How sweetly did they float upon the wings Of silence, through the empty vaulted night! might have been written by Shakspere. Alliteration is used freely, but more after the manner of Fletcher or of Spenser, not with the sustained elaboration of Milton's maturity. The truly Miltonic licences are rare: we find fewer inverted sentences, less lengthy systems of concatenated periods,—in a word, a more fluent and simpler versification. Both in the imagery and the melody of 'Comus' there is youthful freshness, an almost wanton display of vernal bloom and beauty. In the 'Paradise Lost' we reach the manhood of the art of Milton. His elaborate metrical structure, supported by rich alliteration and assonance, here attains its full development. Already too there is more of rugged and abrupt sublimity in the blank verse of the 'Paradise Lost' than can be found in that of 'Comus.' The metre, learned in the school of the Elizabethan drama, is being used in accordance with the models of the Roman Epic. Yet the fancy of the poet has not yet grown chill or lost luxuriance, nor has his ear become less sensitive to every musical modulation of which our language is capable. 'Paradise Regained' presents a marked change. Except in descriptive passages, there is but little alliterative melody; while all the harsh inversions and rugged eccentricities of abnormally constructed verses are retained. It is noticeable that hendecasyllabic lines, which are but sparingly used in 'Paradise Lost,' only two occurring in the first book, become frequent in 'Paradise Regained,' and add considerably to the heaviness of its movement. These, for example, are found within a short space in the first book :— ... One day forth walked alone, the Spirit leading. No doubt there are admirers of Milton who would not allow that the metrical changes in 'Paradise Regained' are for the worse. Yet it is hardly to be denied that, in comparison with the 'Paradise Lost,' much of richness, variety, sonorousness, and liquid melody has been sacrificed. 'Samson Agonistes' is a step beyond 'Paradise Regained' in dryness, ruggedness, and uncompromising severity. The blank verse is shorn of alliterative and assonantal harmony, except in the last speech of Manoah, and in a few of the more pensive passages scattered up and down the drama. Still it displays every form of the true Miltonic meter in so far as audacities of accent and accumulations of compacted syllables are concerned. To the lover of the most exalted poetry, 'Samson Agonistes,' even as regards its versification, may possibly offer a pleasure more' subtle and more rare than 'Paradise Lost,' with all its full-toned harmonies. It has the grandeur of a play of Sophocles which, after passing through the medium of the Latin genius, has deen committed to Engl sh by the loftiest of modern poets in austere old age. 'Comus' shows the style of the master in his earliest manhood, with the luxuriance of an untamed youth, the labyrinthine blossoms of an unpruned fancy. Paradise Lost' exhibits the same richness, mellowed by age and subordinated to the laws of abstruse and deeply studied proportion. In 'Paradise Regained' the master has grown older, and his taste is more severe. In Samson Agonistes' colour and melody have lost their charm for him, though he preserves his mighty style, restraining it within limits prescribed by a taste ascetically grave. In 'Comus' we have the glowing hues of a Giorgione, with a comparatively weak design. In 'Paradise Lost' the design of a Michelangelo is added to the colouring of a Titian. In 'Paradise Regained' both colour and design are of the great Florentine. In 'Samson Agonistes' the design is still that of Michelangelo; but the picture is executed en grisaille, in severest chiaroscuro, careful only of the form. Fortunately we know the dates of Milton's masterpieces. There is therefore no uncertainty or subjectivity of criticism in the analysis of these changes in his manner; at the same time they are precisely what we might have expected à priori-the intellectual gaining on the sensual qualities of art as the poet advanced in age. POLIZIANO'S 'Orfeo' was dedicated to Messer Carlo Canale, the husband of that famous Vannozza who bore Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia to Alexander VI. As first published in 1494, and as republished from time to time up to the year 1776, it carried the title of 'La Favola di Orfeo,' and was not divided into acts. Frequent stage-directions sufficed, as in the case of Florentine Sacre Rappresentazioni,' for the indication of the scenes. In this earliest redaction of the 'Orfeo' the chorus of the Dryads, the part of Mnesillus, the lyrical speeches of Proserpine and Pluto, and the first lyric of the Mænads are either omitted or represented by passages in ottava rima. In the year 1776, the Padre Ireneo Affò printed at Venice a new version of 'Orfeo, Tragedia di Messer Angelo Poliziano,' collated by him from two MSS. This play is divided into five acts, severally entitled 'Pastoricus,' 'Nymphas Habet,' Heioïcus,' Necromanticus,' and 'Bacchanalis.' The stage-directions are given partly in Latin, partly in Italian; and instead of the 'Announcement of the Feast' by Mercury, a prologue consisting of two octave stanzas is appended. A Latin Sapphic ode in praise of the Cardinal Gonzaga, which was interpolated in the first version, is omitted, and certain changes are made in the last soliloquy of Orpheus. There is little doubt, I think, that the second version, first given to the press by the Padre Affò, was Poliziano's own recension of his earlier composition. I have, therefore, followed it in the main, except that I have not thought it necessary to observe the somewhat pedantic division into acts, and have preferred to use the original 'Announcement of the Feast,' which proves the integral connection between this ancient secular play and the Florentine Mystery or 'Sacra Rappresentazione.' The last soliloquy of Orpheus, again, has been freely translated by me from both versions for reasons which will be obvious to students of the original. I have yet to make a remark upon one detail of my translation. In line 390 (part of the first lyric of the Mænads), the Italian gives us : Spezzata come il fabbro il cribro spezza. This means literally: 'Riven as a blacksmith rives a sieve or boulter.' Now sieves are made in Tuscany of a plate of iron, pierced with holes; and the image would therefore be familiar to an Italian. I have, however, preferred to translate thus :— Riven as woodmen firtrees rive, instead of giving :— Riven as blacksmiths boulters rive, because I thought that the second and faithful version would be unintelligible as well as unpoetical for English readers. WORKS BY JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS, M.A. RENAISSANCE in ITALY: Age of the Despots. 8vo. 12s. RENAISSANCE in ITALY: the Revival of Learning: the Fine Arts. 2 vols. 8vo. 32s. STUDIES of the GREEK POETS. First Series. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d. STUDIES of the GREEK POETS. Second Series. Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d. SKETCHES in ITALY and GREECE. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 9s. SKETCHES and STUDIES in ITALY. With a Frontispiece. Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d. MANY MOODS. A Volume of Verse. Crown 8vo. 95. THE SONNETS of MICHAEL ANGELO BUONARROTI and TOMMASO CAMPANELLA. Now for the first time Translated into Rhymed English. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. London: SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place, |