40 Gardens and groves presented to his eyes, 40. By what strange parallax or optic skill &c.] The learned have been very idly busy in contriving the manner in which Satan shewed to our Saviour all the kingdoms of the world. Some suppose it was done by vision; others by Satan's creating phantasms or species of different kingdoms, and presenting them to our Saviour's sight, &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 summing up the various opinions upon this subject, gives it in these words: Alii subtiliter imaginantur, quod Dæmon per multa specula ibi invicem objecta species regnorum ex uno speculo in aliud et aliud continuò reflexerit, idque fecerit usque ad oculos Christi. In locum Matthæi. For want of a proper index I could not find the place in Broughton's works. But Wolfius, in his Curæ Philologicæ in SS. Evangelia, fathers this whim upon him: Alii cum Hugone Broughtono ad instrumenta artis optica se recipiunt. Vid. Wolf. in Matt. iv. 8. Thyer. The learned Bochart has a Dissertation on this subject; and there is a passage in it (tom. i. p. 949.) which may perhaps have been in Milton's recollection, in which he notices the optic skill of men, and concludes that the devil, as prince of the air, may easily have surpassed them. But by the words were curious to inquire, Milton may be supposed to glance at the idly busy enquiries of the learned on such a subject. So Horace says, lib. iv. od. 4. -quibus on which the Delphin commentator observes, Hac ironiam sane continent in quosdam eo tempore de nugis ejusmodi acrius et perperam disputantes. Dunster. 45. great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth, So Rutilius, Itinerar. lib. i. 47. So far renown'd, &c.] Exaudi, Regina tui pulcherrima mundi, &c. And in the same manner the Latin poets generally address her. Of the spoils of nations with which Rome was enriched, see Lucan, Pharsal. iii. 155167. Of the capitol, her citadel So far renown'd, and with the spoils enrich'd impregnable, see Virgil, Æn. viii. &c. Dunster. 57. My aery microscope] He had called it telescope before, ver. 42. here microscope, being altogether uncertain what sort of glass it was, or how this vision 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. Outside and inside both,] So Menippus, in Lucian's Icaro 50 55 60 Menippus, could see clearly and ου τα Ev 59.-the hand of fam❜d artificers] The handywork, as in Virg. Æn. i. 455. Artificumque manus inter se operum- 59. And in Par. Lost, ix. 438, where see the notes. E. 60. In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold.] The Romans were incredibly expensive in the columns and roofs, or ceilings of their Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their pow'r, In various habits on the Appian road, houses. See Pliny, lib. xxxvi. c. 2. 3. 6. 7. The walls of their houses were incrusted with marble. The ceilings even of private houses were covered with gold, Plin. xxxiii. 3. The beams were decorated in a similar manner. See also Statius, 1 Sylv. iii. 35, and 48. Horace, lib. ii. od. 18. Non ebur, neque aureum Dunster. 63. Prætors, proconsuls to their provinces Hasting, or on return, in robes of state, &c.] The rapacity of the Roman provincial governors, and their eagerness to take possession of their prey, is here strongly marked by the word hasting. Their pride and vanity were equal to their rapacity, and were displayed not only in their triumphs, but in their magisterial state upon all occasions. Compare Sallust, Bell. Jugurth. c. 31. -incedunt per ora vestra magnifice sacerdotia et consulatus, pars triumphos suos ostentantes: perinde quasi ea honori, non præda, habeant. Dunster. 65 66. -turms of horse] Troops of horse. A word coined from the Latin turma. Virg. Æn. v. 560. Equitum turmæ. 68. on the Appian road, Or on th' Emilian,] The Appian road from Rome led towards the south of Italy, and the Emilian towards the north; and the nations on the Appian road are included in ver. 69— 76. those on the Emilian in ver. 77-79. 69.—some from farthest south, Syene, and where the shadow both way falls, Meroe Nilotic isle,] Syene farthest south. How can that be? when Meroe mentioned in the next line (to say nothing of other places) was farther south. Milton knew it, and thought of it too, as appears from his saying, -where the shadow both way falls, Meroe Nilotic isle. Syene being situate under the tropic of Cancer, the shadow falls there always one way, except at the summer solstice, when the sun is vertical, and then at noon the shadow falls no way: -umbras nusquam flectente Syene. Lucan. ii. 587. Syene', and where the shadow both way falls, The realm of Bocchus to the Black-moor sea; Dusk faces with white silken turbants wreath'd; But in Meroe the shadow falls both ways at different times of the year, and therefore Meroe must be farther south than Syene, and nearer the equator. To this I say 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 remotest place to the south that belonged to it; and to that he alludes. Or it may be said, that poets have not scrupled to give the epithets extremi, ultimi, farthest, remotest, to any people that lived a great way off, and that possibly Milton intended that farthest south should be so 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 esse incipit a fine Æthiopia Syene: Plin. lib. v. sect. 10. Meroe, an island and city of Ethiopia in the river Nile, therefore called Nilotic isle, where the shadow both way falls; Rursus in Meroe (insula hæc caputque gentis Ethiopum-in amne Nilo habitatur) bis anno absumi umbras; Plin. lib. ii. sect. 75. The realm of Bocchus, Mauritania. Then Asian nations, among these the golden Chersonese, Malacca the most southern 70 75 promontory of the East Indies, see Paradise Lost, xi. 392. and utmost Indian isle Taprobane, and therefore Pliny says it is, extra orbem a natura relegata; lib. vi. sect. 24. Then the European nations as far as to the Tauric pool, that is, the palus Mæotis; Lacus ipse Mæotis, Tanain amnem ex Riphæis montibus defluentem accipiens, novissimum inter Europam Asiamque finem, &c. Plin. lib. iv. sect. 24. 71.-Nilotic &c.] So Martial calls Egypt, Nilotica tellus, 1. vi. ep. 80.-the realm of Bocchus, compare Claudian, De iv. Cons. Honor. 39.-antiqui penetralia Bocchi-to the Black-moor sea, so Horace, 1. ii. o. vi. 3. ubi Maura semper Estuat unda. Dunster. 73. and Parthian among these,] The Tempter having failed to captivate our Lord with a view of the immense forces of the Parthians, now endeavours to impress upon him a sense of the great power of the Roman empire. Hence among the embassies of distant and powerful nations we find the Parthians, who are thus made to bow to the genius of Rome. Dunster. 76. Dusk faces with white silken turbants wreath'd;] This line From Gallia, Gades, and the British west, To Rome's great emperor, whose wide domain And long renown, thou justly may'st prefer The rest are barb'rous, and scarce worth the sight, has been noticed as one of the most picturesque lines in poetry; almost every word conveys a distinct idea and generally one of great effect. Prudentius has a passage not dissimilar; Hamartigen. 499. -decolor Indus Tempora pinnatis redimitus nigra sagittis. Dunster. 77. Gades,] Gades, the old Roman name for Cadiz or Cales, in Spain, is here put to signify the part of Spain most distant from Rome, called by the Romans Hispania ulterior. In the two following lines, Germans and Scythians, and Sarmatians north Beyond Danubius to the Tauric pool, Milton may be understood as meaning to comprehend all the European nations from the banks of the Danube, (the southern boundary of ancient Germany,) and the shores of the Euxine, to the Northern ocean. For from the mouth of the Danube to the Palus Mæotis, all 80 85 along the shores of the Euxine sea, lay the European Scythians, and beyond them northward the Sarmatians. The ancient historians have much confounded these names, and commonly classed the intermixed nations under the general head of Scythians or Sarmatians. They extended themselves very far north. Cluverius says that Sarmatia reached quite to the Northern ocean, thence named Sarmaticus. And Juvenal, sat. ii. 1. joins the Sarmatians with this ocean. Dunster. 84. thou justly may'st prefer Before the Parthians;] The Tempter had before advised our Saviour to prefer the Parthian, iii. 363. -the Parthian first By my advice: but this shuffling and inconsistency is very natural and agreeable to the father of lies, and by these touches his character is set in a proper light. |