...liberty to 5 propose to her self, though of highest hope and hardest attempting: whether that Epick form whereof the two poems of Homer, and those other...of Virgil and Tasso are a diffuse, and the book of Iob a brief, model : or whether the rules of Aristotle herein are strictly to be kept, or 10 nature...

...her self, though of highest hope and hardest attempting : whether that Epick form whereof the two i poems of Homer, and those other two of Virgil and Tasso are a diffuse, and the book of lob a brief, model : or whether the rules of Aristotle herein are strictly to be kept, or I0 - nature...

...determine on the epic form of composition as the best for his genius. " That epick " form," he had said, "whereof the two poems of Homer, and those other two...Virgil and Tasso are a diffuse, and the Book of Job a *r/^"model." May we not say that, whereas in Paradise Lost he had adopted the larger or more diffuse...

...editors. ii In The Reason ofChurch-governement of 1642 occurs Milton's statement about 'that Epick form whereof the two poems of Homer, and those other...Tasso are a diffuse, and the book of Job a brief model '.20 It has been said that the Hebrews produced no epic poetry, but Charles Jones and Barbara Lewalski21...

...the mind at home, in the spacious circuits of her musing, hath liberty to propose to herself, though of highest hope and hardest attempting; whether that...are strictly to be kept, or nature to be followed. . ." These words deserve particular notice. I do not doubt, that Milton intended his Paradise lost...

...(ie songs) of Pindar and Callimachus, but with Biblical precedents pointedly emphasized. that Epick form whereof the two poems of Homer, and those other...Aristotle herein are strictly to be kept, or nature to be follow'd, which in them that know art, and use judgement is no transgression, but an inriching of art....

...even as Charles Dunster had in 1795, that Milton's rather puzzling reference in RCG to "that Epick form whereof the two poems of Homer, and those other...are a diffuse, and the book of Job a brief model" is a serious statement of generic theory with direct applicability to PR. Investigation of the poem...

...well trodden by sixteenth-century Italian critics as the poet deliberates over whether in writing epic 'the rules of Aristotle herein are strictly to be kept, or nature to be followed'17 - that is, whether neoclassical prescriptions for the form of epic be adopted, or the freer...

...as Barrow does in his dedicatory verses, In The Reason of Church Governmenl he speaks of "that Hpick form whereof the two poems of Homer, and those other two of Virgil and 'lasso are a diffuse, and the Book of Job a brief model" lWolfe. i:8i3). The note on "The Verse" ladded...

...Milton questions whether the epic poet should essentially imitate the great epics of the past [...] or whether the rules of Aristotle herein are strictly to be kept, or nature to be follow'd which in them that know art, and use judgement is no transgression, but an inriching of art.7...