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576. "Mould." Substance, "stone." See note on 517.

580. Bentley reads held here for "stood," to prevent the awkward repetition of "stood."

584. Compare Orl. Furios. ix. 75.—(T.) 586. The lexicographers give only two meanings for embowel ;-to eviscerate or gut; and, to bury, to enclose or sink one thing in another. Johnson quotes this passage as an example of the first meaning. Pearce supposes the construction to be, "whose roar tore the air embowelled (filled) with outrageous noise and all her entrails." Newton says the most natural construction is, "whose roar embowelled (or filled) the air with outrageous noise." But then, he admits that it may be objected, that this is as much as to say, that the roar filled the air with roar. He says then that the property of a thing is put here for the thing itself, the roar of the cannon for the cannon them

selves, as, ii. 654, “ a cry of hell-hounds," is put for the hell-hounds themselves; and the roar of cannon may as properly be said to embowel the air with outrageous noise, as a cry of hell-hounds to bark. But it would seem that both understand "embowelled" to mean filled, which it does not. I think the adjunct "outrageous," as expressive of extreme violence, prevents the tautology complained of; and that "embowelled" is to be understood here as Johnson understands it-" the roar of the cannon embowelled (gutted, emptied) the air with its outrageous noise, and tore all her entrails." Thus, so far from tautology, there is a sort of climax.

599. "Serried." Compact, as if locked together. See i. 548.

625."Understand" is here used equivocally, by way of pun on the original meaning of the word. So Shakspeare, Two Gent. of Verona, act ii. sc. 5:—

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My staff me understands."—(Johns.)

635. Æn. i. 150:

"Furor arma ministrat."

642. So Ezekiel i. 14.-(D.) 646. See Hesiod, Theog. 673.—(T.) 656. "Their armour helped their harm." Fairy Queen, I. ii. 27.

"That erst him goodly arm'd, now most of all him harm'd."-(N.)

658. The irregular and painfully laborious motion of this verse, which contains twelve syllables, is well designed to express the sense.

661. Here, and all, through the book, Milton inculcates a great moral, by shewing that the pain and weakness of the rebel angels were the consequence of their sinning. (Th.)

666. Statius, Theb. viii. 412:— "Exclusere diem telis, stant ferrea cœlo

Nubila, nec jaculis arctatus sufficit æther." But how poor is the idea of a shade of arrows compared to a shade of hurled mountains!-(N.)

669. So Jupiter interposes in the Iliad, viii. 130, to prevent ruinous consequences. Ενθα κε λοιγός έην, και αμηχανα έργα γενοντο... Ει μη αρ' οξυ νοησε πατήρ ανδρων τε θεών τε.

(N.)

674. "Advised," advisedly. The participle is frequently in the classics used adverbially.(R.)ˇ

679. "Assessor." Christ is so called by some of the old fathers, Θεου παρεδρος. -(N.)

681. i. e. In whose face what is invisible (viz. what I am by deity) is beheld visibly; Messiah being "the image of the invisible God," Coloss. i. 15.-"Invisible," a neuter adject. for a substantive.—(P., N.) See iii. 385.

691. This means that the manner in which sin was wrought was insensible or imperceptible, not the effects of it—(N.) 693. So Hesiod. Theog. 635.-(St.) 709. See Psalm xlv. 7.—(N.) 711. See note on 833, and iii. 394. 713. See Psalm xlv. 3, 4. How superior is this to the injunction of Achilles to Patroclus! Il. xvi. 64.-(T.)

732-4. In allusion to 1 Cor. xv. 24, 28; John xvii. 21, 23; Psalm cxxxix. 21. —(N.)

737. "These rebelled." These who have rebelled; these rebellious. This remarkable word is taken in the unusual sense of rebellatus (particip. depon.) used by Val. Maxim. b. ix. c. 10, n. 1.

739. 2 Pet. ii. 4; Mark ix. 44.—(T., H.) 740, 741. "Thy obedience...whom," i. e. the obedience of thee whom, &c. This mode of expression, in which the relative refers to the substantive or personal pronoun, understood out of the adjective or passive pronoun, Milton occasionally adopts in imitation of the ancient classic writers. So Cic.: " omnes fortunas meas (scil. mei) laudare, qui filium tali ingenio præditum haberem."

746. This description of the Messiah's going out against the rebel angels is a scene of the same sort with Hesiod's Jupiter against the Titans.-(Th.) Milton, by continuing the war for three days,

and reserving the victory upon the third to the Messiah alone, alludes to the circumstances of his death and resurrection. -(Gr.)

750. This description of the chariot is copied from the vision of Ezekiel i. and x. which the reader must consult.

758. Another reading is "whereon," i. e. on which firmament, ("the likeness of the firmament on the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal...and above the firmament was the likeness of a throne," Ezek. i. 22, &c.) and a full stop at "arch."

761."Urim." Urim and Thummim were something in Aaron's breastplate; what they were, critics are by no means agreed. It is most probable that “Urim,” which signifies light, and "Thummim," perfection, were only names given to signify the clearness and certainty of the Divine answers, (which were obtained by the high priest consulting God, with his breast-plate on,) in contradistinction to the obscure and imperfect answers of the heathen oracles.-(N.) I think Milton, by applying the word "Urim" to "panoply," evidently agreed with the opinion of their being precious stones. Josephus, (Antiq. iii. 8,) and other authors, say they were the precious stones of the high priest's breast-plate (on which were engraven the names of the twelve tribes) which, by the nature of their lustre, discovered the will of God to him. Epiphanius and Suidas think they were epithets of a diamond of extraordinary splendour on the pectoral (in addition to the twelve stones), from whose shining the high priest drew his inferences. God was consulted by Urim and Thummim only on occasions of public interest to the church or state. The high priest then stood not in the sanctuary, where he could enter only once a year, but in the holy place or temple, before the curtain that parted the sanctum from the sanctuary, with his face towards the ark of the covenant. They were twelve different precious stones, ranged in four rows; each stone set in gold, and having the name of a tribe on it. See Exod. xxviii. and Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible.

762. Victory is thus personified by Shakspeare, Rich. III. act v. sc. 3:

"Victory sits on our helms "—(T.); and by Juvenal, Sat. viii. 63:

"Rara jugo victoria sedit." 766. "Bickering." A Welsh word, bicre, signifying to skirmish. This

thought is taken from Psalm xviii. 8. i. 3.—(H.)

767-9. See Jude 14; Psalm lxviii. 17: Rev. vii. 4.—(N.)

771. See Psalm xviii. 10.-(Gr.)

779. See Rom. xii. 5; Col. i. 18."We being many, are one body in Christ ... He is the head of the body."—(Gr.) 787. Virg. Æn. ii. 354:

"Una salus victis, nullam sperare salutem." Quintus Curtius, v. 4: "Ignaviam quoque necessitas acuit, et sæpe desperatio spei causa est."—(N.)

788. Virg. Æn. i. 11:—

"Tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ."

Read a note of interrogation after

"dwell."

791. So Moses said of Pharaoh, Exod. xiv.-(H.)

801. So in Exod. xiv. 13, 14.—(Gil.) 808. So Rom. xii. 19.-(N.)

808, 809. i. e. It is decreed that this day's work shall not be performed by many. I think there is a climax intended; "multitude" conveying the idea of more persons than "number" does.

832. "Gloomy as night." Homer, Il. xii. 462, applies these words to Hector when he fiercely dashed through the gate of the Grecian rampart:

ο δ' αρ' έσθορε φαίδιμος Εκτωρ, Νυκτί θοῇ αταλαντος ὑπωπια λαμπε δε χαλκῳ Σμερδαλέῳ.........πυρι δ' οσσε δεδγει.(Ν.)

832, 833. See Job xxvi. 11; Dan. vii. So Hesiod, Theog. 841:Ποσσι δ' υπ' αθανατοισι μέγας πελεμιζετ' Ολυμ

9.

πος,

Ορνυμένου ανακτος, επεστεναχίζε δε γαια.

(H., T.) 838. An allusion to Homer, Il. xv. 322:

- τοισι δε θυμον Εν στήθεσσιν εθέλξει λαθοντο δε θούριδος αλκής. (Stil.)

842. So Rev. vi. 16. This is the hold painting of schylus, Prom. Vinct. 356:

Εξ ομμάτων δ' ήστραπτε γοργωπον σελας.-(Τ.)

853. This is superior to Hesiod, who makes Jupiter, on a like occasion, exert all his strength. Theog. 687.—(N.)

856. "As a herd of goats or timorous flock." It may seem strange that, after so many sublime images, our author should introduce so low a comparison as this. But it is the practice of Homer. In the second book of the Iliad, after a splendid description of the Grecians going forth to battle, and amidst the glare of several noble similes, they are

compared, for their number, to "flies about a shepherd's cottage when the milk wets the pails." So, after comparing Agamemnon to Jove, to Mars, and to Neptune, he compares him again to a bull. (So he compares Ajax to an ass.) But we may observe, to the advantage of Milton, that this low simile is not applied, as Homer's are, to those whom he meant to honour, but to the contrary party; and the lower the comparison, the more it expresses their defeat and disgrace. Above all this, there is the greater propriety in the similitude of " goats' particularly, as our Saviour represents the wicked under the same image, just as the good are called sheep. Matt. xxv. 33: "And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.”—(N.) There are several conjectures as to the application of "timorous flock" here. I think the most natural way is to consider that Milton, by putting the words generally, meant to leave the comparison to the reader's judgment.

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868. "Ruining." Tumbling down with precipitation and ruin. See Gier. Liber. ix. 39.—(Th.) So ruit æther, 1 Georg. 324. Senec. Hippol. 674.

871. See Hesiod, Theog. 681, 722, &c. —(T)

874. So Isaiah v. 14.—(N.)
882. So Rev. xii. 10.—(St.)
888. So Rev. iv. 11.—(N.)

893. He repeats the same apology for these bold fictions as he made in the beginning, (see v. 575;) and concludes the book with a solemn dignity, befitting the close of such a scene.-(N., T.)

900. Observe the remarkable construction: "he," the nominative case, is put in apposition to "Satan," the ablative.

BOOK VII.

LONGINUS has observed that there may be a loftiness in sentiments, when there is no passion; and has brought instances out of ancient authors to support his opinion. The pathetic, he says, may animate and inflame the sublime, but is not essential to it. Milton has shown himself a master in both these ways of writing. The seventh book is an instance of that sublime which is not mixed and worked with passion. The author appears in a kind of composed and sedate majesty; and though the sentiments do not give so great an emotion as those in the former book, they abound with as magnificent ideas. The sixth book, like a troubled ocean, represents greatness in confusion; the seventh affects the imagination like the ocean in a calm, and fills the mind of the reader without producing in it any thing like tumult or agitation. Among the rules which Longinus lays down for succeeding in the sublime, he proposes an imitation of the most celebrated authors who have been engaged in similar works; and particularly in poetry, one

should consider how Homer would have spoken on such an occasion. Thus one great genius often catches the flame from another, without copying servilely after him. Milton, though his own natural strength of genius was capable of furnishing out a most perfect work, has raised and ennobled his conceptions by such an imitation as that recommended by Longinus. In this book, the poet received but very few assistances from heathen writers, who were strangers to the wonders of creation. But as there are many glorious strokes of poetry upon this subject in Holy Writ, he has numberless allusions to them through the whole course of this book. The great critic Longinus, though an heathen, has noticed the sublime manner in which the lawgiver of the Jews has described the creation in the first chapter of Genesis; and there are many other passages in Scripture which rise up to the same majesty where this subject is touched upon. Milton has shown his judgment very remarkably in making use of such of these

as were proper for his poem, and in duly qualifying those high strains of Eastern poetry, which were suited to readers whose imaginations were set to an higher pitch than those of colder climates. The beauties of description in this book lie so thick, that it is impossible to enumerate them in these remarks. The poet has employed on them the whole energy of our tongue. The several great scenes of the creation rise up to view one after another in such a manner, that the reader seems present at this amazing work, and to assist in the choirs of angels who are the spectators of it.—(Ad.)

1." Descend from heaven, Urania." So, Hor. iii. Od. iv. 1¡—

"Descende cœlo...... Calliope."

But here the invocation is better applied, as now his subject leads him from heaven to earth; and "Urania" (ovpavia, i. e. heavenly,) was the muse whose province embraced celestial subjects. Here he invokes the heavenly muse, as he did in the beginning of the first book; and as he said there that he "intended to soar above the Aonian Mount," so here he says that he effected what he intended, and soars "above the Olympian hill, above the flight of Pegasian wing," or higher than Bellerophon mounted, or Pegasius soared; i.e. that his subject was more sublime than the loftiest flight of any heathen poet.-(N.)

6. Tasso, in his invocation, has a similar sentiment, Gier. Liber. i. 2.-( Th.) The muses are called by Homer, (Il. ii. 491,) Ολυμπιάδες. Olympus is called old, as the Euphrates is, (i. 420,) and Mount Casius, (ii. 593,) i. e. famed of old.-(N.) Bentley substitutes Parnassus for " Olympus;" but Olympus is right, for the meaning is-I call thee, Urania, not from the oupavos (or heaven) of the Greeks, which was Olympus, for thou wast heavenly born even before Olympus appeared.—(P.)

10. See Prov. viii. 24, &c. where the same is said of Wisdom.—(N.)

14-16. This is said, Newton thinks, in reference to the difficulty of breathing on the top of very high mountains, in consequence of the rarefaction of the air there. Urania gently tempered or mollified the air, that he could breathe it in the empyreum, or highest heaven. Dunster explains the passage as expressive of his confidence of success. Under the guidance of Urania he ascended the empyreum safely, and there breathed the

pure air which she had so highly tempered; and now he requests of her to convey him to his native element with equal safety, that he may with equal success describe the creation of this world and of man.

20. The story of Bellerophon is told in the Iliad, vi. 190. Being a man of extraordinary bravery and beauty, he excited the love of Antæa the wife of Prætus, king of the Argives, at whose court he was a guest. Like Joseph in holy writ, he rejected her corrupt solicitations. She, through revenge, then falsely accused him of an attempt on her honour to her husband; who, restrained by the laws of hospitality from putting him to death, sent him on a feigned embassy to his father-in-law Jobates, king of Lycia, with a letter detailing his supposed offence, and requesting of him to contrive his death. Hence the phrase, "carrying Bellerophon's letters," i. e. a message fatal to oneself. Jobates, having hospitably entertained him nine days as the ambassador of a friendly sovereign before he opened the letter, on seeing its contents, felt also restrained from putting him to death, but sent him on a number of most perilous enterprises. Bellerophon was victorious in all these; which so pleased the king that he gave him his daughter in marriage, and named him his successor. In his old age, however, he became melancholy mad, and “wandered the Aleian field alone, wasting away his spirit, avoiding the path of men:"

Αλλ' ότε δη κακείνος απήχθετο πασι θεοισιν Ητοι ὁ καππεδιον τ' Αλητον οἷος αλατο 'Ον θυμον κατεδων, πατον ανθρωπων αλεείνων. It is added by others, that endeavouring to mount up to heaven on the winged horse Pegasus (the steed of the Muses), he fell on the Aleïan plain, where he wandered till he died. Newton remarks, "The plain truth of this story seems to be, that in his old age he grew mad with his poetry, which Milton begs may never be his own case." I rather think the explanation of the fable is, that Bellerophon's poetic flight was unsuccessful, and that this caused his melancholy; and that Milton here prays that he may not be so unsuccessful. It is questionable whether Aleian is derived from a, not, and Aetov, crop, meaning, the barren plain; or from aλuouai, to wander, meaning, the plain of wandering. Each opinion is supported by high authority. The latter I think preferable.

21. "Half remains unsung," i. e. half

of the episode, the part relating to the creation of the world and of man; not half of the poem, as some imagine, for these words were here introduced in the first edition, in which there were only ten books.-"Narrower bound," bound or confined more narrowly.-(R., N.)

26, &c. See the Life of Milton. All the critics agree in praising the beauty of the repetition and turn of words here; and in saying that the passage has reference to his own persecution, and the profligacy of the court of Charles II. The poetic allusion here is to Orpheus the son of Calliope, torn to pieces by the Bacchanals on Mount Rhodope in Thrace, because he attempted to check their licentiousness. Orpheus by his melody was said to be able to move trees and stones (see Hor. i. Od. xii.); hence the words, "where rocks and woods had ears to rapture." Instances of such repetitions are to be met with in some of the best poets. Homer, Il. xx. 371 :

Τον δ' εγω αντιος ειμι, και οι πυρι χειρας εοικεν,
Ει πυρί χειρας εοικε, μένος δ' αίθωνι σιδήρω.

Il. xxii. 127 :

Τω αοριζέμενοι, ατε παρθενος ήίθεος τε, Παρθενος ήίθεος τε αορίζετον αλληλοισιν Virgil, Æn. vii. 586 :

"Ille velut pelagi rupes immota resistit,

Ut pelagi rupes, magno venienti fragore." See verses 182, 184, 187, of this Book. 31. He had Horace in view, i. Sat. x. 73:

"neque te ut miretur turba, labores, Contentus paucis lectoribus."-(N.) 32. In imitation of the heathen divines, who used to utter their verses only to the pure. Thus in Fragm. Orph. : Φθεγξομαι οἷς θεμις εστι, θυρας δ' επίθεσθε βε βηλοις

Πασιν όμως.-(Cal.)

So Hor. iii. Od. i.—

:

"Odi profanum vulgus et arceo."

38. "Fail not thou who thee implores," i. e. fail thou not him who implores thee. A pure classical idiom; the antecedent of the relative is suppressed frequently in Greek authors; and in Latin sometimes, in imitation of the Greek.

42, 43. "To beware apostasy." The accusative case is here used after the neuter verb "beware," though it is an unusual construction; just as cavere in Latin has sometimes an accusative after it; the preposition being understood, strictly speaking, in all such cases. This understood force of the preposition gives such verbs an active or transitive force.

52. "Muse," musing, meditation. 59. " Repealed," ended, as a law when repealed is ended.—(P.)

61. "Led on." This is the subject to "proceeded," 69.—(N.)

72. "Divine interpreter." So Mercury, to whom Milton before likened Raphael, is called "interpres divum," by Virgil, Æn. iv. 373.-(N.)

79. To observe the will of God, is the end for which we were created.-(N.) 83. 66 Seemed," (visum est,) seemed fit. 88. Which yields space to all bodies, and again fills up the deserted space, so as to be subservient to motion.—(R.) The air is not only ambient, or surrounding all the earth, but is interfused, or flowing into, and spun out between all bodies.-(N.)

94. " Absolved," completed. In the occasional sense of the Latin absolvo.(R.)

98, &c. Thyer and others have remarked, that this passage is a proof of Milton's consummate skill in the art of poetry. He need only tell the angel that there was time enough for him to tell the story, which he would be delighted to hear; but in place of this, the poet spins out ten lines of exquisite beauty in making the request. Homer, though far less beautifully, represents Alcinous, Odyss. xi. 373, as inducing Ulysses to relate the story of his travels, by telling him it was yet far from dawn.

Νυξ δ' ήδε μαλα μακρη, αθέσφατος" ουδε πω ώρη
Εύδειν εν μεγαρῳ, συ δε μοι λέγε θεσκελα εγρα,
Και κεν ες ηω διαν ανασχοιμην.

Newton further remarks, that Milton had
both scriptural authority, in the sun's
standing still at the command of Joshua,
and classical precedents for this suspen-
sion of the laws of nature. Virgil (Ecl.
viii.) representing the charms of the music
of Orpheus, says the rivers stopped:

"Et mutata suos requierunt-flumina cursus." Pearce proposes to point the passage thus:

"Much of his race though steep; suspense in heaven,

Held by the voice, thy potent voice, he hears." i. e. "held by thy potent voice, he hears suspense in heaven;" he stops and listens attentively; for after it is said, "he is held in suspense in heaven by thy voice," it is low to say "he hears thy voice," as he must hear it before he can be held by it. Newton, Todd, and others, adopt this view.

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