Grew darker at their frown, fo match'd they stood; To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds Fast by Hell gate, and kept the fatal key, 720 725 O Father, what intends thy hand, fhe cry'd, Se vediste infieme mai fcontrar Da Levante a Ponente al ciel di- Cofi proprio s'urtar quei dua ba- Pour down a tempeft by the Caf pian fhore. 722. fo great a foe:] Jefus Chrift who (as it follows ver. 734-) 715.-Heav'n's artillery] Thun- will one day deftroy both Death der. Juv. Sat. XIII. 9. Quicquid habent telorum arma- 716. Over the Cafpian, ] That and him that has the power of death that is the Devil, Heb. II. 14. And fo Fairfax, in Taffo, Cant. 6. fenfe of the words, they must be St. 38. read with a note of interrogation. 737. Se For him who fits above and laughs the while Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids; She fpake, and at her words the hellish peft 735 Forbore, then these to her Satan return'd. So ftrange thy outcry, and thy words fo strange 740 What it intends; till firft I know of thee, 745 T'whom thus the portrefs of Hell gate reply'd. Haft thou forgot me then, and do I feem 737. So frange thy outcry, and So thy words fo frange] The change in the pofition of the words fo frange in this verfe has a peculiar beauty in it, which Dr. Bentley's alteration of the latter frange into new utterly destroys. Of ftrange thy outcry, and thy words fo new. How flat, lifelefs, and unharmonious, compar'd with the common reading! 758. Out of thy head I Sprung: ] Sin is rightly made to fpring out of Of all the Seraphim with thee combin'd In bold confpiracy against Heav'n's king, 750 Surpris'd thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum 760 A growing burden. Mean while war arose, And fields were fought in Heav'n; wherein remain'd (For of the head of Satan, as Wisdom or Minerva did out of Jupiter's: and Milton defcribes the birth of the one very much in the fame manner, as the ancient poets have that of the other, and particularly the author of the hymn to Mi nerva vulgarly afcribed to Homer. And what follows feems to be an hint improv'd upon Minerva's being ravish'd foon after her birth by Vulcan, as we may learn from Lucian. Dial. Vulcani & Jovis, & De Domo. 771.-the (For what could elfe?) to our almighty foe Clear victory, to our part lofs and rout 770 Through all the empyréan: down they fell I alfo; at which time this pow'rful key with charge to keep 775 Into my hand was giv'n, These gates for ever fhut, which none can pass. Alone, but long I fat Without my opening. Penfive here I fat not, till my womb Pregnant by thee, and now exceffive grown Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes. 771. the empyrean:] It is fomewhat remarkable that tho' the words emtyreal and empyrean are both fpelt in the fame manner, yet Milton confiantly pronounces emPyreal with the accent upon the third fyllable from the end, and empyrean with the accent upon the fecond. I once imagin'd that he did it to distinguish the fubftantive from the adjective; but I find one inftance where he uses the word empyrean as an adjective, and yet gives it the fame accent as when he makes it a fubstantive, X. 321. The confines met of empyréan Heaven. 780 Tore Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain: I Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew Transform'd: but he my inbred enemy Forth iffued, brandishing his fatal dart 785 Made to deftroy: I fled, and cry'd out Death; From all her caves, and back refounded Death. net These yelling monfters, that with ceaseless cry 1795 Surround me, as thou faw'ft, hourly conceiv'd ...T And Infonuere cavæ, gemitumque de- only Death is made the laft word in dere cavernæ. Hume. the fentence, and Eurydice for the fake of the verfe the firft. There is the like repetition in Ecl. VI. 43. His adjungit, Hylan nautæ quo fonte relictum Clamaffent; ut littus, Hyla, Hyla, omne fonaret. 796. as thou fawft,] One would think it fhould be as thou feeft; but we muft fuppofe that now at this time these monsters were crept into her womb, and lay there unfeen, |