'O sacred name or faithfulness profan'd! 46 Army of fiends, fit body to fit head! "Was this your discipline and faith engag'd— Once fawn'd, and cring'd, and servilely ador'd "But mark what I areed' thee now! Avaunt! 66 Fly thither whence thou fied'st! If, from this hour, "From my prevailing arm; though heaven's King "In progress through the road of heaven star-pav'd." Their phalanx, and began to hem him round 5 Of Ceres, ripe for harvest, waving bends Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind 083 Sways them; the careful ploughman doubting stands, > I decree. A Saxon word. This seems to allude to the chaining of Satan, Rev. xx. 3: "And he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him."—(H.) I think the menaces of Jupiter, II. viii. 12, may also be quoted. Н μεν ελών ρίψω ες Ταρταρον περιεντα. Either in allusion to what Gabriel said, (964,) "who presumes) to set limits to me," as Hume thinks; or, according to Richardson, in allusion to his mean office. Mililet limitanei were soldiers appointed during the Roman empire to guard the frontiers; timilour in Chaucer is a friar restrained to the exercise of his office within certain limits. Psalm xviii. 10: "He rode upon a cherub and did fly." It also alludes to the vision of Ezekiel, (1. 10, II,) where four cherubim are appointed to the four wheels.—(T., N.) /. e. Pointed towards him. Homer has a simile like Ibis, II. ii. 147 : Ως δ' οτε κινήσει Ζέφυρος βαθυ ληϊον ελθων 1010 Lest on the threshing floor his hopeful sheaves Like Teneriff, or Atlas, unremov'd: His stature reach'd the sky, and on his crest 2 Sat Horror plum'd; nor wanted in his grasp What seem'd both spear and shield. Now dreadful deeds In this commotion, but the starry cope At least, had gone to wrack, disturb'd and torn "Satan! I know thy strength, and thou know'st mine; "Neither our own, but given: what folly then "To boast what arms can do! since thine no more "Than Heaven permits; nor mine, though doubled now i Thycr says Milton is indebted for this word "dilated" to Tasso's description of Arganles addressing himself to combat with Tancred, Gier. Liber, xix. 12— "Ha diste$o e eretto 11 fero Argante; " and expresses by it the distension of bis whole person with rage, as in ii. 705. But Dunsler imagines that as Satan here was really alarmed, he only here dilates himself to take the flnest position, and best oppose the foes that encircle him.—"Unremoved," not lo be removed; as "unreproved," (492,) not to be reproved. * Hom. II. iv. 443, describing discord : Ουρανώ εστήριξε καρη, και επι χθονι βαινει. So, En. iv. 177, the same description is applied to Fame. So Book of Wisdom, xviii. 18. Compare the similes in Virgil, Ma. xii. 701, and vii. 785, where the hero is compared to Mount Athos, or Eryx, or Apennine, and where the figure of Chimmra vomits flames on the crest of the helmet. But Milton surpasses all.—(N.) * Thus Homer says, the terrors that must have ensued on a conflict between Jupiter and Neptune would have reached the depth of hell, (II. xv. 24.) Thus, before the combat between Hector and Achilles in the 22d book of the Iliad, and before the combat of Æneas and Turnus, Mn. xii. Jupiter weighs the event in a balance. Thus, (Dan. v. 26,) the king of Babylon is weighed in a balance. But Milton's description has a peculiar beauty by his allusion to the sign Libra. This idea of weighing Ibe creation iirst, and all things since, is very sublime, and conformable to the style of Scripture. See Job xxviii. 25 ; xxxvii. 16; Isai, xl. 12; l Sam. ii. 3; Prov. xvi. 2; Dan. v. 16, 1.—(N., Ad.) All Ibis refers lo Satan exclusively.— Parting," «. e. going off.—(N.) "And read thy lot in yon celestial sign, "Where thou art weigh'd, and shown how light, how weak, "If thou resist." The fiend look'd up and knew His mounted scale aloft: nor more; but fled 1015 Murm'ring, and with him fled the shades of night. i He does not make the ascending scale the sign of victory as in Homer and Virgil, but of lightness as in Dan. y. 27, "Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting." Eustathius observes, that in Homer the descent of the scale to the earth is made a sign of disaster and death, the earth being the place of misfortune and mortality. But in Milton, as Satan was immortal, the sinking of it could not signify death, but the mounting of it did his lightness, conformably to the passage in Daniel. The passages from Homer and Virgil already mentioned are these; II. xiii. 209 : En. xii. 725: : Και τότε δη χρύσεια πατηρ ετιταινε ταλαντα, Εν δ' ετίθει δυο καρε τανηλεγέος θανάτοιο, Ελκε δε μεσσα λαβων ρεπε ο Εκτορος αισιμον ήμαρ, "Jupiter Ipse duas æquato examine lances Quem damnet labor, et quo rerpal pondcre lethum." Here it is to be observed, that Milton differs from Homer and Virgil: in the latter the fates of the two combatants arc weighed, in order to satisfy Jupiter himself and not the parties; and the descent of one of the scales foreshowed the death of the parly whose fate lay in it but in Milton only Satan is weighed, the consequence (or sequel) of his parting or retreating being placed in one scale, and the consequence of bis fighting being placed in the other; and he is weighed, not to satisfy the Almighty, but the contending parties, so that Satan may read his own doom. The scale in which lay the weight that was the sequel of his fighting, by ascending showed him that he was light in arms, and could not be victorious; whereas the other scale, in which was the sequel or consequence of his retreating or parting, by descending showed him that to retreat was his wisest course.—(Pope, P., N.) BOOK V. Morning approached, K\c relates lo Adam her troublesome dream; he likes it not, yet comforts her: they come forth to their day-labours their morning hymn at the door of their bower. God, to render man inexcusable, sends Raphael to admonish him of his obedience, of his free estate, of his enemy near at hand, who he is, and why bis enemy, and whatever else may avail Adam to know. Raphael comes down to Paradise; his appearance described; his coming discerned by Adam afar off, sitting at the door of his bower; he goes out to meet him, brings him to bis lodge, entertains him with the choicest fruits of Paradise got together by Eve; their discourse at table: Raphael performs his message, minds Adam of his state and of his enemy; relates, at Adam's request, who that enemy is, and how he came to be so, beginning from the first revolt in heaven, and the occasion thereof; how he drew his legions after him to the parts of the north, and there incited them to rebel with him, persuading all but only Abdiel a seraph, who in argument dissuades and opposes him, then forsakes him. Now morn, her rosy steps in the eastern clime Lightly dispers'd, and the shrill matin song 2 8 Of birds on every bough. So much the more l As Homer calls the morning "rosy-lingered,” pododazulos, Milton here gives her 66 rosy steps," and (vi. 3,) a "rosy hand." The morn is flrst "gray" (so "gray dawn," vii. 373,) then "rosy" upon the nearer approach of ihe sun. Thyer says this metaphorical expression, "sowed the earth with orient pearl," from the resemblance of dewdrops to scattered pearl seeds, is belter than the phrase in Lucretius, b. ii. 211, “lumine conserit arva," sows the fields with light. Spenser, Fairy Queen, IV. v. 45, uses the expression "pearly dew."—(N.) "Her steps advancing." So Lat. pedem, gradum, promovere.—"Customed," for accustomed. So Lat. tuetut for assuetus. "Which" refers to "sleep." Dispersing sleep is in imitation of Sophocles, Trachin. 1006: Και μη σκεδασαι Τω δ' απο κρατος βλεφαρων θ' ύπνον. "The only sound," i. e. the sound alone. So Fairy Queen, V. xi. 30 .— "As If the only sound thereof she feared." So also vii. 123, "only omniscient," for omniscient alone.—"Fuming." Fumes or steams rise from the water in the morning. So "steaming lake," 186.—"Aurora's fan," i. e. the fanning morning breeze among the leaves. It is not unusual (at least in Greek and Latin) to refer a thing following two substantives to the flrst only of the two—"Shrill matin song of birds," is a translation of a line in Sophocles, Electra xviii. : x x ODEYMAT oprowy expy. Thus Evander is waked in Virgil, Mn. viii. 456 .— "Evandrnm ox humili tecto lux suscitat alma, £1 malulini volucrum sub culmine cantus." 31 His wonder was to find unwaken'd Eve, 66 Her hand soft touching, whisper'd thus: "Awake, Such whisp'ring wak'd her, but with startled eye "0 sole! in whom my thoughts find all repose, "Thy face, and morn return'd; for I this night "(Such night till this I never pass'd) have dream'd,8 And Arminia likewise in Tasso is waked by the sweel noise of birds, winds, and waters; c. vii. St. 5.-N., Th., T.) "Song" is the nominative case to the preceding verb. It is not unusual in the ancient classic authors to place the verb between its various subjects. I think "matin" here means more than morning. Matins were morning hymns; and thus the birds, as it were, now sing their morning prayer. This very thing he expresses, 196, etc. 1 Compare Lucretius, b. i. 36:— "Atque fta suspicions lereti cervlce reposta Pasclt amore avldos, inhians in te, dea, visus; i For this delightful simile Milton was probably indebted to his admired Ben Jonson in his mask of "Love reconciled to Pleasure," 3d song:— "The fair will think you do 'em wrong— Go choose among; but with a mind As gentle, as the stroaking wind Runs o'er the gentler flowers."—[Th.) 3 I cannot but notice that in the conferences between Adam and Eve, Milton had his eye very frequently on Solomon's book of Canticles, in which there is a noble spirit of eastern poetry, and very often not unlike what we meet with in Homer, who is generally placed near the age of Solomon. I think there is no question but, in the first speech, he remembered Ibose two passages. Cant. ii. 10, etc. and vii. 11, 12, which are spoken on a like occasion, and Oilled with the same pleasing images of nature. "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, and the time of the singing of birds is come, etc.; the figtree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes yield a good smell, elc. Let us go up early to the vineyards; let us see whether the tender grapes appear, and the pomegranate bud forth, etc."-4d.) * The prime or best part of day.. So 170, and ix. 200. Primum in Latin is used without its substantive to mean the best or most important part. s The poet, by representing in the foregoing book Satan lying close by the ear of Eve |