Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.) He scarce had ceased, when the superior fiend Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield, ▲ Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. Dr. Newton observes that this line is a very fine improvement upon Prometheus's answer to Mercury in Eschylus. Prom. Vinct. 965, 967. Compare also P. Fletcher's "Locusts," 1627, p. 37. 1 The broad circumference Hung on his shoulders, like the moon. See the shield of Radegund. Faer. Qu. v. v. 3. Here Milton shines in all his majestie plendour: his mighty imagination almost excels itself. There is indescribable magie In this picture. m At evening, from the top of Fesolé, Or in Valdarno. There is a spell sometimes even in the poet's selection of proper names: their very sound has a charm. Norwegian hills. The hills of Norway, barren and rocky, but abounding in vast woods, from whence are brought masts of the largest size.-HUME. The annotators leave unnoticed the marvellous grandeur of this description, while they babble on petty technicalities. The "walking over the burning marle" is astontshing and tremendous. Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd $ High overarch'd imbower; or scatter'd sedge 205 Hath vex'd the Red-sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld Warriors, the flower of heaven, once yours, now lost, Eternal spirits or have ye chosen this place After the toil of battel to repose Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven? Or in this abject posture have ye sworn • Thick as autumnal leaves. 810 815 Here we see the impression of scenery made upon Milton's mind in his youth, when he was at Florence. This is a favourite passage with all readers of descriptive poetry. The account of Vallombrosa may be found in the volumes of numerous travellers. P.With fierce winds Orion arm'd. Orion is a constellation represented in the figure of an armed man, and supposed to be attended with stormy weather:-" Assurgens fluctu nimbosus Orion." Virg. Æn. i. 539.-NEWTON. Here the poet again introduces his learned historical allusions with a magnificent picture. a Hath vex'd the Red-sea coast. The Red-sea abounds so much with sedge, that in the Hebrew scriptures it is called the "Sedgy Sea." And Milton says "Hath vex'd the Red-sea coast," particularly because the wind usually drives the sedge in great quantities towards the shore.— NEWTON. Because Pharaoh, after leave given to the Israelites to depart, followed after them as fugitives.-HUME. t From the safe shore. Much has been said of the long similitudes of Homer, Virgil, and Milton, wherein they fetch a compass, as it were, to draw in new images, besides those in which the direct point of likeness consists. I think they have been sufficiently justified in the general; but in this before us, while the poet is digressing, he raises a new similitude from the floating carcases of the Egyptians.-HEYLIN. This magnificent call of Satan to his prostrate host could have been written by Bobody but Milton. To adore the Conqueror? who now beholds They heard, and were abash'd, and up they sprung In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel; ▾ Darken'd all the land of Nile. The devils, at the command of their infernal monarch, flying abroad over the world to injure the Christian cause, are similarly compared by Tasso to black storins obscuring the face of day (Gier. Lib. iv. 18). And, where they are all driven back by Michael, it is said, ix. 66: This comparison doth not fall below the rest, as some have imagined. They were thick as the leaves, and numberless as the locusts; but such a multitude the north never poured forth. The subject of this comparison rises very much above the others, --the leaves and locusts. The northern parts of the world are observed to be more fruitful of people than the hotter countries: hence "the populous north," which Sir William Temple calls "the northern hive."-NEWTON. Dr. Newton does not seem to be aware that the three comparisons which he refers to, relate to the three different states in which these fallen angels are represented. When bject they lie supine on the lake, they are in the situation compared, in point of number, to vast heaps of leaves which in autumn the poet himself had observed to bestrew the water-courses and bottoms of Vallombrosa. When roused by their great leader's objurgatory summons, and on wing, they are in this second situation again compared, in point of number, to the locusts which were sent as a divine vengeance or plague on the land of Egypt, when Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites depart: these two similes are admirable, and in their place could not, I believe, well be surpassed. That of the beusts, independently of its being taken from Scripture, far surpasses in every respect Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons* And powers, that erst in heaven sat on thrones; By their rebellion from the Book of Life. Got them new names; till, wandering o'er the earth, Of mankind they corrupted to forsake Glory of him that made them to transform, With gay religions full of pomp and gold, Then were they known to men by various names that of the birds of passage in Virgil and Tasso, which both poets have joined to that of leaves falling, to represent the numerous ghosts crowding on the banks of Styx, and the multitude of devils driven back by Michael to the infernal regions. The object of the third comparison is to illustrate the number of the fallen angels, when alighted on the firm brimstone; and, like soldiers, forming into bands under their respective eaders In this situation, I doubt if he could well have found anything so proper to compare them with, as the most numerous of troops which history records ever to have marched out upon any military expedition. But it must be allowed that the comparing one band of troops to another, where, though different in their nature, the description of them when embodied is so nearly similar, is rather an exemplification than a simile. Besides, comparing the numerous infernal legions to a circumstance of real undecorated history, is no very lucid or poetical illustration; and in this respect I much prefer the reference to the legends of romance and the fabulous ages, ver. 576, &c.— DUNSTER. When her barbarous sons. They were truly barbarous; for besides exercising several cruelties, they destroyed all the monuments of learning and politeness wherever they came. They were the Goths, and Huns, and Vandals, who overran all the southern provinces of Europe; and, crossing the Mediterranean' beneath Gibraltar, landed in Africa, and spread themselves as far as Libya. Beneath Gibraltar means, more southward, the north being uppermost In the globe.-NEWTON. Though of their names. Psalm ix. 5, 6:-" Thou hast put out their name for ever and ever: their memorial is perished with them." And Rev. iii. 5.—“I will not blot his name out of the book of life."-GILLIES. By falsities and lies. That is, as Mr. Upton observes, by false idols, under a corporeal representation bely ing the true God. The poet plainly alludes to Rom. i. 22.-NEWTON. a And the invisible Glory of him that made them to transform, &c. Alluding to Rom. i. 23.-NEWTON. b And devils to adore for deities. Levit. xvii. 7:-"They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils." And see alse Ps. cvi. 37.-Todd. Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last, Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud Say, Muse, their names then known. 386 800 For the enumeration of the Syrian and Arabian deities, it may be observed, that Milton has comprised in one hundred and thirty very beautiful lines, the two learned syntagmas, which Selden had composed on that abstruse subject.-Gibbon. Rom. Emp. vol. i. p. 539 note, 4to. edit. The exordium to this enumeration, "who first, wh last," is from Homer, Il. v. 703: Ένθα τίνα πρῶτον, τίνα δ ̓ ὕστατον. d First Moloch, horrid king. Todd. First, after Satan and Beelzebub. Moloch signifies king, and he is called "horrid king," because of the human sacrifices which were made to him: the expression, "passed through fire," is taken from Leviticus, xviii. 21; or 2 Kings, xxiii. 10. His idol was of brass, sitting on a throne, and wearing a crown; having the head of a calf, and his arms extended to receive the miserable victims which were to be sacrificed; and therefore it is here probably styled "his grim idol." He was the God of the Ammonites, 1 Kings, xi. 7, and was worshipped in Rabba, their capital city, called the "city of waters," 2 Sam. xi. 27; and in the neighbouring countries as far as to the river Arnon, the boundary of their country on the south.-NEWTON. Dr. Newton also says that Moloch was supposed to be the same as Saturn: but Milton did not suppose it, or at least did not attend to the supposition; as Saturn himself is afterwards mentioned, verse 519. But Moloch has also been supposed to be Mars; with a view to which, Milton seems to have drawn his character in the second book. That the planet Mars was named Moloch by the Egyptians is mentioned by Beyer, in his "Additamenta to Selden's Syntagma de Diis Syr."-DUNSTER. The part of Moloch is, in all its circumstances, full of that fire and fury which distinguish this spirit from the rest of the fallen angels. He is described in the first book as besmeared with the blood of human sacrifices, and delighted with the tears of parents and the cries of children: in the second book, he is marked out as the fiercest spirit that fought in heaven: and if we consider the figure which he makes in the sixth book, where the battle of the angels is described, we find it every way answerable to the same furious, enraged character. It may be worth while to observe, that Milton has represented this violent impetuous spirit, who is hurried on by such precipitate passions, as the first that rises in that assembly to give his opinion on their present posture of affairs; accordingly, he declares himseir abruptly for war; and appears incensed at his companions for losing so much time as even to deliberate upon it. All his sentiments are rash, audacious, and despe rate such is that of arming themselves with their tortures, and turning their punishments upon him who inflicted them. His preferring annihilation to shame or misery is also highly suitable to his character; as the comfort he draws from disturbing the peace of heaven, that, if it be not victory, it is revenge, is a sentiment truly diabolical, and becoming the bitterness of this implacable spirit.-ADDISON. |