460

Angelick, but more foft, and feminine,
Her graceful innocence, her every air
Of gefture, or least action, overaw'd
His malice, and with rapine fweet bereav'd
His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought:
That space the Evil-one abstracted stood
From his own evil, and for the time remain'd
Stupidly good; of enmity difarm'd,
Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge:
But the hot Hell that always in him burns,
Though in mid Heaven, foon ended his delight,

465

They both alfo agree in making each of them immediately to relapfe into their firft character. Milton;

Taffo;

"then foon

"Fierce hate he recollects,"

"Qui comincia il tirranno a rifdegnarfi:"

It must be owned however, that, notwithstanding this fimilitude of circumstances, the English poet vaftly excels the Italian both in ftrength of fentiments, and beauty of expreffion. It may be further obferved, that there never was a finer or jufter compliment paid to beauty than is here by Milton, as it is not made up of rant and rhapfody as moft of this kind are, but only faying what one may easily imagine might have really happened upon the fight of fo delightful a fcene. THYER.

Ver. 462. His fiercenefs of the fierce intent] Though Dr. Bentley thinks it jejune, yet fuch a repetition is not uncommon in the best poets. Virgil, En. i. 669.

"et noftro doluifti fæpe dolore." NEWTON.

Ver. 468. Though in mid Heaven,] That is, would do though he were in Heaven; or it may be understood as if he were fometimes in Heaven, and juftified by Job i. 6, ii. 1. "There was a day, when the fons of God came to prefent themfelves before

And tortures him now more, the more he fees
Of pleasure, not for him ordain'd: then foon 470
Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts
Of mischief, gratulating, thus excites.
Thoughts, whither have ye led me! with what
fweet

Compulfion thus transported, to forget

476

What hither brought us! hate, not love; nor hope
Of Paradise for Hell, hope here to taste
Of pleafure; but all pleafure to deftroy,
Save what is in destroying; other joy
To me is loft. Then, let me not let pafs
Occafion which now fmiles; behold alone

480

the Lord; and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.” And Satan fpeaks to the fame purpofe in Par. Reg. B. i. 366.

nor from the Heaven of Heavens

“ Hath he excluded my refort fometimes." NEWTON.

Ver. 474.

with what fweet

Compulfion] So, in Arcades, v. 68.

"Such fweet compulfion doth in mufick lie." TODD.

Ver. 478.

other joy

To me is loft.] How exactly does Milton make Satan keep up the character he had affumed in the fourth book, where he fays,

behold alone

The woman, &c.] In the facred drama of Protoplastus, written by Hieron. Zieglerus, and published in 1547, there is a conversation between Lucifer, Belial, and Satan, on the method to be employed in feducing Adam and Eve; when Satan. declines affailing the man, and fays, A. ii. S. iii.

The woman, opportune to all attempts,
Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh,
Whose higher intellectual more I shun,

490

And strength, of courage haughty, and of limb
Heroick built, though of terrestrial mould; 485
Foe not informidable! exempt from wound,
I not; fo much hath Hell debas'd, and pain
Enfeebled me, to what I was in Heaven.
She fair, divinely fair, fit love for Gods!
Not terrible, though terrour be in love
And beauty, not approach'd by stronger hate,
Hate stronger, under show of love well feign'd;
The
way which to her ruin now I tend.
So fpake the enemy of mankind, enclos'd
In ferpent, inmate bad! and toward Eve
Addrefs'd his way: not with indented wave,
Prone on the ground, as fince; but on his rear,

"Heus, non virum tentabimus; mulier erit
"His rebus aptior: viri ingenium, fcio,

"Flecti nequit, frangi poteft muliere duce." TODD.

Ver. 490. Not terrible, though terrour be in love

495

And beauty, not approach'd by stronger hate,] That is, A beautiful woman is approached with terrour, unless he, who approaches her, has a stronger hatred of her than her beauty can beget love in him.

PEARCE.

Something like this, as Mr. Thyer obferves, is in Par. Reg. B. ii. 159, where fee the notes. TODD.

Ver. 496.

indented] Indented is of the fame derivation as indenture, notched and going in and out like the teeth of a faw: And Shakspeare likewife applies it to the motions of a fnake, in As you like it, A. iv. S. iii.

“And with indented glides did flip away." NEWTON.

Circular base of rifing folds, that tower'd

Fold above fold, a furging maze! his head

Ver. 498. Circular base of rifing folds,] As the dragon or ferpent is described by Orpheus, De Lap. Arg. ver. 44.

εἴλυτο δὲ πυκνῶς,

Γιάμπλον εὐκύκλως ταναὴν ράχιν αὐτὰρ ἐπ' ἄλλω

Αλλος, ἔπειτα δ' ἐπ' ἄλλος ελισσομένες τροχός. TODD.

Ver. 499. Fold above fold, &c.] We have the description of fuch a fort of ferpent in Ovid, Met. iii. 32.

"criftis præfignis et auro;

"Igne micant occuli

"Ille volubilibus fquamofos nexibus orbes

cr

Torquet, et immenfos faltu finuatur in arcus:

"Ac mediâ plus parte leves erectus in auras,

"Defpicit omne nemus, &c."

But Milton has not only imitated Ovid, but has ranfacked all the good poets, who have ever made a remarkable description of a ferpent; and the reader may observe some touches very like Grotius's defcription of the fame ferpent, in his tragedy of Adamus Exul:

" oculi ardent duo:

"Adrecta cervix furgit, et maculis nitet
"Pectus fuperbis; cærulis piti notis

"Sinuantur orbes: tortiles fpiræ micant

"Auri colore, &c." NEWTON.

Mr. Bowle cites Taffo's defcription of a ferpent, Gier. Lib. C. xv. ft. 48.

"Innalza d'oro fquallido fquamofe

"Le crefte, e'l capo; e gonfia il collo d'ira:

"Arde ne gli occhi."

The "igne micant," and "ardent oculi," are both expressed, I think, by the word carbuncle: a jewel refembling in its colour, a burning coal. Hence perhaps it is called "the fiery carbuncle," in Sylvefter's Du Bartas, p. 66. In the fame work also Astronomy perfonified is defcribed with "two carbuncles for eyes," p. 291. And "the hellish Pyrrhus," in Hamlet's speech to the

Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes;
With burnish'd neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidft his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape
And lovely; never fince of serpent-kind

500

Players, has " eyes like curbuncles." I find a ferpent thus defcribed in Murtola's Creatione del Mondo, 1608, C. xii. ft. 11. "Come carboni luminofi ardenti

"Gli occhi accefi vibrò l' Anfefibena."

Ver. 504.

TODD.

never fince of ferpent-kind &c.] Satan is not bere compared and preferred to the finest and most memorable ferpents of antiquity, the Python and the reft; but only to the most memorable of thofe ferpents into which others were transformed; and with the greater propriety, as he was himself now transformed into a ferpent. And in this view it is said that none were lovelier, not those that in Illyria chang'd Hermione and Cadmus. This Cadmus together with his wife leaving Thebes in Boeotia, which he had founded and for divers misfortunes quitted, and coming into Illyria, they were both turned into ferpents for having flain one facred to Mars, as we read in Ovid. But the expreffion, thofe that chang'd Hermione and Cadmus, has occafioned fome difficulty. Did thofe ferpents, fays Dr. Bentley, change Hermione and Cadmus ? or were not thefe, who were man and woman once, chang'd into ferpents? And Dr. Pearce replies, We may excuse this as a poetical liberty of expreffion; 'tis much the fame as the criticks have obferved in Ovid's Metam. i. 1. where

'formas mutatas in nova corpora" stand for " corpora mutata in novas formas." In both places the changing is attributed, not to the perfons changed, but to the forms or fhapes into which they were changed. Which chang'd Hermione and Cadmus, that is, into which Hermione and Cadmus were changed. fays, Sat. ii. viii. 49.

"aceto

"Quod Methymnæam vitio mutaverat uvam,"

So Horace

for in quod vitio mutata eft uva Methymnea. If this may be not allowed to pafs, yet I fee no reafon (fays Dr. Pearce) why the