Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool His mighty stature; on each hand the flames Then with expanded wings he steers his flight That felt unusual weight, till on dry land 221. Northwith upright he rears, e) The whole part of this great enemy of mankind is filled with such incidents as are very apt to raise and terrify the reader's imagination. Of this nature is his being the first that awakens out of the general trance, with his posture on the burning lake, his rising from it, and the description of his shield and spear. To which we may add his call to the fallen angels, that lay plunged and stupitied in the sea of fire. He call'd so loud that all the hollow deep Of hell resounded.— But there is no single passage in the whole poem worked up to a greater sublimity, than that wherein his person is described in those celebrated lines, -He above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent Addison. 226. —incumbent on the dusky air That fell unusual weight,] 925 230 This conceit is borrowed from Spenser, who speaking of the old dragon has these lines, b. i. cant. ii. st. 18. Then with his waving wings displayed wide, Himself up high he lifted from the ground, And with strong flight did forcibly divide The yielding air, which nigh too feeble found Her fitting parts, and element unsound, To bear so great a weight. Thyer. 229.-liquid fire;] Virg. Ecl. vi. 33. Et liquidi simul ignis. 231. Of subterranean wind] Dr. Pearce conjectures that it should be read subterranean winds, because it is said aid the winds afterwards, and the conjecture seems probable and ingenious: the fuell'd entrails, sublim'd with mineral fury, aid and increase the winds which first blew up the fire. Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter'd side 235 With stench and smoke: such resting found the sole Is this the region, this the soil, the clime, 240 That we must change for heav'n, this mournful gloom For that celestial light? Be' it so, since he Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid What shall be right: farthest from him is best, 245 Whom reas'on hath equall'd, force hath made supreme Above his equals. Farewell happy fields, Where joy for ever dwells: Hail horrors, hail 232. Pelorus,] A promontory of Sicily, now Capo di Faro, about a mile and a half from Italy, whence Virgil angusta à sede Pelori, Æn. iii. 687. Hume. 238. Of unblest feet.] Dr. Bentley to make the accent smoother reads Of feet unblest ; but Milton could have done the same thing, if he thought proper: on the contrary he chooses almost always to put the epithet before the substantive (excepting at the end of a verse) even though the verse be the rougher for it. A plain sign that he thought it poetical to do so. Pearce. 250 246. Sovran.] So Milton spells it after the Italian Sovrano. It is not easy to account for the formation of our word Sovereign. 247. farthest from him is best,] This is expressed from the Greek proverb ποῤῥω Διος τε και κεραυνού, Far from Jupiter, but far too from thunder. Bentley. 248. Whom reason hath equall'd,] Reason is to be pronounced here as one syllable, or two short ones, as it is likewise in viii. 591. and ix. 559. See the note on ver. 39. 250. -Hail horrors, hail &c.] His sentiments are every Infernal world, and thou profoundest hell way -Hail horrors, hail &c. And afterwards, -Here at least We shall be free; &c. Amidst those impieties which this enraged Spirit utters in other places of the poem, the author has taken care to introduce none that is not big with absurdity, and incapable of shocking a religious reader; his words, as the poet himself describes them, bearing only a semblance of worth, not substance. He is likewise with great art described as owning his adversary to be almighty. Whatever perverse interpretation he puts on the justice, mercy, and other attributes of the Supreme Being, he frequently confesses his omnipotence, that being the perfection he was forced to allow him, and the only consideration which could support his pride under the shame of his defeat. must I omit that beautiful circumstance of his bursting out into tears, upon his survey of those innumerable Spirits whom Nor 255 he had involved in the same guilt and ruin with himself. Addison. 252. Receive thy new possessor;] This passage seems to be an improvement upon Sophocles, Ajax 395, where Ajax, before 'he kills himself, cries out much in the same manner. Ιω σκότος, εμον φαος, ερεμνος Ελεσθ' έλεσθ' οικητόρα, Έλεσθε με (Ed. Turneb.) For the 253. by place or time.] Milton is excellent in placing his words: invert them only, and say by time or place, and if the reader has any ear, he will perceive how much the_alteration is for the worse. pause falling upon place in the first line by time or place, and again upon place in the next line The mind is its own place, would offend the ear, and therefore is artfully varied. 254. The mind is its own place,] These are some of the extravagancies of the Stoics, and could not be better ridiculed than they are here by being put in the mouth of Satan in his present situation. Thyer. Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least With rallied arms to try what be yet may Regain'd in heav'n, or what more lost in hell? 260 265 270 259. -th' Almighty hath not built Here for his envy,] This is not a place that God should envy us, or think it too good for us; and in this sense the word envy is used in several places of the poem, and particularly in iv. 517. viii. 494. and ix. 770. 263. Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.] This is a wonderfully fine improvement upon Prometheus's answer to Mercury in Eschylus. Prom. Vinct. 965. Της σης λατρείας της εμην δυσπραξίαν, My miseries, be assured, I would not change For thy gay servitude, but rather choose To live a vassal to this dreary rock, Than lackey the proud heels of Jove. (Potter.) It was a memorable saying of Julius Cæsar, that he had rather be the first man in a countryvillage than the second at Rome. The reader will observe how properly the saying is here applied and accommodated to the speaker. It is here made a sentiment worthy of Satan, and of him only; -nam te nec sperent Tartara regem, Nec tibi regnandi veniat tam dira cupido. Virg. Georg. i. 36. Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft 275 280 He scarce had ceas'd when the superior Fiend Behind him cast; the broad circumference 276. on the perilous edge Perhaps he had in mind Virgil, Et mecum ingentes oras evolvite Jortin. Shakespeare has an expression very like this in 2 Hen. IV. act i. You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge More likely to fall in, than to get o'er: 285 author himself would incline one to think so by his use of this metaphor in another place, vi. 108. On the rough edge of battle ere it join'd. 276.] The expression was probably derived from the very common Greek phrase s ugov ακμής. See Lucian, tom. ii. p. 605. ed. Reitz. Dunster. 282 fall'n such a pernicious height.] Dr. Bentley reads fall'n and something like it in 1 Hen. from such prodigious height: but IV. act i. the epithet pernicious is much ere he arrive The happy isle ? Pearce. 287.-like the moon, whose orb, &c.] Homer compares the |