Of telescope, were curious to inquire: The city which thou feeft no other deem Than great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth Of nations; there the capitol thou feest On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel by Satan's creating phantafms or fpecies of different kingdoms, and prefenting them to our Saviour's fight, &c. &c. But what Milton here alludes to is a fanciful notion which I find imputed to our famous countryman Hugh Broughton. Cornelius a Lapide in fumming up the various opinions upon this fubject gives it in thefe words: Alii fubtiliter imaginantur, quod Dæmon per multa fpecula fibi invicem 46 50 55 My objecta fpecies regnorum ex uno My aery microscope) thou may'ft behold In cedar, marble, ivory or gold. Thence to the gates caft round thine eye, and fee 57. My aery microscope] He had called it telescope before ver.. 42. here microscope, being altogether uncertain what fort of glafs it was, or how this vifion was performed: but microscope seems to be the more proper word here, as here our Saviour is presented with a view of minuter objects. 58. Outfide and infide both,] So Menippus, in Lucian's Icaro-Menippus, could fee clearly and diftinctly from the moon cities and men upon the earth, and what they were doing, both without doors, and within where they thought themfelves moft fecret. κατακύψας γεν ες την γην, έωρων (αφως τας πόλεις, της ανθρωπος, τα γινόμενα, και 8 τα εν ὑπαιθρῳ μονον, αλλα και όποσα οικοι επρατίον, οιόμενοι λανθανειν. Luciani Op. Vol. 2. p. 197. Ed. Græv. Calton. 60. Lictors Artificumque manus inter fe ope 66. --turms of bore] Troops of horse. A word coined from the Latin turma. Virg. Æn. V. 560. Equitum turmæ. 68. on the Appian road, Or th' Emilian,] The Appian road from Rome led towards the fouth of Italy, and the Emilian towards the north; and the nations on the Appian road are included in in ver. 77-79. ver. 69-76 thofe on the Emilian 69.fome from fartheft fouth, Syene, and where the fhadow both. way falls, Meroe Nilotic ile,] Syene, farthest South. How can that be? when Meroe mention'd in the next line (to fay nothing of other places) was farther fouth. Milton knew it, and thought of it too, as appears from his faying, where Lictors and rods, the enfigns of their pow'r, In various habits on the Appian road, 65 Or on th' Emilian, fome from fartheft fouth, The realm of Bocchus to the Black-moor fea; 70 From where the fhadow both way remoteft, to any people that lived a falls, Meroe Nilotic ile Spene being fituate under the tropic of Cancer, the fhadow falls there always one way, except at the fummer folftice, when the fun is vertical, and then at noon the fhadow falls no way: umbras nufquam flectente Syene. Lucan II. 5·87. But in Meroe the fhadow falls both ways, at different times of the year, and therefore Meroe must be farther fouth than Syene, and nearer the equator. To this I fay that Milton had in view what he had read in Pliny and other authors, that Syene was the limit of the Roman empire, and the remoteft place to the fouth that belonged to it; and to that he alludes. Or it may be faid, that poets have not fcrupled to give the epithets extremi, ultimi, fartheft, great way off, and that poffibly Milton intended that fartheft fouth fhould be fo applied both to Syene and to Meroe. Jortin. He first mentions places in Africa; Syene, a city of Egypt on the confines of Ethiopia; Ditionis Ægypti effe incipit a fine Ethiopiæ Syene; Plin. Lib. 5. Se&t. 10. Meroe, an iland and city of Ethiopia in the river Nile, therefore called Nilotic ile, where the shadow both way falls; Rurfus in Meroe (infula hæc caputque gentis Ethiopum-in amne Nilo habitatur) bis anno abfumi umbras; Plin. Lib. 2. Sect. 75. The realm of Bocchus, Mauritania. Then Afian nations, among thefe the golden Cherfonefe, Malacca the moft fouthern promontory of the Eaft Indies, fee Paradife Loft XI. 392. and utmoft Indian ile Taprobane, and therefore Pliny fays it is extra orbem a natura relegata; Lib. 6. Sect. 24. Then the European nations as far as to the Tauric pool, From th' Afian kings and Parthian among these, And utmost Indian ile Taprobane, Dusk faces with white filken turbants wreath'd; From Gallia, Gades, and the British west, 75 All nations now to Rome obedience pay, 80 To Rome's great emperor, whofe wide domain Civility of manners, arts and arms, And long renown, thou juftly may'ft prefer Before the Parthian; these two thrones except, The reft are barb'rous, and scarce worth the fight, Shar'd among petty kings too far remov'd; 85 Thefe but this fhuffling and inconfiftency is very natural and agreeable to the father of lies, and by these touches his character is fet in a proper light. 90. This emp'ror &c] This account of the emperor Tiberius retiring from Rome to the iland horrid lufts in private, and in the Capreæ, and there enjoying his mean while committing the government to his wicked favorite and minifter Sejanus, together with the These having shown thee, I have shown thee all To Capræa an iland small but strong On the Campanian fhore, with purpose there All public cares, and yet of him fufpicious, Indued with regal virtues as thou art, Appearing, and beginning noble deeds, Might'st thou expel this monster from his throne A victor people free from fervile yoke? the character of this emperor, is perfectly agreeable to the Roman hiftories, and particularly thofe of Suetonius and Tacitus, who have painted this monster (as our author calls him) in fuch colors as he deferved to be defcribed in to pofterity. ΙΟΙ. and in his place afcending A victor people free &c] There fhould be no comma after victor according to the author's own correction; but yet I think all the 99 |
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