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was overborne by Ajax. Satan lighted out of his sun-bright chariot at ver. 103, and according to the Homeric manner is now wounded, and borne (on the shields of Seraphim) back to it, where it was placed out of the range and array of battle. Iliad xiv. 428.

334. --for Spirits that live throughout &c.] Our author's reason for Satan's healing so soon is better than Homer's upon a like occasion, as we quoted it just now. And we see here Milton's notions of Angels. They are vital in every part, and can receive no mortal wound, and cannot die but by annihilation. They are all eye, all ear, all sense and understanding; and can assume what kind of bodies they please. And those notions, if not true in divinity, yet certainly are very fine in poetry; but most of them are not disagreeable to those hints which are left us of these spiritual beings in Scripture.

348. Nor in their liquid texture mortal wound

Receive, no more than can the fluid air :] The same compari. son in Shakespear, Macbeth, act v.

As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air

With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed. 350. All heart they live, all head, all eye, all ear,

All intellect, all sense ;] This is expressed very much like Pliny's account of God. Nat. Hist. 1. i. c. 7. "Quisquis est Deus, si modo est alius, et quacunque in parte, totus est sensus, totus visus, totus auditus, to.us animæ, totus animi, totus sui.”

362. And uncouth pain fled bellowing.] I question not but Milton in his description of his furious Moloch flying from the battle, and bellowing with the wound he had received, had his eye on Mars in the Iliad; who upon his being wounded is represented as retiring out of the fight, and making an outcry louder than that of a whole army when it begins the charge. Homer adds that the Greeks and the Trojans, who were engaged in a general battle, were terrified on each side with the bellowing of this wounded deity. The reader will readily observe, how Milton has kept all the horror of this image, without running into the ridicule of it.

363. Uriel and Raphaël The speaker here is Raphael; and it had been improper to mention himself as a third per

son, and tell his own exploits; but that Adam knew not his

name.

365. Adramelech,] Hebrew, Mighty magnificent king, one of the Idols of Sepharvaim, worshipped by them in Samaria, when transplanted thither by Shalmaneser. 2 Kings xvii. 31. Asmadai, the lustful and destroying Angel Asmodeus, mentioned Tobit iii. 8, who robbed Sara of her seven Husbands; of a Hebrew word signifying to destroy.

371. Ariel and Arioch,] Two fierce spirits, as their names denote. Ariel Hebrew, the lion of God, or a strong lion. Arioch, of the like signification, a fierce and terrible lion. Ramiel Hebrew, one that exalts himself against God.

373. I might relate of thousands, &c.] The poet here puts into the mouth of the Angel an excellent reason for not relating more particulars of this first battle. It would have been improper on all accounts to have enlarged much more upon it, but it was proper that the Angel should appear to know more than he chose to relate, or than the poet was able to make him relate.

382. Illaudable,] Is used here much in the same manner as illaudatus in Virgil.

-Quis aut Eurysthea durum, Aut illaudati nescit Busiridis aras? Georg. iii. 5. And the learned reader may, if he pleases, see a dissertation upon that verse of Virgil in the second book of Aulus Gellius.

396. till that bour &c.] It seems a very extraordinary circumstance attending a battle, that not only none of the warriors on either side were capable of death by wound, but on one side none were capable of wound or even of pain. This was a very great advantage on the side of the good Angels ; but we must suppose that the rebel Angels did not know their own weakness till this hour.

407. Inducing darkness,] He seems here to have copied Horace, Sat. i. v. 9.

-Jam nox inducere terris

Umbras, et cœlo diffundere signa parabat.

413. Cherubic waving fires :] Their watches were Cherubic raving fires, that is Cherubim like fires waving; the Cheru

bim being described by our author, agreeably to Scripture, as of a fiery substance and nature.

415. and void of rest,

His potentates to council call'd by night ;] So Agamemnon, the Grecians being defeated by Hector, calls a council of the princes and generals by night. Iliad. ix.

418. O now in danger try'd, &c.] This speech of Satan is very artful. He flatters their pride and vanity, and avails himself of the only comfort that could be drawn from this day's engagement, thatGod was neither so powerful nor wise as he was taken to be. He was forced to acknowledge that they had suffered some loss and pain, but endeavours to lessen it as much as he can, and attributes it not to the true cause, but to their want of better arms and armour, which he therefore proposes that they should provide themselves withal, to defend themselves and annoy their enemies.

447. Nisroch,] A God of the Assyrians, in whose temple at Nineveh Sennacherib was killed by his two Sons, 2 Kings xix. 37; and Isaiah xxxvii. 37. It is not known who this God Nisroch was. The Seventy call him Meserach in Kings, and Nasarach in Isaiah; Josephus calls hir Araskes. He must have been a principal idol, being worshipped by so great a prince, and at the capital city, Nineveh; which may justify Milton in calling him of principalities the prime.

462.- -the worst

Of evils,] Nisroch is made to talk agreeably to the senti ments of Hieronymus, and those philosophers who maintained that pain was the greatest of evils; there might be a possibility of living without pleasure, but there was no living in pain. A notion suitable enough to a deity of the effeminate Assyrians.

482.-the deep] It is commonly used for Hell, but here is only opposed to surface, ver. 472; and is the same as deep under ground, ver. 478, which may likewise explain the word infernal in the next line. Not but infernal flame may mein flame like that of Hell, Hell having been frequently mentioned before by the Angels, and the idea being well known. 884. Which into hollow, &c.] Which, that is the materials,

ver. 478. These, ver. 482, the deep shall yield, which into hollow engines rammed, with touch of fire shall send forth, &c. Hollow engines, great guns, the first invention whereof is

ascribed to the author of all evil.

The effects of artillery have been much less hurtful than a priori reasoners might have apprehended. This furious engine, says Hume, though it seemed contrived for the destruction of mankind, and the overthrow of empires, has in issue rendered battles less bloody, has given greater stability to civil societies. Nations, by its means, have been brought more to a level; success in war has been reduced nearly to a matter of calculation.

520. pernicicus with one touch to fire.] The incentive reed is indeed pernicious as the engines and balls do no mischief till touched by that; but probably pernicious is not to be understood here in the common acceptation, but in the sense of the Latin pernix, quick, speedy, &c.

521.-under conscious night,] Ovid. Met. xiii. 15.

-quorum nox conscia sola est.

527. Of golden panoply,] With golden armour from head to foot completely armed. Panoply from the Greek, armour at all points.

532.-balt:] Milton spells it as the Italians do alto, but we commonly write it with an b like the French and Germans.

533.-in slow.

But firm battalion;] The reason of their being both a slow and firm battalion is suggested a little afterwards. They were slow in drawing their cannon, and firm in order to conceal it, ver. 551.

541. Sad resolution and secure :] By sad here is meant sour and sullen, as tristis in Latin and tristo in Italian signify. Or possibly it means no more than serious or in earnest, a sense frequent in all our old authors. There is a remarkable instance of the use of the word in Lord Bacon's Advice to Villiers Dule of Buckingham; " But if it were an embassy of weight, concerning affairs of state, choice was made of some sad person of known judgment, wisdom, and experience, and not of a young man, not weighed in state mattors," &c.

546.

-barb'd with fire.] Bearded, headed with fire. Of the French barbe, and the Latin barba, a beard.

548. quit of all impediment ;] The carriages and baggage of an army were called in Latin impedimenta: and the good Angels are said to be quit of all impediment in opposition to the others incumbered with their heavy artillery.

568. So scoffing in ambiguous words, &c] We cannot pre. tend entirely to justify this punning scene: but weshall consider that there is very little of this kind of wit anywhere in the poem but in this place, and in this we may suppose Milton to have sacrificed to the taste of his times, when puns were better relished than they are at present in the learned world.

574. Or hollow'd bodies &c.] We must carefully preserve the parenthesis here, as Milton himself has put it. The construction then will be, Which to our eyes discovered a triple row of pillars laid on wheels, of brass, iron, story mould, or sub stance, had not their mouths gaped wide, and showed that they were not pillars; the intermediate words containing a reason why he called them pillars (for like to pillars most they seemed or bollerved bodies &c.) being concluded in a parenthesis.

578. Portending hollow truce:] Here Raphael himself cannot help continuing the pun.

580. Stood waving] This must certainly be an error of the press, occasioned by stood in the line before or in the line following; but then it is a wonder that Milton did not correct it in his second edition. Dr. Bentley reads

-and in his hand a reed

Held waving tip'd with fire;

and we should substitute some such word as this, as it makes better sense, as well as avoids the repetition of stood three times so near together.

586.-deep throated engines] So Shakespear in Othello, act iii. And oh, you mortal engines, whose rude throats

Th' immortal Jove's dread clamours counterfeit. 586.

-zubose roar

Imborvel'd with outrageous noise the air,

And all her entrails tore,] The construction seems to be, The roar of which (engines) embowel'd with cutrageous noise tore the air and all her entrails.

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