finally launched this high-piled avalanche of thrice-sifted snow. The
time is better ascertained. Aubrey refers it to 1658, the last year of
Oliver's Protectorate. As Cromwell's death virtually closed Milton's
official labours, a Genie, overshadowing land and sea, arose from the
shattered vase of the Latin Secretaryship.

Nothing is more interesting than to observe the first gropings of genius
in pursuit of its aim. Ample insight, as regards Milton, is afforded by
the precious manuscripts given to Trinity College, Cambridge, by Sir
Henry Newton Puckering (we know not how he got them), and preserved by
the pious care of Charles Mason and Sir Thomas Clarke. By the portion of
the MSS. relating to Milton's drafts of projected poems, which date
about 1640-1642, we see that the form of his work was to have been
dramatic, and that, in respect of subject, the swift mind was divided
between Scripture and British History. No fewer than ninety-nine
possible themes--sixty-one Scriptural, and thirty-eight historical or
legendary--are jotted down by him. Four of these relate to "Paradise
Lost." Among the most remarkable of the other subjects are "Sodom" (the
plan is detailed at considerable length, and, though evidently
impracticable, is interesting as a counterpart of "Comus"), "Samson
Marrying," "Ahab," "John the Baptist," "Christus Patiens," "Vortigern,"
"Alfred the Great," "Harold," "Athirco" (a very striking subject from a
Scotch legend), and "Macbeth," where Duncan's ghost was to have appeared
instead of Banquo's, and seemingly taken a share in the action.
"Arthur," so much in his mind when he wrote the "Epitaphium Damonis,"
does not appear at all. Two of the drafts of "Paradise Lost" are mere
lists of _dramatis personae_, but the others indicate the shape which the
conception had then assumed in Milton's mind as the nucleus of a
religious drama on the pattern of the mediaeval mystery or miracle play.
Could he have had any vague knowledge of the autos of Calderon? In the
second and more complete draft Gabriel speaks the prologue. Lucifer
bemoans his fall and altercates with the Chorus of Angels. Eve's
temptation apparently takes place off the stage, an arrangement which
Milton would probably have reconsidered. The plan would have given scope
for much splendid poetry, especially where, before Adam's expulsion,
"the Angel causes to pass before his eyes a masque of all the evils of
this life and world," a conception traceable in th