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longs in length and 1000 in compass, between the ancient mountain Casius and Damiata a city of Egypt on one of the more eastern mouths of the Nile. It was surrounded on all sides by hills of loose sand, which carried into the water by high winds so thickened the lake, as not to be distinguished from part of the continent, where whole armies have been swallowed up. Read Herod. 1. iii. and Luc. Phar. viii. 539, &c.

603.tbence burried back to fire.] This circumstance of the damned's suffering the extremes of heat and cold by turns is finely invented to aggravate the horror of the description. There is a fine passage likewise in Shakespear, where the punishment after death is supposed to consist in extreme heat or extreme cold; but these extremes are not made alternate, and to be suffered both in their turns, as Milton has described them, and thereby has greatly refined and improved the thought. Measure for Measure, act iii. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;

This sensible warm motion to become

A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside

In thrilling regions of thick ribbed ice, &c.

609. and so near the brink;] This is added as a farther aggravation of their misery, that though they were so near the brink, so near the brim and surface of the water, yet they could not taste one drop of it. Of itself the water flies their taste, and serves only to tantalize them. This is a fine allegory to shew that there is no forgetfulness in Hell. Memory makes a part of the punishment of the damned, and reflection but increases their misery.

621. Rocks, caves, &c.] How exactly is the tediousness and difficulty of their journey painted in this passage; and particularly in this rough verse, which necessarily takes up so much time and labour in pronouncing! Greenwood.

628. Gorgons, and Hydra's, and Chimera's dire.] Our author fixes all these monsters in Hell, in imitation of Virgil. Æn. vi. 287.

634. Now shaves with level wing the deep,] Alluding to the swallow who skims just over the surface of the water without seeming to move her wings.

636. As when far off at sea, &c.] Satan tow'ring high is here compared to a fleet of Indiamen discovered at a distance as it were banging in the clouds, as a fleet at a distance seems to do. Milton in his similitudes (as is the practice of Homer and Virgil too) after he has showed the common resemblance, often takes the liberty of wandering into some unresembling circumstances; which have no other relation to the comparison, than that it gave him the hint, and as it were set fire to the train of his imagination. This fleet is a fleet of Indiamen, because coming from so long a voyage, it is the fitter to be compared to Satan in this expedition; and these exotic names give a less vulgar cast to the similitude than places in our channel and in our own seas would have done.

645. And thrice threefold the gates;] The gates had nine folds, nine plates, nine linings; as Homer and the other poets make their heroes shields, to have several coverings of various materials for the greater strength.

648. Before the gates they sat, &c.] Here begins the famous allegory of Milton, which is a sort of paraphrase on that text of the Apostle St. James, i. 15.

The flight of Satan to the gates of Hell is finely imagined. The allegory of Sin and Death is a very finished piece in its kind, when not considered as a part of an epic poem. The genealogy of the several persons is contrived with great delicay; Sin is the daughter of Satan, and Death the offspring of Sin. The incestuous mixture between Sin and Death produces those monsters and Hell-hourds, which from time to time enter into their mother, and tear the bowels of her who gave them birth, These are the terrors of an evil conscience, and the proper fruits of Sin, which naturally rise from the apprehensions of Death.

It will be observed how naturally the three persons concerned in this allegory are tempted by one common interest to enter into a confederacy together, and how properly Sin is made the portress of Hell, and the only being that can open the gates to that world of tortures. The descriptive part of this allegory is likewise very strong, and full of sublime ideas. The figure of Death, the regal crown upon his head, his menace of Satan, his advancing to the combat, the outcry at his birth, are circumstances too noble to be past over

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in silence, and extremely suitable to this king of terrors. need not mention the justness of thought which is observed in the generation of these several symbolical persons; that Sin was produced upon the first revolt of Satan, that Death appeared soon after he was cast into Hell, and that the terrors of conscience were conceived at the gates of this place of torments. The description of the gates is very poetical, as the opening of them is full of Milton's spirit. Addison. Bishop Atterbury declared this allegory to be superior to Homer.

660. Vex'd Scylla bathing in the sea] For Circe having poisoned that part of the sea where Scylla used to bathe, the next time Scylla bathed, her lower parts were changed into dogs, in the sea that parts Calabria, the farthest part of Italy towards the Mediterranean, from the boarse Trinacrian shore, that is from Sicily, which was formerly called Trinacria, from its three promontories lying in the form of a triangle; and this shore may well be called boarse not only by reason of a tempestuous sea breaking upon it, but likewise on account of the noise occasioned by the eruptions of Mount Etna.

655 —the lab'ring moon] The Ancients believed the moon greatly affected by magical practices, and the Latin poets call the eclipses of the moon labores luna. The three foregoing lines, and the former part of this, contain a short account of what was once believed, and in Milton's time not so ridiculous as now. Richardson.

666. The other shape, &c.] This poetical description of Death our author has pretty evidently borrowed from Spenser, Faery Queen, b. vii. cant. vii. st. 46. But after all came Life, and lastly Death, Death with most grim and grisly visage seen. Yet is he nought but parting of the breath, Ne ought to see, but like a shade to ween, Unbodied, unsoul'd, unheard, unseen. 677.- God and his Son except, Created thing nought valued be nor shunn'd ;] This appears at fitst sight to reckon God and his Son among created things, but except is used here with the same liberty as but, ver. 333, and 336, and Milton has a like passage in his prose works, p. 277. Edit. Tol. No place in Heaven and Earth, except Hell.

Thyer.

683.——miscreated] We have been told that Milton first coined the word miscreated, but Spenser used it before him, as Faery Queen, book i. cant. ii. st. 3.

693. Conjur'd against the Highest,] Banded and leagued together against the most High. Of the Latin conjurare, to bind one another by oath to be true and faithful in a design undertaken.

700. False fugitive,] He is here called false because he had called himself a Spirit of Heaven.

Pearce.

708.--and like a comet burned, &c.] But this comet is so large as to fire the length of the constellation Ophiuchus or Anguitenens, or Serpentarius as it is commonly called, a length of about 40 degrees in the artic sky, or the northern hemisphere, and from bis borrid hair shakes pestilence and war. Poetry delights in omens, prodigies, and such wonderful events as were supposed to follow upon the appearance of comets, eclipses, and the like.

Hume.

715 -Heaven's artillery] Thunder. Juv. sat. xiii. 9. Quicquid habent telorum armamentaria coli. 716. Over the Caspian,] That sea being particularly noted, for storms and tempests. So Horace, Od. ii. ix. 2. 722. —so great a foe:] Jesus Christ. Heb. ii. 14.

737. So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange] The change in the position of the words so strange in this verse has a peculiar beauty in it, which Dr. Bentley's alteration of the latter strange into new utterly destroys.

So strange thy outcry, and thy words so new.

How flat, lifeless, and unharmonious, compared with the common reading!

758. Out of thy head I sprang :] Sin is rightly made to spring out of the head of Satan, as Wisdom or Minerva did out of Jupiter's.

786.brandishing his fatal dart] So Virgil of Æneas go.ng to kill Turnus, Æn. xii. 919.

789. From all her caves, and back resounded] An imitation of Virgil, Æn. ii. 53. Ifled and cryed out Death--and back resounded Death.

796.- -as thou saw'st,] One wonld think it should be as thou seest, but we must suppose that now at this time these monsters were crept into her womb, and lay there unseen.

809.- --so fate proncunc'd.] The Heathen poets make Jupiter superior to tate: but Milton with great propriety makes the fallen Angels and Sin here attribute events to fate, without any mention of the Supreme Being.

817. Dear Daughter,] Satan had now learned his lore or lesson, and the reader will observe how artfully he changes his language; he had said before, ver. 745, that he had never seen sight more detestable; but now it is dear daughter, and my fair son.

842. Wing silently the buxom air,] Buxom, vulgarly understood for merry, wanton; but it properly signifies flexible, yielding, from a Saxon word signifying to hend.

868. The Gods who live at ease,] 'Tis Sin who speaks here, and she speaks as an Epicurean. Richardson.

871. Thus saying, from her side, &c.] It is one great part of a poet's art to know to describe things in general, and when to be very circumstantial and particular. Milton has in these lines showed his judgment in this respect. The first opening of the gates of Hell by Sin is an incident of that importance, that every reader's attention must be greatly excited, and consequently as highly gratified by the minute detail of particulars our author has given us. It may with justice be farther observed, that in no part of the poem the versification is better accommodated to the sense.

831. and on their hinges grate harsh thunder,] How much stronger and more poetical is this than Virgil's En. i. 449. 882.-the lowest bottom shook

Of Erebus.] The most profound depth of Hell. 894- where eldest Night

And Chaos, &c.] All the ancient naturalists, philosophers, and poets, hold that Chaos was the first principle of all things; and the poets particularly make Night a Goddess, and represent Night or darkness and Chaos or confusion as exercising uncontrolled dominion from the beginning.

Our author's system of the universe is in short, that the empyrean Heaven and Chaos and darkness were before the creation, Heaven above and Chaos beneath; and then upon the rebellion of the Angels first Hell was formed out of Chaos stretching far and wide beneath; and afterwards Heaven and Earth, another world, banging over the realm of Chaos, und won from bis dominion.

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