knowledgement, he proceeds to give the reader an account of what he is to expect further in the conduct of the present edition.

The chief purpose of the new notes, is, in humble imitation of Mr. Warton, " to explain the allufions of Milton; to illustrate or to vindicate his beauties; to point out his imitations both of others, and of himself; to elucidate his obsolete diction; and, by the adduction and juxtaposition of parallels universally gleaned both from his poetry and profe, to afcertain his favourite words, and to show the peculiarities of his phraseology." Mr. Warton justly adds, that, "among the English poets, those readers who trust to preceding commentators will be led to believe, that Milton imitated Spenfer and Shakspeare only. But his style, expression, and more extensive combinations of diction, together with many of his thoughts, are also to be traced in other English poets, who were either contemporaries or predeceffours, and of whom many are now not commonly known. Nor have his imitations from Spenser and Shakspeare been hitherto sufficiently noted." Of this it has been a part of the present editor's task, as it was of Mr. Warton, to produce proofs. The coincidencies of "Fancy's sweetest children," Spenser, Shakspeare, and Milton, are accordingly here enlarged. The obligations of our author to Dante, hitherto little noticed, as well as

f Milton's Profe-works afford many materials indeed for com. parative criticism. See the opinions of Mr. Warton, and of the present editor, on these compositions, in the sixth vol. of this edit. pp. 392, 396.

to some other Italian poets, are pointed out. The poet's imitations of himself are alfo confiderably augmented. Nor have the romances and fabulous narratives, on which the poetry of Milton is often founded, been neglected. The editor, while he has not been sparing of classical illustration, has constantly kept in mind the neceffity of attention to the literature of Milton's age. Without this attention, as Mr. Warton remarks, "the force of many strikingly poetical passages has been weakened or unperceived, because their origin was unknown, unexplored, or misunderstood. Coeval books, which might clear fuch references, were therefore to be confulted; and a new line of commentary was to be pursued. Comparatively, the classical annotator has here but little to do. Dr. Newton, an excellent scholar, was unacquainted with the treasures of the Gothick library. From his more folid and rational studies, he never deviated into this idle track of reading." But, as Milton, at least in his early poems, may be reckoned an old English poet; and as in his later poetry allusions to the fources of fiction, with which he had been pleased in his youth, often appear; he generally requires that illustration, however trifling it may feem to faftidious readers, without which no old English poet can well be illuftrated.

The arrangement of the materials in these volumes has been formed with a view to uniformity, and to the accommodation of the reader. The Table of General Contents will point out the order observed; the dissertations prefixed; the appendixes fubjoined.

The

To the whole is added a Glossarial Index. editor thinks it proper to observe, that, in compliance with the wishes of several literary friends, the Paradise Loft has been placed first, in the following methodical difpofition of the poetical works.

He has endeavoured to render the text as perfpicuous as poffible; not only by several illustrations of antiquated words, which, as Mr. Warton has observed, in a fuccession of editions had been gradually and filently, yet perhaps not always properly, refined; but alfo by comparing the copies published under the immediate inspection of Milton, as well as most fubfequent editions; more particularly those of Tickell, Fenton, Bentley, and the later editors; as the notes will show. Nor should it here be omitted, that Milton has not so uniformly contracted the words of his language, as to countenance the fpelling of isle, of honour, of inferiour, of musick, and feveral other words, with the omiffion of a letter in each. Milton's manuscript at Cambridge, and his own editions of his Poems, as well as of his Paradise Loft, will afford teftimonies to this obfervation. The text of Milton must, indeed, exhibit fome peculiarities. By such as are here retained, the meaning cannot be embarraffed. His love of Italian, of Chaucer, and of Spenfer, requires this notice. The emendations of fwelling, in Paradise Loft, B. vii. 319, of are, В. х. 816, and of the 496th verse in Samfon Agonistes, are additions to the few alterations of the text admitted by preceding editors. To the punctuation also, of which Milton has been pronounced by Mr. Warton to have been habitually careless, great attention has been paid. The editor conceived it his duty likewife to examine the manufcript, containing many of Milton's early poems, preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge; and he found, on examination, several particularities which had been omitted by those who had before collated the manuscript, and which were too curious not to be noticed in the present edition. To the end of the several poems, of which there are copies in the manuscript, these Various Readings are annexed. The reason is assigned.z

The editor offers, with the utmost deference, fome account of the Life of Milton; of which the materials have been drawn from authentick sources. In this biographical attempt some new anecdotes, relating to the history of Milton's friends, of his works, and of his times, will also be found. These may perhaps plead as an apology for the rashness of the editor, in affecting to sketch the poet, whom the masterly hands of a Johnson and an Hayley have depicted; a rashness, to which he has been impelled by the perfuafion of others, that, to a new edition of his Works, it is a custom to prefix the Life of the Author.

Such are the materials here accumulated, in order to explain the labours of Milton: of Milton, the proud boast of his own country, and the admiration of the world of Milton, whose imitations of others are so generally adorned with new

• See the Appendix to Par. Loft, vol. iii. p. 490.

!

modes of sentiment or phraseology, that they lofe the nature of borrowings, and display the skill and originality of a perfect master; and from whom fucceeding poets, at various periods, have "stolen authentick fire."

From the liberal and candid reader, the editor hopes to meet with more than pardon; having spared neither pains nor cost in the profecution of his design, and having strenuously exerted his humble abilities to please and to inform. His distance from the metropolis has sometimes indeed deprived him of the benefit of consulting, on particular exigencies, not only the publick libraries, but many kind and judicious friends with whose notice he has been honoured. The great attention and correctness of the press of Messrs. Bye and Law, have, however, rendered the volumes free from unpardonable inaccuracies; from fuch errours, it is believed, as might destroy the sense of the author, and excite indignation against the editor.

CANTERBURY, July 20. 1801.