With jubilee advanc'd; and as they went, Shaded with branching palm, each order bright, 885 890 Where now he fits at the right hand of blifs. An inftance this, and there are others, that Milton made ufe of the tranflation of Taffo, as well as of the original. 878. Difburden'd Heav'n rejoic'd] So Taffo when Michael has drove the infernal Spirits to Hell. Gier. Lib. Cant. 9. St. 66. Liberato da lor quella fi negra The earth deliver'd from fo foul Thyer. and By Her mural breach, returning whence it roll'd.] Returning is to be join'd in construction with Heav'n, and not with breach. Heaven returned to its place: But the expreffion (as we noted before) is not very accurate, Heav'n repair'd her mural breach, and return'd whence it roll'd. 888. Worthieft to reign:] Alluding to Rev. IV. 11. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor and power, &c. and fo making the Angels fing the fame divine fong that St. John heard them fing in his vision. 893. Thus measuring things in Heav'n by things on Earth, &c.] He repeats the fame kind of apology here in the conclufion, that he made in the beginning of his narration. See V. 573. &c. S f 2 By By what is paft, to thee I have reveal'd What might have elfe to human race been hid; By likening fpiritual to corporal forms, and it is indeed the best defenfe that can be made for the bold fic tions in this book, which tho' fome cold readers perhaps may blame, yet the coldeft, I conceive, cannot but admire. It is remarkable too with what art and beauty the poet from the highth and fublimity of the rest of this book defcends here at the close of it, like the lark from her loftieft notes in the clouds, to the most profaic fimplicity of language and numbers; a fimplicity which not only gives it variety, but the greatest majefty, as Milton himself feems to have thought by always choofing to give the fpeeches of God and the Meffiah in that ftile, tho' these I fuppofe are the parts of this poem, which Dryden cenfures as the flats which he often met with for thirty or forty lines together. 900. With Satan; he who envies now thy ftate,] The con 895 900 Bereav'd ftruction requires him, as Dr. Bentley fays: or it may be understood He it is who envies now thy ftate. 909. Thy weaker ;] As St. Peter calls the wife the weaker veffel. 1 Pet. III. 7. It may perhaps be agreeable to the reader to find here at the conclufion of this fixth book the commendations, which Lord Rofcommon has beftow'd upon it in his Effay on tranflated verse, and to which Mr. Addifon refers in a note above. That truly noble critic and poet is there making his complaints of the barbarous bondage of rime, and wishes that the English would fhake off the yoke, having fo good an example before them as the author of Paradife Loft. Of many faults rime is perhaps the cause; Too ftrict to rime, we flight more useful laws. For that, in Greece or Rome, was never known, Bereav'd of happiness thou may'st partake 905 910 Of Of difobedience; firm they might have stood, Yet fell; remember, and fear to tranfgrefs. Threatning no less than univerfal wrack, For Michael's arm main promontories flung, And over-prefs'd whole legions weak with fin; Yet they blafphem'd and struggled as they lay, Till the great enfign of Meffiah blaz'd, And (arm'd with vengeance) God's victorious Son (Effulgence of paternal Deity) Grafping ten thousand thunders in his hand Drove th' old original rebels headlong down, And fent them flaming to the vaft Abyss. O may I live to hail the glorious day, And fing loud Peans through the crouded way, When in triumphant state the British Mufe, True to herself, fhall barb'rous aid refuse, And in the Roman majesty appear, Which none know better, and none come so near. The end of the Sixth Book. ERRATUM. |