because it was necessary for the Reader to know what had happened to him in the taking of Troy, and in the preceding parts of his Voyage, Virgil makes his Hero relate it by way of Episode in the second and third Books of the Aeneid. The Contents of both which Books come before those of the first Book in the Thread of the Story, the' for preserving of this Unity of Action, they follow them in the Disposition of the Poem. Milton, in Imitation of these two great Poets, opens his Paradise Lost with an Infernal Council plotting the Fall of Man, which is the Action he proposed to celebrate; and as for those great Actions, which preceded in point of time, the Battle of the Angels, and the Creation of the World, (which would have enthely destroyed the Unity of his Principal Action, had he related them in the same Order that they happened) he cast them into the fifth, sixth and seventh Books, by way of Episode to this noble Poem. Arisrotle himself allows, that Homer has nothing to boast of as to the Unity of his Fable, the' at the same time that great Critick and Philosopher endeavours to palliate this Imperfection in the Greek Poet, by imputing it in some Measure to the very Nature of an Epic Poem. Some have been of Opinion, that the Aeneid labours also in this particular, and has Episodes which may be looked upon as Excrescencies rather than as Parts of the Action On the contrary, the Poem which we have now under our Consideration, hath no other Episodes than such as naturally arise from the Subject, and yet is filled with such a multitude of astonishing Incidents, that it gives us at the same time a Pleasure of the greatest Variety, and of the greatest Simplicity; uniform in its Nature, though diversified in the Execution. I must observe also, that as Virgil in the Poem which was designed to celebrate the Original of the Roman Empire, has described the Birth of its great Rival, the Carthaginian Commonwealth. Milton with the like Art in his Poem on the Fall of Man, has related the Fall of those Angels who are his professed Enemies. Besides the many other Beauties in such all Episode, it's running Parallel with the great Action of the Poem, hinders it from breaking the Unity so much as another Episode would have done, that had not so great an Affinity with the principal Subject. In short, this is the same kind of Beauty which the Criticks admire in the The Spanish Fryar, or the Double Discovery, where the two different Plots look like Counterparts and Copies of one another. The second Qualification required in the Action of an Epic Poem is, that it should be an entire Action. An Action is entire when it is compleat in all its Parts; or as Aristotle describes it, when it consists of a Beginning, a Middle, and |
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