Back to the gates of Heav'n: the fulphurous hail Shot after us in ftorm, o'erblown hath laid Of Heav'n receiv'd us falling; and the thunder, Seeft thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, 180 Save what the glimmering of these livid flames There reft, if any reft can harbour there, And re-affembling our afflicted Powers, Confult how we may henceforth most offend 185 What reinforcement we may gain from hope, 190 If not what refolution from despair. Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate With head up-lift above the wave, and eyes That sparkling blaz'd, his other parts befides Prone on the flood, extended long and large 195 Lay floting many a rood, in bulk as huge As whom the fables name of monftrous fize, Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr'd on Jove, Briareos or Typhon, whom the den By ancient Tarfus held, or that fea-beast Leviathan, which God of all his works Created hugest that swim th' ocean stream: Him haply flumb'ring on the Norway foam The pilot of fome small night-founder'd skiff Deeming fome iland, oft, as fea-men tell, four fyllables; and not Briareus, which is pronounced as three. Et centumgeminus Briareus. Virg. Æn. VI. 287. And Briareus with all his hundred hands. Dryden. 199.- -or Typhon, whom the den by ancient Tarfus held,] Typhon is the fame with Typhoeus. That the den of Typhoeus was in Cilicia, of which Tarfus was a celebrated city, we are told by Pindar and Pomponius Mela. I am much miftaken, if Milton did not make ufe of Farnaby's note on Ovid Met. V. 347. to which I refer the reader. He took ancient Tarfus perhaps from Nonnus, Ταρσος αειδομένη πρωτοπΊολις, which is quoted in Lloyd's Dictionary. Fortin. 200 205 With there being no crocodiles upon the coafts of Norway, and what follows being related of the whale, but never, as I have heard, of the crocodile. 202. Created bugeft, &c.] This verfe is found fault with as being too rough and abfonous, but that is not a fault but a beauty here, as it better expreffes the hugeness and unwieldinefs of the creature, and no doubt was defign'd by the author. 202. th' ocean ftream:] The Greek and Latin poets frequently turn substantives into adjectives. So Juvenal XI. 94. according to the best copies, Qualis in oceano fluctu testudo nataret: ver. 113. Littore ab oceano Gallis venientibus Fortin. night-founder'd Skiff] 204. Hume. Some little boat, whofe pilot dares not proceed in his courfe for fear of the dark night; a metaphor taken from a founder'd horfe that can go no further. Dr. Bentley reads nigh-founder'd; but the common reading is better, because if (as the Doctor fays) foundering is finking by a leaking in the fhip, it would be of little ufe With fixed anchor in his fkaly rind Moors by his fide under the lee, while night So ftretch'd out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay ufe to the pilot to fix his anchor on an iland, the skiff would fink notwithstanding, if leaky. By nightfounder'd Milton means overtaken by the night, and thence at a lofs which way to fail. That the poet fpeaks of what befel the pilot by night, appears from ver. 207. while night invefts the fea. Milton, in his poem call'd the Mask, uses the fame phrafe: the two brothers having loft their way in the wood, one of them fays, - for certain Either fome one, like us, nightfounder'd here, &c. Pearce. 205.—as fea-men tell,] Words 205.— as fea-men tell,] Words well added to obviate the incredibility of cafting anchor in this manner. Hume. That fome fifhes on the coast of Norway have been taken for ilands, I fuppofe Milton had learned from Olaus Magnus and other writers; and it is amply confirm'd by Pontoppidan's defcription of the Kraken in his account of Norway, which are authorities fufficient to justify a poet, though perhaps not a natural hiftorian. 207. Moors by his fide under the lee,] Anchors by his fide under wind. Mooring at fea is the And laying out of anchors in a proper place for the fecure riding of a hip. The lee or lee-shore is that on which the wind blows, so that to be under the lee of the fhore is to be close under the weather shore or under wind. See Chambers's Dict. An inftance this among others of our author's affectation in the ufe of technical terms. 207. --while night Invefts the fea,] A much finer expreffion than umbris nox operit terras of Virgil, Æn. IV. 352. But our author in this (as Mr. Thyer remarks) alludes to the figurative defcription of night ufed by the poets, particularly Spenfer. Faery Queen. B. 1. Cant. 11. St. 49. By this the drooping day-light 'gan to fade, And yield his room to fad fucceeding night, Who with her fable mantle 'gan to fbade The face of earth. Milton alfo in the fame taste speaking of the moon, IV. 609. And o'er the dark her filver mantle threw. 209. So ftretch'd out buge in length the Arch-Fiend lay] The length of this verfe, confifting of And high permiffion of all-ruling Heaven Left him at large to his own dark designs, Heap on himself damnation, while he fought 215 How all his malice ferv'd but to bring forth On Man by him feduc'd, but on himself roll'd fo many monofyllables, and pronounc'd fo flowly, is excellently adapted to the fubject that it would defcribe. The tone is upon the first fyllable in this line, the Ar'chFiend lay; whereas it was upon the laft fyllable of the word in ver. 156. th' Arch-Fiend reply'd; a liberty that Milton fometimes takes to pronounce the fame word with a different accent in different places. We fhall mark fuch words as are to be pronounced with an accent different from the common use. 221. Forthwith upright he rears &c.] The whole part of this great enemy of mankind is filled with fuch incidents as are very apt to In raife and terrify the reader's imagination. Of this nature is his being the firft that awakens out of the general trance, with his pofture on the burning lake, his rifing from it, and the defcription of his shield and fpear. To which we may add his call to the fallen angels, that lay plunged and ftupified in the fea of fire. He call'd fo loud that all the hollow deep Of Hell refounded. But there is no fingle paffage in the whole poem worked up to a greater fublimity, than that wherein his perfon is defcribed in those celebrated lines, He |