By Sin and Death a broad way now is pav'd
To expedite your glorious march; but I

Coil'd out my uncouth paffage, forc'd to ride 475
Th' untractable abyss, plung'd in the womb
of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild,
That jealous of their fecrets fiercely' oppos'd

My journey ftrange, with clamorous uproar

rotesting Fate fupreme; thence how I found 480 The new created world, which fame in Heaven ong had foretold, a fabric wonderful

Of absolute perfection, therein Man "lac'd in a Paradise, by our exíle

Made

would not have without the re- do not read of Chaos and the other

etition.

475. Toil'd out my uncouth paffage,] My ftrange unufual paffage, of the axon uncud unknown, forc'd to ride untractable abyss, as in II. 540. nd ride the air. IX. 63. he rode with arkness. Hor. Od. IV. IV. 44. Per iculas equitavit undas. We have o in Scripture to ride upon the vinds, to ride upon the clouds, and he like expreffions. But the toil was not only in riding, but riding an ntractable abyss.

480. Protefting Fate Supreme;] Calling upon Fate as a witness gainst my proceedings. But this eems not perfectly to agree with the account in book the fecond. It was Endeed with labor and difficulty that Satan journey'd thro' Chaos, but we

Powers fiercely oppofing him, or pro-
tefting Fate with clamorous uproar.
On the contrary Chaos bids him
go and speed;
Havoc, and spoil, and ruin are my
gain.

-

400

Made happy: Him by fraud I have feduc'd
From his Creator, and the more to' increase
Your wonder, with an apple; he thereat
Offended, worth your laughter, hath giv'n up
Both his beloved Man and all his world,
To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us,
Without our hazard, labor, or alarm,
To range in, and to dwell, and over Man
To rule, as over all he should have rul'd.
True is, me also he hath judg'd, or rather
Me not, but the brute ferpent in whofe fhape 495
Man I deceiv'd: that which to me belongs,
Is enmity, which he will put between
Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;
His feed, when is not fet, fhall bruife

Fairy Queen, B. 1. Cant. 3. St. 3. Far from all people's praise, as in exile;

but now it is commonly pronounc'd with the accent upon the first fylla ble, as in Pope's Epistle to Arbuthnot, ver. 355.

A friend in exile, or a father dead. And there are several words whereof we have alter'd the pronunciation from that of our old writers, but whether we have alter'd it for the better, is a great question.

my head:

A

496. that which to me behag. Our author understands the fenteare (as the moft learned and othede divines do) as referring party Satan the author of malice, and par to the Serpent the inftrument of t

513.- till fupplanted down be fo We may obferve here a fingul beauty and elegance in Milton's in their ftrict and litteral fenfe, wh guage, and that is his ufing wo are commonly apply'd to a me phorical meaning, whereby he g peculiar force to his expreffions, a the litteral meaning appears

mort

ECW

A world who would not purchase with a bruise, 500
Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th' account
Of my performance: What remains, ye Gods,
But up and enter now into full bliss ?

So having faid, a while he stood, expecting
Their univerfal shout and high applause

To fill his ear, when contrary he hears
On all fides, from innumerable tongues
A difmal univerfal hifs, the found

505

Of public fcorn; he wonder'd, but not long
Had leifure, wond'ring at himself now more; 510
His vifage drawn he felt to fharp and spare,
His arms clung to his ribs, his legs intwining
Each other, till fupplanted down he fell
A monstrous ferpent on his belly prone,

new and ftriking than the metaphor itself. We have an inftance of this in the word fupplanted, which is deriv'd from the Latin Supplanto, to trip up one's heels or overthrow, a planta pedis fubtus emota: and there are abundance of other examples in feveral parts of this work, but let it fuffice to have taken notice of it here once for all.

514. A monftrous ferpent on his belly

prone,] Our author, in defcribing Satan's transformation into a ferpent, had no doubt in mind the transformation of Cadmus in the

Re

fourth book of the Metamorphofis, to which he had alluded before in Book IX. 505. And as feveral particulars are alike in both, it may be agreeable to the reader to compare both together, Ov. Met. IV. 575.c.

Dixit, et ut ferpens in longam tenditur alvum ;

In pectufque cadit pronus; commiffaque in unum

Paulatim tereti finuantur acumine

crura

Ille quidem vult plura loqui; fed lingua repente

Reluctant, but in vain, a greater power

Now rul'd him, punish'd in the fhape he finn'd
According to his doom: he would have spoke,
But hifs for hifs return'd with forked tongue
To forked tongue, for now were all transform'd
Alike, to ferpents all as acceffories

In partes eft fiffa duas: nec verba

volenti Sufficiunt; quotiefque aliquos parat edere queftus, Sibilat; hanc illi vocem Natura relinquit.

But there is fomething much more aftonishing in Milton than in Ovid; for there only Cadmus and his wife are chang'd into ferpents, but here myriads of Angels are transform'd all together.

524. Amphisbana dire, &c.] Amphisbana faid to have a head at both ends, fo named of aug and Barve, because it went forward either way. Ceraftes born'd, of neegs a horn. Hydrus, the water-fnake, of idap water. Elops drear, a dumb ferpent that gives no notice by hiffing to avoid him, drear fad, dreadful. Dipfas of a thirft, because those it stung were tormented with unquenchable thirft.

Hume and Richardfon. These and several verfes which follow Dr. Bentley throws quite away. He dislikes Milton's reckoning Scorpion, and Afp, among the ferpents, and thinks them rather infects: But Pliny VIII. 23. numbers the Alp among the ferpents; and Nicander in his

515

520

Το

Theriac. gives both the Scorpion and Afp that title: fo does Lucan, from whom our poet seems to have taken his catalogue of serpents; for in Book IX. of his Pharfalia, he gives us the names of all these ferpents mention'd by Milton except the El But what is the Elops? Dr. Bentley fays that the editor has here di cover'd himself to be an ignorant fellow, the Elops being no ferpent but a fish, and one of the most admir'd too, the Acipenser. But Pliny (from whom the Doctor learn'd this) only fays of the Acipenser, that fome people call it Elops; quidam an Elopem vocant, IX. 17. he does not tell us whether he thought that they call'd it by a right name or no. Bu if they did, might there not have been a ferpent of that name too! That there was, we have Pliny's own teftimony in XXXII. 5. where he tells us of the remedies to be used by those who were bit by the Elops and other ferpents, a Chalcide, Cerafte, aut quas Sepas vocant, aut Elope, Dipfadéve percuffis. Nicander too in his Theriac. mentions the Elops, Tus Exomas, Aibuaste &c. After thefe authorities I hope that the Doctor will allow Milton to mention the Elops, as a ferpent, without

making

1

To his bold riot: dreadful was the din

Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now
With complicated monsters head and tail,
corpion, and Afp, and Amphisbæna dire,
Ceraftes horn'd, Hydrus, and Elops drear,
nd Dipfas (not fo thick fwarm'd once the foil

cruentæ ;

Quas humus exceptas varios `ani-
mavit in angues;
Unde frequens illa eft infeftaque
terra colubris.

The victor Perfeus with the Gorgon
head,

O'er Libyan fands his aery journey
fped.
The gory drops diftill'd, as swift
he flew,

And from each drop envenom'd
ferpents grew.

The mischiefs brooded on the bar-
ren plains,

And fill th' unhappy fruitfulness
remains.
Eufden.

And Lucan gives the fame account
Phar. IX. 696. and there mentions
moft of the ferpents, which are here
mention'd by Milton.

525