knowledgement. By the manuscript communications of Richardson, Jortin, and Warburton; and more particularly by those of the modest and liberal Mr. Thyer; his commentary on Paradise Lost was considerably enlarged. To the same learned coadjutors, with the addition of such respectable names as Sympson, and Seward, the

ver. 34. whose wile. (646. 9, 85. And note at the bottom,

Ephes. vi. 11.

ver. 36. Thee mother, &c.

Wile, craft, guile, fraud.)

ver. 39. God's Son. (5. 660. And at the bottom,

To place in glory above the Son of God.)

ver. 46. ruin and confusion.

ver. 48. circling. (2. 647. And at the bottom,

B. xii. ver. 599.

ver. 603.

Inchain'd with adamant rock and circling fire.
Also, over circling is written solid.)

her first to know.

with cause

Humbled for evils past—

ver. 610. Whither thou went'st, and whence return'st—

ver. 643. blade. (592. xi. 120.

ver. 648. Then

sword.

And note below, flaming Gen. i. 24.)

wearied, afterwards carefull,

next social, and lastly

with social steps their way

Through Eden took, with hope and promise

chear'd.

And for hope and promise is also given heavn'ly favour.

editors of Beaumont and Fletcher; of the Rev. Mr. Meadowcourt, Prebendary of Worcester; of the Rev. Mr. Calton of Lincolnshire; and of Mr. Peck the antiquary; Dr. Newton's subsequent edition of Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and the Smaller Poems, was also gratefully indebted.

In the year after the publication of Dr. Newton's edition of Paradise Lost, there was published at Glasgow the first Book of that poem with a large and very learned commentary; from which some notes are selected in this edition. They, who are acquainted with this commentary, will concur with me in wishing that the annotator had continued his ingenious and elaborate criticisms on the whole poem. That annotator, I have been told, was Mr. Callander. And since the publication of the first edition of these volumes, I was favoured, by the learned Malcolm Laing, Esq. with a small interleaved Copy of Paradise Lost, containing memoranda of Mr. Callander for notes on the whole poem, and a few remarks completed.

In a letter from the late Mr. Mason to Dodsley, the bookseller, dated May 31, 1747, which was in the possession of my friend, the late

Isaac Reed, Esq. an editorial intention is announced; which, though not accomplished, it may not be improper here to notice; as it coincides with the opinion of him, who has so ably illustrated the picturesque description, and romantick imagery, of the poems which Mr. Mason mentions; and to whose illustrations the editor must next express his obligations. "I could wish to know," Mr. Mason says, "whether Tonson or any other Bookseller has a property in the second volume of Milton. I have often thought it a great pity that many of the beautiful pieces it contains should be so little read as they certainly are. I fancy this has arisen from the bad thing they are tack'd to. I want vastly to have a separate edition of the Tragedy, Mask, Lycidas, L'Allegro, &c. And I fancy I shall some time or other undertake it myself; but, if you think that it would sell at present, I would willingly give you my assistance either for a preface, or notes, or any thing that should be thought necessary; and this merely for the sake of the incomparable poet, whom I am not content with having considered and praised as the Author of Paradise Lost alone.

"

What Mr. Mason might have intended, the

late Mr. Warton effected. In 1785 the publick was presented with Lycidas, L’Allegro, Il Penseroso, Arcades, Comus, Odes, Sonnets, &c. accompanied with Mr. Warton's critical and explanatory notes; of which a second edition, with many alterations and large additions, was published in 1791, soon after his lamented death: In whom Poetry and Antiquity lost one of their most zealous votaries, Criticism one of its ablest assertors, Society one of its most agreeable members, and the University of Oxford one of her most valuable and most re

spected sons. Mr. Warton appears to have also planned an edition of Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, by having omitted in the latter edition such notes as more immediately related to those poems, and which had appeared in the former edition; and by substituting merely references to the notes on those respective passages. The signatures to the sheets of his latter edition are numbered indeed volume the first. From both these editions, in which the names of Warburton, Hurd, Bowle, and Dr. Joseph Warton, often occur as annotators, the most valuable illustrations have been derived to the following pages. I was also greatly obliged, since the publication of my first edition, to the Rev. John Warton, for the

notes in manuscript, both of his father and uncle, on the Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. They were indeed but very few in number. Those of the latter appear to have been principally drawn from his first edition of the Smaller Poems, in subserviency to the plan just noticed. From the late Mr. Dunster's edition of Paradise Regained, published in 1795, a copious stock of judicious and elegant observations on that poem has been also here extracted. Of the numerous remarks, in manuscript, on Paradise Lost and on almost all the remaining English Poems of Milton, which Mr. Dunster consigned to the proprietors of this edition in 1805, and with the perusal of which I was entrusted for the purpose of selecting such as I might consider suitable to my plan, I have spoken with pleasure; and in the selection I have made, the candid reader will acknowledge many an ingenious and solid remark, evincing the taste and learning by which Mr. Dunster was distinguished.

From modern works of critical eminence, relating to the English language and poetry, many notices have been likewise drawn; in particular, from the compositions of Lord Monboddo, Dr. Beattie, and Dr. Blair; from mo