Her riddle', and him who folv'd it not, devour'd, That once found out and folv'd, for grief and spite Caft herself headlong from th' Ifmenian steep; 575 So ftruck with dread and anguish fell the Fiend, And to his crew, that fat confulting, brought Joyless triumphals of his hop'd fuccefs, Ruin, and defperation, and dismay, Who durft so proudly tempt the Son of God. 580 Of Angels on full fail of wing flew nigh, that the Scholiaft fays, Antaus dwelt at Iraffa, not he who wrestled with Hercules, but one later than him; which, if true, makes against Milton that he afterwards adds, that according to the opinion of fome, the Antaus whom Hercules overcame was Ίρασσευς, απο Ιρασε ow, which Berkelius takes to be the genitive of ra Igasoa, though it may be of a 'Igaooa. Jortin. Antaus dwelt at the city Iraffa, according to Pindar. But it was not there that he wrestled with Hercules, but at Lixos, according to Pliny. Lixos vel fabulofiffime antiquis narrata. Ibi regia Antæi, certamentque cum Hercule. Nat. Hift. Lib. 5. cap. 1. Meadowcourt. 572. And as that Theban monfter &c] The Sphinx, whofe riddle From being refolved by Oedipus, fhe threw herself into the fea. Statius Theb. I. 66. Si Sphingos iniquæ Callidus ambages te præmonftrante refolvi. 581.- and ftrait a fiery globe Of Angels &c] There is a pe culiar foftnefs and delicacy in this defcription, and neither circumftances nor words could be better felected to give the reader an idea of the eafy and gentle defcent of our Saviour, and to take from the imagination that horror and uneafinefs which it is naturally fill'd with in contemplating the dangerous and uneafy fituation he was left in. Thyer. So Pfyche was carried down from 03 the From his uneafy station, and upbore As on a floting couch through the blithe air, 585 On a green bank, and fet before him spread Ambrofial fruits, fetch'd from the tree of life, Lib. IV. the rock by zephyrs, and laid lightly on a green and flowry bank, and there entertain'd with invifible mufic. See Apuleius. Richardfon. 585. As on a floting couch through the blithe air, Which way foever I turn this term blithe, it conveys no idea to me fuitable to the place it occupies: nor do my dictionaries aid me in the leaft, The place is certainly corrupted, and ought to run fo, -through the lithe air, Our author uses the word in his here, and wreath'd His litbe probofcis. IV. 347. 590 595 True True image of the Father, whether thron'd In the bofom of blifs, and light of light Conceiving, or remote from Heav'n, inshrin'd In fleshly tabernacle, and human form, Wand'ring the wilderness, whatever place, Habit, or state, or motion, ftill expreffing The Son of God, with God-like force indued Against th' attempter of thy Father's throne, And thief of Paradife; him long of old 600 Thou didst debel, and down from Heaven caft 605 With all his army, now thou hast aveng'd Supplanted Adam, and by vanquishing fuccefs against temptation, and to be fure he could not have poffibly concluded his work with greater dignity and folemnity, or more agreeably to the rules of poetic Thyer. decorum. 596. True image of the Father, &c] Temptation, of God, whofe thunder forced him out of Heaven. The bleffed Angels receive new knowledge. They behold a fublime truth establish'd, which was a secret to them at the beginning of the temptation; and the great difcovery gives a proper opening to their hymn on the victory of Chrift, and the defeat of Calton. whatever place, Cedite Romani fcriptores, cedite the Tempter. All the poems that ever were writ- 600. Habit, er ftate, or motion,] Probably not without allufion to Horace Ep. I. XVII. 23, Omnis Ariftippum decuit color, et ftatus, et res. 605. Thou didst debel] Debellare fuperbos. Virg. Æn. VI. 853. 04 619. like Temptation, haft regain'd loft Paradise ; 610 615 For Adam and his chofen fons, whom thou 619. like an autumnal star Or lightning] The poet does here, as in other places, imitate profane authors and Scripture both together. Like an autumnal ftar, Ασες οπωρινῳ Eva. Iliad. V. 5: Or like lightning fall from Heaven, Luke X. 18. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven. 624. Abaddon] The name of the Angel of the bottomlefs pit. Rev. IX. 11. Here applied to the bottomlefs pit itself. In this concluding hymn of the Angels, the poet has taken fome pains, to fhow the fitnefs and propriety of giving the name of Paradife Regain'd to fo confin'd a fubject, as our Saviour's temptation. Confin'd as the fubject was, I make no queftion that he thought the Paradife Regain'd an epic poen as well as the Paradife Loft. For in his invocation he undertakes -to tell of deeds Above heroic : Of and he had no notion that an epic poem muft of neceffity be formed after the example of Home, and according to the precepts of Ariftotle. In the introduction to the fecond book of his Reafon of Church- • Government he thus delivers his fentiments. "Time ferves not now, "and perhaps I might feem too "profufe to give any certain ac count of what the mind at home, "in the fpacious circuits of her ' mufing, hath liberty to propofe to herfelf, though of higheft "to "hope, and hardelt attempting "whether that epic form whereof "the two poems of Homer, and "thofe other two of Virgil and "Taffo are a diffufe, and the book "of Job a brief model; or whe"ther the rules of Ariftotle here in are ftrictly to be kept, or na"ture to be followed, which in "them that know art, and ufe judgment, is no tranfgreffion, but an enriching of art." We fee 66 that Of Tempter and temptation without fear. Or lightning thou shalt fall from Heav'n, trod down that he look'd upon the book of Job, as a brief model of an epic poem and the subject of Paradife Regain'd is much the fame as that of the book of Job, a good man triumphing over temptation: and the greatest part of it is in dialogue as well as the book of Job, and abounds with moral arguments and reflections, which were more natural to that season of life, and better fuited Milton's age and infirmities than gay florid defcriptions. For by Mr. Elwood's account, he had not thought of the Paradife Regain'd, till after he had finish'd the Paradife Loft: (See the Life of Milton) the firft hint of it was fuggefted by Elwood, while Milton refided at St. Giles Chalfont in Buckinghamshire during the plague in London; and afterwards when Elwood vifited him in London, he fhow'd him the poem finish'd, fo that he was not long in conceiving, or long in writing it: 625 Το and this is the reason why in the Paradife Regain'd there are much fewer imitations of, and allufions to other authors, than in the Paradife Loft. The Paradife Loft he was long in meditating, and had laid in a large ftock of materials, which he had collected from all authors ancient and modern: but in the Paradife Regain'd he compofed more from memory, and with no other help from books, than fuch as naturally occurred to a mind fo thoroughly tinctur'd and feafon'd, as his was, with all kinds of learning. of learning. Mr. Thyer makes the fame obfervation, particularly with regard to the Italian poets. From the very few allufions, fays he, to the Italian poets, in this poem one may draw, I think, a pretty conclufive argument for the reality of thofe pointed out in the notes upon Paradife Loft, and show that they are not, as fome may imagine, mere accidental coinci dences |