An Essay Upon the Civil Wars of France,: Extracted from Curious Manuscripts. : And Also Upon the Epick Poetry of the European Nations, from Homer Down to Milton, Volume 8

Front Cover
N. Prevost and Comp., 1728 - Epic poetry - 130 pages

From inside the book

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 76 - O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme ! Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull; Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.
Page 60 - JEaeas and Lavinia, unknown, and indifferent to each other, and a War rais'd about a Stag wounded by a young Boy, could not indeed command our Concern as well as the burning of Troy, and the Love of Dido.
Page 38 - With a blast, he began his essay on the epic in an attack upon the rule-makers and theorists: The greatest Part of the Criticks have fetch'd the Rules of Epick Poetry from the Books of Homer, according to the Custom, or rather, to the Weakness of Men, who mistake commonly the Beginning of an Art, for the Principles of the Art itself...
Page 103 - The subject of the play was the Fall of Man; the actors, God, the devils, the angels, Adam, Eve, the Serpent, Death and the seven mortal sins ; that...
Page 111 - Judgment. Milton breaks the Thread of his Narration in two Manners. The first consists of two or three kinds of Prologues, which he premises at the Beginning of some Books. In one Place he expatiates upon his own Blindness ; in another he compares his Subject and prefers it to that of the Iliad, and to the common Topicks of War, which were thought before him the only Subject fit for Epick Poetry; and he adds that he hopes to soar as high as all his Predecessors, unless the cold Climate of England...
Page 107 - Priests sometimes, represent God as a Tyrant infinitely powerful. But the God of Milton is always a Creator, a Father, and a Judge, nor is his Vengeance jarring with his Mercy, nor his Predeterminations repugnant to the Liberty of Man. These are the Pictures which lift up indeed the Soul of the Reader. Milton in that Point as well as in many others is as far above the ancient Poets as the Christian Religion is above the Heathen Fables. But he hath especially an...
Page 105 - Bombast, to have describ'd the Gluttony and Curiosity of a Woman without Flatness, to have brought Probability and Reason amidst the Hurry of imaginary Things belonging to another World, and as far remote from the Limits of our Notions as they are from our Earth; in short to force the Reader to say...
Page 103 - The Subject of the Play was the Fall of Man; the Actors, God, the Devils, the Angels, Adam, Eve, the Serpent, Death, and the Seven Mortal Sins. That...
Page 89 - Now, let no doubting hand the task decline ; Cut you the wood, and let the guilt be mine.
Page 76 - African, was acquainted with Homer and Virgil. His Poem, in my Opinion, is full of numberlefs Faults and Beauties, thick fown near one another > and almoft in every Page, there is what to laugh at, and what to be delighted with.

Bibliographic information