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xix

That majefty which through thy work doth raign, Draws the devout, deterring the profane: And things Divine thou treat'st of in such state, As them preferves, and thee inviolate. At once delight and horror on us seise, Thou fing'ft with so much gravity and ease; And above humane flight dost foar aloft, With plume so strong, fo equal, and so soft! The bird nam'd from that Paradife you fing So never flags, but always keeps on wing.

Where could'ft thou words of fuch a compass find! Whence furnish such a vast expense of mind? Just Heav'n thee, like TIRESIAS, to requite, Rewards with prophesy thy loss of fight.

Well might'st thou scorn thy readers to allure With tinkling rhyme, of thy own sense secure; While the TOWN-BAYS writes all the while and

spells,

And, like a pack-horse, tires without his bells.
Their fancies like our bushy-points appear,
The poets tag them, we for fashion wear.
I too transported by the mode commend;
And while I mean to praise thee, must offend.
Thy verse created like thy Theme fublime,
In number, weight, and measure, needs not rhyme.

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T

THE

VERSE.

HE measure is ENGLISH Heroic Verse without Rhyme, as that of HOMER in Greek, and of VIRGIL in Latin; Rhyme being no necessary adjunct, or true ornament of Poem or good verse; in longer works especially: but the invention of a barbarous age, to fet off wretched matter and lame metre: grac'd indeed fince by the use of fome famous modern Poets, carried away by custom; but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and conftraint to express many things otherwise, (and for the most part worse) than else they would have expreft them. Not without cause therefore some (both ITALIAN and SPANISH) Poets of prime note have rejected Rhyme, both in longer and shorter works; as have also long fince our best ENGLISH Tragedies; as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial, and of no true musical delight: which confifts only in apt numbers, fit quantity of fyllables, & the sense varioufly drawn out from one verse into another: not in the jingling found of like endings; a fault avoided by the learned antients both in Poetry, & all good Oratory. This neglect then of rhyme so little is to be taken for a defect (though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers) that it rather is to be esteem'd an example set, the first in ENGLISH, of antient liberty recover'd to Heroic Poem, from the troublesome and modern bondage of rhyming.

PARA

PARADISE LOST.

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THE ARGUMENT.

This first book proposes, first in brief, the whole subject, man's disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein be was plac'd. Then touches the prime cause of his fall, the serpent, or rather Satan in the ferpent; who revolting from GOD, and drawing to his fide many legions of Angels, was by the command of GOD driven out of beaven with all his crew into the great deep. Which action pass'd over, the Poem haftes into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into hell, defcrib'd here, not in the centre (for heaven and earth may be suppos'd as yet not made, certainly not yet accurs'd) but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest call'd Chaos: Here Satan with bis Angels lying on the burning lake, thunderstruck and astonish'd, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion, calls up him who next in order and dignity lay by him: they confer of their miserable fall. Satan awakens all his legions, who lay 'till then in the same manner confounded: they rife; their numbers, array of battel, their chief leaders nam'd, according to the Idols known afterwards in Canaan and the countries adjoining. To these Satan diretts his speech, comforts shem with hope of yet regaining heaven, but tells thes lastly of a new world and a new kind of creature to be treated, according to an ancient prophecy or report

in heaven: for that Angels were long before this visible
creation was the opinion of many ancient Fathers.
To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to
determine thereon, be refers to a full council. What his
affociates thence attempt. Pandæmonium, the palace
of Satan, rises, fuddenly built out of the deep: the in-
fernal Peers there fit in council.

F Man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world & all our woe
With loss of EDEN, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful feat 5

Sing heav'nly Muse, that on the fecret top
Of OREB, or of SINAI, didst inspire
That thepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,
In the beginning how the heav'ns and earth
Rofe out of CHAOS: Or if SION hill

IO

Delight thee more, and SILOA's brook that flow'd

Fait by the oracle of GoD; I thence

Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous song,
That with no middle flight intends to foar
Above th' AONIAN mount, while it persues

15.

Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.

And chiefly thou O SPIRIT, that dost prefer Before all temples th' upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for thou know'st: thou from the first : Wast present, and with mighty wings out-spread, 20 Dove-like fat'ft brooding on the vast Abyss, And mad'it it pregnant: what in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and fupport; That to the height of this great argument I may afiert eternal Providence,

And juftifie the ways of God to men.

25

Say first, [for heav'n hides nothing from thy view, Nor the deep tract of hell] fay first what caufe

Liure premier.

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ou de sina, toy qui inspira aprit a la race choisie Comment au Commerlement Le Ciel et et la terre Sortirent du Cahos

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