Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter'd side 235 With stench and smoke: such resting found the sole Is this the region, this the soil, the clime, 240 245 That we must change for heav'n, this mournful gloom 232. Pelorus,] A promontory of Sicily, now Capo di Faro, about a mile and a half from Italy, whence Virgil angusta à sede Pelori, Æn. iii. 687. Hume. 238. Of unblest feet.] Dr. Bentley to make the accent smoother reads Of feet unblest ; but Milton could have done the same thing, if he thought proper: on the contrary he chooses almost always to put the epithet before the substantive (excepting at the end of a verse) even though the verse be the rougher for it. A plain sign that he thought it poetical to do so. Pearce. supreme 250 246. Sovran.] So Milton spells it after the Italian Sovrano. It is not easy to account for the formation of our word Sovereign. 247. farthest from him is best,] This is expressed from the Greek proverb ποῤῥω Διος τε και κεραυνου, Far from Jupiter, but far too from thunder. Bentley. 248. Whom reas'on hath equall'd,] Reason is to be pronounced here as one syllable, or two short ones, as it is likewise in viii. 591. and ix. 559. See the note on ver. 39. 250. -Hail horrors, hail &c.] His sentiments are every Infernal world, and thou profoundest hell way answerable to his character, in which he takes possession of his place of torments, -Hail horrors, hail &c. And afterwards, -Here at least We shall be free; &c. Amidst those impieties which this enraged Spirit utters in other places of the poem, the author has taken care to introduce none that is not big with absurdity, and incapable of shocking a religious reader; his words, as the poet himself describes them, bearing only a semblance of worth, not substance. He is likewise with great art described as owning his adversary to be almighty. Whatever perverse interpretation he puts on the justice, mercy, and other attributes of the Supreme Being, he frequently confesses his omnipotence, that being the perfection he was forced to allow him, and the only consideration which could support his pride under the shame of his defeat. must I omit that beautiful circumstance of his bursting out into tears, upon his survey of those innumerable Spirits whom Nor 255 he had involved in the same guilt and rain with himself. Addison. 252. Receive thy new possessor;] This passage seems to be an improvement upon Sophocles, Ajax 395, where Ajax, before he kills himself, cries out much in the same manner. Ιω σκοτος, εμον φαος, ερεμνος (Ed. Turneb.) 253. by place or time.] Milton is excellent in placing his words: invert them only, and say by time or place, and if the reader has any ear, he will perceive how much the alteration is for the worse. For the pause falling upon place in the first line by time or place, and again upon place in the next line The mind is its own place, would offend the ear, and therefore is artfully varied. 254. The mind is its own place,] These are some of the extravagancies of the Stoics, and could not be better ridiculed than they are here by being put in the mouth of Satan in his present situation. Thyer. 257. all but] I have heard it proposed to read albeit, that is although; but prefer the common reading. Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: 260 265 270 259. th' Almighty hath not built Here for his envy,] This is not a place that God should envy us, or think it too good for us; and in this sense the word envy is used in several places of the poem, and particularly in iv. 517. viii. 494. and ix. 770. 263. Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.] This is a wonderfully fine improvement upon Prometheus's answer to Mercury in Eschylus. Prom. Vinct. 965. Της σης λατρείας της εμην δυσπραξίαν, Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft He scarce had ceas'd when the superior Fiend 275 280 Was moving tow'ard the shore; his pond'rous shield, Behind him cast; the broad circumference 276. on the perilous edge Perhaps he had in mind Virgil, Et mecum ingentes oras evolvite Jortin. Shakespeare has an expression very like this in 2 Hen. IV. act i. You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge More likely to fall in, than to get o'er: 285 author himself would incline one to think so by his use of this metaphor in another place, vi. 108. On the rough edge of battle ere it join'd. 276.] The expression was probably derived from the very common Greek phrase s ugov ακμής. See Lucian, tom. ii. p. 605. ed. Reitz. Dunster. 282-fall'n such a pernicious height.] Dr. Bentley reads fall'n and something like it in 1 Hen. from such prodigious height: but IV. act i. the epithet pernicious is much Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views splendor of Achilles' shield to the moon, Iliad. xix. 373. αυταρ έπειτα σακος μέγα τι, στι Είλετο, τουδ' απάνευθε σιλας γενετ', οὔτε but the shield of Satan was large as the moon seen through a telescope, an instrument first applied to celestial observations by Galileo, a native of Tuscany, whom he means here by the Tuscan artist, and afterwards mentions by name in v. 262. à testimony of his honour for so great a man, whom he had known and visited in Italy, as himself informs us in his Areopagitica. 289. Fesolé,] Is a city in Tuscany; Valdarno, or the valley of Arno, a valley there. Richardson. 292. His spear, to equal which the tallest pine, &c.] Homer, Odyss. ix. 322. makes the club, of Polyphemus as big as the mast of a ship, Οσσον β' ίστον νηος and Virgil gives him a pine to walk with, En. iii. 659. VOL. I. 290 295 Trunca manu pinus regit et vestigia firmat. and Tasso arms Tancred and Posero in resta, e dirizzaro in alto Two knotty masts, which none but 293. -Norwegian hills,] The hills of Norway, barren and rocky, but abounding in vast woods, from whence are brought masts of the largest size. Hume. 294. ammiral,] According to its German extraction amiral or amirael, says Hume; from the Italian ammiraglio, says Richardson more probably. Our author made choice of this, as thinking it of a better sound than admiral: and in Latin he writes ammiralatús curia, the court of admiralty. 294. —ammiral,] The ship which carries the admiral. Johnson's Dictionary. Ꭰ |