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Servility with freedom to contend,

175

As both their deeds compar'd this day shall prove. 170
To whom in brief thus Abdiel ftern reply'd.
Apoftate, ftill thou err'ft, nor end wilt find,
Of erring, from the path of truth remote:
Unjustly thou deprav'ft it with the name
Of fervitude to ferve whom God ordains,
Or Nature; God and Nature bid the fame,
When he who rules is worthieft, and excels
Them whom he governs. This is fervitude,
To serve th' unwife, or him who hath rebell'd
Against his worthier, as thine now serve thee,
Thyself not free, but to thyself inthrall'd;
Yet lewdly dar'ft our miniftring upbraid.

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Reign thou in Hell thy kingdom; let me serve
In Heav'n God ever bleft, and his divine

Behefts obey, worthieft to be obey'd;

185

Yet chains in Hell, not realms expect: mean while
From me return'd, as erft thou faidft, from flight,
This greeting on thy impious creft receive.

So fay'ing, a noble ftroke he lifted high,
Which hung not, but fo fwift with tempeft fell
On the proud creft of Satan, that no fight,
Nor motion of swift thought, lefs could his shield
Such ruin intercept: ten paces huge

He back recoil'd; the tenth on bended knee
His maffy fpear upftay'd; as if on earth
Winds under ground, or waters forcing way

Reign thou in Hell thy kingdom; let me ferve

In Heav'n God ever bleft,

is defign'd as a contraft to Satan's vaunt in I. 263.

190

195

Sidelong

189. So fay'ing, &c.] Saying is here contracted into one fyllable, or is to be pronounc'd as two short ones, which very well expreffes the eagerness of the Angel. He

Better to reign in Hell, than ferveftruck at his foe before he had

in Heaven.

187. From me return'd, as erft thou faidft, from flight, This greeting &c.] So Afcanius in Virgil retorts his adverfary's term of reproach, Æn. IX. 635,

finifh'd his fpeech, while he was than Dr. Bentley's reading So aid, fpeaking, which is much better as if he had not aim'd his blow, till after he had spoken.

195. - as if on earth Winds under ground, &c.] Hefiod

Bis capti Phryges hæc Rutulis re- compares the fall of Cygnus to an

fponfa remittunt,

alluding to ver. 599.

oak or a rock falling, Scut. Herc.

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Sidelong had push'd a mountain from his feat

Half funk with all his pines.

Amazement feis'd

The rebel Thrones, but greater rage to fee

Thus foil'd their mightieft; ours joy fill'd, and shout, Prefage of victory, and fierce defire

Of battel: whereat Michaël bid found

201

Th'Arch-Angel trumpet; through the vast of Heaven It founded, and the faithful armies rung

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And fimiles of this kind are very frequent amongst the ancient poets, but though our author might take the hint of his from thence, yet we must allow, that he has with great art and judgment highten'd it in proportion to the fuperior dignity of his fubject. But perhaps he might rather more probably allude to Spenfer's description of the fall of the old dragon, under which allegory he intended to reprefent a Chriftian's victory over the Devil. Fairy Queen, B. i. Cant. 11. St. 54. So down he fell, as an huge rocky

clift, Whofe falfe foundation waves have wash'd away, With dreadful poife is from the main land rift, &c. Thyer.

210. and the madding wheels]

Hofanna

What frong and daring figures are here! Every thing is alive and animated. The very chariot wheels are mad and raging. And how rough and jarring are the verses, and how admirably do they bray the horrible difcord they would defcribe! The word bray (probably from the Greek Beay ftrepo) fignifies to make any kind of noise, tho' now it be commonly appropriated to a certain animal. It is apply'd by Spenfer to the found of a trumpet, Fairy Queen, B. 3. Cant. 12. St. 6.

And when it ceas'd, fhrill trum

pets loud did brey.

But it ufually fignifies any disagreeable noise, as B. 1. Cant. 6. St. 7. Her fhrill outcries and fhrieks fo loud did bray:

and B. 1. Cant. 8. St. 11.

He loudly bray'd with beaftly yel ling found:

and

Hofanna to the High'eft: nor ftood at gaze
The adverse legions, nor less hideous join'd
The horrid shock: now ftorming fury rofe,
And clamor fuch as heard in Heav'n till now
Was never; arms on armour clashing bray'd
Horrible difcord, and the madding wheels
Of brazen chariots rag'd; dire was the noise
Of conflict; over head the dismal hifs

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and in Shakespear's Hamlet, A&t I. The kettle drum and trumpet thus bray out

The triumph of his pledge.

212. - over head the difmal bifs Of fiery darts] Now the author come to that part of his poem, where he is moft to exert what faculty he has of, magniloquence of tile, and fublimity of thought,

Nunc, veneranda Pales, magno nunc ore fonandum.

Virg. Georg. III. 294. He has executed it to admiration: but the danger is, of being hurried away by his unbridled fteed; and of deferting propriety, while he's hunting after found and tumor.

205

210

Of

And 'tis hard to guefs, what fault to charge on the printer, fince poetic fury is commonly both thought and allow'd to be regardlefs of fyntax. But here in this fentence, which is certainly vicious, the bifs flew in volies, and the hifs vaulted the hofts with fire: the author may be fairly thought to have given it

over head with dismal hifs The fiery darts in flaming volies flew. Bentley. But if there be any place in this poem, where the fublimity of the thought will allow the accuracy of expreffion to give way to the ftrength of it, it is here. There is a peculiar force fometimes in afcribing that to a circumstance of the thing, which more properly belongs to the thing itfelf; to the bifs, which belongs to the darts. See my note Pearce. on II. 654.

As the learned Mr. Upton remarks in his Critical Obfervations on 003 Shakespear

Of fiery dirts in flaming volies flew,

And flying vaulted either hoft with fire.
So under fiery cope together rufh'd
Both battels main, with ruinous affault
And inextinguishable rage; all Heaven
Refounded, and had Earth been then, all Earth
Had to her center fhook. What wonder? when
Millions of fierce encountring Angels fought

On either fide, the least of whom could wield
These elements, and arm him with the force

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power

Of all their regions: how much more of
Army' against army numberless to raise
Dreadful combuftion warring, and disturb,
Though not destroy, their happy native feat;

Shakespear, the fubftantive is fometimes to be conftrued adjectively when governing a genitive cafe. Ariftophanes in Plut. 268. xpuσου αγγέλας ετών. Ο thou who telleft me a gold of words, that is golden words. Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, p. 2. opening the cherry of her lips, that is cherry lips. So here the bifs of darts is hiffing darts.

214. And flying vaulted either hoft

with fire] Our author has frequently had his eye upon Hefiod's giant-war as well as upon Homer, and has imitated feveral paffages; but commonly exceeds

215

220

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Had

his original, as he has done in this particular. Hefiod fays that the Titans were overfhadowed with darts, Theog. 716.

— κατα δ' εσκιασαν βελειων Τιτήνας,

but Milton has improved the horror of the defcription, and a shade of darts is not near fo great and dreadful an image as a fiery cope or vault of flaming darts.

229.though number'd fuch &c.] Each legion was in number like an army, each fingle warrior was in ftrength

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