Whom they triumph'd once laps'd. plagued, Thus were they And worn with famine long, and ceaseless hiss, Meanwhile in Paradise the hellish pair Second of Satan sprung, all-conquering Death! Than still at hell's dark threshold to have sat watch, Whom thus the sin-born monster answer'd soon: To me, who with eternal famine pine, His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect; This said, they both betook them several ways, 573. Worn: That is, worn out. It is better to have the comma after long. 579. Among the heathen. Milton here is showing the tradition among the heathen, of the great power Satan had obtained over mankind. Ophion: The Greek for "serpent." Eurynome: "Wideruling," but, perhaps, might be called wide-encroaching, as extending her rule and dominion further than she shou'd: wanting to be superior to her husband, to be a goddess, &c.--NEWTON. 575 580 585 590 595 600 C05 610 584. Dictaan: From Dicte, a mountain in Crete, where Jupiter was educstl. 586. Sin, there, &c. The sense is, that before the fall, Sin was in power, or potentially in Paradise; that once, namely, upon the fall, it was actually there, though not bodily, but that now it was there in body, and dwelt as a constant inhabitant.-PEARCE. 593. Not better: Is it not better? 601. Un-hidebound: Not tight-bound, as when creatures are swollen and full. Sooner or later; which the Almighty seeing, See, with what heat these dogs of hell advance 615 620 625 That laugh, as if, transported with some fit And know not that I call'd, and drew them thither, My hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth On what was pure; till, cramm'd and gorged, nigh burst 630 Both Sin, and Death, and yawning grave, at last, 695 Through Chaos hurl'd, obstruct the mouth of hell Then heaven and earth renew'd shall be made pure Till then, the curse pronounced on both precedes. 640 Sung halleluiah, as the sound of seas, Through multitude that sung: Just are thy ways, Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son, Destined Restorer of mankind, by whom New heaven and earth shall to the ages rise, 615 Or down from heaven descend. Such was their song; While the Creator, calling forth by name 616. Dogs of hell, &c. Newton thinks some of the expressions in this description too coarse; but it may be said, in vindication of them, that many of the expressions which characterize the ebullition of human passion are, by the OldTestament writers, put into the mouth of the Deity. But, as Sir E. Brydges remarks, the difficulty of assigning to the divine displeasure terms of language according with his purity as well as anger, is hardly surmountable. 650 638. Heaven and earth is the Jewish phrase to express our world. 640. Precedes: That is, the curse pronounced shall go before those ravagers Sin and Death, and shall direct and lead them on. But Dr. Bentley would read proceed, meaning that the curse shall go on and continue, till the consummation of all things, and heaven and earth shall be restored. 643. See Rev. xv. 3, and xvi. 7. Decrepit winter; from the south to bring 655 660 665 670 675 680 685 658. Aspects: Their appearance each, the sons of Tyndarus, king of Sparta. from the other. When a planet is distant from another by one-sixth of the Zodiac, or 60°, its aspect is called sextile; if by a fourth, or 90°, square; if by a third, or 12, triune; if by one-half, or 180°, opposite, which is said to be of noxious efficacy, because when so opposed they are thought to strive to overcome each other. 660. To join in synod: That is, to be in conjunction. Fized, that is, fixed stars. 668. He bid his angels. It was eternal Spring before the Fall. (iv. 268) and he is now accounting for the change of seasons after the Fall, and mentions the wo famous hypotheses.-NEWTON. 671. Centric globe, being in the centre of the universe according to the system of Ptolemy. Taurus, the constellation so called with the seven stars in his neck. Crab, the tropic of Cancer, the sun's farthest range northward: the Spartan tarins, so called from Castor and Pollux, 674. Atlantic Sisters, the Pleiades. 686. Estoliland. In the old Geographi cal Dictionary of Edmund Bohun, of 1695, I find the following: "Estotilandia, a great Tract of Land in the North of America, towards the Arctic circle and Hudson's Bay, having new France on the South and James's Bay on the West, the first of American shores discovered, being found by some Friesland Fishers that were driven hither by a Tempest almost two hundred years before Columbus.” 687. Magellan: The straits so called from the distinguished Portuguese navigator who discovered them in 1520. 687. At that tasted fruit. Milton means to say that the sun turned away from the tasting of the forbidden fruit of Adam and Eve, as he is fabled wo have done when Atreus served up to his brother Thyestes his own children, for a feast. See Thyestes and Atreus, in Smith's or Anthon's classical dictionary. The sun, as from Thyestean banquet, turn'd These changes in the heavens, though slow, produced Corrupt and pestilent: now, from the north Outrage from lifeless things; but Discord first, Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl, Of man, but fled him; or, with countenance grim, 690 605 700 705 710 715 720 725 730 696. Norumbega. There is no place | cias, blowing from Thrace, northward now known by this name: in Milton's time the science of Geography was in its infancy. Hume merely says, without any authority, that it was "a province of northern America." Samad, the Samoides, a people in the north of Russia. 699. Boreas, the north wind; Cacias, north-west; Argestes, north-east; Thra of Greece; Notus, south wind; Afer, south-west from Africa. Serraliona, or Lion Mountains, south-west of Africa, in the vicinity of Cape Verd. The Le vant and the Ponent (the Eurus and Zephyr) are the east and west winds. Their lateral noise, Sirocco and Iabecchio, are the south-east and south-west winds. - Or multiply, but curses on my head? For this we may thank Adam! but his thanks 735 740 745 750 755 Thou didst accept them; wilt thou enjoy the good, 760 Wherefore didst thou beget me? I sought it not: 765 God made thee of choice his own, and of his own To serve him; thy reward was of his grace; Thy punishment then justly is at his will. Be it so, for I submit; his doom is fair, That dust I am, and shall to dust return: O welcome hour whenever! Why delays His hand to execute what his decree Why am I mock'd with death, and lengthen'd out 741. Though in their place. It was a common notion among the Peripatetics that elementary bodies did not have any gravity, or in other words, weighed nothing in their natural places: thus that air weighed nothing in air, water in water, &c.; so Adam exclaims, "That contrary to the course of nature, his 770 775 afflictions will weigh heavy on him. though they are in their proper place." 758. Thou didst. The change of persons, sometimes speaking of himself in the first, and sometimes to himself in the second, is very remarkable in this place. 762. See Isaiah xlv. 10. |