Created hugest that swim the ocean stream: So stretch'd out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay That felt unusual weight, till on dry land He lights; if it were land, that ever burn'd And such appear'd in hue, as when the force With stench and smoke: such resting found the sole Of unblest feet. Him follow'd his next mate; Both glorying to have 'scaped the Stygian flood, As gods, and by their own recover'd strength, 230 235 240 Is this the region, this the soil, the clime, Said then the lost Archangel, this the seat That we must change for heaven? this mournful gloom 204. Night-founder'd. A ship is said to founder at sea, (from the French fondre, to melt, to fall,) when she is overtaken by a leak. fills, and sinks. So she is here said to be night-founder'd, when she is overtaken by the night, and is stopped, not knowing which way to go. The same phrase is used in Comus. The two brothers in the night have lost their way in the wood: one hears a noise, and asks what it is. The other replies For certain Either some one like us night-founder'd here. Line 483. 232 Pelorus. Pelorus was the northeastern promontory of Sicily. "Here again Milton brings in his learned allusions and illustrations: the picture is highly poetical and sublime."-BRYDGES. 240. Recovered, resumed, self-raised, self-recovered. For that celestial light? Be it so, since he, 245 Who now is Sovran, can dispose and bid What shall be right: farthest from him is best, Whom reason hath equal'd, force hath made supreme 250 Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrours; hail, He scarce had ceased, when the superiour fiend Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield, Hung on his shoulders, like the moon, whose orb 249. Farewell, happy fields. The pathos of this passage is exquisite.-BRYDGES. 286. The broad circumference, &c. Here Milton shines in all his majestic splendour: his mighty imagination almost excels itself. There is indescribable magic in this picture.-BRYDGES. 255 260 265 270 275 280 285 289. Fesolé. A town near Florence "We are here in Arno's vale, (Valdarno;) the full moon shining over Fesolé, which I see from my windows; Milton's verses every moment in one's month, and Gulileo's house twenty yards from one's door.” -MRS. Piozzi's "Journey through Italy." Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 290 295 300 305 Hath vex'd the Red-sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore their floating carcases 310 And broken chariot-wheels: so thick bestrown, Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood, Under amazement of their hideous change. He call'd so loud, that all the hollow deep Of hell resounded: Princes, potentates, 315 Warriors, the flower of heaven, once yours, now lost, If such astonishment as this can seize Eternal spirits: or have ye chosen this place After the toil of battel to repose Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find 320 To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven? Or in this abject posture have ye sworn To adore the Conquerour? who now beholds -shade above shade A woody theatre of stateliest view." MURRAY. 305. Orion. This constellation was supposed to be attended with stormy weather. 293. Norwegian hills. The hills of Nor- bower,' has been rendered classical by way abound in vast woods, from whence the immortal verse of Milton, who is are brought masts of the largest size.supposed to have drawn from it his pic"The annotators leave unnoticed the ture of Paradise, when he describes it-marvellous grandeur of this description, while they babble on petty technicalities. The walking over the burning marle is astonishing and tremendous."-BRYDGES. 302. Thick as autumnal leaves. "Here we see the impression of scenery made upon Milton's mind in his youth when he was at Florence. This is a favourite passage with all readers of descriptive poetry."-SIR E. BRYDGES. "The situation of Florence is peculiarly happy in the vale of Arno, which forms one continued interchange of garden and grove, enclosed by hills and distant mountains. Vallombrosa, (a vale about eighteen miles distant,) a grand and solemn scene, where 'Etrurian shades high over-arched im 307. Busiris. Pharaoh is called by some writers Busiris; and he is here said to have pursued the Israelites with perfidious hatred, because, after having given them leave to depart, he followed them as fugitives. 314. The hollow deep. This magnifi cent call of Satan to his prostrate host could have been written by nobody but Milton.-BRYDGES. With scatter'd arms and ensigns, till anon They heard, and were abash'd, and up they sprung On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel; 325 330 335 340 315 350 355 And powers, that erst in heaven sat on thrones; 360 By their rebellion from the Book of Life. Got them new names; till, wandering o'er the earth, 3C5 Through God's high suffrance for the trial of man, 338. Potent rod. See Ex. x. 13. 341. Warping. Working themselves for ward; a sex-term. 370 the German. The barbarous sons of the great northern hive" were the Goths, the Huns, and the Vandals, who overran 353. Rhene or the Danaw. He might all the provinces of Southern Europe, have said Rhine or the Danube, but he destroying all the monuments of learnchose Rhene of the Latin and Danaw of | ing and the arts that came in their way. Oft to the image of a brute, adorn'd With gay religions full of pomp and gold, And devils to adore for deities: Then were they known to men by various names, Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last, Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud Their children's cries unheard, that pass'd through fire Worshipp'd in Rabba and her watery plain, 392. Moloch was the god of the Ammonites, 1 Kings xi. 7) and was worshipped in Rabba, their capital city, called the "city of waters," 2 Sam. xii. 27. The idol of this deity was of brass, sitting on a throne. and wearing a crown, having the head of a calf. and his arms extended to receive the miserable victims which were to be sacrificed; and therefore it is here probably styled his grim idol," 2 Kings xxiii. 10; see also Jer. vii. 31. 348. Argob was a city to the east of the Jordan, and in the district Bashan. The river Arnon was the northern boundary of Moab and emptied into the Dead Sea. 400. Solomon built a temple to Moloch on the Mount of Olives, (1 Kings xi. 7) which is therefore called "that opprobri ous hill." 404. The valley of Hinnom was south 375 850 385 390 335 400 405 of Jerusalem. where the Canaanites and afterwards the Israelites offered their chil dren to Moloch. The good king Josiah defiled this place, by casting into it the bones of the dead and other disgusting refuse substances of a large city. A perpetual fire was kept there to consume these things, and hence under the name of Gehenna it is frequently alluded to in the New Testament as a type of Hell. It was also called Tophet, from the Hebrew Toph, a drum; since drums and such like noisy instruments were used to drown the cries of the miserable chil dren who were offered to the idol here. 406. Chemos is the god of the Moabites, and is mentioned with Moloch in 1 Kings xi. 7. Some suppose him to be the same as that most shaineful divinity, Priapus, and therefore here called the obscene dread. |