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Miftruftful, grounds his courage on despair

And utter diffolution, as the scope

Of all his aim, after fome dire revenge.

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First, what revenge? the tow'rs of Heav'n are fill'd With armed watch, that render all access Impregnable; oft on the bord'ring deep Incamp their legions, or with óbfcure wing Scout far and wide into the realm of night, Scorning surprise. Or could we break our way By force, and at our heels all Hell fhould rife With blackest infurrection, to confound Heav'n's pureft light, yet our great enemy All incorruptible would on his throne Sit unpolluted, and th' ethereal mold Incapable of ftain would foon expel Her mischief, and purge off the bafer fire

from the known profeffion of the ancient Sophifts, Tor λoyou rov τίω κρετίω ποιείν, Bentley.

124.-in fact of arms,] Dr. Heylin fays it is from the Italian Fatto arme a battel; or else we fhould read here feats of arms, as in ver.

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with feats of arms

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From either end of Heav'n the and ftrange fire. welkin burns.

151. Devoid

Victorious. Thus repuls'd, our final hope
Is flat defpair: we must exafperate
Th'almighty victor to spend all his rage,
And that must end us, that must be our cure,

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To be no more; fad cure; for who would lofe,

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Though full of pain, this intellectual being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity,
To perish rather, fwallow'd up and lost
In the wide womb of uncreated night,
Devoid of fenfe and motion? and who knows,
Let this be good, whether our angry foe

Can give it, or will ever? how he can

Is doubtful, that he never will is fure.
Will he, fo wife, let loofe at once his ire,
Belike through impotence, or unaware,
To give his enemies their wifh, and end

151. Devoid of fenfe and motion?] Dr. Bentley reads Devoid of fenfe and action: but motion includes action. Mr. Warburton is of opinion, and fo likewife is the learned Mr. Upton in his Critical Obfervations upon Shakespear, that it fhould be read Devoid of fenfe and motion: but the common reading feems better, as it is ftronger and expreffes more; they fhould be deprív'd not only of all fenfe but of

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Them in his anger, whom his anger faves
To punish endless? Wherefore cease we then?
Say they who counsel war, we are decreed,
Referv'd, and deftin'd to eternal woe;
Whatever doing, what can we fuffer more,
What can we suffer worfe? Is this then worst,
Thus fitting, thus confulting, thus in arms?

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What when we fled amain, purfued and ftruck 165
With Heav'n's afflicting thunder, and besought
The deep to shelter us? this Hell then feem'd
A refuge from thofe wounds: or when we lay
Chain'd on the burning lake? that sure was worse.
What if the breath that kindled thofe grim fires, 170
Awak'd should blow them into fev'nfold rage,
And plunge us in the flames? or from above
Should intermitted vengeance arm again

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His red right hand to plague us? what if all
Her ftores were open'd, and this firmament

Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire,
Impendent horrors, threatning hideous fall
One day upon our heads; while we perhaps
Defigning or exhorting glorious war,
Caught in a fiery tempeft fhall be hurl'd

Each on his rock transfix'd, the fport and prey
Of wracking whirlwinds, or for ever funk
Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains;
There to converfe with everlafting groans,

Unrefpited, unpitied, unrepriev'd,

Ages of hopeless end? this would be worse.

War therefore, open or conceal'd, alike

174. His red right hand] So Horace fays of Jupiter rubente dextera. But being spoken of Vengeance, it must be her right hand, as in the next line her flores. Bentley, There is fomething plaufible and ingenious in this obfervation: but by his feems to have been meant God's, who is mention'd fo often in the courfe of the debate, that he might very well be understood without being nam'd; and by her ftores in the next line, I fuppofe, are meant Hell's, as mention is made afterwards of her cataracts of fire.

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180

185

My

180. Caught in a fiery tempeft fball be burl'd

Each on his rock transfix'd,] Borrow'd of Virgil in his defcription of the fate of Ajax Oileus, n. 1. 44, 45.

Illum expirantem transfixo pectore
flammas
Turbine corripuit, fcopuloque in-
fixit acuto. Hume.

181. the sport and prey Of wracking whilwinds,] Virg. Æn. VI. 75.

rapidis ludibria ventis.

185. Un

My voice diffuades; for what can force or guile
With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye
Views all things at one view? he from Heav'n's highth
All these our motions vain fees and derides;
Not more almighty to refift our might

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Than wife to fruftrate all our plots and wiles.
Shall we then live thus vile, the race of Heaven
Thus trampled, thus expell'd to fuffer here
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Chains and thefe torments? better these than worfe
By my advice; fince fate inevitable

Subdues us, and omnipotent decree,
The victor's will. To fuffer, as to do,
Our ftrength is equal, nor the law unjuft
That so ordains: this was at firft refolv❜d,

185, Unrefpited, unpitied, unre

priev'd] This way of introducing feveral adjectives beginning with the fame letter without any conjunction is very frequent with the Greek tragedians, whom our author I fancy imitated. What ftrength and beauty it adds needs not be mention'd. Thyer.

190.-be from Heav'n's highth All these our motions vain fees and

derides;] Alluding to Pfal. II. 4. He that fitteth in the Heavens ball laugh, the Lord fhall have them in derifion. Nor let it pass unob

200

If

ferved that this is conftantly Milton's way, and the true way of fpelling highth, and not as commonly height, where what the e has to do or how it comes in it is not eafy to apprehend.

199. To fuffer, as to do,] Et facere, et pati. So Scævola boasted. that he was a Roman, and knew as well how to fuffer as to act. Er facere et pati fortia Romanum eft. Liv. II. 12. So in Horace, Od. III. XXIV. 43. Quidvis et facere et pati.

220. This

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