And level pavement: from the arched roof
Pendent by subtle magic many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets fed
With Naphtha and Asphaltus yielded light
As from a sky. The hasty multitude
Admiring enter'd, and the work some praise
And some the architect: his hand was known
In heav'n by many a tow'red structure high,
Where scepter'd Angels held their residence,
And sat as princes, whom the supreme King
Exalted to such pow'r, and gave to rule,
Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright.
Nor was his name unheard or unador'd
In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land

-at my nativity

730

735

The front of heav'n was full of fiery
shapes,
Of burning cressets.

738. Nor was his name unheard &c.] Dr. Bentley says, "This is "carelessly expressed. Why does " he not tell his name in Greece, 66 as well as his Latin name?

and Mulciber was not so com"" mon a name as Vulcan." I think it is very exactly expressed. Milton is here speaking of a devil exercising the founder's art: and says he was not unknown in Greece and Italy. The poet has his choice of three names to tell us what they called him in the classic world, Hephastos, Vulcan, and Mulciber, the last only of which designing the office of a founder, he has very judiciously chosen that. Warburton.

Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell
From heav'n, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o'er the crystal battlements; from morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A summer's day; and with the setting sun
Dropt from the zenith like a falling star,
On Lemnos th' 'gean isle: thus they relate,

740. —and how he fell
From heav'n, &c.]
Alluding to these lines in Ho-
mer's Iliad, i. 590.

Ηδη γαρ με και αλλοτ' αλεξέμεναι με

μαωτα,

Ριψε, ποδος τεταγων, απο βηλου θεσπε

It is worth observing how Milton lengthens out the time of Vulcan's fall. He not only says with Homer, that it was all day long, but we are led through the parts of the day, from morn to noon, from noon to evening, and this a summer's day. There is a similar passage in the Odyssey, where Ulysses describes his sleeping twenty-four hours together, and to make the time seem the longer, divides it into several parts, and points them out distinctly to us, Odyss. vii. 288.

Ενδον παννύχιος, και επ'

740

745

πω, και μισον

ημαρ, Δύσετο τ' ηέλιος, και με γλυκυς ὑπνος

746. On Lemnos th' E'gean isle:] Dr. Bentley reads, On Lemnos thence his isle, and calls it a scandalous fault, to write 'gean with a wrong accent for Ægéan. But Milton in the same manner pronounces Thyéstean for Thye stéan in x. 688. and in Paradise Regained, iv. 238. we read in the first edition, which Dr. Bentley pronounces to be without faults,

Where on the Egean shore a city

stands.

Erring; for he with this rebellious rout

Fell long before; nor ought avail'd him now

T'have built in heav'n high tow'rs; nor did he 'scape By all his engines, but was headlong sent

With his industrious crew to build in hell.

Mean while the winged heralds by command

Of sovran pow'r, with awful ceremony

And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim A solemn council forthwith to be held

At Pandemonium, the high capital

Of Satan and his peers: their summons call'd
From every band and squared regiment

750

755

By place or choice the worthiest; they anon
With hundreds and with thousands trooping came 760
Attended all access was throng'd, the gates
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall
(Though like a cover'd field, where champions bold
Wont ride in arm'd, and at the Soldan's chair

752. the winged heralds] He has given them wings not only as angels, but to express their speed. Hume.

Herald is spelt like the French herault, the Danish herold, and the Spanish heraldo, but Milton spells it harald after the Italian araldo.

763. Though like a cover'd field,] Cover'd here signifies inclosed; Champ clos; the field for combat, the lists. The hall of Pandemonium, one room only is like a field for martial exercises on horseback. Richardson.

764.—and at the Soldan's chair &c.] Milton frequently affects the use of uncommon words,

Defied the best of Panim chivalry

To mortal combat, or career with lance)
Thick swarm'd, both on the ground and in the air
Brush'd with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees
In spring time, when the sun with Taurus rides,

when the common ones would suit the measure of the verse as well, believing I suppose that it added to the dignity of his language. So here he says the Soldan's chair instead of the Sultan's chair, and Panim chivalry instead of Pagan chivalry; as before he said Rhene or the Danaw, ver. 353. when he might have said the Rhine or Danube. Spenser likewise uses the words Soldan and Panim. See Faery Queen, b. v. cant. viii. st. 26. and other places.

765

768. As bees &c.] Iliad. ii. 87. And again, Æn. vi. 707.

Dryden.

Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers
Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank,
The suburb of their straw-built citadel,
New rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer
Their state affairs. So thick the aery crowd
Swarm'd and were straiten'd; till the signal given,
Behold a wonder! they but now who seem'd

777. Behold a wonder! &c.] The passage in the catalogue, explaining the manner how spirits transform themselves by contractions or enlargement of their dimensions, is introduced with great judgment, to make way for several surprising accidents in the sequel of the poem. There follows one, at the very end of the first book, which is what the French critics call marvellous, but at the same time probable by reason of the passage last mentioned. As soon as the infernal palace is finished, we are told the multitude and rabble of spirits immediately shrunk themselves into a small compass, that there might be room for such a numberless assembly in this ca

770

775

pacious hall. But it is the poet's refinement upon this thought which I most admire, and which is indeed very noble in itself. For he tells us, that notwithstanding the vulgar, among the fallen spirits, contracted their forms, those of the first rank and dignity still preserved their natural dimensions. Addison.

Monsieur Voltaire is of a different opinion with regard to the contrivance of Pandemonium and the transformation of the devils into dwarfs; and possibly more may concur with him than with Mr. Addison. I dare affirm, says he, that the contrivance of the Pandemonium would have been entirely disapproved of by critics like Boileau, Racine, &c. That seat built for the parliament of the devils seems very preposterous; since Satan hath summoned them all together and harangued them just before in an ample field. The council was necessary; but where it was to be held, it was very indifferent. -But when afterwards the devils turn dwarfs to fill their places in the house, as if it was impracticable to build a room large enough to contain them in their