Torn from Pelorus, or the fhatter'd fide
Of thundering Ætna, whofe combustible
And fuell'd entrails thence conceiving fire,
Sublim'd with mineral fury, aid the winds, 235
And leave a finged bottom all involv'd
With ftench and smoke: fuch refting found the fole
Of unbleft feet. Him follow'd his next mate:
Both glorying to have 'fcap'd the Stygian flood
As Gods, and by their own recover'd strength,
Not by the fufferance of fupernal Power.

241

Is this the region, this the foil, the clime, Said then the loft Arch-Angel, this the feat That we must change for Heaven; this mournful gloom

For that celestial light? Be it fo! fince he, 245 Who now is Sovran, can dispose and bid

What shall be right: fartheft from him is beft, Whom reafon hath equall'd, force hath made fupreme

Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields, Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrours! hail,

Ver. 232. Torn from Pelorus,] Dante, Purg. C. xiv. 32. "L'alpeftro monte, ond' è tronco Peloro.”

Pelorus, one of the three great promontories of Sicily; now called Cape Faro; not far from mount Etna. TODD.

Ver. 246. Who now is Sovran,] So Milton spells it after the Italian Sovrano. It is not eafy to account for the formation of our word fovereign. NEWTON.

Ver. 247.

farthest from him is beft,] This is exprelled from the Greek proverb, Πόῤῥω Διὸς τε καὶ κεραυνᾶ, Γαν from Jupiter, but far too from thunder. BENTLEY.

Infernal world! And thou, profoundest Hell, 251
Receive thy new poffeffour! one who brings
A mind not to be chang'd by place or time:
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
What matter where, if I be ftill the fame, 256
And what I fhould be; all but lefs than he
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: 260
Here we may reign fecure, and, in
my choice,
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than ferve in Heaven!

Ver. 252. Receive thy new possesfour!] This paffage feems to be an improvement upon the Ajax of Sophocles, where Ajax, before he kills himself, cries out much in the fame manner; Ιὼ σκότος, ἐμὸν φάος, δραμβος

Ver. 254. The mind is its own place, &c.] These are fome of the extravagancies of the Stoicks, and could not be better ridiculed than they are here, by being put in the mouth of Satan in his prefent fituation. THYER.

Ver. 263. Better to reign in Hell, than ferve in Heaven!] Dr. Newton obferves, that this line a very fine improvement upon Prometheus's anfwer to Mercury in Æfchylus, Prom. Vinct. 965-967. Compare alfo P. Fletcher's Locufts, 1627, p. 37.

"Thus fell this Prince of darknes, once a bright

"And glorious starre:

"To be in heaven the fecond he difdains:

"So now the firft in hell and flames he raignes,

"Crown'd once with joy and light; now crown'd with fire and paines."

265

But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
The affociates and copartners of our lofs,
Lie thus aftonish'd on the oblivious pool,
And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy manfion; or once more
With rallied arms to try what may be yet
Regain'd in Heaven, or what more loft in Hell?

271

275

So Satan spake; and him Beelzebub Thus anfwer'd. Leader of those armies bright, Which but the Omnipotent none could have foil'd! If once they hear that voice, their livelieft pledge Of hope in fears and dangers, heard fo oft In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge Of battle when it rag'd, in all affaults Their fureft fignal, they will foon resume New courage and revive; though now they lie Groveling and proftrate on yon lake of fire, 280 As we ere while, aftounded and amaz'd; No wonder, fallen fuch a pernicious highth.

Hefcarce had ceas'd, when the fuperiour Fiend Was moving toward the fhore: his ponderous fhield,

Ethereal temper, maffy, large and round, 285 Behind him caft; the broad circumference

Sce likewife the citation from Stafford's Niobe, in the Inquiry into the Origin of Paradife Loft, in the prefent volume, p. 269. TODD.

Ver. 266.

the oblivious pool,] Oblivious, that is, caufing forgetfulness, as in Shakspeare's Macbeth: "fome Sweet oblivious antidote." DUNSTER.

290

Hung on his fhoulders like the moon, whofe orb
Through optick glafs the Tuscan artist views
At evening from the top of Fefolé,
Or in Valdarno, to defcry new lands,
Rivers or mountains in her fpotty globe.
His fpear, to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Of fome great ammiral, were but a wand,

Ver. 287. Hung on his fhoulders like the moon,] So Spenfer defcribes the fhield of Radigund, Faery Queen, v. v. 3.

"And on her shoulder hung her shield, bedeckt

66

Upon the boffe with stones that shined wide,

"As the faire moone in her moft full aspect, "That to the moone it mote be like in each refpect." Compare alfo Callimachus, Hymn. Dian. v. 53. TODD.

"Mean time

Ver. 289. Fefolé,] A town near Florence. here we are however in Arno's vale; [Valdarno;] the full moon fhining over Fiefole, which I fee from my windows: Milton's verfes every moment in one's mouth, and Galileo's houfe twenty yards from one's door." Obferv. in a Journey through Italy, by Mrs. Piozzi, 1789, vol. i. p. 271. TODD.

Ver. 292. His Spear, to equal which &c.] refers to Homer's Polypheme, Ody. ix. 321.

Mr. Stillingflect But the pages of

Italian romance feem to have fuggefted this defcription. See Mr. Warton's note on Samf. Agon. ver. 1122. TODD.

Ver. 293. Norwegian hills,] The hills of Norway, barren and rocky, but abounding in vaft woods, from whence are brought mafts of the largeft fize. HUME.

Ver. 294. Of fome great ammiral,] From the German amiral or amirael, fays Hume; from the Italian ammiraglio, fays Richardfon more probably. Milton made choice of this, as thinking it of a better found than admiral; and in Latin he writes ammiralatûs curia," the court of admiralty." NEWTON.

Ammiral, that is, any great or capital ship. In this sense the word frequently occurs in Sir R. Hawkins's "Obfervations in

295

He walk'd with, to fupport uneasy steps
Over the burning marle, not like those steps
On Heaven's azure; and the torrid clime
Smote on him fore befides, vaulted with fire:
Nathlefs he fo endur'd, till on the beach
Of that inflamed fea he ftood, and call'd
His legions, Angel forms, who lay intranc'd
Thick as autumnal leaves that ftrow the brooks

300

his Voyage to the South Seas," ed. 1622. fol. "The Admirall of the Spanish Armado was a Flemish Shippe." p. 9. Again, "The Admirall, in which I came, a ship of about five hundreth tunnes." p. 87. Hume and Dr. Newton have mistaken the fenfe of this place. Dobfon renders the word, not improperly, by ́prætoria puppis. Rolli finely italianizes it by this line,

"Per arborarne un' almirante nave." BOWLE.

I must add, that Fairfax, in his tranflation of Tafjo, edit. 1600, p. 92, fpells the word, amrall. Sylvefter alfo ufes amral in an elegy, fubjoined to his tranflation of Du Bart. 1621, p. 1170. And Fanfhaw, in his tranflation of the Lufiad of Camöens, 1655, generally spells it, ammiral. TODD.

Ver. 299. Nathlefs] Neverthelefs. Thus Chaucer, Prologue to Cant. Tales,

"But nathlefs while that I have time and space."

And Spenfer, Faer. Qu. i. ix. 54.

Yet nathëlefje it could not doe him die." CALLANDER.
The comparison of

Ver. 302. Thick as autumnal leaves] multitudes to leaves, occurs in Homer, Virgil, and other ancient poets; but without any fuch accompanying fcenery as in Milton. The number of evil Spirits is likewife illuftrated fimply by this comparison, in Taffo, Gier. Lib. C. ix. ft. 66.

"Nè tante vede mai l'Autunno al fuolo.

"Cader co' primi freddi aride foglie."

And in Dante the multitude of thofe who enter Charon's boat, is reprefented by the fame image, Inferno, C. iii. 112.