REMARKS ON MILTON'S VERSIFICATION. DR. JOHNSON has written several pages on Milton's versification, which have been reprinted by Todd as an essay: the whole is written in Johnson's best manner; but I venture, however presumptuous it may appear, to assert that it is based on a theory wholly wrong. Johnson assumes, as many others have done, that the true heroic verse is the iambic; such as Dryden, Pope, and, I may add, Darwin, have brought to perfection; and that all variations from the iambic foot are irregularities, which may be pardonable for variety, but are still departures from the rule. Upon this ground, Milton is perpetually offending; and that which is among his primary beauties of metre is turned into a fault. Let me be forgiven for my boldness in suggesting and exemplifying another theory of the great poet's versification, which I am convinced will be found a clew to the pronunciation of every part of his blank verse, and especially in 'Paradise Lost.' I believe that Milton's principle was to introduce into his lines every variety of metrical foot which is to be found in the Latin poetry, especially in the lyrics of Horace; such as not merely iambic, but spondee, dactyl, trochee, anapest, &c., and that whoever reads his lines as if they were prose, and accents them as the sense would dictate, will find that they fall into one, or rather several of these feet; often ending like the Latin, with a half foot: wherever they do not, I doubt not that it arises from a different mode of accenting some word from that which was the usage in Milton's time. If there is any attempt to read Milton's verses as iambics, with a mere occasional variation of the trochee and the spondee, they will often sound very lame, instead of being, as they really are, magnificently harmonious. If Johnson's rules are adopted, some of Milton's most tuneful lines become inharmonious; and, in the same degree, one of Cowley's, exquisite if properly scanned, but which Johnson exhibits as very faulty And the soft wings of peace cover him round ;this, taken to be an iambic, is full of false quantities but I assume the proper mode of scanning it to be this:— And the soft wings | of peace | cōvěr hím | round: viz. first, a trochee; then a spondee; third, an iambic; fourth, a dactyl; fifth, a demi-foot. Thus Milton, Partaken, and uncropt falls to the ground, should be scanned thus: : Părtā|ken, and | ūncrōpt | fålls to thě | grōund. first, an iambic; second, an iambic; third, a spondee; fourth, a dactyl; fifth, a demi-foot. Take the following: Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste, which I accent thus: Of sense whereby they hear, I see, smell, | touch, taste. first, an iambic; second, a spondee; third, an iambic; fourth, a spondee; fifth, a spondee. The following lines, cited by Johnson, I scan thus: : 1. Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind. Wisdom to fōlly ås | nōurīsh|mēnt tŏ | wind. 2. No ungrateful food, and food alike those pure. No ungrateful fōod | and fōod | ǎlike | thōse pūre. 3. For we have also our evening and our morn. For wē | hāve ålsŏ | oŭr ēveļníng ānd | oŭr mōrn. 4. Inhospitably, and kills their infant males. Inhospitably, and kills | their infant males. 5. And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth. And vităl virtue Infused | ănd vi|tăl wärmth. 6. God made thee of choice his own, and of his own. Gōd made thee of choice | his own |ånd ōf | his own. 7. Abominable, inutterable, and worse. Abominablě, inūt|těrā blě, and | worse. |