16. Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow;

Thy threatenings cut me through: 17. All day they round about me go,

Like waves they me pursue.

18. Lover and friend thou hast remov'd,

And sever'd from me far:

They fly me now whom I have lov'd,

And as in darkness are*..

65

70

* I will here throw together some of the most striking stanzas in this and the preceding Psalms.

Psal. lxxx. v. 41.

With her green shade that cover'd all,

The hills were over-spread,

Her boughs as high as cedars tall

Advanc'd their lofty head.
Return, O God of Hosts, look down,

From heav'n, thy seat divine;
Behold us, but without a frown,
And visit this thy vine.

Ps. lxxxi. v. 5.

Prepare a hymn, prepare a song,
The timbrel hither bring,
The cheerful psaltery bring along,
And harp with pleasant string.

Ps. lxxxiii. v. 21.

The tents of Edom, and the brood

Of scornful Ishmael,

Moab, with them of Hagar's blood,
That in the desart dwell.

Ibid. v. 41.

As Zeb and Oreb evil sped,
So let their princes speed;
As Zeba and Zalmunna bled,
So let their princes bleed.

Ps. lxxxiii. v. 53.

As when an aged wood takes fire,

Which on a sudden strays,

The greedy flame runs higher and higher,
Till all the mountains blaze:

So with thy whirlwind them pursue,
And with thy tempest chase, &c.

Through sorrow, and afflictions great,
Mine eyes grow dim and dead:
Lord, all the day I thee entreat,
My hands to thee I spread.

Wilt thou do wonders on the dead?
Shall the deceas'd arise,

And praise thee from their loathsome bed,
With pale and hollow eyes? •
Shall they thy loving kindness tell
On whom the grave hath hold?
Or they, who in perdition dwell,
Thy faithfulness unfold?
In darkness can thy mighty hand
Or wonderous acts be known;
Thy justice in the gloomy land
Of dark oblivion ?

Ps. lxxxviii. v. 65.

་

Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow,
Thy threatenings cut me through;

All day they round about me go,
Like waves they me pursue.

T. WARTON.

A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV *.

This and the following Psalm were done by the
Author at fifteen years old.

WHEN the blest seed of Terah's faithful son,
After long toil, their liberty had won;

ances.

* This and the following Psalm are Milton's earliest performThe first he afterwards translated into Greek. In the last are some very poetical expressions: "The golden-tressed sun, God's thunder-clasping hand, The moon's spangled sisters bright," and "Above the reach of mortal eye." T. WARTON.

And past from Pharian fields to Canaan land,
Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand;
Jehovah's wonders were in Israel shown,
His praise and glory was in Israel known.
That saw the troubled Sea, and shivering fled,
And sought to hide his froth-becurled head
Low in the earth; Jordan's clear streams recoil,
As a faint host that hath receiv'd the foil.
The high huge-bellied mountains skip, like rams
Amongst their ewes; the little hills, like lambs.

5

10

Ver. 8. his froth-becurled head] P. Fletcher, Milton's contemporary, has the "sea's proud white-curled head,” Pisc. Ecl. edit. 1633. p. 1. TODD.

Ver. 9.

Jordan's clear streams recoil,

As a faint host that hath receiv'd the foil.] The rhymes are probably from Sylvester, as Mr. Dunster also notices in his "Considerations on Milton's early Reading." See Du Bart. p. 337, edit. 1621.

66

Ay Satan aims our constant faith to foil, "But God doth seal it, never to recoil."

Foil is defeat, a substantive used in the same sense by Harington in his Orl. Furioso, and by Shakspeare repeatedly. The verb, as in v. 65 of the next Psalm, is frequent in Spenser: See Faer. Qu. ii. x. 48, v. xi. 33, vi. 34, &c. And Harington's Orl. Fur. 1607, p. 1. p. 91, &c. The substantive and the verb often occur in Par. Lost. Sandys, like Milton, thus finely employs recoil, Psalm lxxvii.

"The Deeps were troubled at thy sight,

"And Seas recoil'd in their affright." TODD.

Ver. 11. The high huge-bellied mountains] There is a similar compound in the first line of Fuimus Troes, which however was not published till long after Milton's translation was written, viz. in 1633.

"As in the vaults of this big-bellied earth.”

Why fled the ocean? And why skipt the mountains?
Why turned Jordan toward his crystal fountains?
Shake, Earth; and at the presence be aghast
Of Him that ever was, and aye shall last;

15

But perhaps the following extravagant imagery in Sylvester, p. 9, might suggest, to the young poet, the epithet huge-bellied:

"The lowly fields,

"Puft up, shall swell to huge and mighty hils."

Lisle, in his translation of Part of Du Bartas, debases a poetical passage, where he describes the Almighty hearkening to the prayers of Noah and bidding the floods to cease, by a piece of similar bombast, edit. 1625, p. 31.

"Th' Eternall heard their voice, and bid his Triton sound "Retreate vnto the flood: then, waue by waue, to bound "The waters hast away; all riuers know their bankes, "And seas their wonted shore; hils

grow with swelling flanks.” TODD.

Ver. 13. Why fled the ocean? &c.] The original is weakened. The question should have been asked by an address, or an appeal, to the sea and mountains. T. WARTON.

Ver. 15. Shake, Earth; and at the presence be aghast

1

Of Him that ever was, and aye shall last ;] He was now only fifteen! T. WARTON.

The reader will scarcely forbear to notice the emphatick comprehension of Mr. Warton's eulogium. This passage indeed well deserves the most cordial tribute of admiration. It is a noble germ of poetick genius. DUNSter.

Ver. 16. that ever was, and aye shall last ;] The reduplication of aye for ever, Mr. Dunster observes, is in the very opening of Sylvester's Du Bartas; in which aye for ever is indeed most frequent.—But this was the common phraseology of the time. Spenser, Drummond, Harington, and many other poets, afford innumerable instances. I will cite an example of the reduplication from Groue's Songs and Sonnettes, 1587, bl. 1.

"Then aye persist in steadfast faith

"For euer to endure."