Inhabitant of heaven and heavenly-born, Here, in perpetual agony and pain, With terrours and with clamours compass'd round Could once have moved; then in the keyhole turns With impetuous recoil and jarring sound 860 865 870 875 850 Excell'd her power; the gates wide open stood, That with extended wings a banner'd host, 885 Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through With horse and chariots rank'd in loose array; So wide they stood, and like a furnace mouth Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. Before their eyes in sudden view appear 890 Illimitable ocean, without bound, Without dimension, where length, breadth, and highth, And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night 895 Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise Of endless wars, and by confusion stand: Strive here for mastery, and to battel bring Their embryon atoms; they around the flag Of each his faction, in their several clans, 883. For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce, Light-arm'd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow, Levied to side with warring winds, and poise She open'd, but to shut Excell'd her power. "The grandeur here, both of the thought and the picture, is incomparable."-BRYDGES. 898. For hot, &c. "The reader may compare this whole description of Chaos 905 with Ovid's, and he will easily see how the Roman poet has lessened the grandeur of his, by puerile conceits and quaint antitheses. Every thing in Milton is great and masterly."-NEWTON. 906. To whom, &c. That is, to what side 900 He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits, 910 915 920 Great things with small) than when Bellona storms, 925 The stedfast earth. At last his sail-broad vans Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare Foever the atoms temporarily adhere, that side rules for the moment. 918. Stood on the brink. Satan pauses for a moment, terrified at the danger of his enterprise. 927. Vans, wings: so Beaumont and Fletcher have "sail-stretched wings." 938. That fury stay'd. That fiery rebuff ceased, quenched, and put out by a soft quicksand: Syrtis is explained by neither sea nor good dry land. 930 მან 940 945 943. Gryphon. The gryphon, or griffin, was a fabulous, bird-like species of animal, with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. They were fabled to dwell in the Riphaan mountains, between the Hyperboreans and the one-eyed Arimaspians, and to guard the gold of the north. These one-eyed Arimaspians were said to be of Scythia, and to adorn their hair with gold. 948. O'er bog, &c. "The difficulty of And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. Of stunning sounds and voices all confused, 950 955 Or spirit of the nethermost abyss Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies, Bordering on light; when straight behold the throne Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 960 Wide on the wasteful deep: with him enthroned The consort of his reign; and by them stood 965 And Tumult and Confusion all embroil'd; And Discord with a thousand various mouths. To whom Satan turning boldly, thus:-Ye powers, And spirits of this nethermost abyss, Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy, 970 With purpose to explore or to disturb The secrets of your realm; but by constraint to light, Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek 975 What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds From your dominion won, the Ethereal King Possesses lately, thither to arrive I travel this profound: direct my course; Thus Satan; and him thus the anarch old, Made head against heaven's King, though overthrown. Satan's voyage is very well expressed by so many monosyllables as follow, which cannot be pronounced but slowly, and with frequent pauses."-NEWTON. 980 985 990 995 964. Orcus. Orcus for Pluto. Ades for any dark place, or the world of the dead. "The very name of Demogorgon the ancients supposed capable of producing the Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here Encroach'd on still through your intestine broils He ceased; and Satan stay'd not to reply; 1000 1005 1010 1015 1020 (Strange alteration!) Sin and Death amain Following his track, (such was the will of Heaven) 1025 Paved after him a broad and beaten way Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length From hell continued, reaching the utmost orb Of this frail world; by which the spirits perverse 1030 To tempt or punish mortals, except whom Of light appears, and from the walls of heaven most terrible effects, which they therefore dreaded to pronounce. He is mentioned as of great power in incantations." -NEWTON. 999. If all I can, &c. As if he had said, "If all I can do will serve so (that is, by my keeping here upon my frontiers) to defend that little which is still encroach'd on through your intestine broils, I shall do that all. That your broils have weakened my sceptre is clear, for in consequence of your rebellion Hell first eneroached on my domains, it being formed out of them for the abode of the apostate angels; and then Earth with the surrounding heavens encroached on them, 1035 as formed out of Chaos for the residence of man. That is, the substance from which Hell and Earth were formed, bolonged, before the "intestine broils" took place in heaven, to the kingdom of Chaos and old Night. 1018. Justling rocks. These rocks, at the entrance of the Black Sea from the Bosporus, are called in Greek Symplegades, from two words meaning "to strike together," because they were so near that at a distance they seemed to open and shut again, and to justle one another, as the ship varied her course from side to side: so Satan's voyage through the fighting elements was more A glimmering dawn: here Nature first begins difficult and dangerous than that of the Argonauts through narrow seas betwixt justling rocks. 1052. This pendent world. "By this is meant not the Earth, but the new creation, Heaven and Earth, (line 1004,) or the new created universe; for Satan did not see the Earth yet: he was afterwards sur 1040 1045 1050 1055 prised at the sudden view of all this world at once, (iii. 542.) This new created universe, when beheld far off, appeared, in comparison with the empyreal heaven no bigger than a star of smallest magnitude when close by the moon, whose superior light causes a star so near to be scarcely visible.”—NEWTON. |