With golden architrave; nor did there want
Cornice or freeze, with boffy fculptures graven;
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,
Nor great Alcairo fuch magnificence
Equal'd in all their glories, to infhrine

Belus or Serapis their Gods, or feat

Their kings, when Egypt with Affyria strove
In wealth and luxury. Th' afcending pile
Stood fix'd her stately highth, and strait the doors
Opening

Opening their brazen folds discover wide

Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth
And level pavement: from the arched roof
Pendent by fubtle magic many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing creffets fed

With Naphtha and Asphaltus yielded light
As from a sky. The hafty multitude
Admiring enter'd, and the work fome praise
And fome the architect: his hand was known

ble, whereas he quotes authorities to fhow that it fhould have it upon the fecond, as Martial,

Vincebat nec quæ turba Serapin amat,

and another from Callimachus. But there are other authorities, which may ferve to juftify Milton; for we read in Martianus Capella, Te Serapin Nilus &c. and in Prudentius Ifis enim et Serapis &c. Pearce.

725. Within,] An adverb here and not a præpofition: and therefore Milton puts a comma after it, that it may not be join'd in conftruction with her ample spaces. So Virgil Æn. II. 483.

Apparet domus intus, et atria longa patefcunt.

725 her ample spaces,] A beautiful Latinifm this. So Seneca defcribing Hercules's defcent into Hell. Herc. Fur. III. 673.

Hinc ampla vacuis fpatia laxantur locis. Thyer.

725

730

In

726.-from the arched roof &c.] How much fuperior is this to that in Virgil Æn. I. 726.

dependent lychni laquearibus aureis

Incenfi, et noctem flammis funalia vincunt.

From gilded roofs dependinglamps difplay

Nocturnal beams, that emulate the day. Dryden.

728.- and blazing creffets fed

With Naphtha and Alphaltus] A creffet is any great blazing light, as a beacon. Naphtha is of fo unctuous and fiery a nature, that it kindles at approaching the fire, or the funbeams. Afphaltus or bitumen, another pitchy fubftance. Richardjon. And the word crefet I find used likewife in Shakespear, 1 Hen. IV. Act. III. Glendower fpeaks,

In Heav'n by many a towred structure high,
Where scepter'd Angels held their residence,
And fat as princes, whom the fúpreme King 735
Exalted to fuch pow'r, and gave to rule,
Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright.
Nor was his name unheard or unador'd
In ancient Greece; and in Aufonian land
Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell

740

From

738. Nor was his name unheard &c.] Dr. Bentley fays, "This is "carelefly exprefs'd. Why does he 66 not tell his name in Greece, as "well as his Latin name? and "Mulciber was not fo common a 66 name as Vulcan." I think it is very exactly exprefs'd. Milton is here fpeaking of a Devil exercifing the founder's art: and fays he was not unknown in Greece and Italy. The poet has his choice of three names to tell us what they called him in the claffic world, Hephæftos, Vulcan, and Mulciber, the laft only of which defigning the office of a founder, he has very judiciously chofen that. Warburton.

590.

Hon

It is worth obferving how Milton lengthens out the time of Vulcan's

γαρ με και αλλοτ' αλεξέμεναι fall. He not only fays with Ho

μεμανία,

mer, that it was all day long, but

we

From Heav'n, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o'er the crystal battlements; from morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A fummer's day; and with the fetting fun
Dropt from the zenith like a falling star,
On Lemnos th' Æ'gean ile: thus they relate,
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout
Fell long before; nor ought avail'd him now

745

As Egean feas &c.
748. -nor ought avail'd him
now &c.] Hom. Iliad. V. 53.
Αλλ' ο δι 7078 γε χραισμό Αρτε-

μις ιοχέαιρα. Ουδε ἑκηβολιας.

746. On Lemnos th' Egean ile:] Dr. Bentley reads, On Lemnos thence bis ile, and calls it a fcandalous fault, to write Egean with a wrong accent for Egéan. But Milton in the fame manner pronounces Thyéfean for Thyeftéan in X. 688. and Virg. Æn. XI. 843. in Paradife Regain'd, IV. 238. we read in the first edition, which Dr. Bentley pronounces to be without faults.

Nec tibi defertæ in dumis coluiffe

Dianam

Profuit.

T'have built in Heav'n high tow'rs, nor did he 'scape By all his engins, but was headlong sent

With his induftrious crew to build in Hell.

Mean while the winged heralds by command Of sovran pow'r, with awful ceremony

75°

And trumpet's found, throughout the hoft proclame A folemn council forthwith to be held

At Pandemonium, the high capital

Of Satan and his peers: their fummons call'd
From every band and fquared regiment

755

By

750. By all his engins,] An inge- for martial exercises on horfenious gentleman obferves that this back. Richardson.

word in the old English was often ufed for devices, wit, contrivance; fo in the gloffary to Chaucer, and in the Statute of Mortmain, 7 Edw. I. the words aut alio quovis modo, arte, vel ingenio, are English'd in our statute books, or by any other craft or engin.

752. the winged heralds] He has given them wings not only as Angels, but to exprefs their speed.

Hume.

Herald is fpelt like the French he rault, the Danish herold, and the Spanish heraldo, but Milton fpells it harald after the Italian araldo.

763. Though like a cover'd field,] Cover'd here fignifies inclos'd; Champ clos; the field for combat; the lifts. The hall of Pandemonium, one room only is like a field

764. and at the Soldan's chair

&c.] Milton frequently affects the ufe of uncommon words, when the common ones would fuit the measure of the verfe as well, believing I fuppofe that it added to the dignity of his language. So here he fays the Soldan's chair inftead of the Sultan's chair, and Panim chivalry instead of Pagan chivalry; as before he faid Rhene or the Danar, ver. 353. when he might have faid the Rhine or Danube. Spenfer likewife ufes the words Soldan and Panim. See Faery Queen, B. 5. Cant. 8. St. 26. and other places.

768. As bees &c.] An imitation of Homer, who compares the Gre cians crouding to a warm of bees, Iliad. II. 87.

Ηντο