It has been criticised for the
lengthy conversations and "arguments" of its characters; for its
materialization of the Divine Being; because of its subject; because of
Milton's vagueness of description of things awesome and terrible, in
comparison with Dante's minute descriptions. But the earnest spirit in
which it was conceived and written; the subject, giving it a "higher
argument" than any merely national epic, even though many of Milton's, and
his age's, special beliefs are things of the past, and its lofty and
poetical style, have rendered unassailable its rank among the noblest of
the epics.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM, PARADISE LOST.
Joseph Addison's Notes upon the Twelve Books of Paradise Lost;
by Albert S. Cook, 1892. (In the Spectator from Dec. 31, 1711-May 3,
1712);
Samuel Austin Allibone's Dictionary of Authors, 1891, vol. ii., pp.
1301-1311;
Matthew Arnold's A French Critic on Milton (see his Mixed Essays, 1880,
pp. 260-273);
Walter Bagehot's Literary Studies, by Richard Holt Hutton, 1879, vol. i.,
202-219;
Richard Bentley's Emendations on the Twelve Books of Paradise Lost, 1732;
E. H. Bickersteth's Milton's Paradise Lost, 1876. (St. James Lectures, 2d
series. Another edition, 1877);
Hugh Blair's Paradise Lost (see his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles
Lettres, 1783, vol.
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