hoice of subject; Milton's favourite
theme--temptation; other possible subjects; the Harrying of Hell;
_Samson Agonistes;_ the riddle of life. 126

CHAPTER V
The Style of Milton: Metre and Diction

Difficulties of literary genealogy; the ledger school of criticism;
Milton's strength and originality; his choice of a sacred
subject; earlier attempts in England and France; Boileau's
opinion; Milton's choice of metre an innovation; the little
influence on Milton of Spenser, and of Donne; Milton a pupil of
the dramatists; the history of dramatic blank verse; Milton's
handling of the measure; the "elements of musical delight";
Tennyson's blank verse; Milton's metrical licenses; the Choruses
of _Samson Agonistes_; Milton's diction a close-wrought mosaic;
compared with the diffuser diction of Spenser; conciseness of
Virgil, Dryden, Pope, Milton; Homer's repetitions; repetitions
and "turns of words and thoughts" rare in Milton; double meanings
of words; Milton's puns; extenuating circumstances; his mixed
metaphors and violent syntax, due to compression; Milton's
poetical style a dangerous model; the spontaneity and license of
his prose 170

CHAPTER VI
The Style of Milton; and its Influence on English Poetry

The relation of Milton's work to the 17th-century "reforms" of verse
and prose; the Classicism of Milton, and of the Augustans;
Classic and Romantic schools contrasted in their descriptions;
Milton's Chaos, Shakespeare's Dover Cliff; Johnson's comments;
the besetting sins of the two schools; Milton's physical
machinery justified; his use of abstract terms; the splendid use
of mean associations by Shakespeare; Milton's wise avoidance of
mean associations, and of realism; nature of his similes and
figures; his use of proper names; his epic catalogues; his
personifications; loftiness of his perfected style; the
popularity of _Paradise Last_; imitations, adaptations, and
echoes of Milton's style during the 18th century; his enormous
influence; the origin of "poetic diction"; Milton's phraseology
stolen by Pope, Thomson, and Gray; the degradation of Milton's
style by his pupils and parodists 218

EPILOGUE

Milton's contemporaries; the poetry of Religion, and of Love; Henry
Vaughan; t