Man had not hellish foes enow befides, That day and night for his destruction wait. The Stygian council thus diffolv'd; and forth In order came the grand infernal peers: 595 With bright imblazonry, and horrent arms. With trumpets regal found the great refult: 515 Tow'ards the four winds four speedy Cherubim 512. A globe of fiery Seraphim] A globe fignifies here a battalion in circle furrounding him, as Virgil fays, Æn. X. 373. qua globus ille virûm denfiffi mus urget. 513. horrent arms.] Horrent includes the idea both of terrible and prickly, fet up like the briftles of a wild boar. Horrentia Martis arma. By Dr. Bentley reads orichalc : but fince he allows that gold and filver coin, as well as brass and pewter, are alchemy, being mix'd motels, for that reafon alchemy will do here; efpecially being join'd to the epithet founding, which determins it to mean a trumpet, made perhaps of the mix'd metals of brafs, filver, &c. Pearce. Alchemy, the name of that art which is the fublimer part of cheVirg. Æn. I. mistry, the tranfmutation of metals. Milton names no particular denfos acie atque borrentibus metal, but leaves the imagination En. X. 178. at large, any metal poffible to be 517. the founding alchemy ] produced by that mysterious art; R 4 haftis. 'tis By heralds voice explain'd; the hollow' abyfax T rais'd is m§ -- of vine nach demo neg By false presumptuous hope, the ranged Powers Disband, and wand'ring, each his several way Pursues, as inclination or fad choicefoto la pudi Leads him perplex'd, where he may likelieft find 525 Truce to his reftlefs thoughts, and entertain 'tis a metonymy, the efficient for the effect; vaftly poetical! Richardfon. Alchemy is in fhort what is corruptly pronounc'd Ockamy, that is any mix'd metal. 527.till his great chief return.] So it is in the first edition: but in the fecond and fome others it is, till this great chief return; which is manifeftly an error of the prefs. 528. Part on the plain, &c.] The diverfions of the fallen Angels, with the particular account of their place of habitation, are defcribed with great pregnancy of thought and copioufness of invention. The diverfions are every way fuitable to beings, who had nothing left them but ftrength and knowledge mifapplied. Such are their contentions at the race and in feats of The arms, with their entertainments in the following lines, Others with vaft Typhoean rage more fell &c. Their mufic is employ'd in cele and their difcourfe in founding the brating their own criminal exploits, unfathomable depths of fate, freewill, and fore-knowledge. Addifon Part contend on the plain in running, or in the air in flying, as at the famous Olympian or Pythian games in Greece, while another part contend on horfeback or in chariot races, Part curb their fiery feeds, &c. Thefe warlike diverfions of the fall'n Angels during the abfence of Satan feem to be copied from the military exercifes of the Myrmidons during the abfence of their chief from the war, Homer's Iliad. II. 774. &c. only the The irkfome hours, till his great chief return. 8 Upon the wing, or in fwift race contend, 530 535 Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears Till the images are rais'd in proportion Pars in gramineis exercent mem- Pars pedibus plaudunt choreas, et Their aery limbs in fports they wreftler's prize. Some in heroic verfe divinely fing; Others in artful meafures lead the ring. &c. Dryden. 534. Wag'd in the troubled fky,] So Shakespear in 1 Hen IV. Act 1. calls these appearances the meteors of a troubled Heaven. 536. and couch their spears] Fix them in their refts. Couch from coucher (French) to place. A reft was made in the breaft of the armour, and was call'd a reft from arrefter (French) to stay. Richardfon. 539. Others Till thickest legions clofe; with feats of arms With conqueft, felt th' envenom'd robe, and tore. 539. Others with vaft Typhaean rage &c.] Others with rage like that of Typhoeus or Typhon, one of the giants who warred against Heaven, of whom fee before I. 199. The contraft here is very remarkable. Some are employ'd in sportive games and exercifes, while others rend up both rocks and hills, and make wild uproar. Some again are finging in a valley, while others are difcourfing and arguing on a hill; and thefe are reprefented as fitting, while others march different ways to discover that infernal world. Every company is drawn in contraft both to that which goes before, and that which follows. 542 As when Alcides, &c.] As when Hercules named Alcides from his grandfather Alcæus, from Oechalia crown'd with conqueft, after his return from the conqueft of Oechalia a city of Boeotia, having brought with him from thence lole 545 Into the king's daughter, felt th' envenom'd robe, which was fent him by Deianira in jealoufy of his new miftrefs, and ftuck fo close to his fkin that he could not pull off the one without pulling off the other, and tore through pain up by the roots Theffalian pines, and Lichas who had brought him the poifon'd robe, from the top of Oeta, a mountain in the borders of Theffaly, threw into th' Euboic fea, the fea near Euboa an iland in the Archipelago. The madnefs of Hercules was a fubject for tragedy among the Ancients (Heazans Manou by Euripides, Hercules furens by Seneca) but our author has comprised the principal circumftances in this fimilitude, and feems more particularly to have copied Ovid, Met. IX. 136. Victor ab Oechalia-&c. But as Mr. Thyer rightly obferves, fhort Into th' Euboic fea. Others more mild, With notes angelical to many a harp 550 The 554. Sufpended Hell,] The effect Quin ipfæ ftupuere domus, atque Tartara, ceruleofque implexæ cri- Eumenides, tenuitque inhians tria Cerberus ora, Atque Ixionii vento rota conftitit |