Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne, 121 125 130 For ac temulentiæ caufa tenere Indiam juvat: et aurum jam acceffio eft. Or perhaps the words imboss'd with gems &c refer only to gold firft mention'd, which is no unufual conftruction. They quaff in gold imbofs'ď with gems and feuds of pearl. 130. Let his tormenter confcience find him out;] Milton had in view what Tacitus and Suetonius have related. Tacitus Ann. VI. 6. Infigne vifum eft earum Cæfaris literarum initium; nam his verbis exorfus eft: Quid fcribam vobis P. C. aut quomodo fcribam, aut quid omnino non fcribam hoc tempore ? Dii me For him I was not fent, nor yet to free That people victor once, now vile and base, 135 Frugal, and mild, and temp'rate, conquer'd well, me Deaque pejus perdant quam perire quotidie fentio, fi fcio. Adeo facinora atque flagitia fua ipfi quoque in fupplicium verterant. Suetonius Tiber. 67. Poftremo femet ipfe pertæfus talis epiftolæ principio tantum non fummam malorum fuorum profeffus eft: Quid fcribam &c. where perhaps it should be, tali epiftolæ principio. Fortin. 140. Of fighting beafts, and men to beafts expos'd,] The fighting beafts are a poor inftance of the Roman cruelty in their sports, in comparifon of the gladiators; who might have been introduced fo naturally, and eafily here, only by putting the word gladiators in place of the other two, that one may very well be furpriz'd at the poet's omitting them. See Seneca's 7th Epiftle. Calton. 140 And from the daily fcene effeminate. What wife and valiant man would feek to free 145 All monarchies befides throughout the world, 150 Is a tree &c; alluding to the parable of the muftard-feed grown into a tree, fo that the birds lodge in the branches thereof, Matt. XIII. 32. and to (what that parable alfo refpects) Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great tree whofe hight reached unto heaven, and the fight thereof to the end of all the earth, Dan. IV. 11. Tertullian also compares the kingdom of Christ to that of Nebuchadnezzar, See Grotius in Matt. Or as a fione &c; alluding to the ftone in another of Nebuchadnezzar's dreams, which brake the image in pieces, and fo this kingdom fhall break in pieces, and confume all these kingdoms, and it shall ftand for ever. Dan. II. 44. And of my kingdom there fhall be no end: the very words of Luke I. 33. with only the neceffary change of the Is not for thee to know, nor me to tell. To whom the Tempter impudent reply'd. Nor what I part with mean to give for nought; the perfon; and of his kingdom there fhall be no end. 157. Nothing will pleafe the diffi cult and nice,] Mr. Jortin and Mr. Sympfon fay that perhaps we fhould read thee difficult and nice: but I think the ictus falls better in the common reading, and the 155 160 165 Whom thus our Saviour anfwer'd with difdain. I never lik'd thy talk, thy offers lefs, 171 Now both abhor, fince thou haft dar'd to utter 175 Th' abominable terms, impious condition; troduction of this incident in this place. The Tempter fhould have propofed the condition, at the fame time that he offer'd the gifts; as he doth likewife in Scripture: but after his gifts had been abfolutely refus'd, to what purpofe was it to propofe the impious condition? Could he imagin that our VOL. I. 180 185 |