"
The want of the dignity of rhyme was therefore, according to his idea,
an essential deficiency in the "Paradise Lost." According to Aubrey,
Dryden communicated to Milton his intention of adding this grace to his
poem; to which the venerable bard gave a contemptuous consent, in these
words: "Ay, you may _tag_ my verses if you will." Perhaps few have read
so far into the "State of Innocence" as to discover that Dryden did not
use this licence to the uttermost and that several of the scenes are not
tagg'd with rhyme.
Dryden at this period engaged in a research recommended to him by "a
noble wit of Scotland," as he terms Sir George Mackenzie, the issue of
which, in his apprehension, pointed out further room for improving upon
the epic of Milton. This was an inquiry into the "turn of words and
thoughts" requisite in heroic poetry. These "turns," according to the
definition and examples which Dryden has given us, differ from the
points of wit, and quirks of epigram, common in the metaphysical poets,
and consist in a happy, and at the same time a natural, recurrence of
the same form of expression, melodiously varied. Having failed in his
search after these beauties in Cowley, the darling of his youth, "I
consulted," says Dryden, "a greater genius (without offence to the manes
of that noble author), I mean--Milton; but as he endeavours everywhere
to express Homer, whose age had not arrived to that fineness, I found in
him a true sublimity, lofty thoughts, which were clothed with admirable
Grecisms, and ancient words, which he had been digging from the mines of
Chaucer and Spenser, and which, with all their rusticity, had somewhat
of venerable in them.
Pages:
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166