O may I with myself agree, Now, ev'n now, my joys run high. Be full, ye courts! be great who will; Search for Peace with all your skill; Open wide the lofty door; Seek her on the marble floor: In vain ye fearch, fhe is not there; } } There There is a remarkable fprightlinefs in the movement of the metre through most parts of this poem; and, to read it with juftness and propriety, we cannot fufficiently recommend to the fcholar a fmart neatness of expreffion, at the fame time taking efpecial care to difcriminate as he goes on, with the utmost nicety andrafte. We are now come to that part of our Mifcellany to which we particularly recommend the attention of the fcholar. The reading of Milton with propriety requires a method, we may fay, peculiar to itself. In his style of writing there is a pomp of found and energy of expreffion which, if done juftice to, demands, from the perfon who attempts to read it, a full, deep, level tone of voice, mingled with a kind of grandeur of utterance, look, and manner. An attention to these is abfolutely neceffary, in order to keep up the proper effect of that elevation and fublimity of diction, which is here carried to a greater height than in any. other English poem. This is one of the chief characteristics of Paradife Loft, although in many places where the fentiment requires it, Milton foftens into tenderness, and melts into the moft heart-rending pathetic. With respect to thofe who have excelled in reading him, we know of no one that has in the least approximated either to Mr. Sheridan or Mr. Henderfon.The first afforded more fatisfaction to the critic, the latter to the majority of an auditory.—It is faid, that Lord Thurlow has retained great parts of this fublime poet by heart, and that he repeats them. with astonishing dignity of tone and folemnity of manner, that give confiderable pleasure to those who are fo fortunate as to hear him. From the knowledge we have of this Nobleman's delivery, we do not in the least doubt his powers as a reader, nor the fact we have just related. The methods we shall occasionally advise the adoption of, in reading the extracts we shall give of the poem before us, will, many of them, be those we saw put in practice by the two first gentlemen we mentioned. In those places which we never heard read by them, our reader muft be fatisfied with our own opinion of the way they would have probably made use of. Our first extract shall be that defcriptive of THE ARRIVAL OF SATAN AT HELL. BE full, deep, and, as it were, dignified in your tone, with no fudden jerks and snaps in your voice, but let moft of your words be founded in a uniform and regular manner. SATAN, SATAN, with thoughts inflam'd of high'ft defign, Mark the word "folitary" expreffive of gloom and drearines the fyllables in a long, dragging tone. Sometimes He fcours the right-hand coaft, fometimes the left; As when far off at fea a fleet defcried Paufe after "As." Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring Ply, ftemming nightly toward the pole: fo feem'd Paufe after " Far off the flying fiend: at last appear Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, And thrice three-fold the gates; three folds were brafs, In all the following defcription be particularly impreffive, and mark those words that keep up the horror of the characters defcribed. Three Three iron, three of adamantine rock; The one feem'd woman to the waist, and fair, The laft line in a tender manner, which finely introduces the remaining part of the horrid picture, which must be fpoken with fuitable alteration of voice and look. But ended foul in many a fcaly fold, And kennel there; yet there still bark'd and howl'd, The words to be marked here, in order to keep up the hideousness of the figure, are "Scaly fold," a "ferpent arm'd," "mortal fting," "hell-hounds," "hideous peal," "into her womb," "kennel there," and "bark'd," and "howl'd." Far lefs abhorr'd than these |