And high permission of all-ruling Heaven Heap on himself damnation, while he sought The Saxon monk had not the dexterity to elude the difficult position in which the arch-fiend was for ever fixed; he was indissolubly chained, and yet much was required to be done. It is not, therefore, Satan himself who goes on the subdolous design of wreaking his revenge on the innocent pair in Paradise; for this he despatches one of his associates, who is thus described: "Prompt in arms, he had a crafty soul; this chief set his helmet on his head; he many speeches knew of guileful words: wheeled up from thence, he departed through the doors of hell." We are reminded of "The infernal doors, that on their hinges grate Harsh thunder." The emissary of Satan in Cadmon had "a strong mind, lion-like in air, in hostile mood he dashed the fire aside with a fiend's power*" That demon flings aside the flames of hell with the bravery of his sovereign, as we see in Milton, "Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool His mighty stature; on each hand the flames Driv'n backward, slope their pointing spires and, roll'd *Cædmon, p. 29. + Paradise Lost, i. 221. Cadmon thus represents Satan :-" Then spoke the haughty king, who of angels erst was brightest, fairest in heaven-beloved of his master-so beauteous was his form, he was like to the light stars." Milton's conception of the form of Satan is the same. "His form had not yet lost "His countenance as the morning star that guides Literary curiosity may be justly excited to account for these apparent resemblances, and to learn whether similarity and coincidence necessarily prove identity and imitation; and whether, finally, Cadmon was ever known to Milton. The Cadmonian manuscript is as peculiar in its history as its subject. This poem, which we are told fixed the attention of our ancestors "from the sixth to the twelfth century," and the genius of whose writer was 66 stamped deeply and lastingly upon the literature of our country‡," had wholly disappeared from any visible existence. It was accidentally discovered only in a single manuscript, the gift of Archbishop Usher to the learned Francis JUNIUS. During thirty years of this *Paradise Lost, i. 592. + Paradise Lost, v. 798. eminent scholar's residence in England, including his occasional visits to Holland and Friesland, to recover, by the study of the Friesic living dialect, the extinct Anglo-Saxon, he devoted his protracted life to the investigation of the origin of the Gothic dialects. A Saxon poem, considerable for its size and for its theme, in a genuine manuscript, was for our northern student a most precious acquisition; and that this solitary manuscript should not be liable to accidents, Junius printed the original at Amsterdam in 1655, unaccompanied by any translation or by any notes. We must now have recourse to a few dates. Milton had fallen blind in 1654. The poet began Paradise Lost about 1658; the composition occupied three years, but the publication was delayed till 1667. If Milton had any knowledge of Cædmon, it could only have been in the solitary and treasured manuscript of Junius. To have granted even the loan of the only original the world possessed, we may surmise, that Junius would not have slept through all the nights of its absence. And if the Saxon manuscript was ever in the hands of Milton, could our poet have read it? We have every reason to believe, that Milton did not read Saxon. At that day who did? There were not "ten men to save the city." In Milton's History of England, a loose and solitary reference to the Saxon Chronicle, then untranslated, was probably found ready at hand; for all his Saxon annals are drawn from the Latin monkish authorities: and in that wonderful list of one hundred dramatic subjects which the poet had set down for the future themes of his muse, there are many on Saxon stories; but all the references are to Speed and Holinshed. The nephew of the poet has enumerated all the languages in which Milton was conversant," the Hebrew, (and I think the Syriac,) the Greek, the Latin, the Italian, the Spanish, and French." We find no allusion to any of the northern tongues, which that votary of classical antiquity and of Ausonian melody and fancy would deem-can we doubt it?-dissonant and barbarous. The Northern Scalds were yet as little known as our own Saxons. A recent discovery that Milton once was desirous of reading Dutch may possibly be alleged by the Saxonists as an approach to the study of the Saxon; but at that time Milton was in office as "the secretary for foreign tongues," and in a busy intercourse with the Hollanders*. * This curious literary information has been disclosed by ROGER WILLIAMS, the founder of the state of Rhode Island, who was despatched to England in 1651, to obtain the repeal of a charter granted to Mr. Coddington. I give this remarkable passage in the words of this Anglo-American:-"It pleased the Lord to call me for some time and with some persons to practise the Hebrew, the Greek, Latin, French, and Dutch. The secretary of the council, Mr. Milton, for my Dutch I read him, read me many more lan 66 Secretary Milton" at that moment was probably anxious to con the phrases of a Dutch state-paper, to scrutinise into the temper of their style. Had Milton ever acquired the Dutch idiom for literary purposes, to study Vondel, the Batavian Shakespeare*, from whom guages. Grammar rules begin to be esteemed a tyranny. I taught two young gentlemen, a parliament-man's sons, as we teach our children English-by words, phrases, and constant talk, &c." This vague &c. stands so in the original, and leaves his "wondrous tale half-told.". "Memoirs of Roger Williams, the Founder of the State of Rhode Island, by James D. Knowles, professor of pastoral duties in the Newton Theological Institution, 1834," p. 264. I am indebted for this curious notice to the prompt kindness of my most excellent friend ROBERT SOUTHEY; a name long dear to the public as it will be to posterity; an author the accuracy of whose knowledge does not yield to its extent. * Mr. SOUTHEY observes, in a letter now before me, that "VONDEL'S Lucifer was published in 1654. Ilis Samson, the same subject as the Agonistes, 1661. His Adam, 1664. CEDMON, ANDREINI, and VONDEL, each or all, may have led Milton to consider the subject of his Paradise Lost. But Vondel is the one who is most likely to have impressed him. language were regarded with disrespect in those days. Vondel was the greatest writer of that language, and the Lucifer is esteemed the best of his tragedies. Milton alone excepted, he was probably the greatest poet then living." Neither the Dutch nor the This critical note furnishes curious dates. Milton was blind when the Lucifer was published; and there is so much of the personal feelings and condition of the poet himself in his "Samson Agonistes," that it is probable little or no resemblance could be traced in the Hollander. The Adam of Milton, and the whole "Paradise" itself, was completed in 1661. As for Cadmon, I submit the present chapter to Mr. Southey's decision. No great genius appears to have made such free and wise use of |