pane igte sie miracula forma, &c. free, be mentions the first time of his falling 10 11 12 in somme schle walks, in or about London; was sudWIEN NT bai ne mocetinity of declaring his affection and gaining MARADTAK vistes to see ler again, and flatters his imagination dastus Fre of his Indian Sonnets, and his Canzone, are ir Lever Baroni,] a young lady whom he had was a tree Latin epigrams. But these were in an a much later and cooler period, when he wrote - pressed at east a remembrance of the various xum These exquisite lines, ver. 155 to ver. 169, were 41 at poet has given more graceful and attractive L'aa is ques portraits of Eve, each in a new aspect and Tema mcevy eð mið 39] get badges to approach. -Cres. Proh, et O1.91 :— A secur meri virtus, pulcherque severo See also Paraise Los”). 1. 434 32-DexSTER Pure N Cua remek ve “we axenten of beauty in Solomon's Song," ch. vi. 4: Thou are yalibi, O my love, s T, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army a Shë ta reture, and, in retiring, draw Berra de M In the same manner. Moon, in his descrpoon of Eve, Paradise Lost," b. viii. 504 : Nicodemus, not setrusive, but retired, Smoothing the rugged brow of night.—DUNSTER. iDraw out with credulous desire. This beautiful expression was formed partly upon Horace, Od. iv. i. 30— Spes animi credula mutui: and partly, as Mr. Thyer thinks, from a passage in the "Andria" of Terence, a. iv. s. 1 :— Non tibi satis esse hoc visum solidum est gaudium, Nisi me lactasses amantem, et falsa spe produceres?-NEWTON. At will the manliest, resolutest breast, To whom quick answer Satan thus return'd: Thou thyself doat'st on womankind, admiring False titled sons of God', roaming the earth, 170 175 Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men, 180 And coupled with them, and begot a race. "Credulous" might have been suggested by an ode of Horace, which Milton himself has translated: Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea; As the magnetick, &c. It should be the magnet, or magnetic stone. But Milton often converts the adjective, and uses it as the substantive.-NEWTON. Lucian bath this simile in his "Imagines," vol. ii. p. 2, ed. Græv. :-" But if the fair one once look upon you, what is it that can get you from her she will draw you after her at pleasure, bound hand and foot, just as the loadstone draws iron." We may observe, that Milton, by restraining the comparison to the power of beauty over the wisest men and the most stoical tempers, hath given it a propriety which is lost in a more general application. -CALTON. Claudian, having very poetically described the powers of the magnet, concludes his "Idyllium," in a manner that possibly might have suggested to Milton some of the preceding lines:— Quæ duras jungit concordia mentes? Flagrat anhela silex, et amicam saucia sentit Before the flood thou with thy lusty crew, It is to be lamented that our author has so often adopted the vulgar notion of the angels having commerce with women, founded upon that mistaken text of Scripture, Gen. vi. 2 : "The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." See "Paradise Lost," b. iii. 463, &c. But though he seems to favour that opinion, as we may suppose, to embellish his poetry; yet he shows elsewhere that he understood the text rightly, of the sons of Seth, who were the worshippers of the true God, intermarrying with the daughters of wicked Cain, "Paradise Lost," b. xi. 621. 625.-NEWTON. I Have we not seen, or by relation heard. This passage is censured by Dr. Warburton, as suiting only the poet speaking in his own person; but surely there is no impropriety in the arch-fiend's being well acquainted with the fables of the heathen mythology, and the amours and adventures of their gods, or, In courts and regal chambers how thou lurk'st, In wood or grove, by mossy fountain side, In valley or green meadow ", to way-lay Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene, Or Amymone, Syrinxo, many more Too long; then lay'st thy scapes on names adored, 283 (according to Milton's system) his own infernal compeers. If we censure this passage, we must still more decisively condemn one in the fourth book; where, in answer to Satan's speech, describing, while he shows it, the splendour of Imperial Rome, our Lord, taking up the subject, carries on the description to the luxurious way of living among the Romans of that time, with this verse in a parenthesis, For I have also heard, perhaps have read-DUNSTER. n In wood or grove, by mossy fountain side, In valley or green meadow. Thus in Shakspeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream," Puck, speaking of Oberon and Titania, says: And now they never meet in grove or green, By fountain clear, &c.-Dunster. Calisto, Clymene, Daphne, or Semele, Antiopa, Or Amymone, Syrinx. All these mistresses of the gods might have been furnished from Ovid, our author's favourite Latin poet.-DUNSTER. Too long. P Many more A concise way of speaking for "many more too long to mention." The author had used it before, "Paradise Lost," b. iii. 473. Indeed more would have been " too long,” and it would have been better if he had not enumerated so many of the loves of the gods. These things are known to every school-boy, but add no dignity to a divine poem; and in my opinion are not the most pleasing subjects in painting any more than in poetry. -NEWTON. Poetry, as strictly discriminated from prose, may be defined, elevated and ornamented language. Among the most allowed modes of elevating and decorating language, independent of metrical arrangement, mythological references and allusions, and classical imitations hold a principal place. A poet precluded from these would be miserably circumscribed; and might with equal or better effect relate the fable which he imagines, the historic facts which he records, or the precepts which he lays down, in that species of language which asks no ornaments but purity and perspicuity. A divine poem certainly requires to be written in the chastest style, and to be kept perfectly free from the glare of false ornament: but it must still be considered that the great reason of exhibiting any serious truths, and especially the more interesting facts of religious history, through the medium of poetry, is thereby more powerfully to attract the attention. Poetry, to please, must continue to be pleasing. In the beauty and propriety of his references and allusions, the poet shows the perfection of his taste and judgment, as much as in any other circum stance whatever; and Milton has eminently distinguished himself in this respect. How beautifully has he sprinkled his " Paradise Lost" with the flowers of classic poetry, and the fictions of Greek and Roman mythology! And he has done this with so judicious a hand, with a spirit so reverent, that the most religiously delicate ear cannot but be captivated with it. I confess my surprise that Dr. Newton does not see the passage before us in this light. It appears to me not only in the highest degree justifiable, but absolutely as one of those loci laudandi which the best critics ever delight to exhibit from the works of the more eminent poets. Milton here admirably avails himself of the fabulous amours of the heathen deities he transfers them to the fallen angels, and to Belial and "his lusty crew:" and by the judicious application of these disgraceful tales, he gives them a propriety which they never before possessed; he furnishes even the school-boy with a moral to the fable which he has been reading; and recalls to maturer minds the classical beauty of these fabulous descriptions, which at once relieve and adorn his divine poem.-Dunster. Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan', Satyr, or Faun, or Sylvan? But these haunts How many have with a smile made small account All her assaults, on worthier things intent! V Of honour, wealth, high fare, aim'd not beyond 4 Thy scapes. This is a Gallicism, échappée, a prank or frolic.-Dunster. Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan. 193 195 200 205 Calisto, Semele, and Antiopa, were mistresses to Jupiter; Clymene and Daphne, to Apollo; and Syrinx, to Pan. Both here and elsewhere, Milton considers the gods of the heathens as demons or devils. Thus, in the Septuagint version of the Psalms, Пávτes oi Beol Tüv 20vŵr dauóvia, Psalm xcvi. 5, and likewise in the Vulgate Latin, “Quoniam omines Dii gentium dæmonia." And the notion of the demons having commerce with women in the shape of heathen gods is very ancient, and is expressly asserted by Justin Martyr, "Apol." i. p. 10, and 33, edit. Thirlbii.-NEWTON. Remember that Pellean conquerour, &c. Alexander the Great was born at Pella in Macedonia: his continence and clemency to Darius's queen and daughters, and the other Persian ladies whom he took captive after the battle of Issus, are commended by the historians: "Tum quidem ita se gessit, ut omnes ante eum reges et continentia et clementia vincerentur: virgines enim regias excellentis formæ tam sancte habuit, quam si eodem quo ipse parente genitæ forent: conjugem ejusdem, quam nulla ætatis suæ pulchritudine corporis vicit, adeo ipse non violavit, ut summam adhibuerit curam, ne quis captivo corpori illuderet," &c., Quint. Curt. lib. iii. cap. 9. He was then a young conqueror, of about twenty-three years of age; "a youth," as Milton expresses it.-NEWTON. See Juvenal, sat. x. 168: Unus Pellæo juveni non sufficit orbis.-Dunster. How all the beauties of the East He slightly view'd, and slightly overpass'd. Alexander, we know from history, did not "slightly overpass all the beauties of the East."-DUNSTER. u How he, surnamed of Africa, dismiss'd, In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid. The continence of Scipio Africanus at the age of twenty-four, and his generosity in restoring a beautiful Spanish lady to her husband and friends, are celebrated by Polybius, Lavy, Valerius Maximus, and various other authors.-NEWTON. Thence to the bait of women, &c. This remark, applied by Satan to Solomon, the example cited by Belial, induces me to notice the description of Belial by Wierus, "Pseudomonarchia Dæmonum," edit. Basil. 1582, P. 919. "Sunt quidam necromantici, qui asserunt ipsum Salomonem, quodam die astutia cujusdam mulieris seductum, orando se inclinasse versus simulacrum Belial nomine," &c. Wierus doubts this particular circumstance. But see 1 Kings, xi. 1—8. and Par. Lost," b. i. 401, and the present book, ver. 169.—TODD. chy has also the immetaz expresija, de eve of desire." in Prometh." ver. 655.-DreTER. These words look as if the poet had forgot himself, and spoke in his own person rather than in the character of Satan.-NEWTON. * One look from his majestick brow, Beated as on the top of Virtue's kill. Here is the construction that we so often meet with in Milton: from his majestick brow," that is, from the majestic brow of him seated as on the top of Virtue's hill: and the expression of "Virtue's hill," was probably in allusion to the rocky eminence on which the Virtues are placed in the Table of Cebes; or the arduous ascent up the hill, to which Virtue is represented pointing in the best designs of the judgment of Hercules.— NEWTON. Milton's meaning here is best illustrated by a passage in Shakspeare, which most probably he had in his mind. Hamlet, in the scene with his mother, pointing to the picture of his father, says, See what a grace was seated on this brow! An eye like Mars to threaten or command, &c. See also "Love's Labour's Lost," a. iii. s. 4. "Greatness, nobleness, authority, and awe," says Bentley, "are by all Greek and Latin poets placed in the forehead." See "Par. Lost," b. vii. 509. ix. 538. And Spenser's Belphœbe : Her ivory forehead, full of bounty brave, |
