Then when the Dragon, put to fecond rout, While time was, our first parents had been warn'd tention of his reader, introduces his relation of Satan's adventures upon earth by wifhing that the fame warning voice had been utter'd now at Satan's firft coming, that St. John, who in a vifion faw the Apocalyps or Revelation of the moft remarkable events which were to befall the Chriftian Church to the end of the world, heard when the Dragon (that old Serpent, called the Devil and Satan) was put to fecond rout. Rev. XII. 12. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the fea, for the Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath. 10. — th' accufer of man-kind,] And As he is reprefented in that fame chapter of the Revelation, which the poet is ftill alluding to. For the accufer of our brethren is caft down, which accused them before our Gid day and night, ver. 10. Does not this confirm what I have 13. Yet not rejoicing in his speed obferved of ver. 741. of the preceding book, and that Mil prove ton did not intend by it to attri bute any sportive motion to Satan for joy that he was fo near his journey's end? No more than II. 1011. But glad that now his fea should find a fert, and III. 740. Sped with hop'd juices, 10 S And like a devilish engin back recoils Upon himself; horror and doubt diftract 20 25 Of what he was, what is, and what must be Worfe; of worse deeds worse sufferings muft enfue. Sometimes tow'ards Eden, which now in his view Lay pleasant, his griev'd look he fixes fad; Sometimes towards Heav'n and the full-blazing fun, Which now fat high in his meridian tower: 30 Then Then much revolving, thus in fighs began. O thou that with surpaffing glory crown'd, Look'ft from thy fole dominion like the God Of this new world; at whofe fight all the stars Hide their diminish'd heads; to thee I call, But with no friendly voice, and add thy name O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams, That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere; Till pride and worse ambition threw me down Warring in Heav'n against Heav'n's matchless king: tower. The metaphor is used by Virgil in his Culex, ver. 41. Igneus æthereas jam fol penetrâ rat in arces. Spenfer in his admirable tranflation of that poem has follow'd him punctually. 35 40 Ah from whence he fell, and breaks forth into a speech that is foften'd with feveral tranfient touches of remorfe and felf-accufation: but at length he confirms himself in impenitence, and in his defign of drawing Man into his own ftate of guilt and mifery. This conflict of paffions is raised with a great deal The fiery fun was mounted now of art, as the opening of his speech on hight Up to the heav'nly tow'rs. Richardfon. 32. O thou &c.] Satan being now within prospect of Eden, and looking round upon the glories of the creation, is filled with fentiments different from those which he discover'd while he was in Hell. The place infpires him with thoughts more adapted to it: He reflects upon the happy condition to the fun is very bold and noble. This fpeech is, I think, the finest that is afcribed to Satan in the whole poem. Addifon. When Milton defign'd to have made only a tragedy of the Paradise Loft, it was his intention to have begun it with the first ten lines of the following speech, which he fhow'd to his nephew Edward Philips and others, as Philips informs us in his account of the Ah wherefore! he deferv'd no fuch return 45 I sdeind subjection, and thought one step higher 50 So into the most execrable acts to accomplish their haughty defigns; which makes our author ftigmatize ambition as a worse fin than pride. Hume. the life of his uncle. And what a inordinate defires that break forth noble opening of a play would this have been! The lines were certainly too good to be loft, and the author has done well to employ them here, they could not have been better employ'd any where. Satan is made to addrefs the fun, as it was the moft confpicuous part of the creation; and the thought is very natural of addreffing it like the God of this world, when so many of the Heathen nations have worshipped and adored it as fuch. 40. Till pride and worfe ambition] Pride is a kind of exceffive and vicious felf-esteem, that raifes men in their own opinions above what is juft and right: but ambition is that which adds fuel to this flame, and claps fpurs to these furious and Dr. Bentley reads and curs'd ambition, because he thinks it hard to fay whether pride or ambition is worfe: but Milton feems to mean by pride the vice confider'd in itself, and only as it is the temper of the proud man; and by ambition the vice that carry'd him to aim at being equal with God: and was not this vice the worst of the two? I obferve that Satan always lays the blame on his ambition, as in ver. 61 and 92. Pearce. 50. I fdeind] For difdain'd; an imitation of the Italian fdegnare. Hume. The So burdensome still paying, ftill to owe, 60 Me fome inferior Angel, I had ftood 65 |