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he was offered the place of Latin fecretary, to the king, which, notwithstanding the importunities of his wife, he refufed: we are informed, that when his wife preffed him to comply with the times, and accept the king's offer, he made answer, "You are in the right, my dear; you, as other women, would ride in your coach; for me, my aim is to live and die an honeft man." Soon after his marriage with his third wife, he removed to a houfe in the Artillery-walk, leading to Bunhill-fields, where he continued till his death, except during the plague, in 1665, when he retired with his family to St. Giles Chalfent Buckinghamshire, at which time his Paradife Loft was finished, though not publifhed till 1667.

Mr. Richardfon has informed us, "That when Milton dictated, he used to fit leaning backwards obliquely in an eafy chair, with his legs flung over the elbows of it; that he frequently compofed lying a-bed in a morning, and that when he could not fleep, but lay awake whole nights, he tried, but not one verfe could he make; at other times flowed eafy his unpremeditated verfe, with a certain. Impetus, as himself ufed to believe; then, at what hour foever, he rung for his daughter to fecure what came. I have been alfo told, he would dictate many, perhaps forty lines in a breath, and then reduce them to half the number."

VOL. VI.

G

I would

I would not omit, fays Mr. Richardson, the least circumftance, thefe indeed are trifles, but even fuch contract a fort of greatness, when related to what is great. After the work was ready for the prefs, it was near being fuppreffed by the ignorance, or malice of the licenfer, who, among other trivial objections, imagined there was treafon in that noble fimile, b. i. v. 594.

As when the fun new-risen Looks through the horizontal misty air, Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon, In dim eclipfe, difaftrous twilight sheds

On half the nations, and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs.

The ignorance of this licenser, in objecting to this noble fimile, has indeed perpetuated his name, but it is with no advantage; he, no doubt, imagined, that "Perplexes monarchs," was levelled against the reigning prince, which is, perhaps, the highest fimile in our language; how ridiculously will people talk who are blinded by prejudice, or heated by party. But, to return:

After Milton had finished this noble work of genius, which does honour to human nature, he difpofed of it to a bookfeller, for the fmall price of fifteen pounds; under fuch prejudice did he then labour, and the payment of the fifteen pounds was to depend upon the

fale

fale of two numerous impreffions. This engagement with his bookseller proves him extremely ignorant of that fort of business, for he might be well affured, that if two impreffions fold, a great deal of money must be returned, and how he could difpose of it thus conditionally for fifteen ponnds, appears ftrange; but while it proves Milton's ignorance, or inattention about his intereft in this affair, it, at the fame time, demonftrates the bookseller's honesty; for he could not be ignorant what money would be got by two numerous editions.

After this great work was published, however, it lay fome time in obfcurity, and had the bookfeller advanced the fum ftipulated, he would have had reason to repent of his bargain.

It was generally reported, that the late lord Somers first gave Paradife Loft a reputation; but Mr. Richardfon obferves, that it was known and esteemed long before there was fuch a man as lord Somers, as appears by a pompous edition of it, printed by fubfcrip.. fcription in 1688, where, amongst the lift of fubfcribers, are the names of lord Dorfet, Waller, Dryden, Sir Robert Howard, Duke, Creech, Flatman, Dr. Aldrick, Mr. Atterbury, Sir Roger L'Eftrange, lord Somers, then only John Somers, Efq; Mr. Richardfon further informs us, that he was told by Sir George Hungerford, an ancient member of parliament, that Sir John Denham came into the G 2 house

house one morning with a fheet of Paradife Loft, wet from the prefs, in his hand, and being asked what he was reading? he anfwered, part of the nobleft poem that ever was written in any language, or in any age; however, it is certain that the book was not known till about two years after, when the earl of Dorfet recommended it, as appears by the following story, related to Mr. Richardfon, by Dr. Tancred Robinson, an eminent phyfician in London, who was informed by Sir Fleetwood Shepherd, "That the earl, in company with that gentleman, looking over fome books in Little-Britain, met with Paradise Loft; and being furprised with fome paffages in turning it over, bought it. The bookfeller defired his lordship to speak in its favour, fince he liked it, as the impreffion lay on his hands as wafte paper. The earl having read the poem, fent it to Mr. Dryden, who, in a fhort time, returned it, with this answer:

This man cuts us all, and the ancients too." Criticks have differed as to the fource from which our author drew the first hint of writing Paradife Loft; Peck conjectures that it was from a celebrated Spanish romance called Guzinan, and Dr. Zachary Pearce, now bishop of Bangor, has alledged, that he took the firft hint of it from an Italian tragedy, called, I Paradifo Perfo, ftill extant, and printed many years before he entered on his defign.

Mr. Lauder, in his Effay on Milton's Life and Imitation of the Moderns, has infinuated,

that

1

that Milton's firft hint of Paradife Loft, was taken from a tragedy of the celebrated Grotius, called Adamus Exel, and that Milton has not thought it beneath him to transplant fome of that author's beauties into his noble work, as well as fome other flowers culled from the gardens of inferior geniuses; but by an elegance of art, and force of nature,, peculiar to him, he has drawn the admiration of the world upon paffages, which, in their original authors, ftood neglected and undiftinguished. If at any time he has adopted a fentiment of a cotemporary poet, it deferves another name than plagiary; for, as Garth expreffes it in the cafe of Dryden, who was charged with plagiary, that, like ladies of quality who berrow beggars children, it is only to cloth them the better, and we know no higher compliment could have been paid to thefe moderns, than that of Milton's doing them the honour to perufe them, for, like a prince's accepting a prefent from a subject, the glory is reflected on him who offers the gift, not on the monarch who accepts it.

In the year 1670, our author published at 'London, in quarto, his Hiftory of Britain, that part efpecially, now called England, from the first traditional beginning, continued to to the Norman conqueft, collected out of the ancientest and beft authors thereof. It is reprinted in the firft Volume of Dr. Thenet's compleat Hiftory of England. Mr. Toland, in his Life of Milton, page 43, obferves, that G-33

wed

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