Who this is we must learn; for Man he seems 95 reference to the sublime description, in the Paradise Lost, of the Messiah driving the rebel Angels out of Heaven, B. vi. 834, &c. DUNSTER. Ver. 91. Who this is we must learn,] Our author favours the opinion of those writers, Ignatius and others among the ancients, and Beza and others among the moderns, who believed that the Devil, though he might know Jesus to be some extraordinary person, yet knew him not to be the Messiah, the Son of God. NEWTON. It was requisite for the poet to assume this opinion, as it is a necessary hinge on which part of the poem turns. DUNSTER. on the utmost edge Ver. 94. Of hazard,] Dr. Newton says, this is borrowed from Shakspeare's All's well that ends well, A. iii. S. iii. "We'll strive to bear it, for your worthy sake, It is certainly a strong coincidence of expression. But Milton may be supposed to have had in his mind a passage in Homer: from whom Shakspeare might also have borrowed a metaphor so perfectly Grecian, by the means of his friend Chapman's version. See Il. x. 173. Νῦν γὰρ δὴ πάντεσσιν ΕΠΙ ΞΥΡΟΥ ἹΣΤΑΤΑΙ ΑΚΜΗΣ For the very frequent use of Ἐπὶ ξυροῦ ἀκμῆς, among the Greek writers, see a note of Valckenaer on Herodotus, 1. vi. c. 11.— And Warton on Theocritus, Idyll. xxii. 6. Milton has twice used nearly the same expression in his Paradise Lost; "on the perilous edge "Of battle, when it rag'd,” B. i. 276. "On the rough edge of battle," B. vi. 108. But must with something sudden be oppos'd, (Not force, but well-couch'd fraud, well-woven snares,) Ere in the head of nations he appear, Their king, their leader, and supreme on earth. 100 where I am not a little surprised to find Dr. Newton and Dr. Jortin both endeavouring to trace out the phrase, without being at all aware that it was so common an expression among the Greeks, as to be quite proverbial. See Lucian. Jupit. Tragad. tom. ii. p. 605. Ed. Reitz. DUNSTER. Milton, I observe, uses this proverbial expression literally in English: "We never leave subtilizing and casuisting, till we have straitned and pared that liberal path into a razor's edge to walk on, between a precipice of unnecessary mischief on either side." Prose-W. vol. i. p. 321. ed. 1698. See also Sir Henry Wotton's Remains, 3d edit. 1672, p. 365. "Methinks I see him walking, not like a funambulus upon a cord, but upon the edge of a razor." TODD. Ver. 97. Not force, but well-couch'd fraud,] Marino, Strage de gli Innocenti, 1633, p. 11. where the Devil also is the speaker: "Se la forza non val, vaglia la froda." TODD. Ibid. well-couch'd fraud,] So it is said of the Devil, as Mr. Dunster also has observed, that he “ was the first "That practis'd falsehood under faintly show, And in Milton's Prose-Works, flattery is called " that deceitful and close-coucht evil." Vol. i. p. 141. ed. 1698. TODD. Ibid. Spencer, Astrophel, st. 17. well-woven snares,] Thus "There his well-woven toils, and subtle traines "He laid, &c." DUNSTER. Ver. 100. I, when no other durst, sole undertook The dismal expedition &c.] The fear and unwilling The dismal expedition to find out And ruin Adam; and the exploit perform'd Will waft me; and the way, found prosperous once, He ended, and his words impression left 105 110 115 ness of the other fallen Angels to undertake this dismal expedition, is particularly described in the Paradise Lost, B. ii. 420, &c. Ver. 103. a calmer voyage now DUNSTER. Will waft me;] Thus, in Paradise Lost, B. ii. 1041, where Satan begins to emerge out of chaos, it is said the remainder of the journey became so much easier, "That Satan with less toil, and now with ease, Wafts on the calmer wave." DUNSTER. Ver. 113. To him, their great dictator,] Milton applies this title very properly to Satan in his present situation; as the authority he is now vested with is quite dictatorial, and the expedition on which he is going of the utmost consequence to the fallen Angels. THYER. Ver. 117. Lost. i. 373, et seq., TODD. yea gods, &c.] See Par. Of many a pleasant realm and province wide. His easy steps, girded with snaky wiles, 120 Ver. 119. to the coast of Jordan] The wilderness, where our Saviour underwent his forty days temptation, was on the same bank of Jordan where the baptism of John was; St. Luke witnessing it, that Jesus being now baptized, ὑπέστρεψεν ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἰορδάνου, returned from Jordan. NEWTON. Ver. 120. His easy steps,] In reference, (as Dr. Newton has observed,) to the calmness or easiness of his present expedition, compared with the danger and difficulty of his former one to ruin mankind. Accordingly Satan in the conclusion of his speech had said, Ibid. girded with snaky wiles,] Girded with snaky wiles alludes to the habits of sorcerers and necromancers, who are represented in some prints as girded about the middle with the skins of snakes and serpents. NEWTON. This being girt about with a girdle of snakes, puts us in mind, says Warburton, of the instrument of the Fall. Surely this in-' terpretation is a far-sought and groundless refinement; as is also the remark on ver. 310, of the wild beasts growing mild at our Saviour's appearance as a mark of the returning Paradisiacal state. Jos. WARTON. Girded here seems used only in a metaphorical sense; as in Scripture the Christian, properly armed, is described having his "loins GIRT about with truth," (Ephes. vi. 14.) “ Girded with snaky wiles" is equivalent to the "dolis instructus" of Virgil, Æn. ii. 152. Thus also, in the beginning of the third Book of this poem, Satan is described, "At length collecting all his serpent wiles." DUNSTER. So to subvert whom he suspected rais'd The purpos'd counsel, pre-ordain'd and fix'd, Ver. 128. the Paradise Lost, B. i. 794; 125 in full frequence] Thus, in And he has the same expression of full frequence, in the second Book of this poem, ver. 130. Dunster. Ver. 129. thus to Gabriel smiling spake.] This speech is properly addressed to Gabriel, among the Angels, as he seems to have been the Angel particularly employed in the embassies and transactions relating to the Gospel. Gabriel was sent to inform Daniel of the famous prophecy of the seventy weeks; Gabriel notified the conception of John the Baptist to his father Zacharias, and of our blessed Saviour to his Virgin Mother. The Jewish Rabbis say that Michael was the minister of severity, but Gabriel of mercy: accordingly our poet makes Gabriel the guardian angel of Paradise, and employs Michael to expel our first parents out of Paradise: and for the same reason this speech is directed to Gabriel in particular. NEWTON. Tasso, speaking of Gabriel, who is the Messenger of the Deity to Godfrey, in the opening of the Gerusalemme Liberata, says, "E tra Dio questi e l' anime migliori 66 Riporta dè mortali i preghi, e 'l zelo." DUNSTER. Ibid. smiling spake.] Smiling is here no casual expletive. It is a word of infinitely fine effect, and is particularly meant to contrast the description of Satan, in the preceding part of the Book, wherein his "gloomy consistory" of infernal Peers, it is said, |