Hazlitt on English Literature Part 33

_It has been indeed objected to Milton_. Cf. Coleridge (Works, ed. Shedd, IV, 304): "Milton is not a picturesque, but a musical, poet"; also Coleridge's "Table Talk," August 7, 1832: "It is very remarkable that in no part of his writings does Milton take any notice of the great painters of Italy, nor, indeed, of painting as an art; while every other page breathes his love and taste for music.... Adam bending over the sleeping Eve, in Paradise Lost, and Dalilah approaching Samson, in the Agonistes, are the only two proper pictures I remember in Milton."

_Like a steam_. "Comus," 556.

P. 106. _He soon saw_. "Paradise Lost," III, 621.

P. 107. _With Atlantean shoulders_. II, 306.

_Lay floating_. I, 296.

_Dr. Johnson condemns the Paradise Lost._ See the conclusion of his "Life of Milton."

P. 108. _His hand was known_. "Paradise Lost," I, 732.

_But chief the s.p.a.cious hall_. I, 762.

P. 109. _Round he surveys_. III, 555.

_Such as the meeting soul_. "L'Allegro."

_the hidden soul_. Ibid.

P. 110. _as Pope justly observes_. "First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace," 102.

P. 111. _As when Heaven's fire_. "Paradise Lost," I, 612.

_All is not lost_. I, 206.

_that intellectual being_. II, 147.

_being swallowed up_. II, 149.

P. 112. _Fallen cherub_. I, 157.

_rising aloft_. I, 225.

_the mystic German critics_. Cf. p. 344.

P. 113. _Is this the region_. "Paradise Lost," I, 242.

P. 114. _Salmasius_. At the request of Charles II, Claude de Saumaise (Claudius Salmasius), professor at Leyden, had written a vindication of Charles I, "Defensio pro Carolo I" (1649), to which Milton replied with the "Defensio pro Populo Anglicano" (1651). The controversy between the two is noted for the virulency of the personal invective.

_with hideous ruin_. "Paradise Lost," I, 46.

_retreated in a silent valley_. II, 547.

_a noted political writer_. Dr. Stoddart, editor of the Times and brother-in-law of Hazlitt, whom the critic bitterly hated, and Napoleon are here referred to. Cf. "Political Essays," III, 158-159.

P. 115. _Longinus preferred the Iliad._ "Whereas in the _Iliad_, which was written when his genius was in its prime, the whole structure of the poem is founded on action and struggle, in the _Odyssey_ he generally prefers the narrative style, which is proper to old age. Hence Homer in his _Odyssey_ may be compared to the setting sun; he is still as great as ever, but he has lost his fervent heat. The strain is now pitched in a lower key than in the 'Tale of Troy Divine': we begin to miss that high and equable sublimity which never flags or sinks, that continuous current of moving incidents, those rapid transitions, that force of eloquence, that opulence of imagery which is ever true to Nature. Like the sea when it retires upon itself and leaves its sh.o.r.es waste and bare, henceforth the tide of sublimity begins to ebb, and draws us away into the dim region of myth and legend. In saying this I am not forgetting the fine storm-pieces in the _Odyssey_, the story of the Cyclops, and other striking pa.s.sages. It is Homer grown old I am discussing, but still it is Homer." On the Sublime, IX, trans. Havell.

_no kind of traffic_. Cf. "Tempest," ii, 1, 148.

_The generations were prepared_. Wordsworth's "Excursion," VI, 554.

_the unapparent deep_. "Paradise Lost," VII, 103.

P. 116. _know to know no more_. Cowper's "Truth," 327.

_They toiled not_. Matthew, vi, 28.

_In them the burthen_. Wordsworth's "Lines Composed above Tintern Abbey."

_such as angels weep_. "Paradise Lost," I, 620.

P. 117. _In either hand_. XII, 637.

POPE

This selection begins with the second paragraph of the fourth lecture on the "English Poets."

P. 118. _The question whether Pope was a poet_. Hazlitt had written a paper in answer to this question in the Edinburgh Magazine for February, 1818 (Works, XII, 430-432), from which the following paragraphs down to "Such at least is the best account" are copied. The question had been previously answered by Dr. Johnson with the same common sense as by Hazlitt: "It is surely superfluous to answer the question that has once been asked, Whether Pope was a poet? otherwise than by asking in return, If Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found? To circ.u.mscribe poetry by a definition will only shew the narrowness of the definer, though a definition which shall exclude Pope will not easily be made." ("Life of Pope," ed. B. Hill, III, 251). In their edition of Pope (II, 140), Elwin and Courthope express the opinion that the doubt which both Johnson and Hazlitt felt called upon to refute "was never maintained by a single person of reputation." Yet there is something very close to such a doubt implied in the utterances of Coleridge: "If we consider great exquisiteness of language and sweetness of metre alone, it is impossible to deny to Pope the character of a delightful writer; but whether he was a poet, must depend upon our definition of the word.... This, I must say, that poetry, as distinguished from other modes of composition, does not rest in metre, and that it is not poetry, if it make no appeal to our pa.s.sions or our imagination." (Works, ed. Shedd, IV, 56.) Pope's verse was made the occasion of a long-winded controversy as to the relative value of the natural and artificial in poetry, lasting from 1819 to 1825, with William Bowles and Lord Byron as the princ.i.p.al combatants. Hazlitt contributed an article to the London Magazine for June, 1821, "Pope, Lord Byron and Mr. Bowles" (Works, XII, 486-508), in which he pointed out the fallacies in Byron's position and censured the clerical priggishness of Bowles in treating of Pope's life. The chief points in the discussion are best summed up in Prothero's edition of Byron's "Letters and Journals,"

Vol. V, Appendix III.

_If indeed by a great poet we mean_. Cf. Introduction, p. 1.

P. 120. _the pale reflex_. "Romeo and Juliet," iii, 5, 20.

P. 121. _Martha Blount_ (1690-1762), the object of Pope's sentimental attachment throughout his life.

_In Fortune's ray_. "Troilus and Cressida," i, 3, 47.

_the gnarled oak ... the soft myrtle_. "Faerie Qu.," II, ii, 116-117.

_calm contemplation_. Thomson's "Autumn," 1275.

P. 122. _More subtle web_. "Faerie Queene," II, xii, 77.

P. 123. _from her fair head_. "Rape of the Lock," III, 154.

_Now meet thy fate_. Ibid., V, 87-96.

P. 124. _Lutrin_. The "Lutrin" was a mock-heroic poem (1674-1683) of the French poet and critic, Nicolas Boileau Despreaux (1636-1711), the literary dictator of the age of Louis XIV.

_'Tis with our judgments_. "Essay on Criticism," I, 9.

_Still green with bays_. Ibid., I, 181.

P. 125. _the writer's despair_. Cf. Ibid., II, 278: