civilization; nor on the other will it perhaps be found frigid,
uninteresting, and insipid. The prevailing opinion of Pastoral seems to
have been, that it is a species of composition admirably fitted for the
size of an eclogue, but that either its nature will not be preserved, or
its simplicity will become surfeiting in a longer performance. And
accordingly, the Pastoral Dramas of Tasso, Guarini, and Fletcher,
however they may have been commended by the critics, and admired by that
credulous train who clap and stare whenever they are bid, have when the
recommendation of novelty has subsided been little attended to and
little read. But the great Milton has proved that this objection is not
insuperable. His Comus is a master-piece of poetical composition. It is
at least equal in its kind even to the Paradise Lost. It is interesting,
descriptive and pathetic. Its fame is continually increasing, and it
will be admired wherever the name of Britain is repeated, and the
language of Britain is understood.

If our hypothesis respecting the date of the present performance is
admitted, it must be acknowleged that the ingenious Mr. Thomas has
taken the Masque of Milton for a model; and the reader with whom Comus
is a favourite, will certainly trace some literal imitations. With
respect to any objections that may be made on this score to the Pastoral
Romance, we will beg the reader to bear in mind, that the volumes before
him are not an original, but a translation. Recollecting this, we may,
beside the authority of Milton himself, and others as great poets as
ever existed who have imitated Homer and one another at least as much as
our author has done Comus, suggest two very weighty apologies. In the
first place, imitation in a certain degree, has ever been considered as
lawful when made from a different language: And in the second, these
imitations come to the reader exaggerated, by being presented to him in
English, and by a person who confesses, that he has long been conversant