530 535 Upon the wing, or in swift race contend, 540 545 Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall By doom of battle; and complain that Fate 550 Free virtue should inthrall to force or chance. Their song was partial, but the harmony (What could it less when Spirits immortal sing?) The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet 555 560 539. Typhoan-Typhons was one of the giants who warred against heaven. 542. Alcides-Hercules, so named from his ancestor Alcæus The allusion here made is familiar to every reader. 555. It has been observed, that Milton has here shewn the superiority of discourse and reasoning to song. he angels who reason are on a hill those who sing are in a valley.-But is should have been observed, at the same time, that it is only when song is what Milton calls partial, or confined to selfish or am bitions themes, that it is thus inferior to. or different fron. high philosophy. Passion and apathy, glory and shame, 565 570 Four ways their flying march, along the banks 575 Into the burning lake their baleful streams; Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon, 580 Far off from these a slow and silent stream, Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 585 590 Her wat'ry labyrinth; whereof who drinks, 577. Milton follows the Greeks in this description of the infernal rivers; but, as usual, improves upon the classical idea, as he represents them as emptying themselves into a vast and fearful lake of fire. Styx, according to its derivation, signifies hate; Acheron, flowing with pain; Cocytus, lamentation; Phlegethon, burning, and Lethe, forgetfulness. 592. Serbonis was a lake two hundred furlongs long, and one thousand round, between Mount Casius and Damiata, a city in Egypt. It was sometimes so covered by the loose sand of the neighbouring hills, as not to be distinguished from the land.See Herod. I. 3. and Lucan. viii. 539. Ecclus. xlii. 20, 595. Frore, frosty.-See Virgil, Georg. i. 93. 21. Ps. cxxi. 6. At certain revolutions, all the damn'd Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, From beds of raging fire to starve in ice 600 Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire. Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, 605 And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose All in one moment, and so near the brink; But Fate withstands, and to oppose th' attempt 610 Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards The ford, and of itself the water flies All taste of living wight, as once it fled The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on In confused march forlorn, th' advent'rous bands 615 No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale 620 Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death, A universe of death, which God by curse Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, Abominable, inutterable, and worse 625 Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceived, 636 Meanwhile the adversary' of God and Man, Satan, with thoughts inflamed of high'st design, Puts on swift wings, and tow'rds the gates of Hell Explores his solitary flight Sometimes He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left, Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars Up to the fiery concave tow'ring high. 635 603. See Job xxiv. in the Vulgate translation.-See also Shak speare Measure for Measure, Act iii. 611. Medusa, one of the Gorgon monsters. As when far off at sea a fleet descry'd Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring 640 Ply stemming nightly tow'rd the pole. So seem'd Far off the flying Fiend: at last appear Hell bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, 646 And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass, Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair, 650 With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 655 660 636. A noble comparison. But Dr. Bentley asks why would not one ship do as well as a fleet! It has been answered, that many ships are a more noble figure than one. This, however, is only the case when so seen at a distance, that they may appear as one grand, dark, and sublime object. Ternate and Tidore are two of the Molucca Islands. 648. This is one of the most sublime passages in, the poem. Addison is generally ingenious in his criticisms, but not elevated, and when he objected to Milton's having introduced an allegory he shews that he was incapable of entering into the magnificent onceptions of his author. Sin and Death are not allegorical Deings in Paradise Lost; but real and active existences. They would have been allegorical, speaking or contending among men, but are not so in an abode of spirits, and addressing the Prince of darkness, see James i. 15. 661. Calabria, the extreme part of Italy towards the Mediter. ranean. Trinacria, an ancient name of Sicily. With Lapland witches, while the lab'ring moon 665 If shape it might be call'd that shape had none Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd, And shook a dreadful dart. What seem'd his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on. 675 Satan was now at hand, and from his seat, Whence and what art thou, execrable shape, 680 685/ 691 To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass, 695 700 665. It was formerly believed that the moon might be affected by incantations. 666. See Spenser, Faery Queen, Book vii. C. 7. 46. 678. The word except is here used with the same latitude as but In ver. 333. 336. 693. Conjured, from the Latin conjurare, to conspire or league together. |