Rose out of chaos: or, if Sion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd heav'ns and earth] Alluding to the first words of Genesis. 11. and Siloa's brook] Siloa was a small river that flowed near the temple at Jerusalem. It is mentioned Isa. viii. 6. So that in effect he invokes the heavenly Muse, that inspired David and the Prophets on mount Sion, and at Jerusalem, as well as Moses on mount Sinai. 15. Above th' Aonian mount,] A poetical expression for soaring to a height above other poets. The mountains of Boeotia, anciently called Aonia, were the haunt of the Muses; and thus Virgil, Ecl. vi. 65. Aonas in montes ut duxerit una sororum, And again, Georg. iii. 11. Aonio rediens deducam vertice Mu sas; though afterwards, I know not by what fatality, that country was famous for the dulness of its inhabitants. 16. Things unattempted yet in prose or rhime.] Milton appears to have meant a different thing by rhime here, from rime in his preface, where it is six times 10 15 mentioned, and always spelt without an h; whereas in all the editions, till Dr. Bentley's appeared, rhime in this place of the poem was spelt with an h. Milton probably meant a difference in the thing, by making so constant a difference in the spelling; and intended that we should here understand by rhime, not the jingling sound of like endings, but verse in general; the word being derived from rythmus, plus. Ariosto had said Cosa non detta in prosa mai, ne in rima, which is word for word the same with what Milton says here. So in Lycidas v. 11. Pearce. He knew Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhime. The sense of the word rhyme in both places in unquestionably "verse." It is wonderful that Bentley, with all his Grecian predilections, and his critical knowledge of the precise original meaning of puuos, should have wished to substitute, in this passage of the Paradise Lost, song for rhime. And chiefly Thou, O Spi'rit, that dost prefer Before all temples th' upright heart and pure, Gray, who studied and copied Milton with true penetration and taste, in his music-ode uses rhyme in Milton's sense. It is said that Milton took the first hint of this poem from an Italian tragedy called Il Paradiso perso; and it is pretended that he has borrowed largely from Masenius, a German Jesuit, and other modern authors; but it is all a pretence; he made use of all authors, such was his learning; but such is his genius, he is no copyer; his poem is plainly an original, if ever there was one. His subject indeed of the fall of Man, together with the principal episodes, may be said to be as old as Scripture, but his manner of handling them is entirely new, with new illustrations and new beauties of his own; and he may as justly boast of the novelty of his poem, as any of the ancient poets bestow that recommendation upon their works; as Lucretius, i. 925. Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius ante Trita solo: &c. and Virgil, Georg. iii. 3. Cætera quæ vacuas tenuissent car- Omnia jam vulgata.——— iii. 292. Juvat ire jugis, qua nulla priorum Castaliam molli divertitur orbita clivo. 17. And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, &c.] Invoking the Muse is commonly a matter of mere form, wherein the poets neither mean, nor desire to be thought to mean, any thing seriously. But the Holy Ghost here invoked is too solemn a name to be used insignificantly: and besides, our author, in the beginning of his next work, Paradise Regained, scruples not to say to the same divine person, Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first scendeth from the great Father of It may be observed too in justification of our author, that other sacred poems are not without the like invocations, and particularly Spenser's Hymns of heavenly love and heavenly beauty, as well as some modern Latin poems. But I conceive that Milton intended something more; for I have been informed by those, who had opportunities of conversing with his widow, that she was wont to say that he did really look upon himself as inspired, and I think his works are not without a spirit of enthusiasm. In the beginning of his 2d book of The Reason of Church Government, speaking of his design of writing a poem 20 25 in the English language, he says, "It was not to be ob"tained by the invocation of "dame Memory and her Siren "daughters, but by devout "" prayer to that eternal Spirit "who can enrich with all utter ance and knowledge, and "sends out his Seraphim, with "the hallowed fire of his altar, "to touch and purify the lips "of whom he pleases," p. 61. edit. 1738. 19. Instruct me, for Thou know'st ;] Theocrit. Idyll. xxii. 116. Ειπε θεα, συ γαρ οισία. 21. Dove-like satst brooding] Alluding to Gen. i. 2. the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters; for the word that we translate moved signifies properly brooded, as a bird doth upon her eggs; and he says like a dove rather than any other bird, because the descent of the Holy Ghost is compared to a dove in Scripture, Luke iii. 22. As Milton studied the Scriptures in the original languages, his images and expressions oftener copied from them, than from our translation. are 26. And justify the ways of Say first, for heav'n hides nothing from thy view, God to men.] A verse, which Mr. Pope has thought fit to borrow with some little variation, in the beginning of his Essay on Man, But vindicate the ways of God to man. It is not easy to conceive any good reason for Mr. Pope's preferring the word vindicate, but Milton makes use of the word justify, as it is the Scripture word, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, Rom. iii. 4. And the ways of God to men are justified in the many argumentative discourses throughout the poem, and particularly in the conferences between God the Father and the Son. 27. Say first, for heav'n hides nothing from thy view, Nor the deep tract of hell,] The poets attribute a kind of omniscience to the Muse, and very rightly, as it enables them to speak of things which could not otherwise be supposed to come to 30 35 their knowledge. Thus Homer, Iliad. ii. 485. Υμείς γαρ θεαι ότι, παρισι τι, όσο το παντα. And Virgil, Æn. vii. 645. Et meministis enim, Divæ, et me- Milton's Muse, being the Holy heaven and hell is very proper 32. For one restraint,] For one thing that was restrained, every thing else being freely indulged to them, and only the tree of knowledge forbidden. 33. Who first seduc'd them to that foul revolt? Th' infernal Serpent ;] Homer, Iliad. i. 8. Τις τ' αρ σφωε θεων εξίδι ξυνέηκε μάχε Of rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring 38. by whose aid aspiring To set himself in glory' above his peers,] Here Dr. Bentley objects, that Satan's crime was not, his aiming above his peers: he was in place high above them before, as the Doctor proves from v. 812. But though this be true, yet Milton may be right here; for the force of the words seems, not that Satan aspired to set himself above his peers, but that he aspired to set himself in glory, &c. that is in divine glory, in such glory as God and his Son were set in. Here was his crime; and this is what God charges him with in v. 725. who intends to' erect his throne Equal to ours, aspiring 40 45 To place and glory above the Son of Pearce. Besides the other methods which Milton has employed to diversify and improve his numbers, he takes the same liberties as Shakespeare and others of our old poets, and in imitation of the Greeks and Latins often cuts off the vowel at the end of a word, when the next word begins with a vowel; though he does not like the Greeks wholly drop the vowel, but still retains it in writing like the Latins. Another liberty, that he takes likewise for the greater improvement and variety of his versification, is pronouncing the same word sometimes as two And in vi. 88. Milton says that syllables, and sometimes as only the rebel angels hoped one syllable or two short ones. We have frequent instances in spirit, ruin, riot, reason, highest, and several other words. We shall take care throughout this edition to mark such vowels as are to be cut off, and such as are to be contracted and abbreviated, thus'. 45. Hurl'd headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky,] Hom. Iliad. i. 591. |