A while; but fuddenly at head appear'd
Satan, and thus was heard commanding loud.

Vanguard, to right and left the front unfold;
That all may fee who hate us, how we feek
Peace and composure, and with open breaft
Stand ready to receive them, if they like
Our overture, and turn not back perverse;
But that I doubt; however witness Heaven,
Heav'n witness thou anon, while we discharge
Freely our part; ye who appointed stand,
Do as you have in charge, and briefly touch
What we propound, and loud that all

may

So fcoffing in ambiguous words, he scarce Had ended; when to right and left the front

hear.

560

565

Divided, and to either flank retir'd:

Which to our eyes difcover'd, new and ftrange,
A triple mounted row of pillars laid

On wheels (for like to pillars moft they feem'd,
Or hollow'd bodies made of oak or fir,
With branches lopt, in wood or mountain fell’d)
Brafs, iron, ftony mold, had not their mouths

570

574

With

in the 16th book of the Iliad. Eneas throws a spear at Meriones; and he artfully avoiding it, Æneas jefts upon his dancing, the Cretans (the countrymen of Meriones) being famous dancers. A little afterwards in the fame book, Patro clus kills Hector's charioteer, who falls headlong from the chariot, upon which Patroclus infults him for feveral lines together upon his kill in diving, and fays that if he was at fea, he might catch excellent oifters. Milton's jefts cannot be lower and more rivial than thefe; but if he is like Homer in his faults, let it be member'd that he is like him in his beauties too. And Mr. Thyer farther obferves, that Milton is the less to be blam'd for this punning scene, when one confiders the characters of the fpeakers, fuch kind of infulting wit being moft peculiar to proud contemptuous Spirits.

very little of this kind of wit any where in the poem but in this place, and in this we may fuppofe Milton to have facrific'd to the taste of his times, when puns were better relish'd than they are at prefent in the learned world; and I know not whether we are not grown too delicate and faftidious in this particular. It is certain the Ancients practic'd them more both in their converfation and in their writings; and Ariftotle recommends them in his book of Rhetoric, and likewife Cicero in his treatife of Oratory; and if we fhould condemn them abfolutely, we must condemn half of the good fayings of the greatest wits of Greece and Rome. They are lefs proper indeed in ferious works, and not at all becoming the majefty of an epic poem; but our author feems to have been betray'd into this excess in great meafure by his love and admiration of Hoiner. For this account of the Angels jefting and infulting one 574. Or hollow'd bodies &c.] another is not unlike fome paffages We must carefully preserve the pa

renthefis

With hideous orifice gap'd on us wide,

Portending hollow truce: at each behind

A Seraph ftood, and in his hand a reed

Stood waving tipt with fire; while we fufpenfe 580
Collected stood within our thoughts amus'd,
Not long, for fudden all at once their reeds
Put forth, and to a narrow vent apply'd

renthefis here, as Milton himfelf has put it. The conftruction then will be, Which to our eyes difcover'd a triple row of pillars laid on wheels, of brass, iron, ftony mold or fubftance, had not their mouths gap'd wide, and fhow'd that they were not pillars; the intermediate words containing a reafon why he call'd them pillars (for like to pillars moft they feem'd or hollow'd bodies &c.) being included in a parenthefis.

576. Brafs, iron, flony mold,] Mold here fignifies fubftance as in II. 355 but Dr. Bentley by reading caft in mold changes the fenfe of it to one of a very different nature. By this emendation (he fays) he has rid the poem of flone cannon: but fuch cannon have been heard of elsewhere, and are now to be feen (I think) at Delf in Holland. Whether they ever were, or could have been used in war, may be queftion'd: but it is probable that Milton by feeing fuch flone cannon in foreign countries,

With niceft touch. Immediate in a flame,

584

But foon obfcur'd with fmoke, all Heav'n appear'd, From thofe deep throated engins belch'd, whofe

roar

Imbowel'd with outrageous noife the air,

590

And all her entrails tore, difgorging foul
Their devilish glut, chain'd thunderbolts and hail
Of iron globes; which on the victor hoft
Level'd, with fuch impetuous fury fmote,
That whom they hit, none on their feet might ftand,
Though ftanding elfe as rocks, but down they fell
By thousands, Angel on Arch-Angel roll'd;
The fooner for their arms; unarm'd they might

594

Have

586.

deep throated engins] all her entrails. So in ver. 740, 741.

So Shakefpear in Othello, A&t

III.

And oh, you mortal engins, whofe rude throats

Th' immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit.

That from thy just obedience could

revolt,
Whom to obey &c.

Thy for of thee; and to this fense the word whom refers. This is common in Milton's poem. Pearce.

586. whofe roar Imbowel'd with outrageous noife the air, The most natural and obvious conAnd all her entrails tore,] The ftruction is, whofe roar imbowel d conftruction feems to be, The roar or fill'd the air with outrageous of which (engins) imbowel'd with ncife; but to this it is objected, outrageous noije tore the air and that it is as much as to fay that

the

Have eafily as Spi'rits evaded fwift

By quick contraction or remove; but now
Foul diffipation follow'd and forc'd rout;
Nor ferv'd it to relax their ferried files.

What should they do? if on they rush'd, repulse

Repeated, and indecent overthrow

бол

Doubled, would render them yet more defpis'd,
And to their foes a laughter; for in view

Stood rank'd of Seraphim another row,

In posture to difplode their fecond tire
Of thunder: back defeated to return
They worse abhorr'd. Satan beheld their plight,
And to his mates thus in derifion call'd.

605

A cry of Hell hounds never ceafing bark'd,

we have a cry of Hell hounds for
the Hell hounds themfelves, fo
here we have the roar of the can-
non for the cannon themselves; and
the roar of cannon may as properly
be faid to imbowel the air with out-
rageons noife, as
a cry of Hell
hounds to bark.

the roar fill'd the air with roar. Neither do I fee how the matter is much mended by faying that the roar of the cannon imbowel'd with roar tore the air &c. The cannon I think cannot themselves be properly faid to be imbowel'd with noife, tho' they might imbowel with noise the air. I would therefore endevor to juftify this by other fimilar paffages. It is ufual with the poets to put the property of a thing for the thing itfelf: and as in that verfe, II. 654. (where lian word ferrato, close, compact. fee the note)

599. ferried files.] The Ita

Thyer.

620. Te