Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views splendor of Achilles' shield to the moon, Iliad. xix. 273. αυταρ έπειτα σακος μεγα τι, στι· Είλετο, τουδ' απάνευθε σελας γενετ', ηύτε μηνης. but the shield of Satan was large as the moon seen through a telescope, an instrument first applied to celestial observations by Galileo, a native of Tuscany, whom he means here by the Tuscan artist, and afterwards mentions by name in v. 262. a testimony of his honour for so great a man, whom he had known and visited in Italy, as himself informs us in his Areopazilica. 289. Fesolé,] Is a city in Tuscany; Valdarno, or the valley of Arno, a valley there. Richardson. 292. His spear, to equal which the tallest pine, &c.] Homer, Odyss. ix. 322. makes the club of Polyphemus as big as the mast of a ship, Όσσον β' ίστον νηος and Virgil gives him a pine to walk with, En. iii. 659. VOL. I. 290 295 Trunca manu pinus regit et vestigia firmat. and Tasso arms Tancred and Posero in resta, e dirizzaro in alto Two knotty masts, which none but - 293. Norwegian hills,] The hills of Norway, barren and rocky, but abounding in vast woods, from whence are brought masts of the largest size. Hume. 294. ammiral,] According to its German extraction amiral or amirael, says Hume; from the the Italian ammiraglio, says Richardson more probably. Our author made choice of this, as thinking it of a better sound than admiral: and in Latin he writes ammiralatás curia, the court of admiralty. 294. ammiral,] The ship which carries the admiral. Johnson's Dictionary. Ꭰ 300 Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire: the woods. Thick as the leaves in autumn strow Dryden. But Milton's comparison is by far the exactest; for it not only expresses a multitude, but also the posture and situation of the angels. Their lying confusedly in heaps, covering the lake, is finely represented by this image of the leaves in the brooks. And besides the propriety of the application, if we compare the similes themselves, Milton's is by far superior to the other, as it exhibits a real landscape. See An Essay upon Milton's imitations of the Ancients, p. 23. 303. Vallombrosa,] A famous valley in Etruria or Tuscany, so named of Vallis and Umbra, remarkable for the continual cool shades, which the vast number 305 of trees that overspread it afford. Hume. 305. when with fierce winds Orion arm'd, &c.] Orion is a constellation represented in the figure of an armed man, and supposed to be attended with stormy weather, assurgens fluctu nimbosus Orion. Virg. En. i. 539. And the Red-sea abounds so much with sedge, that in the Hebrew Scripture it is called the Sedgy Sea. 306. Hath vex'd the Red-sea coast] Verare is commonly used by the Latin poets to describe the effects of a storm. -aut mare Caspium Vexant inæquales procellæ -vindemia nimbis Continuis vexata Hor. ii. Od. 9. Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, While with perfidious hatred they pursued And broken chariot wheels: so thick bestrown Dr. Bentley throws out six lines here, as the Editor's, not Milton's: his chief reason is, That that single event of Moses's passing the Red-sea has no relation to a constant quality of it, that in stormy weather it is strowed with sedge. But it is very usual with Homer and Virgil (and therefore may be allowed to Milton) in a comparison, after they have shewn the resemblance, to go off from the main purpose and finish with some other image, which was occasioned by the comparison, but is itself very different from it. Milton has done thus in almost all his similitudes; and therefore what he does so frequently, cannot be allowed to be an objection to the genuineness of this passage before us. As to Milton's making Pharaoh to be Busiris (which is another of the Doctor's objections to the passage) there is authority enough for to justify a poet in doing so, though not an historian: it has been supposed by some, and therefore Milton might follow that opinion. Chivalry for cavalry, and cavalry (says Dr. Bentley) for chariotry, is twice wrong. But it is rather twice right: for chivalry (from the French che 310 valerie) signifies not only knighthood, but those who use horses in fight, both such as ride on horses and such as ride in chariots drawn by them: in the sense of riding and fighting on horseback this word chivalry is used in ver. 765. and in many places of Fairfax's Tasso, as in cant. v. st. 9. cant. viii. st. 67. cant. xx. st. 61. In the sense of riding and fighting in chariots. drawn by horses, Milton uses the word chivalry in Par. Reg. iii. ver. 344. compared with ver. 328. Pearce. 308 -perfidious hatred] Because Pharaoh, after leave given to the Israelites to depart, followed after them like fugitives. Hume. 310. From the safe shore their floating carcases &c.] Much has been said of the long similitudes of Homer, Virgil, and our author, wherein they fetch a compass as it were to draw in new images, besides those in which the direct point of likeness consists. I think they have been sufficiently justified in the general: but in this before us, while the poet is digressing, he raises a new similitude from the floating carcases of the Egyptians. Heylin. He call'd so loud, that all the hollow deep Of hell resounded. Princes, Potentates, Warriors, the flow'r of heav'n, once yours, now lost, Eternal Spi'rits; or have ye chos'n this place find Your wearied virtue, for the ease you 315 320 325 330 They heard, and were abash'd, and up they sprung Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, 328. with linked thunderbolts Illum expirantem transfixo pectore flammas Turbine corripuit, scopuloque infixit acuto. Virg. Æn. i. 44, 45. 335 Who pleaseth to read the Devil's speech to his damned assembly in Tasso, cant. iv. from stanza 9 to stanza 18, will find our author has seen him, though borrowed little of him. Hume. 338. As when the potent rod &c.] See Exod. x. 13. Moses stretched forth his rod over the Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, Wav'd round the coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud 340 345 350 zen loins, it is the Scripture expression of children and descendants coming out of the loins, as Gen. xxxv. 11. Kings shall come land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east-wind upon the land, and the east-wind brought the locusts: and the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt-out of thy loins; and these are so that the land was darkened. called frozen loins only on ac341 warping] Working themselves forward, a sea term. Hume and Richardson. 351. A multitude, like which &c.] This comparison doth not fall below the rest, as some have imagined. They were thick as the leaves, and numberless as the locusts, but such a multitude the north never poured forth; and we may observe that the subject of this comparison rises very much above the others, leaves and locusts. The populous north, as the northern parts of the world are observed to be more fruitful of people, than the hotter countries: Sir William Temple calls it the northern hive. Poured never, a very proper word to express the inundations of these northern nations. From her fro count of the coldness of the climate. To pass Rhene or the Danaw. He might have said consistently with his verse The Rhine or Danube, but he chose the more uncommon names Rhene of the Latin, and Danaw of the German, both which words are used too in Spenser. When her barbarous sons &c. They were truly barbarous; for besides exercising several cruelties, they destroyed all the monuments of learning and politeness wherever they came. Came like a deluge, Spenser describing the same people has the same simile, Faery Queen, b. ii. cant. 10. st. 15. And overflow'd all countries far away, Like Noye's great flood with their importune sway. |