By one Man's firm obedience fully tried "And the old Serpent with a new device "Is now by one Man caught, beguil❜d with his own guile.” DUNSTER. 6 Ver. 3. Recover'd Paradife] It may feem a little odd, that Milton fhould impute the recovery of Paradise to this short scene of our Saviour's life upon earth, and not rather extend it to his agony, crucifixion, &c. But the reafon no doubt was, that Paradife, regained by our Saviour's refifting the temptations of Satan, might be a better contrast to Paradife, loft by our first parents too eafily yielding to the fame feducing spirit. Befides he might, very probably, and indeed very reasonably, be appre hensive, that a subject, so extensive as well as fublime, might be too great a burden for his declining constitution, and a task too long for the short term of years he could then hope for. Even in his Paradife Loft he expreffes his fears, left he had begun too late, and left an age too late, or cold climate, or years, should have damped his intended wing; and furely he had much greater cause to dread the fame now, and to be very cautious of launching out too far. THYER. Ver. 7. And Eden rais'd in the wafte wilderness.] There is, I think, a particular beauty in this line, when one confiders the fine allufion in it to the curfe brought upon the Paradifiacal earth by the fall of Adam,—" Curfed is the ground for thy fakeThorns alfo and thiftles fhall it bring forth to thee." THYER. Thus in the fourth Book of this poem, ver. 523; "And follow'd thee ftill on to this waste wild." Wafte is an epithet which, our author had annexed to wilder nefs, at an early period of his life. In his tranflation of the cxxxvith Pfalm, written when he was only fifteen, he has Thou Spirit, who ledst this glorious eremite Into the defart, his victorious field, "His chofen people he did bless "In the wasteful wilderness." In that instance, perhaps, he borrowed the whole phrase from his favourite Spenfer: Faery Qu. i. i. 32. "Far hence (quoth he) in rafteful wilderness "His dwelling is" But the expreffion and the application of it, in this place, were evidently taken from a paffage in Ifaiah, li. 3. " The Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her afte places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her defart like the garden of the Lord." From whence Pope alfo, in his Eloifa to Abelard, "You rais'd these hallow'd walls, the defart fmil'd, "And Paradife was open'd in the wild." DUNSTER. I may add that the precife expreffion, here ufed by Milton, is from Spenfer's translation of Virgil's Culex : "I carried am to a waste wildernesse, "Wafte wildernesse among Cymmerian fhades." Ver. 8. Thou Spirit, who ledft this glorious eremite Into the defart, his victorious field, &c.] This invo cation is fo fupremely beautiful, that it is hardly poffible to give the preference even to that in the opening of the Paradise Lost. This has the merit of more concifeness. Diffuseness may be confidered as leffening the dignity of invocations on fuch fubjects. DUNSTER. Ibid. who ledft this glorious eremite Into the defart,] It is faid, Mat. iv. 1. " Then was Jefus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil." And from the Greek original pnp the defart, and ipojírns an inhabitant of the defart, is rightly formed the word éremite; which was used before by Milton in his Paradife Loft, B. iii. 474, 1 Against the fpiritual foe, and brought'ft him thence By proof the undoubted Son of God, inspire, As thou art wont, my prompted fong, elfe mute, 10 And by Fairfax, in his tranflation of Taffo, c. xi. ft. iv. And in Italian, as well as in Latin, there is eremita, which the French, and we after them, contract into hermite, hermit. NEWTON. Heremite had been a very common spelling, both in poetry and profe, before Milton's time. Ver. 11. infpire, As thou art wont, my prompted fong, elfe mute,] In the very fine opening of the ninth Book of the Paradife Loft, Milton thus fpeaks of the infpiration of the Mufe: "If answerable style I can obtain "Of my celeftial patronefs, who deigns "Eafy my unpremeditated verse.” See alfo his invocation of Urania, at the beginning of the feventh Book. And in the introduction to the second book of The Reason of Church-Government urged against Prelacy, where he promises to undertake fomething, he yet knows not what, that may be of ufe and honour to his country, he adds, "This is not to be obtained but by devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit, who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and fends out his Seraphim, with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify whom he pleases."--Here then we fee, that Milton's invocations of the Divine Spirit were not merely exordia pro formâ.-Indeed his profe works are not without their invocations. DUNSTER. Ver. 12. my prompted fong, elfe mute,] Milton's third wife, who furvived him many years, related of him, that he used to compofe his poetry chiefly in winter; and on his waking in a morning would make her write-down fome And bear, through highth or depth of Nature's bounds, With profperous wing full fumm'd, to tell of deeds times twenty or thirty verfes. Being asked, whether he did not often read Homer and Virgil, fhe understood it as an imputation upon him for stealing from those authors, and anfwered with eagernefs," he ftole from nobody but the Mufe who inspired him ;" and, being asked by a lady prefent who the Mufe was, replied, "it was God's grace and the Holy Spirit that vifited him nightly." Newton's Life of Milton. Mr. Richardfon alfo fays, that "Milton would fometimes lie awake whole nights, but not a verse could he make; and on a fudden his poetical fancy would rufh upon him with an impetus or eftrum." Johnfon's Life of Milton. Elfe mute might have been suggested by a paffage of Horace's most beautiful ode to the Mufe; IV. iii. "O teftudinis auræ "Dulcem quæ ftrepitum, Pieri, temperas ! "O mutis quoque pifcibus "Donatura cygni, fi libeat, fonum !" Or from Quinctilian; " ipfam igitur orandi majeftatem, quâ nihil dii immortales melius homini dederunt, et quâ remotâ muta funt omnia, et luce præfenti et memoriâ pofteritatis carent, toto animo petamus." L. xii. II. DUNSTER. Ver. 14. With profperous wing full fumm'd,] We have the like expreffion in Paradife Loft, B. vii. 421. and it was noted there that it is a term in falconry. A hawk is faid to be full fumm'd, when all his feathers are grown, when he wants nothing of the sum of his feathers, "cui nihil de summa pennarum deeft," as Skinner fays. NEWTON. Milton had perhaps the following paffage of Drayton in mind, Polyolbion, Song xi. Above heroick, though in fecret done, Now had the great Proclaimer, with a voice More awful than the found of trumpet, cried Repentance, and Heaven's kingdom nigh at hand To all baptiz'd: To his great baptism flock'd 21 With awe the regions round, and with them came From Nazareth the fon of Jofeph deem'd Ver. 14. of deeds Above heroick,-] Alluding, perhaps, in the turn of expreffion, to the first verfe of Lucan, "Bella per Emathios plufquam civilia campos, "Júfque datum fceleri canimus." THYER. Milton, in the opening of his ninth Book of the Paradise Loft, notices warlike achievements as at that time the only fubjects of beroick Song: "the better fortitude "Of patience and heroick martyrdom “Unfung.” Dunster. Ver. 18. with a voice "Lift up More awful than the found of trumpet,] thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their tranfgreffions.” Ifaiah, lviii. 1. And fee Heb. xii. 18, 19. DUNSter. Ver. 24. To the flood Jordan; came, &c.] This line is cor ruptly pointed both by Tickell and Fenton, after Tonfon: "To the flood Jordan came, as then obfcure," But, as Dr. Newton obferves, Milton's own pointing is em phatick, and worthy of repetition; "came with them to the flood Jordan," and "came, as then obfcure.” 1 |