Servility with freedom to contend, 175 As both their deeds compar'd this day shall prove. 170 180 Reign thou in Hell thy kingdom; let me serve Behefts obey, worthieft to be obey'd; 185 Yet chains in Hell, not realms expect: mean while So fay'ing, a noble ftroke he lifted high, He back recoil'd; the tenth on bended knee 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. 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 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 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. On either fide, the least of whom could wield power Of all their regions: how much more of 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 215 220 225 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 |