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170

His ministers of vengeance and pursuit

Back to the gates of heav'n: the sulphurous hail
Shot after us in storm, o'erblown hath laid
The fiery surge, that from the precipice
Of heav'n receiv'd us falling; and the thunder,
Wing'd with red lightning and impetuous rage,
Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now
To bellow through the vast and boundless deep.
Let us not slip th' occasion, whether scorn,
Or satiate fury yield it from our foe.
Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild,
The seat of desolation, void of light,
Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend
From off the tossing of these fiery waves,
There rest, if any rest can harbour there,
And re-assembling our afflicted Powers,
Consult how we may henceforth most offend
Our enemy, our own loss how repair,
How overcome this dire calamity,

What reinforcement we may gain from hope,
If not what resolution from despair.

:

could not all be effected by a single hand and what a sublime idea must it give us of the terrors of the Messiah, that he alone should be as formidable as if the whole host of heaven were pursuing! So that this seeming contradiction, upon examination, proves rather a beauty than any blemish to the poem.

181. The seat of desolation,] As in Comus, 428.

-where very desolation dwells.

175

180

185

190

T. Warton.

186. our afflicted Powers,] The word afflicted here is intended to be understood in the Latin sense, routed, ruined, utterly broken. Richardson.

191. If not what resolution] What reinforcement; to which is returned If not: a vicious syntax: but the poet gave it If none. Bentley.

Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate
With head up-lift above the wave, and eyes
That sparkling blaz'd, his other parts besides
Prone on the flood, extended long and large
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge
As whom the fables name of monstrous size,
Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr'd on Jove,
Briareos or Typhon, whom the den
By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast

193. With head up-lift above

the wave, and eyes That sparkling blaz'd, his other parts besides Prone on the flood,] Somewhat like those lines in Virgil of two monstrous serpents. Æn. ii. 206.

Pectora quorum inter fluctus arrecta,
jubæque

Sanguineæ exuperant undas; pars
cætera pontum
Pone legit.

196. Lay floating many a rood,] A rood is the fourth part of an acre, so that the bulk of Satan is expressed by the same sort of measure, as that of one of the giants in Virgil, Æn. vi. 596.

Per tota novem cui jugera corpus
Porrigitur.

And also that of the old dragon
in Spenser. Faery Queen, b. i.

cant. ii. st. 8.

That with his largeness measured much land.

198. Tilanian, or Earth-born,]

-Genus antiquum terræ, Titania pubes. En. vi. 580.

199. Briareos] So Milton writes it, that it may be pro

195

200

nounced as four syllables; and
not Briareus, which
is pro-
nounced as three.

Et centum geminus Briareus.
Virg. En. vi. 287.
And Briareus with all his hundred
hands.
Dryden.

199.- —or Typhon, whom the den By ancient Tarsus held,] Typhon is the same with Typhoeus. That the den of Typhoëus was in Cilicia, of which Tarsus told by Pindar and Pomponius was a celebrated city, we are

Milton did not make use of FarMela. I am much mistaken, if naby's note on Ovid, Met. v. 347. to which I refer the reader. He took ancient Tarsus perhaps from Nonnus:

Ταρσος αειδομένη πρωτοπτολις,

which is quoted in Lloyd's Dic-
tionary. Jortin.

θεων πολέμιος
Τυφως ἑκατοντακαρανος· τον ποτε
Κιλίκιον θρεψεν πολυω

νυμον αντρον.

200.

Pind. Py. i. 30.

-that sea-beast

Leviathan,]

E.

The best critics seem now to be

Leviathan, which God of all his works Created hugest that swim th' ocean stream: Him haply slumb'ring on the Norway foam The pilot of some small night-founder'd skiff Deeming some island, oft, as sea-men tell,

agreed, that the author of the book of Job by the leviathan meant the crocodile; and Milton describes it in the same manner partly as a fish and partly as a beast, and attributes scales to it: and yet by some things one would think that he took it rather for a whale, (as was the general opinion,) there being no crocodiles upon the coasts of Norway, and what follows being related of the whale, but never, as I have heard, of the crocodile. 202. Created hugest, &c.] This verse is found fault with as being too rough and absonous, but that is not a fault but a beauty here, as it better expresses the hugeness and unwieldiness of the creature, and no doubt was designed by the author.

202. -th' ocean stream:] The Greek and Latin poets frequently turn substantives into adjectives. So Juvenal xi. 94. according to the best copies,

Qualis in oceano Auctu testudo nataret: ver. 113. Littore ab oceano Gallis venientibus

Jortin.

204.-night-founder'd skiff] Some little boat, whose pilot dares not proceed in his course for fear of the dark night; a metaphor taken from a foundered horse that can go no farther. Hume.

205

over

Dr. Bentley reads nigh-founder'd; but the common reading is better, because if (as the Doctor says) foundering is sinking by a leaking in the ship, it would be of little use to the pilot to fix his anchor on an island, the skiff would sink notwithstanding, if leaky. By nightfounder'd Milton means taken by the night, and thence at a loss which way to sail. That the poet speaks of what befel the pilot by night, appears from ver. 207. while night invests the sea. Milton, in his poem called the Mask, uses the same phrase: the two brothers having lost their way in the wood, one of them says,

[blocks in formation]

With fixed anchor in his scaly rind

Moors by his side under the lee, while night
Invests the sea, and wished morn delays:

So stretch'd out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay
Chain'd on the burning lake, nor ever thence
Had ris'n or heav'd his head, but that the will
And high permission of all-ruling heaven
Left him at large to his own dark designs,
That with reiterated crimes he might
Heap on himself damnation, while he sought
Evil to others, and enrag'd might see
How all his malice serv'd but to bring forth
Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shown
On Man by him seduc'd, but on himself
Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance pour'd.

210

215

220

And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.

207. Moors by his side under speaking of the moon, iv. 609. the lee,] Anchors by his side under wind. An instance this among others of our author's affectation in the use of technical terms.

while night

207. Invests the sea,] A much finer expression than umbris nox operit terras of Virgil, Æn. iv. 352. But our author

in this (as Mr. Thyer remarks) alludes to the figurative description of night used by the poets, particularly Spenser. Faery Queen, b. i. cant. ii. st. 49. By this the drooping day-light 'gan to fade,

And yield his room to sad succeeding night,

Who with her sable mantle 'gan to
shade

The face of earth.
Milton also in the same taste

209. So stretch'd out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay] The length of this verse, consisting of so many monosyllables, and pronounced so slowly, is excellently adapted to the subject that

it would describe. The tone is

upon the first syllable in this line, the Arch-Fiend lay; whereas it was upon the last syllable of the word in ver. 156. th' ArchFiend replied; a liberty that Milton sometimes takes to pronounce the same word with a different accent in different places. We shall mark such words as are to be pronounced with an accent different from the common

use.

Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool

His mighty stature; on each hand the flames
Driv'n backward slope their pointing spires, and roll'd
In billows, leave i'th' midst a horrid vale.

Then with expanded wings he steers his flight
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air

That felt unusual weight, till on dry land
He lights, if it were land that ever burn'd
With solid, as the lake with liquid fire;
And such appear'd in hue, as when the force
Of subterranean wind transports a hill

221. Forthwith upright he rears, &c.] The whole part of this great enemy of mankind is filled with such incidents as are very apt to raise and terrify the reader's imagination. Of this nature is his being the first that awakens out of the general trance, with his posture on the burning lake, his rising from it, and the description of his shield and spear. To which we may add his call to the fallen angels, that lay plunged and stupified in the sea of fire.

He call'd so loud that all the hollow deep

Of bell resounded.

But there is no single passage in
the whole poem worked up to
a greater sublimity, than that
wherein his person is described
in those celebrated lines,

-He above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent
Stood like a tow'r, &c.

Addison. 226. -incumbent on the dusky

air

That felt unusual weight,]

225

230

This conceit is borrowed from Spenser, who speaking of the old dragon has these lines, b. i. cant. ii. st. 18.

Then with his waving wings displayed wide,

Himself up high he lifted from the ground,

And with strong flight did forcibly divide

The yielding air, which nigh too feeble found

Her flitting parts, and element unsound,

To bear so great a weight.

Thyer.

229. —liquid fire ;] Virg. Ecl. vi. 33.

Et liquidi simul ignis.

231. Of subterranean wind] Dr. Pearce conjectures that it should be read subterranean winds, because it is said aid the winds afterwards, and the conjecture seems probable and ingenious: the fuell'd entrails, sublim'd with mineral fury, aid and increase the winds which first blew up the fire.

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