The ftory of reducing his exuberance has been told of other authors, and, though doubtlefse true of every fertile and copious mind, feems to have been gratuitously transferred to Milton.oleg te

What he has told us, and we cannot now know more, is, that he compofed much of his poem in the night and morning, I fuppofe before his mind was difturbed with common business; and that he poured out with great fluency his unpremeditated verfe. Verfification, free, like his, from the diftreffes of rhyme, must, by a work fo long, be made prompt and habitual; and, when his thoughts were once adjufted, the words would come at his command.

At what particular times of his life the parts of his work were written, cannot often be known. The beginning of the third book fhews that he had loft his fight; and the Introduction to the feventh, that the return of the King had clouded him with discountenance; and that he was offended by the licentious feftivity of the Reftoration. There are

no

:

no other internal notes of time. Milton, being now cleared from all effects of his dif loyalty, had nothing required from him but the common duty of living in quiet, to be rewarded with the common right of protection but this, which, when he fculked from the approach of his King, was perhaps more than he hoped, feems not to have satisfied him; for no fooner is he fafe, than he finds himself in danger, fallen on evil days and evil tongues, and with darkness and with danger compass'd round. This darkness, had his eyes been better employed, had undoubtedly deferved compaffion but to add the mention of danger was ungrateful and unjuft. He was fallen indeed on evil days; the time was come in which regicides could no longer boast their wickedness. But of evil tongues for Milton to complain, required impudence at least equal to his other powers; Milton, whose warmeft advocates must allow, that he never fpared any afperity of reproach or brutality of infolence.

But the charge itself feems to be false; for it would be hard to recollect any reproach caft upon him, either ferious or ludicrous,

through

through the whole remaining part of his life. He pursued his ftudies, or his amusements, without perfecution, moleftation, or infult. Such is the

however ce paid to great abilities,

they who contemplated in Milton the scholar and the wit, were constented to forget the reviler of his King.

When the plague (1665) raged in London, Milton took refuge at Chalfont in Bucks; where Elwood, who had taken the houfe for him, firft faw a complete copy of Paradife Loft, and, having perused it, said to him, "Thou haft faid a great deal upon Paradife Loft; what haft thou to say upon "Paradife Found ?”

ન

Next year, when the danger of infection had ceafed, he returned to Bunhill-fields, and defigned the publication of his poem. A license was necessary, and he could expect no great kindness from a chaplain of the archbishop of Canterbury. He feems, however, to have been treated with tenderness ; for though objections were made to particular paffages, and among them to the fimile of the fun eclipsed in the first book, yet the licenfe

license was granted; and he fold his copy, April 27, 1667, to Samuel Simmons, för an immediate payment of five pounds, with a ftipulation to receive five pounds more when thirteen hundred fhould be fold of the first edition : and again, five pounds after the sale of the fame number of the fecond edition: and another five pounds after the fame fale of the third. None of the three editions were to be extended beyond fifteen hundred copies.

The first edition was ten books, in a fmall quarto. The titles were varied from year to year; and an advertisement and the arguments of the books were omitted in fome copies, and inferted in others.

The fale gave him in two years a right to his fecond payment, for which the receipt was figned April 26, 1669. The fecond edition was not given till 1674; it was printed in fall octavo; and the number of books was increased to twelve, by a divifion of the feventh and twelfth; and fome other fmall improvements were made. The third edition was published in 1678; and the wi

dow,

dow, to whom the copy was then to devolve, fold all her claims to Simmons for eight pounds, according to her receipt given Dec. 21, 1680. Simmons had already agreed to transfer the whole right to Brabazon Aylmer for twenty-five pounds; and Aylmer fold to Jacob Tonfon half, Auguft 17, 1683, and half, March 24, 1690, at a price confiderably enlarged. In the history of Paradise Loft a deduction thus minute will rather gratify than fatigue.

The flow fale and tardy reputation of this poem have been always mentioned as evidences of neglected merit, and of the uncertainty of literary fame; and enquiries have been made, and conjectures offered, about the causes of its long obfcurity and late reception. But has the cafe been truly stated? Have not lamentation and wonder been lavished on an evil that was never felt?

That in the reigns of Charles and James the Paradife Loft received no publick acclamations, is readily confeffed. Wit and literature were on the fide of the Court: and who that folicited favour or fashion would ven