New courage and revive, though now they lie 286 285 He scarce had ceas'd when the fuperior Fiend Was moving tow'ard the fhore; his pond'rous fhield, Ethereal temper, maffy, large and round, Behind him caft; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views Or after all may not the edge of battel be exprefs'd from the Latin acies, which fignifies both the edge of a weapon, and also an army in battel array? The author himself would incline one to think fo by his use of this metaphor in another place, VI. 108. On the rough edge of battel ere it join'd. 282. fall'n fuch a pernicious highth.] Dr. Bentley reads fall'n from fuch prodigious highth: but the epithet pernicious is much ftronger, and as for the want of a præpofition, that is common in this poem; for thus in I. 723. Stood fix'd her ftately highth, And in II. 409. ere he arrive The happy ile? Pearce At evening from the top of Fefolé, 289. Fefolé] Is a city in Tufcany; Valdarno, or the valley of Arno, a valley there. Richardfon. 292. His fpear, to equal which the tallest pine &c.] He walk'd with his fpear, in comparison of which the tallest pine was but a wand. For when Homer Odyff.IX. 322. makes the club of Polyphemus as big as the maft of a fhip, Οσσον θ' ιsoν νησ. and Virgil gives him a pine to walk with, En. III. 659. 299 295 Nath These fons of Mavors bore (inftead of fpears) Two knotty mafts which none but they could lift. Fairfax. well might Milton affign a spear fo much larger to fo fuperior a being, of Norway, barren and rocky, but 293. Norwegian bills] The hills abounding in vaft woods, from whence are brought mafts of the largest fize. Hume. 294. ammiral] According to its German extraction amiral or Trunca manu pinus regit et vefti- amirael, fays Hume; from the Ita gia firmat. and Taffo arms Tancred and Ar- Pofero in refta, e dirizzaro in alto lian ammiraglio, fays Richardfon choice of this, as thinking it of a more probably. Our author made better found than admiral: and in Latin he writes ammiralatûs curia, the court of admiralty. 299. Nath Nathless he fo indur'd, till on the beach Of that inflamed fea he stood, and call'd 299. Nathlefs] Nevertheless, of which it seems to be a contracted diminutive. Hume. This word is frequently used by Spenfer, and the old poets. 302. Thick as autumnal leaves] Virg. Æn. VI. 309. Quam multa in fylvis autumni frigore primo Lapfa cadunt folia. Thick as the leaves in autumn ftrow the woods. Dryden. But Milton's comparison is by far the exacteft; for it not only expreffes a multitude, but also the pofture and fituation of the Angels. Their lying confusedly in heaps, covering the lake, is finely reprefented by this image of the leaves in the brooks. And befides the propriety of the application, if we compare the fimiles themselves, Milton's is by far fuperior to the other, as it exhibits a real landfkip. See An Efay upon Milton's imitations of the Ancients, p. 23. 303. Vallombrofa, ] A famous valley in Etruria or Tuscany, fo 300 305 Hath named of Vallis and Umbra, remarkable for the continual cool fhades, which the vast number of trees that overspread it afford. Hume. 305. when with fierce winds Orion arm'd &c.] Orion is a conftellation represented in the figure of an armed man, and fuppofed to be attended with ftormy Orion. Virg. Æn. I. 539. And the weather, affurgens fluctu nimbofus Red-Sea abounds fo much with fedge, that in the Hebrew Scripture it is called the Sedgy Sea. And he fays bath vex'd the Red-Sea coaft particularly, because the wind ufually drives the fedge in great quantities towards the shore. 306.-whofe waves o'erthrew Bufiris and his Memphianchivalry,] Dr. Bentley throws out fix lines here, as the Editor's, not Milton's: His chief reafon is, That that fingle event of Mofes's paffing the RedSea has no relation to a conftant quality of it, that in ftormy weather it is ftrow'd with fedge. But it is very usual with Homer and Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coaft, whofe waves o'erthrew Bufiris and his Memphian chivalry, While with perfidious hatred they pursued The fojourners of Gofhen, who beheld From the safe shore their floting carcafes 310 And broken chariot wheels: fo thick beftrown Virgil (and therefore may be allow'd to Milton) in a comparison, after they have shown the refemblance, to go off from the main purpose and finish with fome other image, which was occafion'd by the comparison, but is itself very different from it. Milton has done thus in almost all his fimilitudes; and therefore what he does fo frequently, cannot be allow'd to be an objection to the genuinnefs of this paffage before us. As to Milton's making Pharaoh to be Bufiris (which is another of the Doctor's objections to the paffage) there is authority enough for to juftify a poet in doing fo, tho' not an hiftorian: It has been fuppos'd by fome, and therefore Milton might follow that opinion. Chivalry for cavalry, and cavalry (fays Dr. Bentley) for chariotry, is twice wrong. But it is rather twice right: for chivalry (from the French chevalerie) fignifies not only knighthood, but those who use horfes in fight, both fuch as ride on horfes and fuch as ride in chariots drawn by them: Under In the fenfe of riding and fighting on horseback this word chivalry is used in ver. 765. and in many places of Fairfax's Taffo, as in Cant. 5. St. 9. Cant 8. St. 67. Cant. 20. St. 61. In the sense of riding and fighting in chariots drawn by horfes, Milton ufes the word chivalry in Parad. Reg. III. ver. 343. compar'd with ver. 328. Pearce. 308.-perfidious hatred] Because Pharaoh, after leave given to the Ifraelites to depart, follow'd after them like fugitives. Hume. 310. From the fafe fhore their floting carcafes &c.] Much has been faid of the long fimilitudes of Homer, Virgil, and our author, wherein they fetch a compafs as it were to draw in new images, befides thofe in which the direct point of likeness confifts. I think they have been fufficiently juftify'd in the general: but in this before us, while the poet is digreffing, he raises a new fimilitude from the floting carcafes of the Egyptians. Heylin. 328.- with Under amazement of their hideous change. - 315 Warriors, the flow'r of Heav'n, once yours, now loft, If fuch aftonishment as this can feife Eternal Spirits, or have ye chos'n this place Your wearied virtue, for the cafe you find 320 To flumber here, as in the vales of Heaven? 325 330 They heard, and were abash'd, and up they fprung Upon Who pleaseth to read the Devil's Tallo, Cant. 4. from Stanza 919 Stanza Illum expirantem transfixo pectore fpeech to his damned affembly in flammas |