Receiving from his mother Earth new strength, As on a floating couch, through the blithe air f: 570 575 580 585 introduced with propriety, the son of Jupiter by Alcmena had no right to be called Alcides; this being the proper name of the son of Amphitryon, whose father was Alcæus : and yet Virgil also refers to Alcides as the son of Jove, "En." vi. 123.-Dunster. And, oft foil'd, still rose. Thus in Tasso, where the soldan Solyman is slain by Rinaldo, the resistance he had before made is compared to that of Antæus, in his contest with Hercules, "Gier. Lib." c. xx. st. 108.-DUNSTER. b Receiving from his mother Earth new strength. So in Lucan, iv. 598 : Hoc quoque tam vastas cumulavit munere vires The Sphinx, who, on her riddle being solved by Edipus, threw herself into the Sea. -NEWTON. d So Satan fell; and straight, &c. Thus in G. Fletcher's "Christ's Triumph on Earth," where Presumption is personified, and represented as in vain tempting our blessed Lord, st. xxxviii. : But, when she saw her speech prevailed naught, But him the angels on their feathers caught, And to an airy mountain nimbly bore.-DUNSTER. There is a peculiar softness and delicacy in this description, and neither circumstances nor words could be better selected to give the reader an idea of the easy and gentle descent of our Saviour, and to take from the imagination that horror and uneasiness which it is naturally filled with in contemplating the dangerous and uneasy situation he was left in.-THYER. • Who on their plumy vans received him soft As on a floating couch, &c. If this description is not from any famous painting, it is certainly a subject for one: but the grammatical inaccuracy here, I am afraid, cannot be palliated. "Him," according to the common construction of language, certainly must refer to Satan, the person last mentioned. The intended sense of the passage cannot indeed be misunderstood; but we grieve to find any inaccuracy in a part of the poem so eminently beautiful.—DUNSTER. Then, in a flowery valley, set him down Ambrosial fruits, fetch'd from the tree of life, True image of the Fatheri; whether throned In the bosom of bliss, and light of light Through the blithe air. 590 595 "Blithe air" is similar to "buxom air," "Paradise Lost," b. ii. 842; b. v. 270. But I conceive it to have a farther meaning, cheerful, or pleased with its burden; and it strikes me as an intended contrast to a passage in the "Paradise Lost," describing the flight of Satan, at the time he first rises from the burning lake, when "the dusky air is loaded with his weight," b. i. 226.-Dunster. I humbly apprehend that "blithe air" is not similar to "buxom air;" for "buxom " signifies yielding, or flexible; and is, in this sense, the accustomed epithet to air among our elder poets: but the poet wrote "blithe air," in reference perhaps to the "fair morning after a dismal night; the clouds being now chased, and the winds laid ;" and the air consequently "blithe," light and pure; the epithet "blithe " finely expressing what he says of the pure air of Paradise, "Paradise Lost," b. iv. 154 :— to the heart inspires Vernal delight and joy, able to drive All sadness but despair.-TODD. Here are difficulties made about what is sufficiently obvious. 8 And set before him spread A table of celestial food, &c. Here is much resemblance to a stanza of G. Fletcher, "Christ's Triumph," &c. st. 61: But to their Lord, now musing in his thought, A heavenly volley of light angels flew, And, as he fed, the holy quires combine To sing a hymn of the celestial trine.-DUNSTER. Sung heavenly anthems of his victory, &c. As Milton, in his "Paradise Lost," had represented the angels singing triumph upon the Messiah's victory over the rebel angels; so here again, with the same propriety, they are described celebrating his success against temptation; and to be sure, he could not have possibly concluded his work with greater dignity and solemnity, or more agreeably to the rules of poetic decorum.-THYER. i True image of the Father, &c. Cedite Romani scriptores, cedite Graii. All the poems that ever were written must yield, even "Paradise Lost" must yield, to the "Regained," in the grandeur of its close. Christ stands triumphant on the pointed eminence the demon falls with amazement and terror, on his full proof of his being the very Son of God, whose thunder forced him out of heaven: the blessed angels receive new knowledge: they behold a sublime truth established, which was a secret to them at the beginning of the temptation: and the great discovery gives a proper opening to their hymn on the victory of Christ, and the defeat of the tempter.—CALTON. In the bosom of bliss. J Whether throned Thus, in "Paradise Lost," b. iii. 238, the Son of God says to the Father : Conceiving; or, remote from heaven, enshrined For Adam and his chosen sons, whom thou, Where they shall dwell secure, when time shall be, I, for his sake, will leave Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee; and the Father, in reply, ver. 305: Because thou hast, though throned in highest bliss 600 605 610 615 The Son of God, after having descended to earth to pass sentence on fallen man, is likewise similarly described returning to his Father in heaven, b. x. 325.—Dunster. Enshrined In fleshly tabernacle, and human form. St. John, i. 14, says, Καὶ ὁ Λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο, καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν,—which, literally translated, is, "the Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us.' St. Paul, 2 Cor. v. 1, terms the body, or the human form, "our earthly house of this tabernacle." Thus also our author, in his Ode "On the Passion:' He, sovran priest, stooping his regal head, That dropp'd with odorous oil down his fair eyes, Whatever place, Habit, or state, or motion. I cannot think with Dr. Newton, that this is an allusion to Horace, Ep. 1. xvii. 23: Omnis Aristippum decuit color, et status, et res.-Jos. WARTON, No: the "habit, state, or motion," here refer to the look, the mien, the "habitus oris et vultus," of Cicero; and to the posture, or attitude, of the person. See "Paradise Lost," ix. 673: and so Quintilian "Ut in statuis atque picturis videmus variari habitus, vultus, status."-TODD, 1 And thief of Paradise. Thus, "Paradise Lost," b. iv. 192, where Satan first enters Paradise: "So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold.”—DUNSTER. The phrase probably owes its origin to St. John, x. 1:-"He that entereth not in by the door to the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."-TODD. m Thou didst debel. Virgil, "En." vi. 853:-"Debellare superbos."-NEWTON. n His snares are broke. "Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler: the snare is broken," &c. Psalm cxxiv. 7.-DUNSTER. G G Of tempter and temptation without fear. But thou, infernal serpent! shalt not long Or lightning, thou shalt fall from heaven, trod down 620 625 630 635 The poet here, as in other places, imitates profane authors and Scripture both together: 'AσTéρ' oπwρivą švaλíykiov, “Il." v. 5. "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven," Luke x. 18.-NEWTON. Under his feet. P Trod down "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet," Romans xvi. 20; where the marginal reading for bruise is tread. From whence in the "Paradise Lost," b. x. 190:-"Whom he shall tread at last under our feet."-Dunster. In all her gates, &c. Matt. xvi. 18:-"The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”—Dunster. Abaddon. The name of the angel of the bottomless pit, Rev. ix. 11; here applied to the bottomless pit itself.-NEWTON. • All unarm'd. In Vida's "Christiad," i. 192, Satan describes himself as having been completely foiled and defeated by our Saviour thus "all unarm'd:”— Semper me reppulit ipse, Non armis ullis fretus, non viribus usus.-DUNSTER. From thy demoniack holds, possession foul. The demoniacs of the Gospel are constantly rendered in our version "possessed with a devil;" and Babylon is described "the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit," Rev. xviii. 2.-Dunster. u Yelling they shall fly, &c. See Mat. viii. 28, and four following verses; and Rev. xx. 1, 2, 3.-Dunster. May I venture to say, that I think this line, the last of the triumphant song of the angels, would have been a fine and forcible conclusion of the poem, without the addition of the four following, which are comparatively feeble ?-Jos. Warton. Thus they the Son of God, our Saviour meek 3, Our Saviour meek. "Learn of me; for I am meek, and lowly of heart," Matt. xi. 29.-DUNSTER. y From heavenly feast refresh'd. Milton formed his description of the heavenly feast from the few words of Matt. iv. 11: "And, behold, angels came and ministered unto him." Compare v. 587, &c. Let it be added, that a more pleasing commentary on the expression of the Evangelist could not have been penned.—TODD. z It has been observed of almost all the great epic poems, that they fall off and become languid in the conclusion. This last book of the "Paradise Regained" is one of the finest conclusions of a poem that can be produced. They who talk of our author's genius being in the decline when he wrote his second poem, and who therefore turn from it, as from a dry prosaic composition, are, I will venture to say, no judges of poetry. With a fancy such as Milton's, it must have been more difficult to forbear poetic decorations, than to furnish them; and a glaring profusion of ornament would, I conceive, have more decidedly betrayed the poeta senescens, than a want of it. The first book of the "Paradise Lost" abounds in similes, and is, in other respects, as elevated and sublime as any in the whole poem: but here the poet's plan was totally different. Though it may be said of the "Paradise Regained," as Longinus has said of the "Odyssey," that it is the epilogue of the preceding poem; still the design and conduct of it is as different as that of the "Georgics" from the "Eneid." The "Paradise Regained" has something of the didactic character: it teaches not merely by the general moral, and by the character and conduct of its hero; but has also many positive precepts everywhere interspersed. It is written for the most part in a style admirably condensed, and with a studied reserve of ornament: it is nevertheless illuminated with beauties of the most captivating kind. Its leading feature throughout is that "excellence of composition," which, as lord Monboddo justly observes, so eminently distinguished the writings of the ancients; and in which, of all modern authors, Milton most resembles them. At the commencement of this book the argument of the poem is considerably advanced. Satan appears hopeless of success, but still persisting in his enterprise: the desperate folly and vain pertinacity of this conduct are perfectly well exemplified and illustrated by three apposite similes, each successively rising in beauty above the other. The business of the temptation being thus resumed, the tempter takes our Lord to the western side of the mountain, and shows to him Italy, the situation of which the poet marks with singular accuracy; and, having traced the Tiber from its source in the Apennines to Rome, he briefly enumerates the most conspicuous objects that may be supposed at first to strike the eye on a distant view of this celebrated city. Satan now becomes the speaker; and, in an admirably descriptive speech, points out more particularly the magnificent public and private buildings of ancient Rome, descanting on the splendour and power of its state, which he particularly exemplifies in the superb pomp with which their provincial magistrates proceed to their respective governments; and in the numerous ambassadors that arrive from every quarter of the habitable globe, to solicit the protection of Rome and the emperor. These are two pictures of the most highly finished kind: the numerous figures are in motion before us; we absolutely see Prætors, proconsuls, to their provinces Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power, Having observed that such a power as this of Rome must reasonably be preferred to that of the Parthians, which he had displayed in the preceding book, and that there were no other powers worth our Lord's attention; the tempter now begins to apply all this to his purpose; by a strongly-drawn description of the vicious and detestable character of Tiberius, he shows how easy it would be to expel him, to take possession of his throne, and to free the Roman people from that slavery in which they were then held. This he |