Page images
PDF
EPUB

At will the manliest, resolutest breast,
As the magnetick k hardest iron draws.
Women, when nothing else, beguiled the heart
Of wisest Solomon, and made him build,
And made him bow, to the gods of his wives.

To whom quick answer Satan thus return'd:
Belial, in much uneven scale thou weigh'st
All others by thyself; because of old
Thou thyself doat'st on womankind, admiring
Their shape, their colour, and attractive grace,
None are, thou think'st, but taken with such toys.
Before the flood thou with thy lusty crew,
False titled sons of God, roaming the earth,
Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men,

And coupled with them, and begot a race.
Have we not seen, or by relation heard m,

170

175

180

"Credulous" might have been suggested by an ode of Horace, which Milton himself has translated :

Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea;
Qui semper vacuam, &c.-DUNSTER,

As the magnetick, &c.

It should be the magnet, or magnetic stone. But Milton often converts the adjective, and uses it as the substantive.-NEWTON.

Lucian hath this simile in his "Imagines," vol. ii. p. 2, ed. Græv. :-"But if the fair one once look upon you, what is it that can get you from her? she will draw you after her at pleasure, bound hand and foot, just as the loadstone draws iron." We may observe, that Milton, by restraining the comparison to the power of beauty over the wisest men and the most stoical tempers, hath given it a propriety which is lost in a more general application.-CALTON.

Claudian, having very poetically described the powers of the magnet, concludes his "Idyllium," in a manner that possibly might have suggested to Milton some of the preceding lines:Quæ duras jungit concordia mentes? Flagrat anhela silex, et amicam saucia sentit Materiem, placidosque chalybs cognoscit amores. Sic Venus horrificum belli compescere regem, Et vultu mollire solet, cum sanguine præceps Estuat, et strictis mucronibus asperat iras Sola feris occurrit equis, solvitque tumorem Pectoris, et blando præcordia temperet igni. Pax animo tranquilla datur, pugnasque calentes Deserit, et rutilas declinat in oscula cristas. Quæ tibi, sæve puer, non est permissa potestas? Tu magnum superas fulmen, &c.-DUNSTER.

1 Before the flood thou with thy lusty crew,
False titled sons of God, &c.

It is to be lamented that our author has so often adopted the vulgar notion of the angels having commerce with women, founded upon that mistaken text of Scripture, Gen. vi. 2 - "The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." See "Paradise Lost," b. iii. 463, &c. But though he seems to favour that opinion, as we may suppose, to embellish his poetry; yet he shows elsewhere that he understood the text rightly, of the sons of Seth, who were the worshippers of the true God, intermarrying with the daughters of wicked Cain, "Paradise Lost," b. xi. 621, 625.-NEWTON.

m Have we not seen, or by relation heard.

This passage is censured by Dr. Warburton, as suiting only the poet speaking in his own person; but surely there is no impropriety in the arch-fiend's being well acquainted with the fables of the heathen mythology, and the amours and adventures of their

In courts and regal chambers how thou lurk'st,

In wood or grove, by mossy fountain side,
In valley or green meadow, to way-lay

Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene,
Daphne, or Semele, Antiopa,

Or Amymone, Syrinx, many more

Too long ; then lay'st thy scapes 9 on names adored,

185

gods, or, (according to Milton's system) his own infernal compeers. If we censure this passage, we must still more decisively condemn one in the fourth book; where, in answer to Satan's speech, describing, while he shows it, the splendour of imperial Rome, our Lord, taking up the subject, carries on the description to the luxurious way of living among the Romans of that time, with this verse in a parenthesis, — For I have also heard, perhaps have read.-DUNSTER.

Thus in Shakspeare's

Titania, says :

In wood or grove, by mossy fountain side,

In valley or green meadow.

"Midsummer Night's Dream," Puck, speaking of Oberon and

And now they never meet in grove or green,

By fountain clear, &c.-DUNSTER.

• Calisto, Clymene,

Daphne, or Semele, Antiopa,

Or Amymone, Syrinx.

All these mistresses of the gods might have been furnished from Ovid, our author's favourite Latin poet.-DUNSTER.

Too long.

P Many more

A concise way of speaking for "many more too long to mention." The author had used it before, "Paradise Lost," b. iii. 473. Indeed more would have been "too long," and it would have been better if he had not enumerated so many of the loves of the gods. These things are known to every school-boy, but add no dignity to a divine poem; and in my opinion are not the most pleasing subjects in painting any more than in poetry.-NEWTON.

Poetry, as strictly discriminated from prose, may be defined, elevated and ornamented language. Among the most allowed modes of elevating and decorating language, independent of metrical arrangement, mythological references and allusions, and classical imitations hold a principal place. A poet precluded from these would be miserably circumscribed; and might with equal or better effect relate the fable which he imagines, the historic facts which he records, or the precepts which he lays down, in that species of language which asks no ornaments but purity and perspicuity. A divine poem certainly requires to be written in the chastest style, and to be kept perfectly free from the glare of false ornament: but it must still be considered that the great reason of exhibiting any serious truths, and especially the more interesting facts of religious history, through the medium of poetry, is thereby more powerfully to attract the attention. Poetry, to please, must continue to be pleasing. In the beauty and propriety of his references and allusions, the poet shows the perfection of his taste and judgment, as much as in any other circumstance whatever; and Milton has eminently distinguished himself in this respect. How beautifully has he sprinkled his "Paradise Lost" with the flowers of classic poetry, and the fictions of Greek and Roman mythology! And he has done this with so judicious a hand, with a spirit so reverent, that the most religiously delicate ear cannot but be captivated with it. I confess my surprise that Dr. Newton does not see the passage before us in this light. It appears to me not only in the highest degree justifiable, but absolutely as one of those loci laudandi which the best critics ever delight to exhibit from the works of the more eminent poets. Milton here admirably avails himself of the fabulous amours of the heathen deities: he transfers them to the fallen angels, and to Belial and "his lusty crew;" and by the judicious application of these disgraceful tales, he gives them a propriety which they never before possessed; he furnishes even the school-boy with a moral to the fable which he has been reading; and recalls to maturer minds the classical beauty of these fabulous descriptions, which at once relieve and adorn his divine poem.-DUNSTER.

Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan",

Satyr, or Faun, or Sylvan? But these haunts
Delight not all: among the sons of men,

How many have with a smile made small account
Of beauty and her lures, easily scorn'd

All her assaults, on worthier things intent!
Remember that Pellean conquerour 8,
A youth, how all the beauties of the East
He slightly view'd, and slightly overpass'd t;
How he, surnamed of Africa, dismiss'd,
In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid ".
For Solomon, he lived at ease; and, full

Of honour, wealth, high fare, aim'd not beyond
Higher design than to enjoy his state;
Thence to the bait of women lay exposed:

V

But he, whom we attempt, is wiser far
Than Solomon, of more exalted mind,

q Thy scapes.

This is a Gallicism, échappée, a prank or frolic.-Dunster.

Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan.

190

195

200

205

Calisto, Semele, and Antiopa, were mistresses to Jupiter; Clymene and Daphne, to Apollo; and Syrinx, to Pan. Both here and elsewhere, Milton considers the gods of the heathens as demons or devils. Thus, in the Septuagint version of the Psalms, Πάντες οἱ θεοὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν δαιμόνια, Psalm xcvi. 5, and likewise in the Vulgate Latin, "Quoniam omnes Dii gentium dæmonia." And the notion of the demons having commerce with women in the shape of heathen gods is very ancient, and is expressly asserted by Justin Martyr, "Apol." i. p. 10, and 33, edit. Thirlbii.-NEWTON.

• Remember that Pellean conquerour, &c.

Alexander the Great was born at Pella in Macedonia: his continence and clemency to Darius's queen and daughters, and the other Persian ladies whom he took captive after the battle of Issus, are commended by the historians: "Tum quidem ita se gessit, ut omnes ante eum reges et continentia et clementia vincerentur: virgines enim regias excellentis formæ tam sancte habuit, quam si eodem quo ipse parente genitæ forent: conjugem ejusdem, quam nulla ætatis suæ pulchritudine corporis vicit, adeo ipse non violavit, ut summam adhibuerit curam, ne quis captivo corpori illuderet," &c., Quint. Curt. lib. iii. cap. 9. He was then a young conqueror, of about twenty-three years of age; a youth," as Milton expresses it.-NEWTON. See Juvenal, sat. x. 168:

66

Unus Pellæo juveni non sufficit orbis.-DUNSTER.

How all the beauties of the East

He slightly view'd, and slightly overpass'd.

Alexander, we know from history, did not "slightly overpass all the beauties of the East." DUNSTER.

"How he, surnamed of Africa, dismiss'd,

In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid.

The continence of Scipio Africanus at the age of twenty-four, and his generosity in restoring a beautiful Spanish lady to her husband and friends, are celebrated by Polybius, Livy, Valerius Maximus, and various other authors.-NEWTON.

▾ Thence to the bait of women, &c.

This remark, applied by Satan to Solomon, the example cited by Belial, induces me to notice the description of Belial by Wierus, "Pseudomonarchia Dæmonum," edit. Basil. 1582, p. 919. "Sunt quidam necromantici, qui asserunt ipsum Salomonem, quodam die astutia cujusdam mulieris seductum, orando se inclinasse versus simulacrum Belial nomine," &c. Wierus doubts this particular circumstance. But see 1 Kings, xi. 1-8, and "Par. Lost," b. i. 401, and the present book, ver. 169.-TODD.

Made and set wholly on the accomplishment
Of greatest things. What woman will you find,
Though of this age the wonder and the fame,
On whom his leisure will vouchsafe an eye
Of fond desire w? Or should she, confident,
As sitting queen adored on beauty's throne,
Descend with all her winning charms begirt x
To enamour, as the zone of Venus once
Wrought that effect on Jove, so fables tell y;
How would one look from his majestick brow,
Seated as on the top of Virtue's hill,
Discountenance her despised, and put to rout
All her array; her female pride deject,
Or turn to reverent awe! for beauty stands
In the admiration only of weak minds

w On whom his leisure will vouchsafe an eye
Of fond desire?

210

215

220

The "eye of fond desire" is very beautifully expressed by Eschylus, whom our author perhaps had in view, "Suppl." ver. 1011.-THYER.

Eschylus has also the immediate expression, "the eye of desire," in "Prometh." ver. 655.-DUNSTER.

Or should she, confident,

As sitting queen adored on beauty's throne,

Descend with all her winning charms begirt, &c.

This is clearly from the same palette and pencil as the following highly-coloured passage, "Par. Lost," b. viii. 59.

With goddess-like demeanour forth she went,

Not unattended; for on her as queen

A pomp of winning Graces waited still,

And from about her shot darts of desire

Into all eyes to wish her still in sight.-DUNSTER.

y So fables tell.

These words look as if the poet had forgot himself, and spoke in his own person rather than in the character of Satan.-NEWTON.

One look from his majestick brow,
Seated as on the top of Virtue's hill.

Here is the construction that we so often meet with in Milton: "from his majestick brow," that is, from the majestic brow of him seated as on the top of Virtue's hill : and the expression of "Virtue's hill," was probably in allusion to the rocky eminence on which the Virtues are placed in the Table of Cebes; or the arduous ascent up the hill, to which Virtue is represented pointing in the best designs of the Judgment of Hercules.-NEWTON.

Milton's meaning here is best illustrated by a passage in Shakspeare, which most probably he had in his mind. Hamlet, in the scene with his mother, pointing to the picture of his father, says,

See what a grace was seated on this brow!
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars to threaten or command, &c.

See also "Love's Labour's Lost," a. iii. s. 4. "Greatness, nobleness, authority, and awe," says Bentley, “are by all Greek and Latin poets placed in the forehead.” "Par. Lost." b. vii. 509. ix. 538.

And Spenser's Belphœbe :

Her ivory forehead, full of bounty brave,
Like a broad table did itself dispread :
All good and honour might therein be read,
And there their dwelling was.-DUNSTER.

See

Led captive; cease to admire, and all her plumes
Fall flat, and shrink into a trivial toy,

At every sudden slighting quite abash'db.
Therefore with manlier objects we must try
His constancy; with such as have more show

Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise;
Rocks, whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd;
Or that which only seems to satisfy
Lawful desires of nature, not beyond:

And now I know he hungers, where no food

Is to be found, in the wide wilderness :

The rest commit to me; I shall let pass

No advantage, and his strength as oft assay.

He ceased, and heard their grant in loud acclaim;

a For beauty stands

In the admiration only of weak minds

Led captive.

225

230

235

Among Milton's early Latin Elegies, we find one, the seventh, of the amatory kind : butwhen he published his Latin poems, eighteen years afterwards, he thought it necessary to add to it ten lines, apologising for the puerile weakness, or rather vacancy, of his mind, that could admit such an impression.-DUNster.

b Cease to admire, and all her plumes

Fall flat, and shrink into a trivial toy,
At every sudden slighting quite abash'd.

This is a very beautiful and apposite allusion to the peacock; speaking of which bird, Pliny notices the circumstance of its spreading its tail under a sense of admiration :"Gemmantes laudatus expandit colores, adverso maxime sole, quia sic fulgentius radiant." Nat. Hist. 1. x. c. 20. Tasso compares Armida, in all the pride and vanity of her beauty and ornaments, to a peacock with its tail spread, c. xvi. st. 24. But Milton had here in his mind Övid, "De Arte Am." i. 627.

Laudatas ostentat avis Junonia pennas;

Si tacitus spectes, illa recondit opes.-DUNSTER.

• He ceased.

Our Lord (ver. 110) is, in a brief but appropriate description, again presented to us in the wilderness. The poet, in the mean time, makes Satan return to his infernal council, to report the bad success of his first attempt, and to demand their counsel and assistance in an enterprise of so much difficulty. This he does in a brief and energetic speech. Hence arises a debate; or at least a proposition on the part of Belial, and a rejection of it by Satan, of which I cannot sufficiently express my admiration. The language of Belial is exquisitely descriptive of the power of beauty; without a single word introduced, or even a thought conveyed, that is unbecoming in its place in this divine poem. Satan's reply is eminently fine: his imputing to Belial, as the most dissolute of the fallen angels, the amours attributed by the poets and mythologists to the heathen gods; while it is replete with classic beauty, furnishes an excellent moral to those extravagant fictions; and his description of the little effect which the most powerful enticements can produce on the resolute mind of the virtuous, while it is heightened with many beautiful turns of language, is, in its general tenor, of the most superior and dignified kind. Indeed, all this part of his speech (from ver. 191 to ver. 225) seems to breathe such a sincere and deep sense of the charms of real goodness, that we almost forget who is the speaker: at least, we readily subscribe to what he had said of himself in the first book:

I have not lost

To love, at least contemplate, and admire,
What I see excellent in good, or fair,

Or virtuous.

After such sentiments so expressed, it might have been thought difficult for the poet to return to his subject, by making the arch-fiend resume his attempts against the Divine

B B

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »