Of aery threats to awe whom yet with deeds Thou canst not. Haft thou turn'd the least of these To flight, or if to fall, but that they rife 285 290 That thou shouldft hope, imperious, and with threats I fly not, but have fought thee far and nigh. 295 Of Пnded, un ♪n μ'execσ01 ye, ver. 262? where Satan is call'd νήπυτιον ὡς, Ελπεο δεδίξεθαι 289. The firife which thou call ft evil,] The author gave it The frife which thou call'ft bateful. This appears from Michael's words above, ver. 264. the author of evil, of evil difplay'd in acts of hateful ftrife: and fo in &c. I think that bateful would ver. 275. evil go with thee along have been a more accurate expreffion, but evil is juftifiable. Pearce. 298. --can relate, &c.] The accufative cafe after the verbs relate and liken is fight before menwho though with the tongue of Angels tion'd, and here understood. For can relate that fight or to what conBut why may not this evil relate to fpicuous things on earth can liken it, Thefe acts of hateful firife, hate ful to all. Bentley. 1 Of Angels, can relate, or to what things Liken on earth confpicuous, that may lift Of Godlike pow'r? for likest Gods they seem'd, 300 Now wav'd their fiery fwords, and in the air In horror; from each hand with speed retir'd, fo confpicuous as to lift human ima- 310 Two planets rufhing from afpéct malign Of fierceft oppofition in mid fky 314 Should combat, and their jarring fpheres confound. Up-lifted imminent, one ftroke they aim'd (fays Dr. Bentley) that Milton gave it warfare instead of war were. I fuppofe the Doctor to mean, that in the common reading there is wanting a copulative particle between the 312th and 313th verfes. Now how does the Doctor's altera tion mend the matter? Broke and Sprung (he fays) are both participles of the ablative cafe. Suppofe them fo; will there not be wanting in the Doctor's reading a copulative particle between the 311th and 312th verses, to connect broke and Sprung? So that the fault of Milton (if it be a fault) is not remov'd from the poem by the Doctor, but only shifted to another verfe. We had better keep then the old reading, and allow the poet the liberty of dropping the copulative before the words Two planets, on account of that fire of imagination which was kindled, and the highth of that noble fury with which he was poffefs'd. Pearce. 313. Two planets &c.] Milton feems to have taken the hint of this fimile from that of Virgil, but varied and applied to his fubject In with his ufual judgment. Æn. VIII. 691. -pelago credas innare revulfas Cycladas, aut montes concurrere montibus altos. But (as Mr. Thyer obferves) he has leffen'd the grandeur and fublimity the idle fuperftitious notion of the of this fimile by tarnishing it with malignancy of planets in a particular afpect or oppofition, as the judicial aftrologers term it. 316. Together both with next to' almighty arm Uplifted imminent,] So I conceive the paffage fhould be pointed with the comma after imminent, and not after arm, that the words uplifted tion with arm, rather than with imminent may be join'd in construcfroke or they following. The arm was quite lifted up, and hanging over juft ready to fall. One thinks one fees it hanging almoft like the ftone in Virgil, Æn. VI. 602, Quos fuper atra filex jam jam lapfura cadentique Imminet affimilis. 321.- from the armoury of God] Milton, In might or swift prevention: but the fword Was giv'n him temper'd fo, that neither keen 320 The fword of Satan with steep force to fmite Defcending, and in half cut sheer; nor stay'd, 325 But with swift wheel reverfe, deep entring fhar'd Milton, notwithstanding the fublime genius he was mafter of, has in this book drawn to his affiftance all the helps he could meet with among the ancient poets. The fword of Michael, which makes fo great a havoc among the bad Angels, was given him, we are told, out of the armoury of God, Was giv'n him temper'd fo, that neither keen Nor folid might resist that edge: it met The fword of Satan with fteep force to fmite Defcending, and in half cut sheer; This paffage is a copy of that in Virgil, wherein the poet tells us, that the fword of Eneas, which was given him by a deity, broke into pieces the fword of Turnus, which came from a mortal forge. As the moral in this place is divine, fo by the way we may ob. serve, that the bestowing on a man who is favor'd by Heaven fuch an allegorical weapon, is very conformable to the old eaftern way of thinking. Not only Homer has All made ufe of it, but we find the Jewifh hero in the book of Maccabees, 2 Maccab. XV. 15, 16. who had fought the battels of the chofen people with fo much glory and fuccefs, receiving in his dream a fword from the hand of the prophet Jeremiah. Addifon Taffo likewife mentions the armoury of God, Cant. 7. St. 80. But this account of Michael's sword in Spenfer, Fairy Queen, B. 5. feems to be copied from Arthegal's Cant. 1. St. 10. All his right fide: then Satan first knew pain, We have here a fair opportunity to obferve how finely great geniufes imitate one another. There is a most beautiful paffage in Homer's Iliad, III. 363. where the fword of Menelaus in a duel with Paris breaks in pieces in his hand; and the line in the original is fo contriv'd, that we do not only fee the action, as Euftathius remarks, but almoft fancy we hear the found of the breaking fword in the found of the words, Ταχθατε και τετεαχθα δια τρυφεν εκπεσε χειρα. As this kind of beauty could hardly be equal'd by Virgil, he has with great judgment fubftituted another of his own, and has artfully made a break in the verfe to exprefs the breaking fhort of the fword of Turnus against the divine armour of Æneas, Æn. XII. 731. &c. at perfidus enfis Frangitur, in medioque ardentem deferit ictu. Not Mortalis mucro, glacies ceu futilis, ictu Diffiluit; fulvâ refplendent fragmina arenâ. And this beauty being more imitable in our language than the τειχθα τε και τετράχθα of Hom mer, the excellent tranflator of Homer has here rather copied Virgil than tranflated Homer, The brittle fteel, unfaithful to his hand, Broke fhort: the fragments glitter'd on the fand. The fword of Satan is broken as well as thofe of Paris and Turnus, but is broken in a different manner, and confequently a different kind of broke fhort, and were shatter'd inbeauty is proper here. Their's to various fragments; but the fword of Michael was of that irresistible fharpness, that it cut the fword of Satan quite and clean in two, and the dividing of the fword in half is very well exprefs'd by half a ing is plac'd admirably to exprefs verfe, as likewife the word defcendthe fenfe. The reader cannot read it over again without perceiving this beauty. Neither does Milton ftop here, but carries on beauties But he did not think this fufficient, he was fenfible that Homer had ftill the advantage, and therefore goes on after feeming to have done with it, -poftquam arma dei ad Vulcania of the fame kind to the defcription of the wound, and the verfes feem almoft ventum eft, |