Page images
PDF
EPUB

sented as dressing himself in the spoils of Pallas, whom he had slain. Virgil here suspends his fable for the sake of the following remark;

[ocr errors]

How is the mind of man ignorant of futurity, and < unable to bear prosperous fortune with moderation; the time will come when Turnus shall wish that he «had left the body of Pallas untouched, and curse the day on which he dressed himself in these spoils.

As the great event of the Eneid, and the death of Turnus, whom Eneas slew, because he adorned himself with the spoils of Pallas, turns upon this incident, Virgil deviated from his main subject, to make this reflection upon it, without which so small a circumstance might possibly have escaped his readers memory. Lucan, who was an injudicious poet, drops his story very frequently for the sake of his unnecessary digressions, or his diverticula, as Scaliger calls them. If he gives us an account of the prodigies which preceded the civil war, he declaims upon the occasion, and shows how much happier it would be for man if he did not feel his evil fortune before it comes to pass, and suffer only by its real weight, not by the apprehension of it.

Milton's complaint of his blindness, his panegyric on marriage, his reflections on Adam and Eve's going naked, of the angels eating, and several other passages in his poem, are liable to the same exception; though, I must confess, there is so great a beauty in these very digressions, that I would not wish them out of his poem.

I have already spoken of the characters of Milton's Paradise Lost, and declared my opinion as to the allegorical persons who are introduced in it.

If we look into the sentiments, I think they are so

metimes defective under the following heads.

First, as

dove Turno è presentato vestir se medesimo delle spoglie di Pallante cui egli ha ucciso. Virgilio qui sospende la sua istoria in grazia del seguente riflesso:

O cieche menti umane

Come siete de'fati e del futuro

Poco avvedute; e come oltra ogni modo
Nei felici successi insuperbite.

Tempo a Turno verrà ch'ogni gran cosa
Ricompreria di non aver pur tocco

Pallante, e le sue spoglie e il dì che l' ebbe

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Siccome il grande evento dell' Eneide, e la morte di Turno ucciso da Enea perchè lo vide ornato delle spoglie di Pallante, fonda sopra questa circostanza, Virgilio deviò dal suo principale subbietto, a farvi su questa riflessione, senza cui così piccola circostanza sarebbe potuta fuggire alla memoria de' suoi lettori. Lucano che fu autore poco assennato, rompe la sua storia molto spesso per inserirvi le sue non necessarie digressioni, o i suoi diverticula come li chiama Scaligero. Se egli ci narra i portenti che precedettero la guerra civile, vi declama sopra, e mostra quanto più felice saria per l'uomo se non sentisse la sua mala fortuna finchè ella non giugne, e soffrisse solo at vero peso non all' apprensione di lei.

Il lamento di Milton per la sua cecità, il panegipel matrimonio, le riflessioni sulla nudità di Adamo ed Eva, sui cibi degli angeli, e più altri passi del suo poema sono soggetti alla stessa critica; benchè io debba confessare, esservi così gran bellezza in tali digressioni che non le vorrei tolte dal suo poema.

Ho già parlato dei caratteri del Paradiso perduto di Milton, e dichiarato il mio parere sui personaggi allegorici introdottivi.

Se noi miriamo ai sentimenti, io penso che talvolta ei sieno difettosi pei seguenti capi. Primamente ve ne

there are several of them too much pointed, and some that degenerate even into puns.

Another blemish that appears in some of his thoughts, is his frequent allusion to heathen fables, which are not certainly consonant with the divine subject of which he treats. I do not find fault with these allusions, where the poet himself represents them as fabulous, as he does in some places, but where he mentions them as truths and matters of fact.

A third fault in his sentiments is an unnecessary ostentation of learning, which likewise oceurs very frequently. It is certain that both Homer and Virgil were masters of all the learning of their times, but it shows itself in their works after an indirect and concealed manner. Milton seems ambitious of discovering, by his excursions on free-will, and predestination, and his many glances upon history, astronomy, geography, and the like, as well as by the terms and phrases he sometimes makes use of, that he was acquainted with the whole circle of arts and sciences.

If, in the last place, we consider the language of this great poet, we must allow, that it is often too much laboured and sometimes obscured, by obsolete words, transpositions, and foreign idioms. Seneca's objection to the style of a great author, Riget ejus oratio, nihil in ea placidum, nihil lene, is what many critics make to Milton; to which I may farther add, that Milton's sentiments and ideas were so wonderfully sublime, that it would have been impossible for him to have represented them in their full strength and beauty without having recourse to these foreign assistances. Our language sunk under him, and was unequal to that greatness of soul which furnished him with such glorious conceptions.

A second fault in his language is, that he often affects

sono molti di troppo sottili, ed altri che degenerano anco in bassezze.

Altra macchia che apparisce in alcuni de' suoi pensieri è la sua frequente allusione alle favole pagane, che certamente non ben si affanno col divino argomento del quale ei tratta. Queste allusioni non le trovo io difetto dove lo stesso poeta le da quai favolose, come egli fa in alcuni luoghi, ma dove le ricorda come verità e come cose di fatto.

La terza pecca de' suoi sentimenti è un superfluo sfoggio di dottrina, nel che egli cade molto spesso. Egli è certo che Omero e Virgilio furono maestri di ogni sapere de' loro tempi, ma la palesano nelle loro opere con una indiretta e celata maniera. Milton pare ambizioso di scoprir colle sue digressioni sul libero arbitrio e sulla predestinazione, coi suoi cenni alla storia, all' astronomia, alla geografia e simili, come pure co' termini e colle frasi da lui usate talora, che egli era ben perito in tutti i rami delle arti e delle scienze.

Se consideriamo in ultimo lo stile di questo gran poeta, bisogna confessare che egli è troppo elaborato, e talvolta oscuro per parole antiquate, trasposizioni e straniere diciture. L'obbiezion fatta da Seneca ad un grande autore: Riget ejus oratio, nihil in ea placidum, nihil lene, è quanto opponesi a Milton da alcuni critici; al che io voglio aggiungere che i sentimenti e le idee di Milton erano di così maravigliosa sublimità che gli sarebbe stato impossibile presentarle nella piena loro vigoria e beltà senza chiamar aiuto a queste dizioni forestiere. Il linguaggio inglese gli venne meno e non secondò quella grandezza d' animo che informavalo di sì glorioso concetto.

Un altro errore del suo stile è che egli spesse volte

a kind of jingle in his words, as in the following passa ges, and many others:

Begirt th' almighty throne,

Beseeching or besieging...

Which temptd our attempt.

and in contempt

At one flight bound high overleap'd all hound.

I know there are precedents for this kind of speech; that some of the greatest ancients have adopted it; and that Aristotle himself has given it a place in his Rhetoric, among the beauties of that art; but it is in itself poor and trifling, it is, I think, at present, universally exploded by all the masters of polite writing.

The last defect I shall notice in Milton's style, is the frequent use of what the learned call technical words or terms of art. It is one of the great beauties of poetry to make hard things intelligible, and to deliver what is abstruse of itself in such easy language as may be understood by ordinary readers: besides that, the knowlegde of a poet should rather seem born with him, or inspired, than drawn from books and systems. When Milton is upon building, he mentions Doric pillars, pilasters, cornice, frieze, architrave. When he talks of heavenly bodies, you meet with ecliptic and eccentric, the trepidation, stars dropping from the zenith, rays culminating from the equator. To which might be added mainstances of the like kind in several other arts and sciences.

ny

I have seen in the works of a modern philosopher, a map of the spots in the sun. My last observations on faults and blemishes in Milton's Paradise Lost, may considered as a piece of same nature (1).

(1) There are other criticisms written by Addisson, and inserted in the Spectator, which forms a part of the British Classics.

« PreviousContinue »