CHAPTER XXXI.

HISTORY OF POETRY FROM 1650 TO 1700.

Improved Tone of Italian Poetry 776 Filicaja 777 Guidi 777 Menzini 778 Salvator Rosa--Redi 778 Other Poets 778 Christina’s Patronage of Letters 778 Society of Arcadians 778 La Fontaine 779 Character of his Fables 779 Boileau: His Epistles 780 His Art of Poetry 780 Comparison with Horace 780 The Lutrin 780 General Character of his Poetry 780 Lyric Poetry lighter than before 781 Benserade 781 Chaulieu 781 Pastoral Poetry 781 Segrais 781 Deshouliéres 781 Fontenelle 782 Bad Epic Poems 782 German Poetry 782 Waller 782 Butler’s Hudibras 783 Paradise Lost--Choice of Subject 783 Open to some Difficulties 783 Its Arrangement 783 Characters of Adam and Eve 784 He owes less to Homer than the Tragedians 784 Compared with Dante 784 Elevation of his Style 785 His Blindness 786 His Passion for Music 786 Faults in Paradise Lost 786 Its Progress to Fame 786 Paradise Regained 787 Samson Agonistes 787 Dryden--His earlier Poems 787 Absalom and Achitophel 788 Mac Flecknoe 788 The Hind and Panther 789 Its Singular Fable 789 Its Reasoning 789 The Fables 789 His Odes--Alexander’s Feast 790 His Translation of Virgil 790 Decline of Poetry from the Restoration 790 Some Minor Poets enumerated 790 Latin Poets of Italy 791 Ceva 791 Sergardi 791 Of France--Quillet 791 Menage 792 Rapin on Gardens 792 Santeul 793 Latin Poetry in England 793