John Milton
Published: 2017-10-18
Total Pages: 436
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Excerpt from The Works of John Milton, in Verse and Prose, Vol. 2 of 8: Printed From the Original Editions, With a Life of the Author Out Rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; Rime being no necefi'ary Ad junét or true Ornament of Poem or good Verfe, in longer Works efpecially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age, to fet Ofi' wretched matter and lame Meeter; grac't indeed fince by the ufe of fome famous modern Poets, carried away by Cuf tom, but much to thir own vexation, hindrance, and confiraint, to exprefs many things otherwife, and for the mofi part worfe then elfe they would have expreft them. Not without caufe, there fore, fome both Italian and spanifli Poets of prime note, have rejected Rime both in longer and {horter Works, as have alfo, long fince, our beit Englifh Tragedies, as a thing Of itfelf, to all judicious eares, triveal and of no true mufical delight; which con fifts only in apt Numbers, fit quantity of Syllables, and the fenfe varioufly drawn out from one verfe into another, not in the jingling found of like end ings, a fault avoyded by the learned Ancients both in Poetry and all good Oratory. This negleét then of Rime, {0 little is to be taken for a defect, though it may fcem fo perhaps to vulgar readers, that it rather is to be eiteem'd an example fet, the firit in Englifh, Of ancient liberty recover'd to Heroic Poem from the troublefom and modern. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.