Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,
Or in Francifcan think to pafs difguis'd;
They pass the planets fev'n, and pass the fix'd,
And that crystallin sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidation talk'd, and that first mov'd;

480

And

placing them there, but making feat of God and the Angels. This them the principal figures.

476. Here pilgrims &c.] Thofe who had gone upon pilgrimages to the Holy Land, to visit our Lord's fepulchre but to fuch perfons that may be faid, which was to the women after his refurrection, Luke XXIV. 6. Why feek ye 5, the living among the dead? He is not here but is rijen; to which text our author feems to allude in this passage.

482. And that cryftallin fphere &c.] He fpeaks here according to the ancient astronomy, adopted and improv'd by Ptolomy. They pass the planets fev'n, our planetary or folar fyftem, and beyond this pass the fix'd, the firmament or fphere of the fix'd ftars, and beyond this that cryftallin Sphere, the cryftallin Heaven, clear as cryftal, to which the Ptolemaics attributed a fort of libration or fhaking (the trepidation fo much talk'd of) to account for certain irregularities in the motion of the ftars, and beyond this that first mov'd, the primum mobile, the fphere which was both the first mov'd and the first mover, communicating its motions to all the lower spheres; and beyond this was the empyrean Heaven, the

paffage may receive fome farther light and illustration from another of the fame nature in Taffo, where he defcribes the defcent of the Arch-Angel Michael from Heaven, and mentions this cryftallin and all the other fpheres but only inverting the order, as there the motion is downwards, and here it is upwards, Cant. 9. St. 60, 61.

Since he, errs not who them doth

guide and move. Fairfax. And when our poet mentions St. Peter at Heav'n's wicket with his keys,

And now Saint Peter at Heav'n's wicket seems

To wait them with his keys, and now at foot 485
Of Heav'n's afcent they lift their feet, when lo
A violent cross wind from either coast

Blows them tranfverfe ten thousand leagues awry
Into the devious air; then might ye fee

Cowls, hoods, and habits with their wearers toft 490
And flutter'd into rags, then reliques, beads,
Indulgences, difpenfes, pardons, bulls,
The sport of winds: all these upwhirl'd aloft
Fly o'er the backfide of the world far off
Into a Limbo large and broad, fince call'd

he certainly intends (as Mr. Thyer obferves) to ridicule the fond conceit of the Romanifts, that St. Peter and his fucceffors are in a particular manner intrufted with the keys of Heaven. And he makes ufe of the low phrafe of Heaven's wicket, the better to expofe the notions of thofe whom he places here in the Paradife of Fools.

489.then might ye fee] This is one of the paffages which farnishes Dr. Bentley here with objections against fifty-five verfes of Milton. To the words might ye fee he fays, how could any one of his readers fee them, unless he is himself fuppos'd a fool? But was not Satan there and he is no fool this poem: it is one thing to be

49.5 The

The Paradife of Fools, to few unknown
Long after, now unpeopled, and untrod.
All this dark globe the Fiend found as he pass'd,
And long he wander'd, till at last a gleam
Of dawning light turn'd thither-ward in hafte
His travel'd steps: far diftant he defcries
Afcending by degrees magnificent
Up to the wall of Heav'n a structure high;
At top whereof, but far more rich appear'd
The work as of a kingly palace gate,
With frontispiece of diamond and gold
Embellish'd; thick with sparkling orient

gems

500

505

The

aut poterit videre aliquis. Æn. VIII. 691.

-pelago credas innare revulfas Cycladas; that is Credat quis. See Cowley's Davideis II. Note 17. 493. The sport of winds:] Ludibria ventis. Virg. Æn. VI. 75.

495. Into a Limbo large and broad,] The Limbus patrum, as it is call'd, is a place that the Schoolmen fuppofed to be in the neighbourhood of Hell, where the fouls of the patriarchs were detain'd, and thofe good men who died before our Saviour's refurrection. Our author gives the fame name to his Paradife of Fools, and more rationally places it beyond the backfide of the world.

The portal fhone, inimitable on earth
By model, or by fhading pencil drawn.
The stairs were fuch as whereon Jacob faw
Angels afcending and defcending, bands
Of guardians bright, when he from Efau fled
To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz
Dreaming by night under the open sky,

510

514

And waking cry'd, This is the gate of Heaven.
Each stair myfteriously was meant, nor stood
There always, but drawn up to Heav'n sometimes
Viewless; and underneath a bright fea flow'd

and ardent are too near akin to be both ufed together, and fince (as the Doctor allows) the beit gems come from the Eat-Indies, it may be allow'd to Milton to mean by orient gems no more than the best and most precious ones. Milton very frequently ules the word orient in fuch a fenfe as this, and Dr. Bentley generally corrects it, tho' he has made no objection to the expreflion in I. 546.

With orient colors waving,

Poets, who write of things out of this world, muft ufe epithets and metaphors drawn from things in this world, if they would make themselves understood. Pearce.

Why do not then the bloffoms of the field,

Of

Which are array'd with much more orient hue.

Spenfer's Hymn of Beauty,

I have transcribed these lines to defend, against Dr. Bentley's remark, Milton's application of the word orient, Thyer.

510. The ftairs, the degrees mention'd before, ver. 502. were fuch as whereon Jacob faw &c.] A comparison fetch'd from Gen. XXVIII. 12, 13. And be dream'd, and behold a ladder fet upon the earth, and the top of it reached to Heaven, and behold the Angels of God afcending and defcending on it; and behold the Lord food above it. &c. But this line,

To Padan Aram in the field of Lux, must not be understood as if Padan

Aram

Of jafper, or of liquid pearl, whereon
Who after came from earth, failing arriv'd

520

Wafted by Angels, or flew o'er the lake

Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.

The flairs were then let down, whether to dare
The Fiend by eafy' afcent, or aggravate

His fad exclufion from the doors of blifs:

525

Direct against which open'd from beneath,
Juft o'er the blissful feat of Paradise,
A paffage down to th' Earth, a paffage wide,
Wider by far than that of after-times

Aram was in the field of Lux; but he was flying to Padan-Aram or the country of Aram, that is Syria; and by the way refted and dreamed this dream in the field of Luz, for fo the adjoining city was called at the first; Jacob upon this occafion gave it the name of Bethel, by which it was better known afterwards. The paffage was wrong pointed in all the editions, for there hould be no comma after Luz: the comma fhould be after PadanAram, in the field of Luz being to be join'd on to dreaming in the next verfe.

518.—and underneath a bright fea

flow'd] The author himself explains this, in the argument of this book, to be meant of the water above the firmament. He mentions it again VII. 619. Heylin.

Over

521. Wafted by Angels, &c.] As Lazarus was carried by Angels, Luke XVI 22; and Elijan was rapt up in a chariot of fire and borfes of fire, 2 Kings II. 11.

--

525.- doors] Milton writes this word dore and dores except only in one inftance in I. 504 of the fecond edition, which he alter'd from the first edition: but the other approaches nearer in found to the original word, if it be deriv'd from the Saxon duru, the German dure, dura, tura; and all as Junius fays from the Greek Supa, janua. And yet I think we commonly pronounce it dare tho' we conftantly write it door. But in all such cases we want an advantage, that the French have enjoy'd, of an Academy to fix and fettle our language. Some propofals were made for Q4

creating