Grew darker at their frown, fo match'd they stood;
For never but once more was either like

To meet fo great a foe: and now great deeds
Had been achiev'd, whereof all Hell had rung,
Had not the fnaky forcerefs that fat

721

Faft by Hell gate, and kept the fatal key,
Ris'n, and with hideous outcry rufh'd between.

725

O Father, what intends thy hand, fhe cry'd,. Against thy only Son? What fury', O Son, Poffeffes thee to bend that mortal dart Against thy Father's head? and know'ft for whom;

729

For

Or as when clouds together crush'd and bruis'd,

Pour down a tempeft by the Caf pian fhore.

722.- -Jo great a foe:] Jefus Christ who (as it follows ver. 734.)

715.-Heav'n's artillery] Thun- will one day destroy both Death der. Juv. Sat. XIII. 9.

Ufque

and him that has the power of death, that is the Devil. Heb. II. i 14.

720.- and know'ft for whom :] Thefe words are read with a femicolon in Mi ton's own editions, and not with a note of interrogation, as in fome others: and the meaning is, at the fame time that thou knoweft for abom; Cum noris bene cui facias hoc; as Dr Trapp tranflates it. If this is not te

And fo Fairfax, in Taffo, Cant. 6. fenfe of the words, they must be

St. 38.

read with a note of interrogation,

For him who fits above and laughs the while
At thee ordain'd his drudge, to execute
Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids;
His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both.

She spake, and at her words the hellish pest 735 Forbore, then thefe to her Satan return'd.

So ftrange thy outcry, and thy words so strange
Thou interposest, that my fudden hand
Prevented fpares to tell thee yet by deeds
What it intends; till first I know of thee,
What thing thou art, thus double-form'd, and why
In this infernal vale firft met thou call'ft
Me Father, and that phantafm call'ft my

I know thee not, nor ever faw till now
Sight more deteftable than him and thee.

Son

740

745

T'whom thus the portrefs of Hell gate reply'd.

Haft thou forgot me then, and do I seem
Now in thine eye fo foul? once deem'd fo fair

In Heav'n, when at th' affembly, and in fight

737. So frange thy outcry, and

thy words to frange] The change in the position of the words Jo ftrarge in this verfe has a peculiar beauty in it, which Dr. Bentley's alteration of the latter frange into new utterly defiroys.

Of

So ftrange thy outcry, and thy

words fo new. How flat, lifelefs, and unharmonious, campar'd with the common reading!

758. Out of thy head I fprung: Sin is rightly made to fpring out

of

Of all the Seraphim with thee combin'd

In bold confpiracy against Heav'n's king,
All on a fudden miferable pain

Surpris'd thee, dim thine

eyes, and dizzy swum

750

760

In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast
Threw forth, till on the left fide opening wide, 755
Likeft to thee in fhape and count'nance bright,
Then shining heavn'ly fair, a Goddess arm'd
Out of thy head I sprung: amazement seis'd
All th' hoft of Heav'n; back they recoil'd afraid
At first, and call'd me Sin, and for a sign
Portentous held me; but familiar grown,
I pleas'd, and with atractive graces won
The most averse, thee chiefly, who full oft
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing
Becam'ft enamour'd, and fuch joy thou took'st
With me in fecret, that my womb conceiv'd
A growing burden. Mean while war arose,
And fields were fought in Heav'n; wherein remain’d

of the head of Satan, as Wisdom or Minerva did out of Jupiter's: and Milton describes the birth of the one very much in the fame manner, as the ancient poets have that of the other, and particularly the author of the hymn to Mi

765

(For

nerva vulgarly afcribed to Homer. And what foliows feems to be an hint improv'd upon Minerva's being ravith'd foon after her birth by Vulcan, as we may learn from Lucian. Dial, Vulcani & Jovis, & De Domo.

L 4

7/1-the

(For what could elfe?) to our almighty foe Clear victory, to our part lofs and rout

770

Through all the empyréan: down they fell
Div'n headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down
In this deep, and in the general fall

I; at which time this pow'rful key

Into my hand was giv'n, with charge to keep
Thefe gates for ever fhut, which none can pafs
Without my opening. Penfive here I fat
Alone, but long I fat not, till my womb.
Pregnant by thee, and now exceffive grown
Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes.
At last this odious ofspring whom thou seest
Thine own begotten, breaking violent way

771

-the empyrean:] It is fonic what remarkable that tho' the word en pyreal and empyrean are both fpelt in the fame manner, yet Milton cenitantly pronounces empyreal with the accent upon the thi d fyllall: from the end, and empyrean with the accent upon the fecond. I once imagin'd that he did it to diftinguish the fubftantive 1.om the adjective; but I find one infance where he uses the word

empyrean as an adjective, and yet gives it the fame accent as when he makes it a iuftantive, X. 321. The confins me of empyrean Heaven.

773

780

785

Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain
Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew
Transform'd: but he my inbred enemy
Forth iffued, brandishing his fatal dart
Made to deftroy: I fled, and cry'd out Death;
Hell trembled at the hideous name, and figh'd
From all her caves, and back refounded Death.
I fled, but he purfued, (though more, it feems, 790
Inflam'd with luft than rage) and swifter far,
Me overtook his mother all dismay'd,

And in embraces forcible and foul

Ingendring with me, of that rape begot

These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry 795 Surround me, as thou faw'ft, hourly conceiv'd

And

Infonuere cave, gemitumque de- only Death is made the laft word

in the fentence, and Eurydice for the fake of the verfe the first. and There is the like repetition in Ecl. VI. 43.

I fled and cry'd out Death
back refounded Death. The repeti-
tion of Death here is a beauty of
the fame kind as that of the name
of Eurydice in Virgil Georg. IV.
525

Eurydicen vox ipfa et frigida lin

His adjungit, Hylan nautæ quo
fonte relictum
Clamaffent; ut littus, Hyla, Hyla,
omne fonaret.

796. as thou faw'ft,] One would think it fhould be as thou feeft; but we muft fuppofe that now at this time thefe monsters were crept into her womb, and lay there unfeen.

809.- So