Fluttering his pennons vain plumb down he drops Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him As miles aloft that fury stay'd, many Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea, Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on he fares, 939 Treading 942. behoves him now beth oar and fail.] It behoveth him now to use both his oars and his fails, as galleys do; according to the proverb Remis velifque, with might and main. Hume. 943. As when a gryphon &c.] Satan half on foot, half fiying, in queft of the new world, is here compar'd to a gryphon with winged course both flying and running in purfuit of the Arimafpian who had itol'n his gold. Gryphons are fabulous creatures, in the upper part like an eagle, in the lower refembling a lion, and are faid to guard gold mines. The Arimafpians were a one-ey'd people of Scythia who adorn'd their hair with gold, Lucan. III. 280. Treading the crude confiftence, half on foot, Hinc et Sithoniæ gentes, auroque Herodotus and other authors re- 948. O'er bog, or fleep, &c.] Dr. Bentley's reading is not amifs O'er bog, o'er fleep, &c. The difficulty of Satan's voyage is very well exprefs'd by fo many monofyllables as follow, which cannot be pronounced but flowly, and 945 with frequent paufes. There is a memorable inftance of the roughnefs of a road admirably defcrib'd by a fingle verfe in Homer, Iliad. XXIII. 116. Πολλα δ' ανανα, καταλα, τα ραια τε, δοχμια τ', ήλθον, which Mr. Pope has been oblig'd to tranflate paraphraftically to give us fome idea of the beauty of the numbers, and he has made use of feveral monofyllables, as Milton has done. O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks they go; Jumping, high o'er the fhrubs of the rough ground, Rattle the clatt'ring cars, and the fhockt axles bound. And as Mr. Thyer adds, So alfo Spenfer in the fame manner reprefents the diftrefs of his Redcroffe Knight in his encounter with the old dragon, Fairy Queen, B. 1. Cant. 11, St. 28. way, With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his Of stunning founds and voices all confus'd, Faint, weary, fore, embroiled, 956. the nethermoft abyfs] Dr. Bentley rejects nethermoft here, and again in ver. 969, and charges Milton's blindnefs as the caufe of his forgetting himself here and being inconfiftent. But it is the Doctor that mistakes, and not the Poet: for tho' the throne of Chaos was above Hell, and confequently a part of the abys was fo, yet a part of that abyss was at the fame time far below Hell; fo far below, as that, when Satan went from Hell on his voyage, he fell in that abyss 10000 fathom deep, ver. 934. and the poet there adds, that if it had not been for an accident, he had been falling down there to this hour: nay it was fo deep as to be illimitable, and where highth is loft. Surely then the abyss, confider'd all together, was nethermoft in refpect of Hell, below which it was fo endlefly extended: and therefore 951 955 Might there was no occafion for Dr. Bentley to read here this vaft unknowe abyss, inftead of the nethermoft abyss, nor in ver. 969. regnant o'er this vaft abyss inftead of of this nethermost abyss. Pearce. 962. Sat fable-vefted Night, ] Clothed in her fable furs; a fable is a creature whofe fkin is of the greater price, the blacker it is. MeλaμTETO SE NUŽ. Euripides, Hume. Milton here and in what follows feems to have had in his view Spenfer's fine defcription of Night, which is very much in the taste of this allegory of Milton's. See Fairy Queen, B. 1: Cant. 5. St. 20. Where grifly Night, &c, 964. Orcus and Ades,] Orcus is generally by the poets taken for Pluto, as Ades for any dark place. Thefe terms are of a very vague fignification, and employ'd by the ancient poets accordingly. Milton has perfoniz'd them, and put them in the court of Chaos. Richardfon. 964.-and Might in that noise refide, of whom to afk Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthron'd 960 Of Demogorgon; Rumor next and Chance, My tongue (if ftill your ftubborn hearts refufe) That so much dreaded name can well repeat, Which heard great Dis cannot himself excufe, But hither run from his eternal The name of this deity is Demo- -qui Gorgona cernit apertam. Spenfer too mentions this infernal deity, Fairy Queen, B. 1. Cant. 5. St. zz. Which waft begot in Demogorgon's hall, And faw'ft the secrets of the world unmade: and places him likewife in the Down in the bottom of the deep nefs pent, 965 T'whom and takes notice also of the dread- A bold bad man, that dar'd to call At which Cocytus quakes, and Styx Well therefore might Milton diftinguish him by the dreaded name of Demogorgon: and the name of Demogorgon is as much as to fay Demogorgon himself, as in Virgil En. VI. 763. Albanum nomen is a man of Alba, Æn. XII. 515. Nomen Echionium, id eft Thebanum, is a Theban; and we have a me morable inftance of this way of fpeaking in Rev. XI. 13. And in the earthquake were fain ονόματα aveрwn wv names of men feven thou Jand, that is feven thousand men. And befides these authorities to justify our author, let me farther add what the learned Mr. Jortin hath fuggefted, that this name "is "to be found in Lactantius, the "Scholiaft of Statius on Thebaid. " IV. 516. Dicit Deum Demogorgona fummum. It is alfo "to be found in Hyginus, pag. 11. "Edit. Hamburg. Oct. 1674. Ex Demogorgone et Terra Python, "draco divinus, if the place be Far from the view of Gods and " The hideous Chaos keeps, their " not corrupted. See Muncker dreadful dwelling is: "there." And Mr. Thyer jufti |