Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

:

Each to his place; they heard his voice, and went
Obsequious heaven his wonted face renew'd,
And with fresh flowerets hill and valley smiled.
This saw his hapless foes, but stood obdured,
And to rebellious fight rallied their powers,
Insensate, hope conceiving from despair:

h

In heavenly spirits could such perverseness dwell?
But to convince the proud what signs avail,
Or wonders move the obdurate to relent?
They, harden'd more by what might most reclaim
Grieving to see his glory, at the sight
Took envy; and aspiring to his highth,

Stood re-embattel'd fierce, by force or fraud
Weening to prosper, and at length prevail
Against God and Messiah, or to fall
In universal ruin last; and now
To final battel drew, disdaining flight,

Or faint retreat; when the great Son of God

785

790

795

To all his host on either hand thus spake :

800

Stand still in bright array, ye saints; here stand,

Ye angels arm'd; this day from battel rest :

:

Faithful hath been your warfare, and of God
Accepted, fearless in his righteous cause;
And as ye have received so have ye
done,
Invincibly but of this cursed crew
The punishment to other hand belongs;
Vengeance is hisk, or whose he sole appoints :
Number to this day's work is not ordain'd,
Nor multitude; stand only, and behold
God's indignation on these godless pour'd
By Me; not you, but Me, they have despised,
Yet envied; against Me is all their rage,
Because the Father, to whom in heaven supreme
Kingdom and power, and glory appertains,
Hath honour'd Me according to his will.
Therefore to Me their doom he hath assign'd;
That they may have their wish, to try with Me
In battel which the stronger proves; they all,
Or I alone against them; since by strength

h They heard his voice, and went.

805

810

815

820

Habakk. iii. 6:—"The everlasting mountains were scattered; the perpetual hills did bow."-TODD.

As Pharaoh was, Exod. xiv.-HUME.

i Harden'd more.

J Stand still.

As in Exod. xiv. 13, 14:-"Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you to day. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace."-GILLIES.

Vengeance is his.

See Deut. xxxii. 35:-"To me belongeth vengeance." And Rom. xii. 19:-"Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."-NEWTON.

They measure all, of other excellence
Not emulous, nor care who them excels;
Nor other strife with them do I vouchsafe.

So spake the Son; and into terrour changed
His countenance, too severe to be beheld,
And full of wrath bent on his enemies.

At once the Four1 spread out of their starry wings
With dreadful shade contiguous, and the orbs
Of his fierce chariot roll'd as with the sound
Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host,
He on his impious foes right onward drove,
Gloomy as night m; under his burning wheels "
The stedfast empyrean shook throughout,
All but the throne itself of God.
Full soon
Among them he arrived; in his right hand
Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent
Before him, such as in their souls infix'd
Plagues they, astonish'd, all resistance lost,
All courage; down their idle weapons dropp'd:
O'er shields, and helms, and helmed heads he rode
Of thrones and mighty seraphim prostrate;
That wish'd the mountains now might be again
Thrown on them, as a shelter from his ire.
Nor less on either side tempestuous fell
His arrows from the fourfold-visaged Four.
Distinct with eyes, and from the living wheels

[ocr errors]

At once the Four.

825

830

833

840

845

Whenever he mentions the four cherubim, and the Messiah's chariot, he still copies from Ezekiel's vision. See ch. i. 9, 19, 24.-NEWTON.

m Gloomy as night.

From Homer, Il. xii. 462, where the translator uses Milton's words :

Νυκτὶ θοῇ ἀτάλαντος ὑπώπια.

A similar expression, translated in these words of Milton, is also in Odyss. xi. 609.— NEWTON. "Under his burning wheels.

Job xxvi. 11:-"The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof." -HUME.

This sublime passage owes part of its magnificence to another sacred description, Daniel, vii. 9, of the Ancient of Days:-"His throne was as the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire." Milton's diction is here superior even to Hesiod's celebrated lines, Theog. v. 841:—

Ποσσὶ δ ̓ ὑπ ̓ ἀθανάτοισι μέγας πελεμίζετ ̓ Ολυμπος
Ορνυμένοιο ἄνακτος· ἐπεστενάχιζε δὲ γαῖα.

The majesty of the exception, which Milton adds, affords to the whole passage a solemnity unparalleled and inimitable :

Under his burning wheels

The stedfast empyrean shook throughout,
All but the throne itself of God.-TODD.

• That wish'd the mountains.

See Rev. vi. 16:-"They said to the mountains, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:" which is very applicable here, as they had been overwhelmed with mountains, v. 655. What was so terrible before, they wished as a shelter now. -NEWTON.

[graphic][subsumed]
[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]

See Rev. vi. 16:-"They said to the mountains, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:" which is very applicable here, as they had been overwhelmed with mountains, v. 655. What was so terrible before, they wished as a shelter now.-NEWTON.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small]
« ZurückWeiter »