Sorrows, and labours, opposition, hate Nor when, eternal sure, as without end, So say'ing he took (for still he knew his power The Tempter watch'd, and soon with ugly dreams 386. Sorrows, and labours, opposition, hate Attends thee, &c.] Compare the very remarkable description of the fate which Plato says it is easy to foresee will attend the Just Man. De Repub. lib. ii. p. 361. ed. Serran. Ο δίκαιος μασιγώσεται, στρεβλώσεται, δεδήσεται παθών ανασχινδιλευθήσεται. "The Just Man shall be scourged, τελευτων παντα χαχα 390 395 4.00 Disturb'd his sleep; and either tropic now 'Gan thunder, and both ends of heav'n, the clouds 410 working on her imagination in dreams, and to end his temptation of Jesus in that manner. I leave it to the critics to find out the reason; for I will venture to say he had a very good one. Warburton. It may be observed, that the Tempter here tries only "to disturb our Lord with ugly dreams," and not to excite in him, as in Eve, Vain hopes, vain aims, inordinate desires. Dunster. 409. -and either tropic.now 'Gan thunder, and both ends of heav'n, the clouds &c.] Place the stops thus: --and either tropic now 'Gan thunder, and both ends of heav'n. The clouds &c. pic. Πυθαγορας, Πλατων, Αριστοτέλης, δεξια του κοσμου τα ανατολικα μέρη, αφ' ὧν ή αρχή της κινήσεως αριστερα δε, τα δυτικά. Euridoxins δεξία μεν τα κατα τον θερινόν τροπικον· αριστερα δε τα κατα τον χειμερινον. De Placit. Philos. ii. 10. ATI οιονται τα μεν ἑωα, του κοσμου προσωπου είναι, τα δε προς βοῤῥαν, δεξια, Τα δε προς νότον, αριστερα. Id. de Isid. p. 363. If by either tropic be meant the right side and the left, by both ends of heaven may be understood, before and behind. I know it may be objected, that the tropics cannot be the one the right side, and the other the left, to those who are placed without the tropics: but I do not think that objection to be very material. I have another exposition to offer, which is thus: It thundered all along the heaven, from the north pole to the tropic of Cancer, from thence to the tropic of Capricorn, from thence to the south pole. From pole to pole. The ends of heaven are the poles. This is a poetical tempest, like that in Virgil, Æn. i. Intonuere poli It thundered from both tropics, that is, perhaps, from the right and from the left. The ancients had very different opinions concerning the right and the left side of the world. Plutarch says, that Aristotle, Plato, and Pythagoras were of opinion, that the east is the right side, and the Mr. Meadowcourt points it thus; west the left; but that Empedocles held that the right side is towards the summer tropic, and the left towards the winter tro Id est extremæ partes cœli Mr. Sympson proposes to read and point the passage thus; -and either tropic now 'Gan thunder; at both ends of heav'n the clouds &c. -and either tropic now 'Gan thunder, and both ends of heav'n the clouds &c. But after all I am still for preserving Milton's own punctuation, unless there be very good reason for departing from it, and I understand the passage thus: and either tropic now 'gan thunder, it thundered from the north and from the south, for this I conceive to be Milton's meaning, From many a horrid rift abortive pour'd Fierce rain with lightning mix'd, water with fire In ruin reconcil'd: nor slept the winds though the expression is inaccurate, the situation of our Saviour and Satan being not within the tropics: and both ends of heaven, that is, and from or at both ends of heaven, the preposition being omitted, as is frequent in Milton, and several instances were given in the notes on the Paradise Lost. See particularly Dr. Pearce's note on i. 282. and from both ends of heaven, the clouds &c. This storm is described very much like one in Tasso, which was raised in the same manner by evil spirits. See Canto vii. st. 114, 115. 409. Most probably, as Mr. Dunster says, by either tropic Milton meant the north and south, and by both ends of heaven the east and west; 66 as his purpose is to describe a general storm coming from every point of the horizon at once." But I see no reason for supposing the preposition from or at omitted; the syntax is exact without it. E. 410. Fierce rain with lightning mix'd, &c.] Virgil, Æn. iii. 196. Involvere diem nimbi, et nox humida cœlum Abstulit; ingeminant abruptis nubibus ignes. This storm of Milton will lose nothing by a comparison with the celebrated ones of Homer in his fifth Odyssey, and of Virgil in his first Æneid. It is painted from nature, and in the boldest Within their stony caves, but rush'd abroad Dunster. 415. From the four hinges of the world,] That is, from the four cardinal points, the word cardines signifying both the one and the other. This, as was observed before, is a poetical tempest like that in Virgil, Æn. i. 85. Una Eurusque Notusque ruunt, cre- And as Mr. Thyer adds, though 417. Though rooted deep as high,] Virgil, Georg. ii. 291. Æn. iv. 445. murmure clausi Nubibus. Complêrunt, magno indignantur learned father observes, that Redeemer with their threats and -quantum vertice ad auras Ethereas, tantum radice in Tartara tendit. Richardson. 419. -shrouded] See note on Par. Lost, x. 1068. E. ―――――― 420. - yet only stood'st Unshaken; &c.] Milton seems to have raised this scene out of what he found in Eusebius de Dem, Evan. lib. ix. [vol. ii. p. 434. ed. Col.] The 415 420 This too is from Eusebius, (ibid. p. 435.] Επειπερ εν τη πειράζειν δυ ναμεις ποιήσαι εκυκλούν αυτον. quoniam dum tentabatur, malignæ potestates illum circumstabant. And their repulse, it seems, is predicted in the seventh verse of this Psalm: A thousand shall fall beside thee, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Calton. Infernal ghosts, and hellish furies, round Environ'd thee, some howl'd, some yell'd, some shriek'd, 422. Infernal ghosts, &c.] This is taken from the legend or the pictures of St. Anthony's temptation. Warburton. From a print which I have seen of the temptation of St. Anthony. Jortin. In these lines our author copies Fairfax's Tasso, c. xv. 67. You might have heard, how through the palace wide, Some spirits howl'd, some bark'd, some hist, some cride. It is where Armida, returning to destroy her palace, assembles her attendant spirits in a storm. Indeed, the circumstances and behaviour of Christ in this haunted wilderness, are exactly like those of the Christian champions in Tasso's inchanted forest, who calmly view, and without resistance, the threats and attacks of a surrounding group of the most horrid demons. See c. xiii. 28, 35. Milton adds, Some bent at thee their fiery darts, 424. their fiery darts,] Eph. vi. 16. the fiery darts of the wicked. The contrast which the next line, Sat'st unappall'd &c. gives to the preceding description of the horrors of the storm, has a singularly fine effect. Dunster. 426. —till morning fair Came forth &c.] 425 As there is a storm raised by evil spirits in Tasso as well as in Milton, so a fine morning succeeds after the one as well as after the other. See Tasso, cant. viii. st. 1. But there the morning comes with a forehead of rose, and with a foot of gold; con la fronte di rose, e co' piè d'oro; here with pilgrim steps in amice gray, as Milton describes her progress more leisurely, first the gray morning, and afterwards the sun rising: with pilgrim steps, with the slow solemn pace of a pilgrim on a journey of devotion; in amice gray, in gray clothing; amice, a proper and significant word, derived from the Latin amicio to clothe, and used by Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. iv. st. 18. Array'd in habit black, and amice thin, Like to an holy monk, the service to begin. 426. Amice gray is the graius amictus in the Roman ritual. Milton, notwithstanding his abhorrence of every thing that related to superstition, often dresses his imaginary beings in the habits of popery. But poetry is of all religions; and popery is a very poetical one. So Comus, 188. -when the gray-hooded even Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed. His Melancholy also is a pensive T. Warton. nun. |