His inmost counsels from their destin'd aim. But see the angry victor hath recall'd 169. But see the angry victor hath recall'd, &c.] Dr. Bentley hath really made a very material objection to this and some other passages of the poem, wherein the good angels are represented, as pursuing the rebel host with fire and thunderbolts down through Chaos even to the gates of hell; as being contrary to the account, which the angel Raphael gives to Adam in the sixth book. And it is certain that there the good angels are ordered to stand still only and behold, and the Messiah alone expels them out of heaven; and after he has expelled them, and hell has closed upon them, vi. 880. Sole victor from th' expulsion of his foes Messiah his triumphal chariot turn'd: Eye-witnesses of his almighty acts, These accounts are plainly contrary the one to the other: but the author doth not therefore contradict himself, nor is one part of his scheme inconsistent with another. For it should be considered, who are the persons that give these different accounts. In book the sixth the angel Raphael is the speaker, and therefore his account may be depended upon as the genuine and exact truth of the matter. But in the other passages Satan himself or some of his angels are the speakers; and they were too proud and obstinate ever to acknowledge the Messiah for their conqueror; as their rebellion was raised on his account, they would never own his superiority; they would rather ascribe their defeat to the whole host of heaven than to him alone; or if they did indeed imagine their pursuers to be so many in number, their fears multiplied them, and it serves admirably to express how much they were terrified and confounded. In book the sixth, 830, the noise of his chariot is compared to the sound of a numerous host; and perhaps they might think that a numerous host were really pursuing. In one place indeed we have Chaos speaking thus, ii. 996. —and heav'n gates Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands 170 His ministers of vengeance and pursuit Back to the gates of heav'n: the sulphurous hail What reinforcement we may gain from hope, 175 180 185 190 could not all be effected by a single hand and what a sublime idea must it give us of the terrors of the Messiah, that he alone should be as formidable as if the whole host of heaven were pursuing! So that this seeming contradiction, upon examination, proves rather a beauty than any blemish to the poem. 181. The seat of desolation,] As in Comus, 428. -where very desolation dwells. T. Warton. .186. -our afflicted Powers,] The word afflicted here is intended to be understood in the Latin sense, routed, ruined, utterly broken. Richardson. 191. If not what resolution] What reinforcement; to which is returned If not: a vicious syntax: but the poet gave it If none. Bentley. Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate 193. With head up-lift above Pectora quorum inter fluctus arrecta, Sanguineæ exuperant undas; pars 196. Lay floating many a rood,] A rood is the fourth part of an acre, so that the bulk of Satan is expressed by the same sort of measure, as that of one of the giants in Virgil, Æn. vi. 596. Per tota novem cui jugera corpus And also that of the old dragon That with his largeness measured much land. 198. Titanian, or Earth-born,] -Genus antiquum terræ, Titania pubes. En. vi. 580. 199. Briareos] So Milton writes it, that it may be pro 195 200 nounced as four syllables; and not Briareus, which is pronounced as three. Et centum geminus Briareus. Virg. En. vi. 287. 199.- —or Typhon, whom the den By ancient Tarsus held,] Typhon is the same with Typhoeus. That the den of Typhoëus was in Cilicia, of which Tarsus told by Pindar and Pomponius was a celebrated city, we are Mela. I am much mistaken, if naby's note on Ovid, Met. v. 347. to which I refer the reader. He took ancient Tarsus perhaps from Nonnus: Ταρσος αειδόμενη πρωτοπτολις, which is quoted in Lloyd's Dictionary. Jortin. θεων πολέμιος Τυφως ἑκατοντακαρανος· τον ποτε νυμον αντρον. 200. Pind. Py. i. 30. -that sea-beast Leviathan,] E. The best critics seem now to be Leviathan, which God of all his works agreed, that the author of the book of Job by the leviathan meant the crocodile; and Milton describes it in the same manner partly as a fish and partly as a beast, and attributes scales to it: and yet by some things one would think that he took it rather for a whale, (as was the general opinion,) there being no crocodiles upon the coasts of Norway, and what follows being related of the whale, but never, as I have heard, of the crocodile. 202. Created hugest, &c.] This verse is found fault with as being too rough and absonous, but that is not a fault but a beauty here, as it better expresses the hugeness and unwieldiness of the creature, and no doubt was designed by the author. 202.-th' ocean stream:] The Greek and Latin poets frequently turn substantives into adjectives. So Juvenal xi. 94. according to the best copies, Qualis in oceano Auctu testudo na- Jortin. 204.-night-founder'd skiff] Some little boat, whose pilot dares not proceed in his course for fear of the dark night; a metaphor taken from a foundered horse that can go no farther. Hume. 205 Dr. Bentley reads nigh-founder'd; but the common reading is better, because if (as the Doctor says) foundering is sinking by a leaking in the ship, it would be of little use to the pilot to fix his anchor on an island, the skiff would sink notwithstanding, if leaky. By nightfounder'd Milton means overtaken by the night, and thence at a loss which way to sail. That the poet speaks of what befel the pilot by night, appears from ver. 207. while night invests the sea. Milton, in his poem called the Mask, uses the same phrase: the two brothers having lost their way in the wood, one of them says, 205. -as sea-men tell,] Words well added to obviate the incredibility of casting anchor in this manner. Hume. That some fishes on the coast of Norway have been taken for islands, I suppose Milton had learned from Olaus Magnus and other writers; and it is amply confirmed by Pontoppidan's description of the Kraken in his account of Norway, which are authorities sufficient to justify a poet, though perhaps not a natural historian. With fixed anchor in his scaly rind Moors by his side under the lee, while night So stretch'd out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay And high permission of all-ruling heaven 210 215 220 And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw. 207. Moors by his side under speaking of the moon, iv. 609. the lee,] Anchors by his side under wind. An instance this among others of our author's affectation in the use of technical terms. 207. while night . Invests the sea,] A much finer expression than umbris nox operit terras of Virgil, En. iv. 352. But our author in this (as Mr. Thyer remarks) alludes to the figurative description of night used by the poets, particularly Spenser. Faery Queen, b. i. cant. ii. st. 49. By this the drooping day-light 'gan to fade, And yield his room to sad succeeding night, Who with her sable mantle 'gan to The face of earth. 209. So stretch'd out huge in length the Ar'ch-Fiend lay] The length of this verse, consisting of so many monosyllables, and pronounced so slowly, is excellently adapted to the subject that it would describe. The tone is upon the first_syllable in this line, the Arch-Fiend lay; whereas it was upon the last syllable of the word in ver. 156. th' ArchFiend replied; a liberty that Milton sometimes takes to pronounce the same word with a different accent in different places. We shall mark such words as are to be pronounced with an accent different from the common use. |