When the reader compares the allegorical characters in this drama with thofe in Milton's fketches on fimilar fubjects, intended once for tragedies, he will again fee reason to admit that the Adamo had made confiderable impreffion, either in representation or by perufal, on the mind of the English poet. See the Appendix, at the end of Paradife Loft, in the third volume of this édition. Of Andreini, who has been contemptuously called a stroller, Mr. Hayley has vindicated the fame. "He had fome tincture of claffical learning, and confiderable piety. He occafionally imitates Virgil, and quotes the Fathers." In one of the passages, cited from his Adamo by Mr. Hayley, Mr. Walker obferves that the course of a river is defcribed with a richness of fancy, and a "dance of words," that prove An dreini to have been endowed with no common poetick powers. Of the Adamo there have been four editions, those of Milan in 1613, and 1617, printed in quarto; that of Perugia in 1641, printed in duodecimo; and that of Modena in 1685, printed in the fame form. The edition of 1641 is confidered the most rare. The defcription, to which Mr. Walker alludes, is beautifully amplified in that edition; and has been given in the Appendix to the Hiftorical Memoir Hift. Memoir on Ital. Tragedy, p. 160. on Italian Tragedy, 1799, p. xliv. Andreini was the son of the celebrated actress, Isabella Andreini. His various productions, fays Mr. Hayley, "amount to the number of thirty; and form a fingular medley of comedies and devout poems." The writer of the article Andreini (Ifabelle) in the Nouveau Dict. Hift. à Caen, 1786, adds, to the account of her fon's theatrical pieces, "On a encore d'Andreini trois Traités en faveur de la Comédie & des Comédiens, publiés à Paris en 1625; ils font fort rares. II. The next remark refpecting the Origin of Paradife Loft is that of Dr. Pearce, who, in the Preface to his Review of the Text of the twelve books &c. published in 1733, fays, "It is probable that Milton took the firft hint of the Poem from an Italian tragedy, called Il Paradifo Perfo; for I am informed that there is fuch an one extant, printed many years before Milton entered upon his defign." Mr. Hayley, in a very extenfive research, has been able to difcover no fuch performance. Nor have my inquiries been more fuccefsful. "Giovanni Battista Andreini, Fiorentino, o piuttosto Piftojefe, fù figlio della celebre Comica Ifabella Andreini (della quale fi veda il Bayle, e il Mazzuchelli,) e nacque nel 1578. Dopo efferfi acquiftato molto credito fulle Scene Italiane porroffi in Francia, ove fi meritò la ftima di Luigi XIII. Viffe per lo meno fino al 1652." From the remarks mentioned in the Note, p. 251. It is not impoffible, that Milton might have feen and converfed with Andreini, when he vifited France and Italy. III. We are next informed, in the Preface to the poetical works of the Rev. J. Sterling, printed at Dublin in 1734, that "The great Milton is said to have ingenuously confeffed that he owed his immortal work of Paradife Loft to Mr. Fletcher's Locufta." The perfon here mentioned is Phineas Fletcher, better known by his poem, entitled the Purple Ijland; and the Locufte is a spirited Latin poem, written against the * Jefuits, and published at Cambridge, while Milton was a student there, in 1627; as was also the fame author's Locufts, or Apollyonifts, an English poem, confifting of five cantos. That Milton had read both the Latin and English poem of Fletcher, I make no doubt. And I have accordingly offered, to the reader's obfervation, fome paffages from both in the Notes on his poetical works, with which Milton appears to have been pleased. But Milton's obligations to Fletcher are too confined to admit fo extensive an acknowledgement, as that which is contained in Mr. Sterling's Preface; and indeed the authority of the anecdote has not been given. Mr. Sterling has translated with k The Jefuits were called Locufts, in the theological language of this period. See Sundrie Sermons by bishop Lake, fol. 1629, "There is a kind of metaphoricall Locufts and Cater. P. 205. pillers, Locufts that came out of the bottomleffe pit; I meane Popish Priests and lefuits; the Caterpillers of the Commonweale, Proiectors and Inuentors of new tricks how to exhauft the purses of the fubiects, couering private ends with publicke pretences." great spirit the speech of Lucifer to his Angels in the Locufta, vel Pietas Jefuitica. See his poems, p. 43. As Fletcher's Latin poem is little known, it may be here proper to felect, from this fpeech, the lines which feem to have influenced the imagination of Milton, and perhaps to have given rife to the preceding anecdote. "Nos contrà immemori per tuta filentia fomno "Sternimur interea, et, mediâ jam luce fupini "Stertentes, feftam trahimus, pia turba, quietem. "Quòd fi animos fine honore acti fine fine laboris Pœnitet, et proni imperii regníque labantis "Nil miferet, pofitis flagris, odiífque remiffis, "Oramus veniam, et dextras præbemus inermes. "Fors ille audacis facti, et juftæ immemor iræ, "Placatus, facilífque manus et fœdera junget. "Fors folito lapfos (peccati oblitus) honori "Reftituet, cœlum nobis foliúmque relinquet. "At me nulla dies animi, coeptíque prioris, "Diffimilem arguerit: quin nunc refcindere cœlum, Et conjurato victricem milite pacem 46 Rumpere, ferventíque juvat mifcere tumultu. "Quò tanti cecidere animi? Quò priftina virtus "Ceffit, in æternam quâ mecum irrumpere lucem "Tentâftis, trepidúmque armis perfringere cœlum ? "Nunc verò indecores felicia ponitis arma, "Et toties victo imbelles conceditis hofti. Per vos, per domitas cœlefti fulmine vires, "Indomitúmque odium, projecta resumite tela ; "Dum fas, dum breve tempus adeft, accendite pugnas, "Restaurate acies, fractúmque reponite Martem. "Ni facitis, mox foli, et (quod magis urit) inulti, "Aeternum (heu) vacuo flammis cruciabimur antro. "Ille quidem nullâ, heu, nullâ violabilis arte, "Securum fine fine tenet, fine milite regnum; "A nullo patitur, nullo violatur ab hofte: Compatitur tamen, ínque fuis violabile membris "Corpus habet: nunc ô totis confurgite telis, "Quà patet ad vulnus nudum fine tegmine corpus, "Imprimite ultrices, penitúfque recondite, flammas. "Accelerat funefta dies, jam limine tempus "Infiftit, cùm nexa ipfo cum vertice membra 66 Atque animum fplendor fuperent, ubi gaudia damno "Crefcant, deliciaéque modum, finémque recufent. "At nos fupplicio aeterno, Stygiífque catenis 66 Compreffi, flaminis et vivo fulphure tecti, "Perpetuas duro folvemus carcere poenas. 66 66 Quam toto admifit præfentem pectore, mortem, Oráque cæruleas perreptans flamma medullas "Torquet anhela fiti, fibráfque atque ilia lambit. "Mors vivit, moritúrque inter mala mille fuperftes "Vita, vicéfque ipsâ cum morte, et nomina mutat, "Cùm verò nullum moriendi confcia finem "Mens reputat, cùm mille annis mille addidit annos, "Præteritúmque nihil venturo detrahit ævum, "Mox etiam ftellas, etiam fuperaddit arenas; "Pœna tamen damno crefcit, per flagra, per ignes, "Per quicquid miferum eft, præceps ruit, anxia lentam "Provocat infelix mortem; fi fortè relabi "Poffit, et in nihilum rurfus difperfa refolvi. "Aequemus meritis poenas, atque ultima paffis "Plura tamen magnis exactor debeat aufis ; "Immeritofve, Erebus capiet: meruiffe nefanduin 86 Supplicium medios inter folabitur ignes, "Et, licèt immenfos, factis fuperâffe dolores. "Nunc agite, ô Proceres, omnéfque effundite technas, "Confulite, imperióque alacres fuccurrite lapfo. |