Page images
PDF
EPUB

810

815

Vengeance is his, or whose he fole appoints :
Number to this day's work is not ordain'd
Nor multitude; ftand only and behold
God's indignation on thefe Godless pour'd
By me; not you but me they have defpis'd,
Yet envied; against me is all their rage,
Because the Father, t'whom in Heav'n fupreme
Kingdom and pow'r and glory appertains,
Hath honor'd me according to his will.
Therefore to me their doom he hath affign'd;
That they may have their wish, to try with me
In battel which the stronger proves, they all,
Or I alone against them, fince by strength
They measure all, of other excellence
Not emulous, nor care who them excels;
Nor other ftrife with them do I vouchsafe.

So fpake the Son, and into terror chang'd
His count'nance too fevere to be beheld,
And full of wrath bent on his enemies.

820

825

longeth vengeance and recompenfe. Deut. XXXII. 35. Vengeance is mine, I will repay it, faith the Lord. Rom. XII. 19

826. And full of wrath bent on bis enemies.] Dr. Bentley is for rejecting this verfe as mean

At

and fuperfluous. I fuppofe he underftood it thus, And full of wrath bent his courfe, went on his enemies; this is faid afterwards, ver. 831. He on his impious foes right onward drove, &c. But it may be underflood thus, He cbang'd his counte

Kk 2

nanes

At once the Four spread out their ftarry wings
With dreadful shade contiguous, and the orbs
Of his fierce chariot roll'd, as with the found
Of torrent floods, or of a numerous hoft.
He on his impious focs right onward drove,
Gloomy as night; under his burning wheels
The ftedfaft empyréan fhook throughout,

Full foon

All but the throne itfelf of God.
Among them he arriv'd, in his right hand
Grafping ten thoufand thunders, which he fent

nance into terror, and bent it fo chang'd and full of wrath upon his enemies; and I cannot fee how this is either mean or fuperfluous. Or rather bent may be a participle in this conftruction--bis countenance too fevere to be behold, and bent full of

wrath on his enemies.

827. At once the Four &c.] Whenever he mentions the four Cherubim and the Meffiah's chariot, he ftill copies from Ezekiel's vifion.

At once the Four fpread out their ftarry wings With dreadful fhade contiguous, Their wings join'd together made a dreadful fhade; and Ezekiel fays, Their wings were join'd one to another. I. 9.

and the orbs

Of his fierce chariot roll'd, as with the found

830

835

[blocks in formation]

Gloomy as night he ftands. Broome.

833. The fedfaft empyrían fbook
throughout,] The pillars of

[ocr errors]

Before him, fuch as in their fouls infix'd
Plagues; they aftonish'd all refiftance loft,
All courage; down their idle weapons dropt;

O'er fhields and helms and helmed heads he rode
Of Thrones and mighty Seraphim proftráte, 841
That wish'd the mountains now might be again
Thrown on them as a shelter from his ire.
Nor lefs on either fide tempeftuous fell
His arrows, from the fourfold-vifag'd Four
Distinct with eyes, and from the living wheels

[blocks in formation]

838. Plagues;] The paufe refting fo upon the first fyllable of the verfe makes this word very emphatical. The reader may fee beauties of the fame kind in IV. 350, and the note there.

---others on the grafs Couch'd, and now fill'd with pafture gazing fat.

841. Of Thrones and mighty Sc

raphim proftráte,] Milton commonly pronounces this word, as we do, with the accent upon the first fyllable. See I. 280. X. 1087. 1099. But here the accent is upon the laft fyllable, and fo Fairfax ufes it in his tranflation of Taffo, Cant. 1. St. 83.

845

Diftin&t

His city's wall, and lay his tow'rs proftráte.

And Spenfer, I think, commonly
pronounces it in this manner, Faery
Queen, B. 2. Cant. 8. St. 54.
Whofe carcafes on ground were
horribly proftráte.

And B. 3. Cant. 12. St. 39.
Before fair Britomart he fell pro-
Aráte.

842. That wish'd the mountains

now might be again &c.] So Rev. VI. 16. They faid to the mountains, Fall on us, and bide us from the face of him that fateth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: which is very applicable here, as they had been overwhelmed with mountains. See ver. 655.

He heard the western Lords would What was fo terrible before, they

undermine

with'd as a shelter now.

Distinct alike with multitude of eyes;

One Spirit in them rul'd, and every eye

Glar'd lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire Among th' accurs'd, that wither'd all their strength, And of their wonted vigor left them drain'd,

853. Yet half his frength he put not forth, &c.] There is no question but Milton had heated his imagination with the fight of the Gods in Homer, before he enter'd upon this engagement of the Angels. Homer there gives us a fcene of men, heroes, and Gods, mix'd together in battel. Mars animates the contending armies, and lifts up his voice in fuch a manner, that it is heard diftin&tly amidst all the fhouts and confufion of the fight. Jupiter at the fame time thunders over their heads; while Neptune raifes fuch a tempeft, that the whole field of batel, and all the tops of the mountains fhake about them. The poet tells us, that Pluto himfelf, whofe habitation was in the very center of the earth, was to affrighted at the fhock, that he leap'd from his throne Homer afterwards defcribes Vulcan as pouring down a ftorm of fire upon the river Xanthus, and Minerva as throwing a rock at Mars; who, he tells us, cover'd feven acres in his fall. As Homer has introduced into his battel of the Gods every thing that is great and terrible in nature, Milton has filled his fight of good and bad Angels with all

851 Exhaufted,

the like circumftances of horror. The fhouts of armies, the rattling of brazen chariots, the hurling of rocks and mountains, the earthquake, the fire, the thunder, are all of them employ'd to lift up the reader's imagination, and give him a fuitable idea of fo great an action. With what art has the poet reprefented the whole body of the earth trembling, even before it was created!

All Heav'n refounded, and had earth been then,

All earth had to her center fhook.

In how fublime and just a manner does he afterwards describe the whole Heav'n fhaking under the wheels of the Meffiah's chariot,

with that exception to the throne

of God!

-Under his burning wheels The ftedfaft empyrean hook throughout,

All but the throne itself of God.

Notwithstanding the Meffiah appears clothed with fo much terfor and majesty, the poet has fill found means to make his readers conceive an idea of him, beyond what he himfelf wasa ble to defcribe.

Yet

Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fall'n.

Yet half his ftrength he put not forth, but check'd
His thunder in mid voly; for he meant

Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven: 855
The overthrown he rais'd, and as a herd

[blocks in formation]

In a word, Milton's genius, which was fo great in itself, and fo ftrengthen'd by all the helps of learning, appears in this book every way equal to his fubject, which was the most fublime that could enter into the thoughts of a poet. As he knew all the arts of affecting the mind, he knew it was neceffary to give it certain refting places, and opportunities of recovering itself from time to time: he has therefore with great addrefs interfperfed feveral fpeeches, reflections, fimilitudes, and the like reliefs to diverfify his narration, and eafe the attention of the reader, that he might come fresh to his great action, and by fuch a contraft of ideas have a more lively tafte of the nobler parts of his defcription. Addifon.

Yet half his firength he put not forth, &c. This fine thought is fomewhat like that of the Pfalmift, LXXVIII. 38. But he being full of compaffion, forgave their iniquity, and deftroyed bem not; yea, many a time turned he

Of

bis anger away, and did not fir up all his wrath. And it greatly exceeds Hefiod, who makes Jupiter upon a like occafion exert all his ftrength. Hef. Theog. 687.

Ουδ' αρ' ετι Ζευς ισχεν εον μενών αλλα

[ocr errors]

Εσβαρ μεν μενες πληκο Φρενες, εκ δι

Τι πάσαν

Φαινε βιην

856.

and as a herd

Of goats &c.] It may seem strange that our author amidst fo many fublime images fhould intermix fo low a comparifon as this. But it is the practice of Homer; and we have fome remarkable inftances in the fecond book of the Iliad, where in a pompous defcription of the Grecians going forth to battel, and amidst the glare of feveral noble fimilitudes, they are compar'd for their number to flies about · a shepherd's cottage, when the milk moistens the pails; and after he has compar'd Agamemnon to Jove, and Mars, and Neptune, he compares him again to a ball. But we may obferve to the advantage of our author, that this low fimile is not apply'd, as Homer's are, to the perfons he meant to honor, but to the contrary party; and the lower the comparison, the more it ex• Kk4

preff

« PreviousContinue »