The Adamus exul of Grotius; or The Prototype of Paradise Lost — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

6 PROLEGOMENA. ledged a veneration and an emulous regard he vouchsafed to no other modern. With Grotius, he sympathised deeply from his earliest years ; he neglected not to visit him onthe continent, and gloried in his friend- ship as long as he lived. It is clear, that, like Grotius, Milton also was eminently skilled in theological science, in all the cabalistic and mythological initiations, and philosophical learning of antiquity. This has been sufficiently proved by Birch, Newton, and the author of the essay on “ Milton’s Use of the Ancients.” : But it was not to the ancients only that Milton was indebted: he availed himeelf equally of the moderns; and without doubt the “ Adamus Exul” of Grotius furnished Milton with that seed of theught and passion which afterwards bloomed out in that ‘ bright consummate flower,” the “ Paradise Lost.” Much as we detest the name of Lauder, literary justice obliges us to give that unhappy gentleman his due, which he has not yet received. He was one of the first who perceived the high probability of Milton's ob- ligation to Grotius and the modern Latin poets. And never yet did author more cunningly combine truth and falsehood than Lauder. His learning generally enabled him to prove at least half his point, and im- posture supplied all that was wanting in evidence. Lauder was a Scotchman, a Latin schoolmaster, and a literary adven- turer. In reading the first act of the ““ Adamus Exul,” and other modern Latin poems, he could hardly fail to perceive the frequent use which Milton, conversant as he was with all curious and ingenious literature, naturally made of them, About the year 1750, Lauder wrote some articles in the “ Gentleman's Magazine,” stating his discoveries. These exciting some attention, and winning the approbation of Dr. Johnson, he was induced, in the same year, to publish an Essay, entitled “An Essay on Milton’s Use and Imitation of the Moderns in Paradise Lost.” In this work, finding his materials deficient, he unhappily endeavoured to supply the defect of his authorities by drawing largely on his own latinity. In this Essay, in which he quotes the first Act of “ Adamus Exul,” Lauder says, “In Birche’s Life of Milton is the copy of a manuscript in his own hand-writing, found at Trinity College, Cambridge, which con- tains the name of Grotius’s “ Adamus Exul, or Adam Unparadised or of Banishment.” “This tragedy” (continues Lauder) “ though it passed through no less than four editions, was never yet printed among the rest in fhe author’s works, and was so exceedingly scarce, that I could not procure a copy either m Britain or Holland, till the learned Mr. Abra- ham Gronovius, keeper of the public library at Leyden, after great enquiry, obtained the sight of one, and, as I have been sometime honored with his correspondence and friendship, sent me (transcribed by his own son) the first act of it, and afterwards the rest, together with the dedica- tion, addressed to the Duke of Bourbon. ‘‘Now as Mr. Fenton” (continues Lauder) “ as well as Mr. Phillips, Milton’s nephew, informs us that ‘ Paradise Lost’ was first written, or intended to be written, in the form of atragedy, wherein Satan was to pronounce the prologue, the judicious reader will perceive the probability of Milton’s availing himself of this literary treasure. In self-defence, I GORMGOOO@ @ <S (c@