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Mifery, uncreated till the crime

Of thy rebellion? how haft thou instill'd

Thy malice into thousands, once upright

270

And faithful, now prov'd false? But think not here To trouble holy reft; Heav'n cafts thee out

From all her confines.

Brooks not the works of violence and war.

Heav'n the feat of blifs

275

Hence then, and evil go with thee along,
Thy ofspring, to the place of evil, Hell,

Thou and thy wicked crew; there mingle broils, Ere this avenging fword begin thy doom,

Or fome more fudden vengeance wing'd from God Precipitate thee with augmented pain. 280 So fpake the prince of Angels; to whom thus The Adversary. Nor think thou with wind

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Of aery threats to awe whom yet with deeds

Thou canst not. Haft thou turn'd the least of these To flight, or if to fall, but that they rise Unvanquish'd, eafier to tranfact with me

285

290

That thou shouldft hope, imperious, and with threats
To chace me hence? err not that fo fhall end
The ftrife which thou call'ft evil, but we stile
The ftrife of glory; which we mean to win,
Or turn this Heav'n itself into the Hell
Thou fableft, here however to dwell free,
If not to reign: mean while thy utmost force,
And join him nam'd Almighty to thy aid,

I fly not, but have fought thee far and nigh.
They ended parle, and both address'd for fight
Unfpeakable; for who, though with the tongue

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Ελπεο δειδιξεσθαι.

289. The ftrife which thou call'
evil,j The author gave it
The ftrife which thou call'ft
hateful.

295

Of

to ver. 262? where Satan is call'd
the author of evil, of evil display'd
in acts of hateful ftrife: and io in
ver. 275. evil go with thee along
I think that hate, ul would
&c.
have been a more accurate expref-
fion, but evil is juftinable. Pearce.

For

298.- -can relate, &c.] The This appears from Michael's words accufative cafe after the verbs relate and liken is fight before menabove, ver. 264. tion'd, and here understood. Thefe afs of hateful firife, hate- who though with the tongue of Angels can relate that fight or to what corSpicuous things on earth can like it,

ful to all. Bentley. But why may not this evil relate

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Of Angels, can relate, or to what things
Liken on earth confpicuous, that may lift
Human imagination to fuch highth

300

Of Godlike pow'r? for likeft Gods they feem'd,
Stood they or mov'd, in ftature, motion, arms,
Fit to decide the empire of great Heaven.
Now wav'd their fiery swords, and in the air
Made horrid circles; two broad funs their fhields 305
Blaz'd oppofit, while expectation stood

In horror; from each hand with speed retir'd,
Where erft was thickeft fight, th' angelic throng,
And left large field, unfafe within the wind
Of fuch commotion; fuch as, to fet forth
Great things by small, if nature's concord broke,
Among the conftellations war were sprung,

310

Two

fo confpicuous as to lift human imagination &c. A general battel is a icene of too much confufion, and therefore the pocts relieve them felves and their readers by drawing now and then a fingle combat between fome of their principal heroes, as between Paris and Menelaus, Hector and Ajax, Hector and Achilles in the Iliad, and between Turnus and Pallas, Æneas and Mezentius, Turnus and Encas in the Æneid: and very fine they are, but fall very fhort of the fub

limity of this defcription. Those are the combats of Men, but this of Angels; and this fo far furpafies them, that one would think that an Angel indeed had related it.

306.-while expectation food In horror;] Expectation is perfonify'd in the like fublime manner in Shakespear, Hen. V. Act II. For now fits expectation in the air. 311. if nature's concord broke, Among the conftellations war were Jprung] The context shows

Gg3

(fays

Two planets rushing from afpéct malign

Of fierceft oppofition in mid fky

314

should combat, and their jarring spheres confound. Together both with next to'almighty arm

Up-lifted imminent, one ftroke they aim'd

That might determin, and not need

repeat,

As not of pow'r at once; nor odds appear'd

In

(fays Dr. Bentley) that Milton gave it warfare inftead of war were. I fuppofe the Doctor to mean that in the common reading there is wanting a copulative particle between the 312th and 313th ve:fes. Now how does the Doctor's alteration mend the matter? Broke and Sprung (he fays) are both participles of the ablative cafe. Suppofe them fo; will there not be wanting in the Doctor's reading a copulative particle between the 311th and 312th verfes, to connect broke and prung? So that the fault of Milton (if it be a fault) is not remov'd from the poem by the Doctor, but only shifted to another verie. We had better keep then the old reading, and allow the poet the liberty of dropping the copulative before the words Two planets, on account of that fire of imagination which was kindled, and the highth of that noble fury with which he was poffefs'd. Pearce.

313. Two planets &c.] Milton feems to have taken the hint of this fimile from that of Virgil, but varied and applied to his fubject

with his ufual judgment. Æn. VIII. 691.

-pelago credas innare revulfas Cycladas, aut montes concurrere montibus altos.

But (as Mr. Thyer obferves) he has leffon'd the grandeur and fublimity of this fimile by tarnishing it with the idle fuperftitious notion of the malignancy of planets in a parti cula afpect or oppofition, as the judicial aftrologers term it.

316. Together both with next to' almighty arm

the paifage fhould be pointed with Uplifted imminent,] So I conceive the comma after imminent, and not after arm, that the words uplifted imminent may be join'd in conitruction with arm, rather than with ftroke or they following. The arm was quite lifted up, and hanging over juft ready to fall. One thinks one fees it hanging almoft like the tone in Virgil, En. VI. 602.

Quos fuper atra filex jam jam lap-
fura cadentique
Imminet affimilis.

321. from

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In might or fwift prevention: but the fword
Of Michael from the armoury of God

Was given him temper'd fo, that neither keen
Nor folid might refift that edge: it met

320

The fword of Satan with steep force to finite
Defcending, and in half cut fheer; nor ftay'd, 325
But with swift wheel reverse, deep entring shar'd

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