صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. 259
What matter where, if I be ftill the fame,
And what I should be, all but less than he
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign fecure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell;
Better to reign in Hell, than ferve in Heaven,

260

But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,

Th' affociates and copartners of our loss,

265

Lie thus astonish'd on th' oblivious pool,

257. — all but I have heard it propos'd to read albeit, that is although; but prefer the common reading.

259th Almighty hath not built Here for his envy,] This is not a place that God fhould envy us, or think it too good for us; and in this fenfe the word envy is used in feveral 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 anfwer to Mercury in Efchylus. Prom. Vinct. 965.

Tus ons Aarpeias our spar duo. πραξίαν,

[blocks in formation]

It was a memorable saying of Julius Cæfar, that he had rather be the first man in a country-village than the fecond at Rome. The reader will obferve how properly the faying is here applied and accommodated to the fpeaker. It is here made a fentiment worthy of Satan, and of him only;

-nam të nec sperent Tartara regem,

Nec tibi regnandi veniat tam dira cupido. Virg. Georg. I. 36. Grotius

And call them not to fhare with us their part
In this unhappy manfion, or once more
With rallied arms to try what may be yet

Regain'd in Heav'n, or what more loft in Hell? 270
So Satan fpake, and him Beelzebub

Thus anfwer'd. Leader of thofe armies bright,
Which but th' Omnipotent none could have foil'd,
If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge

Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft

275

In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
Of battel when it rag'd, in all affaults
Their fureft fignal, they will foon refume

[blocks in formation]

New courage and revive, though now they lie
Groveling and proftrate on yon lake of fire,
As we ere while, aftounded and amaz'd,
No wonder, fall'n fuch a pernicious highth.

280

285

He scarce had ceas'd when the fuperior Fiend Was moving tow'ard the shore; his pond'rous fhield, Ethereal temper, maffy, large and round, Behind him caft; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views

At

like the moon, whofe orb &c.] Homer compares the fplendor of Achilles fhield to the moon, Iliad. XIX. 373.

Or after all may not the edge of bat- 287.
tel be exprefs'd from the Latin acies,
which fignifies both the edge of a
weapon, and also an army in battel
array? The author himself would
incline one to think fo by his use
of this metaphor in another place,
VI. 108.

On the rough edge of battel ere it
join'd.

282. fall'n fuch a pernicious bighth.] Dr. Bentley reads fall'n from fuch prodigious bighth: but the epithet pernicious is much ftronger, and as for the want of a præpofition, that is common in this poem; for thus in I. 723.

Stood fix'd her ftately highth, And in II. 409.

ere he arrive

[blocks in formation]

αυταρ έπειτα σακΘ μεγά τε, ςιβαρον τε, Είλετο, τοδ' απανευθε σελας γε

VET', NÜTE μnvas:

but the fhield of Satan was large as the moon feen through a telescope, an inftrument firft applied to celetial obfervations by Galileo, a native of Tuscany, whom he means here by the Tufcan artift, and afterwards mentions by name in V. 262. a teftimony of his honor for fo great a man, whom he had known and vifited in Italy, as himself informs us in his Areopagitica.

289. Fefolé,

At evening from the top of Fefolé,

Or in Valdarno, to defcry new lands,
Rivers or mountains in her fpotty globe.

His spear, to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the maft.
Of some great ammiral, were but a wand,
He walk'd with to fupport uneafy steps
Over the burning marle, not like those steps
On Heaven's azure, and the torrid clime
Smote on him fore befides, vaulted with fire:

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

and Virgil gives him a pine to walk with, En. III. 659.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

Thefe fons of Mavors bore (inftead of fpears) Two knotty mafts which none but they could lift. Fairfax. well might Milton affign a spear fo much larger to fo fuperior a being,

293. Norwegian bills] The hills of Norway, barren and rocky, but abounding in vaft woods, from whence are brought mafts of the largeft fize. Hume.

294. ammiral] According to its German extraction amiral or

Trunca manu pinus regit et vefti- amiracl, fays Hume; from the Ita

gia firmat.

and Taffo arms Tancred and Ar-
gantes with two fpears as big as
mafts, Cant. 6. St. 40.

Pofero in refta, e dirizzaro in alto
Idup guerrier le noderofe antenne.

lian ammiraglio, fays Richardfon more probably. Our author made choice of this, as thinking it of a better found than admiral: and in Latin he writes ammiralatûs curia, the court of admiralty.

299. Natk

Nathlefs he fo indur'd, till on the beach

Of that inflamed fea he ftood, and call'd
His legions, Angel forms, who lay intranc'd
Thick as autumnal leaves that ftrow the brooks
In Vallombrofa, where th' Etrurian shades
High over-arch'd imbow'r; or scatter'd fedge
Aflote, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd

299. Nathlefs] Nevertheless, of which it feems to be a contracted diminutive. Hume. This word is frequently used by Spenfer, and the old poets.

302. Thick as autumnal leaves] Virg. Æn. VI. 309. Quam multa in fylvis autumni frigore primo Lapfa cadunt folia.

Thick as the leaves in autumn

ftrow the woods. Dryden. But Milton's comparifon is by far the exacteft; for it not only expreffes a multitude, but alfo the pofture and fituation of the Angels. Their lying confufedly in heaps, covering the lake, is finely reprefented by this image of the leaves in the brooks. And befides the propriety of the application, if we compare the fimiles themselves, Milton's is by far fuperior to the other, as it exhibits a real landkip. See An Effay upon Milton's imitations of the Ancients, p. 23.

303. Vallombrofa,] A famous valley in Etruria or Tufcany, fo

лізов

go5

Hath

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
« السابقةمتابعة »