the Paradise Lost. It was thought desirable, accordingly, that some additions should be made in the present work to this part of the commentary from the editions of Mr. Dunster and Mr. Warton, the principal annotators who followed Dr. Newton.

The Rev. Charles Dunster, who was formerly of Trinity College, Oxford, and died in 1816, Rector of Petworth in Sussex, published the Paradise Regained in 1795, with a very copious commentary, in which he incorporated most of Bishop Newton's notes, with large additions of his own. His design however was similar to Dr. Newton's; but he appears to have been more familiar than his predecessor with the earlier English poets, and has often illustrated his author with much success from that quarter. Altogether he was a man of taste, and of considerable attainments in polite literature; but his but his notes are often extended to a very disproportionate length; and although many of them are introduced into the present publication, they have been in general compressed into a much smaller compass. Mr. Dunster received little assistance except from one individual, to whom he acknowledges the most extensive obligations; but the name of this friend, I believe, I am not at liberty to communicate to the public.

In 1785 Milton's Juvenile Poems were edited by the Rev. T. Warton, whose merits are generally known, and of whose life and writings indeed an account was published in 1802, by Dr. Mant, the present Bishop of Down and Connor. Mr. Warton's principal object was to illustrate these poems from Milton's other writings, from the older English poetry, and from the popu

PREFACE.

I. OF THIS EDITION OF MILTON'S POEMS. II. OF THE LIVES

OF MILTON.

THE editions of Milton's poetical works by Dr. Newton, afterwards Bishop of Bristol, which have long been held in general esteem, have been made the basis of much the greater part of the present publication. His prefaces are therefore subjoined; and the reader is referred to them for a full account of his design and authorities, and the assistance which he received from several of his contemporaries. It may be stated generally, that his purpose was to print the text of Milton with accuracy from the original editions, and to supply such a body of notes, critical and explanatory, from various commentators, as might meet the wishes, as far as possible, of all the different classes of his readers.

And in his edition of the Paradise Lost, Dr. Newton is admitted to have been very successful in the attainment of this purpose. The Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and Minor Poems, however, he published at a subsequent period, when his time was occupied with more serious pursuits; and his notes on these poems are neither so full nor so accurate as those on

trations Warton is extremely successful, he is occasionally seduced into a somewhat ludicrous display of antiquarian learning, fancying resemblances where none are visible, and filling whole pages with obsolete au. thorities for words, some of which were no doubt at that time, and are even now, in common use and circulation. His notes of this kind are considerably abridged in the present edition; but I retain enough or more than enough of them to gratify the literary antiquary, and to direct the reader to the favourite authors of Milton's earlier years. Where a parallelism appeared striking or satisfactory, and might be supposed to interest the general reader, the passage has been given at length; in other cases references are supplied for the sake of the few who possess abundance both of curiosity and of leisure. A similar principle, indeed, has been usually observed throughout this publication, except in the case of references to Milton's poetical works, for every reader might be conceived to have these at hand. Many of Warton's notes, however, are critical and explanatory, and they are frequently just and happy; but he also runs out into a variety of remarks, upon Milton's sentiments and character, which are too often partial and splenetic. His regard for the Poet has a continual struggle to maintain with his acrimonious dislike of the Puritan and Republican. Warton's name however ranks sufficiently high to excite some curiosity about his criticisms and opinions, even when they are unjust or erroneous. Hence, notwithstanding the rejection of many of his notes, and the abridgment of most of them in this edition, it has been intended that the spirit of his work, as a work, should still be