"Bullion dross," as one would say gold-dross or silverdross, the dross which arose from the melted metal in refining it. Richardson. 708. As in an organ, &c.] This simile is as exact, as it is new. And we may observe, that our author frequently fetches his images from music more than any other English poet, as he was very fond of it, and was himself a performer upon the organ and other instruments. 711. Rose like an exhalation,] The sudden rising of Pandemonium is supposed, and with great probability, to be a hint taken from some of the moving scenes and machines invented for the stage by the famous Inigo Jones. 712. Of dulcet symphonies] Uttering such "dulcet," and harmonious breath. Shakspeare, Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii. 717. Not Babylon, &c.] Alcairo is the moderm name of Memphis, and not so fit to join with "Belus or Serapis." But though these lines may possibly be faulty, yet that is not authority sufficient for an editor to reject them as spurious. 720. Belus or Serapis] Belus the son of Nimrod, second king of Babylon, and the first man worshipped for a God, by the Chaldeans stiled Bel, by the Phoenicians Baal. Serapis the same with Apis the God of the Egyptians. Hume. 725. Within,] An adverb here and not a præposition; and therefore Milton puts a comma after it, that be joined in construction with "her ample spaces." and blazing cressets fed may not 728 With Naphtha and Asphaltus] A cresset is any great blazing light, as a beacon. Naphtha is of so unctuous and fiery a nature, that it kindles at approaching the fire, or the sun-beams. Asphaltus or bitumen, another pitchy substance. Rich. And the word cresset I find likewise used in Shakspeare, 1 Hen. iv. act iii. Glendower speaks, -at my nativity The front of Heav'n was full of fiery shapes, Of burning cressets. 738. Nor was his name unbeard or unador'd In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land Men call'd bim Mulciber, &c.] Bentley says "this is sare... lessly expressed. Why does he not tell his name in Greece, as well as his Latin name? and Mulciber was not so common a name as Vulcan." Warburton thinks "it is very exactly expressed. Milton is here speaking of a Devil exercising the founder's art; and says he was not unknown in Greece and italy. The poet has his choice of three names to tell us what they called him in the classic word, Hephaestos, Vulcan, and Mulciber, the last only of which designing the office of a founder, he has very judiciously chosen that." 740. and how be fell From Heav'n, &c.] Alluding to these lines in Homer's Iliad, i. 590. Once in your cause I felt his matchless might, Hurl'd headlong downward, from th' ethereal height, Nor, till the sun descended, touch'd the ground; Thesinthians rais'd me on the Lemnian coast. Pope. It is worth observing how Milton lengthens out the time of Vulcan's fail. He not only says with Homer, that it was all day long, but we are led through the parts of the day, from morn to noon, from noon to evening, and this a summer's day. There is a similar passage in the Odyssey, where Ulysses describes his sleeping twenty four hours together, and to make the time seem the longer, divides it into several parts, and points them out distinctly to us, Odyss. vii. 288. All night I slept, oblivious of my pain Aurora dawn'd, and Phoebus shone in vain; Nor till oblique he slop'd his evening ray, Had Somnus dry'd the balmy dews away. Pope. 750. By all his engines,] An ingenious gentleman observes, that this word in the old English was often used for devices, wit, contrivance; as in the glossary to Chaucer and in the statute of Mortmain, 7 Edw. 1. 752.the wing-d heralds] He has given them wings not only as Angels, but to express their speed. Hume. 763. Though like a cover'd field, Cover'd here signifies inclos'd; the field for combat, the lists. The hall of Pan demonium, one room only, is like a field for martial exercise on horseback. Richardson. 754. and at th: Soldan's chair, &c.] Milton frequently affects the use of uncommon words, when the common ones would suit the measure of the verse as well, believing, I suppose, that it added to the dignity of his language. So here he says the Soldan's chair instead of the Sultan's chair, and Panim chivalry instead of Pagan chivalry; as before he said Rhene or the Danaw, ver. 393, when he might have said the Rhine or Danube. Spenser likewise uses the words Soldan and Panim, Faery Queen, b. v. cant viii. st. 26. and other places. 768. As bees, &c.] An imitation of Homer, who com pares the Grecians crouding to a swarm of bees, Iliad ii. 87. As from some rocky clift the shepherd sees Clust'ring in heaps on heaps the driving bees, Rolling, and black'ning, swarms succeeding swarms, With deeper murmurs and more hoarse alarms; Dusky they spread, a close imbody'd croud, And o'er the vale descends the living cloud. Pope. There are such similies likewise in Virgil, Æn. i. 430. Such is their toil, and such their busy pains, As exercise the bees in flow'ry plains; When winter past, and summer scarce begun,! Some lead their youth abroad, &c. Dryden. But our poet carries the similitude farther than either of his great masters, and mentions the bees "conferring their state affairs," as he is going to give an account of the consultations of the Devils. 777. Behold a wonder! &c.] The passage in the cata 1cgue, explaining the manner how Spirits transform themselves by contractions or enlargement of their dimensions, is introduced with great judgment, to make way for several surprising accidents in the sequel of the poem. There follows one, at the very end of the first book, which is what the French critics call marvellous, but at the same time probabie by reason of the passage last mentioned. As soon as the infernal palace is finished, we are told, the multitude and rabble of Spirits shrunk themselves into a small com pass, that there might be room for such a numberless assembly in this capacious hall. But it is the poet's refine ment upon this thought which I most admire, and which is indeed very noble in itself. For he tells us, that notwithstanding the vulgar, among the fallen Spirits, contracted their forms, those of the first rank and dignity still preserved their natural dimensions. Addison. Voltaire is of a different opinion with regard to the con trivance of Pandemonium and the transformation of the Devils into dwarfs; and possibly more may concur with him than with Mr. Addison. See his Essay on Epic Poetry, p. 113, 114. W. Duncombe, Esq. justifies Milton against Voltaire's objections. As to the contrivance of Pandemonium, he thinks it agreeable to the rules of decency and decorum, to provide a saloon for his Satanic Majesty and his mighty compeers (the progeny of Heaven) in some measure adapted to the dignity of their characters: and the description is not inferior to any thing in Homer or Virgil of the like kind. We may farther add, that as Satan had his palace in Heaven, it was more likely that he should have one in Hell likewise; and as he had before harangued the fallen Angels in the open field, it was proper, for the sake of variety as well as for other reasons, that the council should be held in Pandemonium. As to the fallen Angels contracting their shapes, while their chiefs preserved their natural dimensions, Duncombe observes with Addison, that Milton had artfully prepared the reader for this incident by marking their power to contract or enlarge their substance; and Milton seems to have intended hereby to distinguish and aggrandize the idea of the chieftains, and to describe in a more probable manner the numberless myriads of fallen Angels contained in one capacious hall. If Milton had represented the whole host in their enormous sizes, crouded in one room, the fiction would have been more shocking and more unnatural than as it stands at present. These arguments carry some weight with them, and upon these we must rest Milton's defence, and leave the determination to the reader. 780.- like that pigmean race, &c.] There are also several noble similies and allusions in the first book of Pa radise Lost. And here I must observe, that when Milton alludes either to things or persons, he never quits his simile till it rises to some very great idea, which is often foreign to the occasion that gave birth to it. The resemblance does not, perhaps, last above a line or two, but the poet runs on with the hint till he has raised out of it some glorious image or sentiment, proper to inflame the mind of the reader, and to give it that sublime kind of entertainment which is suitable to the nature of an heroic poem. Those, who are acquainted with Homer s and Virgil's way of writing, cannot but be pleased with this kind of structure in Milton's similitudes. I am the more particular on this head, because ignorant readers, who have formed their taste upon the quaint similies and little turns of wit, which are so much in vogue among, modern poets, cannot relish these beauties which are of a much higher nature, and are therefore apt to censure Milton's comparisons in which they do not see any surprising points of likeness. In short, if we look into the conduct of Homer, Virgil, and Milton, as the great fable is the soul of each poem, so to give their works an agreeable variety, their episodes are so many short fables, and their similies so many short episodes; to which you may add, if you please, that their metaphors are so many short similies. If the reader considers the comparisons in the first book of Milton, of the sun in an eclipse, of the sleeping leviathan, of the bees swarming about their hive, of the faery dance, in the view wherein I have here placed them, he will easily discover the great beauties that are in each of those passages. Addison. 783 -sees, Or dreams be sees,] Virg Æn. vi. 454. 785. Sits arbitress,] Arbitress here signifies witness, spectatress. So Hor. Epod. v. 49. 785. -and nearer to the earth] This is said in allu sion to the superstitious notion of witches and faeries having great power over the moon. Virgil. Ecl. viii. 69. 790. Reduc'd their shapes immense, and were at large, &c. Though numberless they had so contracted their dimensions, as to have room enough in the hall. So, xi. 626, "Ere long to swim at large." Richardson. |