1 Pour forth their populous youth about the hive, The suburb of their straw-built citadel, 2 New rubb'd with balm, expatiate, and confer Or dreams he sees; while over head the moon 4 Wheels her pale course; they, on their mirth and dance At once with joy, and fear, his heart rebounds. Reduc'd their shapes immense, and were at large," 791 Though without number still, amidst the hall En. i. 430: Ηίονος προπαροιθε βαθείης εστιχοώντα "Qualls apes æstate nova per florea rura Exercet sub sole labor, cum gentis adultos But Milton carries the similitude farther than either, by mentioning the bees as conferring on their state affairs, as he is going to give an account of the consultations of the devils. -(N.) Ovid, throughout the Fasti, describes the rising and setting of the signs of the zodiac, and expressly mentions the rising of Taurus, v. 603. So Milton (x. 663) speaks of the rising and setting of the fixed stars.-(P.) 1 Geor. iv. 21 : "Quum prima novi ducent examina reges 2 From the verb exspatior, which means, to range at large. So Ov. Met. "equi exspatiantur;" and "flumina exspatiantur." Spatior is used in the same sense. 3 Milton, in order as it were to obviate any objection that may be made to the various metamorphoses of his spirits in the progress of the poem, prepared the reader for a justification (423, etc.) When Satan harangued his spirits to sound their disposition, it was in an ample field, where they appeared very properly in their natural dimensions; but now, when a deliberative council was to be held, the proper place was his own palace; and, from its necessarily limited space, they very properly exercised their power of selfcontraction; but though the main body so contracted themselves, the chiefs are represented as still retaining all their gigantic proportions.-(Add. N.) So Milton represents the bees conferring about their state affairs, not in the open fields, but at their hive. Hor. Ep. v. 49:-"O rebus meis non infideles arbitræ, nox, et Diana." "Nearer to the earth," is in allusion to the superstitious notion of witches and fairies having great power over the moon in bringing it nearer the earth. Virg. Ecl. viii. 69: "Carmina vel colo possunt deducere lunam." (N., H.) I. e. had still room enough. Au large, French.-(Rich.) 798 Of that infernal court. But far within, After short silence then, And summons read, the great consult began. 1 Thus Homer, describing the meeting of the gods in council. II. xx. 10: Έλθοντες δ' ες δώμα Δεος νεφεληγερέταο Ξεστης αιθουσησιν εφίζανον. "Frequent," like frequens sometimes, as Cic. Fam. Ep. 12, "Senatus frequens convenit," means in great numbers."-"Full," means that these numbers filled that part of the hall-as we say, there was "a numerous and full house :" so there is no tautology. BOOK II.' The consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of heaven; some advise it, others dissuade a third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan, to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature, equal, or not much inferior, to themselves, about this time to be created. Their doubt, who shall be sent on this difficult search: Satan their chief undertakes alone the voyage; is honoured and applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several ways, and to several employments, as their inclinations lead them, to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his journey to hell-gates finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them; by whom at length they are opened, and discover to him the great gulf between hell and heaven; with what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, the Power of that place, to the sight of this new world which he sought. 2 High on a throne of royal state, which far 5 Satan exalted sat, by merit rais'd ↑ The persons whom Milton introduces always discover such sentiments as are in a peculiar manner conformable to their respective characters. Every circumstance in their speeches and actions is adapted with great delicacy and judgment to the persons who speak and act. Thus the mock majesty and superior greatness of Satan, his opening and closing the debate, his taking on himself the great enterprise at which the whole assembly trembled, and his boldness and address in the several perilous adventures, are quite in unison with his character.-(Ad.) Spenser, Fairy Queen, I. iv. 8: Again, III. iv. 23 : "High above all a cloth of state was spread, ➖➖➖➖"It did passe The wealth of th' east and pomp of Persian kings." (T.) 3 Ormus is a barren island in the Persian gulf, about 9 miles in circumference, which, while the Portuguese held it, was exceedingly rich, as it was the place where all the trade of India, the principal part of whose wealth was diamonds and precious stones, was then transacted. (P.) "Showers" may be taken either as a metaphor to express great abundance of them, because the eastern kings had the greatest share of property; or is in allusion to the custom at the coronation of many Eastern kings, especially Persian, of throwing golddust and seed pearl on their heads. There is a similar allusion to the custom in Shakspeare, Ant. and Cleop. act ii. "I'll set thee in a show'r of gold, and hail Rich pearls upon thee." The pearl and gold are called barbaric, after the manner of the Greeks and Romans, who called all other nations barbarous. En. ii. 504 : "Barbarico postes auro spoliisque superbi."-(N., P., Warb.) Воок II.] 21 To that bad eminence and, from despair Vain war with Heav'n; and, by success1 untaught, "Pow'rs and Dominions, Deities of heav'n! 2 "For, since no deep within her gulf can hold "Celestial virtues rising will appear "More glorious and more dread than from no fall,3 4 "Me, though just right, and the fix'd laws of heav'n, "Did first create your Leader; next, free choice; "With what besides, in council or in fight, "Hath been achiev'd of merit; yet this loss, "Success" is here used in its pure and original signification, as, simply, "the issue, "the termination of any affair, happy or or termination." Johnson defines the word, unhappy. Success without any epithet is commonly taken for good success." Here it is used for bad success. The termination of the last war, though disastrous to Satan, could not teach him. So line 123. 2" For" refers to the preceding words, and gives the reason why he calls them deities "Deities of heaven, for I give not heaven for lost," (it is your of heaven, not of hell. proper place, and will be yours,) "since," etc. The most important point which Satan wishes to establish, is to impress on his followers the persuasion that they can recover heaven of which they are deities; for on this all their approbation and cooperation would depend. He therefore artfully begins with giving them this assurance, and giving it as a justification for the title he bestows on them. This impassioned mode of commencing a speech, of which there are instances in the best ancient orators, is considered a great rhetorical excellence. Milton represents Satan as commencing in this style, b. i. 317, 318. When he there wishes at once to rouse them up, he says, heaven is lost if they do not shake off their stupefaction; and then with sarcastic irony asks them, did they choose the burning pool as a pleasant resting place? So in the next address, 622, 3, when they were fully collected, and sensible of their terrible condition, he commences by flattering them with a compliment on their prowess, and on having gloriously done their duty; and here, when they are to deliberate on the plan of action, he commences by laying it down as a truth, that within hell they cannot be confined. In each of these speeches the closing part is in admirable accordance with the beginning. Lord Monboddo, says from "for" down to "fate" must be taken as a parenthesis. 3 I. e. they will be more glorious and formidable by rising after such a fall as that, than if they had not fallen at all; and having once so risen, they will have such confidence in themselves as not to fear a second fate. "Me," as being the emphatic word in the sentence, is placed first, and is governed by the following verbs, create and established. Lord Monboddo adduces this passage as a perfect pattern, hardly to be equalled in English, of artificial arrangement, and rhetorical composition, many excellent specimens of which are to be found in the ancient classics. There are two striking examples of it in Horace, iii. Od. iii. 1: "Justum et tenacem propositi virum Non vultus instantis tyranni, Mente quatit solida; neque Auster Dux inquieti turbidus Adriæ, Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus." See also Hor. i. Od. v. : -"Me tabula sacer Votiva paries indicat uvida," etc. 46 "Thus far at least recover'd,1 hath much more "Will envy whom the highest place exposes "Could have assur'd us; and, by what best way, He ceas'd; and next him Moloch, sceptred king," 1 I. e. his loss so far recovered, as that he retained the leadership with unanimous approbation. The words allude to what follows them. 2 So Il. iv. 299 : έρκος εμεν πολεμοιο. 3 Some learned commentators imagine obscurity and difficulty in the syntax here. Dr. Bentley and Dr. Heylyn are for reading the passage with a comma, the words “will covet more" interrogatively, changing "will" into he'll, after "precedence," while they would have a period after "none;" and read thus, "he'll covet more? Dunster, though justly saying that Milton never wrote the passage thus, does not appear to me to have cleared up the difficulty, by the following commentary:-"For there is none sure will claim precedence in hell; there is none whose portion is so small of present pain, that with ambitious mind he will court more." Is must, according to this, be understood grammatically as the verb to which none is the subject; then who must be understood as the nominative to will claim; and he must be understood as the nominative to will covet, while that is made a conjunction. In my judgment the sentence is very plain : the word none being, if not an emphatic repetition of the first none, the nom. te is understood, while the word that is the pronoun who,-"none will claim... there is none who will covet." ↳ Because in heaven superiority of station carrying with it superiority of happiness, may create jealousy against the possessor, and consequently disunion;-not so in hell. Compare Jove's speech to the gods respecting the Titaness, Fairy Queen, VII. vi. 21 :~~ So also II. xi. 7 : --"It now behoves us to advise What way is best to drive her to retire, To assayle with open force or hidden guile. 6 Homer-σκηπτούχος βασιλευς. |