wo numerous editions. After this great
work was published, however, it lay some time in obscurity, and had
the Bookseller advanced the sum stipulated, he would have had reason
to repent of his bargain. It was generally reported, that the late
lord Somers first gave Paradise Lost a reputation; but Mr. Richardson
observes, that it was known and esteemed long before there was such a
man as lord Somers, as appears by a pompous edition of it printed by
subscription in 1688, where, amongst the list of Subscribers, are the
names of lord Dorset, Waller, Dryden, Sir Robert Howard, Duke, Creech,
Flatman, Dr. Aldrich, Mr. Atterbury, Sir Roger L'Estrange, lord
Somers, then only John Somers, esq; Mr. Richardson further informs us,
that he was told by Sir George Hungerford, an ancient Member of
Parliament, that Sir John Denham came into the House one morning with
a sheet of Paradise Lost, wet from the press, in his hand, and being
asked what he was reading? he answered, part of the noblest poem that
ever was written in any language, or in any age; however, it is
certain that the book was unknown till about two years after, when the
earl of Dorset recommended it, as appears from the following story
related to Mr. Richardson, by Dr. Tancred Robinson, an eminent
physician in London, who was informed by Sir Fleetwood Sheppard, 'that
the earl, in company with that gentleman, looking over some books in
Little Britain, met with Paradise Lost; and being surprized with some
passages in turning it over, bought it. The Bookseller desired his
lordship to speak in its favour, since he liked it, as the impression
lay on his hands as waste paper. The earl having read the poem, sent
it to Mr. Dryden, who, in a short time, returned it with this answer:
This man cuts us all, and the ancients too.'
Critics have differed as to the source from which our [author] drew
the first hint of writing Paradise Lost; Peck conjectures that it was
from a celebrated Spanish Romance called Guzman, and Dr. Zachary
Pearce, now bishop of Bangor, has alledged, that he took the first
hint of it from an Italian Tragedy, called Il Paradiso Perso, still
extant, and printed many years before he entered on his design. Mr.
Lauder in his Essay on Milton's Use and Imitation of the Moderns, has
insinuated that Milton's first hint of Paradise Lost, was taken from a
Tragedy of the celebrated Grotius, called Adamus Exul, and that Milton
has not thought it beneath him to transplant so
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