صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

This day at highth of noon came to my sphere
A Spirit, zealous, as he feem'd, to know
More of th' Almighty's works, and chiefly Man,
God's latest image: I defcrib'd his way
Bent all on speed, and mark'd his aery gate;
But in the mount that lies from Eden north,

565

Where he first lighted, foon difcern'd his looks 570

[blocks in formation]

Alien

563. No evil thing approach or

enter in.] Dr. Bentley objects, that the natural order is inverted,

enter after approach; for if the very approach was ftopt, the entrance was impoffible. But the order feems rightly observed in the common reading, if we allow the sense to be this, Not to fuffer any evil thing to approach, or at least to enter in. Pearce.

567. God's lateft image:] For the first was Chrift, and before Man were the Angels. So in III. 151. Man is called God's youngest fon.

567. I deferib'd his way] Some read defery'd, but defcrib'd is propereft. He defcrib'd to Satan or how'd him the way to Paradife, as it is faid he did in III. 722, 733. and mark'd his aery gate; For it was fportive in many an acry wheel, as we read in the conclufion of the third book; and it was well taken notice of there, as fuch use is made of it here. And the fame we may obferve of the turbulent paffions difcover'd in him on mount Niphates in this book, ver. 125—

E e 4

135.

Alien from Heav'n, with paffions foul obscur'd:
Mine eye pursued him ftill, but under shade
Loft fight of him: one of the banish'd crew,
I fear, hath ventur'd from the deep, to raise
New troubles; him thy care must be to find.

575

To whom the winged warrior thus return'd. Uriel, no wonder if thy perfect fight, Amid the fun's bright circle where thou fitft, See far and wide: in at this gate none pass The vigilance here plac'd, but fuch as come Well known from Heav'n; and fince meridian hour No creature thence: if Spirit of other fort,

580

So

130, Uriel mark'd them then, and ver. 556.] To make Uriel defcend, reports them now.

590. Return'd on that bright beam, whofe point now rais'd] He fuppofes, that he flides back on the fame beam that he came upon; which fun-beam he confiders not as a flowing punctum of light, but as a continued rod extending from fun to earth. The extremity of this rod, while Uriel was difcourf ing, and the fun gradually defcending, muft needs be raifed up higher than when he came upon it; and confequently the rod bore him flote downward back again. This has been reprefented as a pretty device, but below the genius of Milton, [See Mr. Addifon's remark on

for more eafe and expedition, both in his way from the fun, and to the fun again. But Milton had no fuch device here: he makes Uriel come from the fun, not on a defcending, but on a level ray, ver. 541, from the fun's right afpect to the eaft in the very margin of the horizon. Here's no trick then or device; but perhaps a too great affectation to how his philofophy; as in the next lines, on this common occafion of the fun's setting, he ftarts a doubt whether that is produc'd in the Ptolemaic or Copernican way. But this little foible he makes ample amends for.

Bentley.

592. Be

So minded, have o'erleap'd these earthy bounds.
On purpose, hard thou know'ft it to exclude
Spiritual fubftance with corporeal bar.

But if within the circuit of these walks,

In whatsoever shape he lurk, of whom
Thou tell'ft, by morrow dawning I fhall know.
So promis'd he; and Uriel to his charge

585

Return'd on that bright beam, whose point now rais'd
Bore him flope downward to the fun now fall'n 591
Beneath th' Azores; whether the prime orb,

Incredible how fwift, had thither roll'd
Diurnal, or this lefs volúbil earth,

592. Beneath th' Azores;] They are ilands in the great Atlantic or western ocean; nine in number; commonly call'd the Terceras, from one of them. Some confound the Canaries with them.

Hume and Richardfon.

592. whether the prime orb, &c.] The fun was now fall'n beneath th' Azores, with three fyllables, for fo it is to be pronounc'd: whether, not whither as in Milton's own editions, the prime orb, the fun, bad roll'd thither diurnal, that is in a day's time, with an incredible fwift motion; or this lefs volubil earth, with the fecond fylJable long as it is in the Latin wolubilis,

By

Impubefque manus mirata volubile buxum.

Virg. Æn. VII. 382.

he writes it voluble when he makes
the fecond fyllable fhort as in
IX. 436. by fhorter fight to the
eaft, had left him there at the
Azores, it being a less motion for
the earth to move from west to east
upon its own axis according to the
fyftem of Copernicus, than for the
Heavens and heavenly bodies to
move from east to west according
to the fyftem of Ptolomy. Our
author in like manner, III. 575.
questions whether the fun was in
the center of the world or not, fo
fcrupulous was he in declaring for
any fyftem of philofophy.
598. Nor

By shorter flight to th'eaft, had left him there
Arraying with reflected purple' and gold
The clouds that on his western throne attend.
Now came ftill evening on, and twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad;
Silence accompanied; for beaft and bird,
They to their graffy couch, these to their nests
Were flunk, all but the wakeful nightingale;
She all night long her amorous descant fung;
Silence was pleas'd: now glow'd the firmament

598. Now came ftill evening on, &c.] This is the firft evening in the poem; for the action of the preceding books lying out of the fphere of the fun, the time could not be computed. When Satan came firft to the earth, and made that famous foliloquy at the beginning of this book, the fun was high in his meridian tower; and this is the evening of that day; and furely there never was a finer evening; words cannot furnish out a more lovely description. The greateft poets in all ages have as it were vy'd one with another in their defcriptions of evening and night; but for the variety of numbers and pleafing images I know of nothing parallel or comparable to this to be found among all the treafures of ancient or modern poetry. There is no need to point out the beauties of it; it must charm every body,

595

600

[blocks in formation]

With living faphirs: Hefperus, that led

The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon

Rifing in clouded majefty, at length

Apparent queen unveil'd her peerless light,

And o'er the dark her filver mantle threw.

605

611

When Adam thus to Eve. Fair Confort, th' hour Of night, and all things now retir❜d to rest Mind us of like repofe, fince God hath fet Labor and reft, as day and night, to men Succeffive; and the timely dew of fleep

[blocks in formation]

Now

long, yet I am perfuaded the reader cannot but be pleas'd with it, as it is a fort of continuation of the fame beautiful scene.

598.and twilight gray] Milton is very fingular in the frequent and particular notice which he takes of the twilight, whenever he has occafion to speak of the evening. I do not remember to have met with the fame in any other poet; and yet there is, to be fure, fomething fo agreeable in that foft and gentle light, and fuch a peculiar fragrance attends it in the fummer months, that it is a circumftance which adds great beauty to his description. I have often thought that the weakness of our poet's eyes, to which this kind of light must be vaftly pleafant, might be the reason that he fo often introduces the mention of it. Thyer.

614. and the timely dew of fleep Noww

« السابقةمتابعة »