His adamantin coat gird well, and each 545 Fit well his helm, gripe faft his orbed fhield, Inftant without disturb they took alarm, 559 555 A while; but fuddenly at head appear'd Do as you have in charge, and briefly touch 546.barb'd with fire.] Bearded, headed, with fire. Of the French barbe, and the Latin barba a beard. Hume. 548.--quit of all impediment;] The carriages and baggage of an army were call'd in Latin impedimenta: and the good Angels are faid to be quit of all impediment in oppofition to the others incumber'd with their heavy artillery. 552.-in hollow cube] Dr. 560 565 Divided, and to either flank retir'd: Which to our eyes discover'd, new and strange, On wheels (for like to pillars most they seem'd, 579 With branches lopt, in wood or mountain fell'd) 575 Brafs, iron, ftony mold, had not their mouths With very little of this kind of wit any where in the poem but in this place, and in this we may fuppofe Milton to have facrific'd to the tafte of his times, when puns were better relifh'd than they are at prefent in the learned world; and I know not whether we are not grown too delicate and faftidious in this particular. It is certain the Ancients practic'd them more both in their converfation and in their writings; and Ariftotle re'commends them in his book of Rhetoric, and likewife Cicero in his treatife of Oratory; and if we fhould condemn them abfolutely, we must condemn half of the good fayings of the greatest wits of Greece and Rome. They are lefs proper indeed in ferious works, and not at all becoming the majefty of an epic poem; but our author feems to have been betray'd into this excefs in great meafure by his love and admiration of Homer. For this account of the Angels jefting and infulting one another is not unlike fome paffages in the 16th book of the Iliad. Eneas throws a spear at Meriones; and he artfully avoiding it, Eneas jefts upon his dancing, the Cretans (the countrymen of Meriones) being famous dancers. A little afterwards in the fame book, Patroclus kills Hector's charioteer, who falls headlong from the chariot, upon which Patroclus infults him for feveral lines together upon his skill in diving, and fays that if he was at fea, he might catch excellent oifters. Milton's jefts cannot be lower and more trivial than thefe; but if he is like Homer in his faults, let it be remember'd that he is like him in his beauties too. And Mr. Thyer farther obferves, that Milton is the lefs to be blam'd for this panning fcene, when one confiders the characters of the fpeakers, fuch kind of infulting wit being moft peculiar to proud contemptuous Spirits. 574. Or hollow'd bodies &c.] We must carefully preferve the parenthefis With hideous orifice gap'd on us wide, Portending hollow truce: at each behind Not long, for fudden all at once their reeds. With renthefis here, as Milton himself has put it. The construction then will be, Which to our eyes difcover'd a triple row of pillars laid on wheels, of brass, iron, ftony mold or fubftance, had not their mouths gap'd wide, and fhow'd that they were not pillars; the intermediate words containing a reason why he call'd them pillars (for like to pillars moft they feem'd or hollow'd bodies &c.) being included in a parenthesis. 576. Brafs, iron, foxy mold.] Mold here fignifies fubitance as in II. 355. but Dr. Bentley by reading caft in mold changes the fenfe of it to one of a very different nature. By this emendation (he fays) he has rid the poem of fione cannon: but fuch cannon have been heard of elsewhere, and are now to be feen (I think) at Delft in Holland. Whether they ever were, or could have been used in war, may be queftion'd: but it is probable that Milton by feeing fuch ftone cannon in foreign countries, was led to mention them here as part of Satan's artillery. Pearce. We read before that thefe Angels digg'd up veins of mineral and flone, ver. 517. and that may account for the brass, iron, ftony substance here. 578. Portending bollow truce:] Here Raphael himself cannot help continuing the pun. 580. Stood waving] This muft certainly be an error of the prefs, occafion'd by flood in the line before or in the line following; but then it is a wonder that Milton did not correct it in his fecond edition. Dr. Bent.ey reads -and in his hand a reed Held waving tipt with fire; and we should fubftitute fome fuch word as this, as it makes better fenfe, as well as avoids the repetition of feed three times fo near together. 586.-deep ! With niceft touch. Immediate in a flame, 584 But foon obfcur'd with smoke, all Heav'n appear'd, roar 590 Imbowel'd with outrageous noife the air, |