Lovelier, not thofe that in Illyria chang'd, 505 Hermione and Cadmus, or the god In Epidaurus; nor to which transform'd conftruction may not be this, not thofe that in Illyria (were) chang'd, viz. Hermione and Cadmus &c. Or perhaps this; not thofe that Hermione and Cadmus chang'd, where chang'd stands for chang'd to; as in B. x. 540, we have the fame way of speaking, -"for what they saw, : 66 They felt themselves, now changing." But, after all these very ingenious conjectures, I conceive the meaning to be as it is expreffed, and the expreffion to be the most proper and appofite that could be. The ferpents chang'd Hermione and Cadmus. The form of ferpents was fuperinduced, but they ftill retained the fame fenfe and memory; and this Ovid fays expreffly, Met. iv. 595 &c. They were therefore still Hermione and Cadmus, though changed, as the Devil was ftill the Devil, though enclosed in a serpent. And thus it may be faid with the greatest propriety, that none of ferpent-kind were lovelier, not thofe that in Illyria chang'd Hermione and Cadmus, or the god in Epidaurus, that is Æfculapius the god of phyfick, who was worshipped at Epidaurus, and, being fent for to Rome in the time of a plague, affumed the form of a ferpent and accompanied the ambaffadours, as the ftory was related in the eleventh book of Livy, and may still be read in the fifteenth book of Ovid's Metamorphofs: but though he was thus changed in appearance, he was ftill Æfculapius, "In ferpente deus," as Ovid calls him, the deity in a ferpent, and under that form continued to be worshipped at Rome. NEWTON. I follow the fuggeftion of Mr. Dunfter, in placing a comma after chang'd, which removes the alleged difficulty of the paffage ; it being generally understood that the neuter verb to change is most commonly ufed in our language for to undergo a change. TODD. Ver. 507. nor to which &c.] Nor were those ferpents lovelier, to which transform'd Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline, was feen; Jupiter Ammon, and Jupiter Capitolinus, the Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline, was seen; one the Lybian Jupiter, the other the Roman, called Capitoline from the Capitol, his temple at Rome: He with Olympias, the first the pretended father of Alexander the Great, converfing with his mother Olympias in the form of a serpent: this with her who bore Scipio the highth of Rome, the latter fabled in like manner to have been the father of Scipio Africanus, who raised his country and himfelf to the highest pitch of glory, Ver. 510. the highth of Rome] Dr. Bentley objects to this expreffion the highth of Rome. But as Dr. Pearce observes in anfwer, this expreffion is much of the fame nature with Ovid's “Summa ducum Atrides;” Amor. I, 1. el. 9. v. 37. and with Cicero's expreffion "Apex fenectutis eft auétoritas," de Senect.. The Italians, whofe expreffions Milton often imitates, ufe altezza in the fame fenfe, if I remember aright. NEWTON. See my note on "those the top of eloquence," Par. Reg. B. iv. 353. TODD. Ver. 513. As when a fhip, &c.] There are fome Latin poems of Andrew Ramfay, a Scotchman in the time of Charles the first, under this title Poemata facra Andrea Ramfei Paftoris Edinburgeni. Edinburgi 1633. The book is now grown very scarce, but there are few poems in it. The principal is one in four books, the first of the creation, the fecond of the happy ftate of man, the third of the fall of man, the fourth of the redemption of man by Jefus Chrift: and this poem was recommended to me as a performance to which Milton had been much obliged and indebted: but upon perufing it I do not well fee how two authors could write fo much upon the fame fubjects, and write more differently. There are few or no traces to be discovered of any fimilitude or refemblance between them, but in the fimile before us, and the fol Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind Veers oft, as oft fo fteers, and shifts her fail: 515 lowing one of the Scotch poet, and these are so different, and applied fo differently, that they may both be originals, or at leaft not the copy the one of the other. Milton's is applied to the oblique motion of the serpent, this of Ramfay to the Devil tempting our Saviour, and, when one temptation would not avail, trying another : "Ut vento portum qui fortè reflante "Non potis eft capere, is malos et lintea vela So that upon the whole it is to be queftioned whether Milton had ever seen these poems of Ramfay, or knew any thing of them; and he might still fay with truth that he pursued "Things unattempted yet in profe or rhime." : And in general it may be faid, that resemblance is not plagiarism. Different authors may poffibly hit upon the fame thought without borrowing from one another. An author, of great reading especially, may be tinged and coloured as it were by his reading his writings may have fomething of the taste of the books which he has read without his knowing it, as the stream partakes of the qualities of the earth through which it paffes; and he may fometimes make use of the thoughts of others, and still believe them his own. This may be the cafe with regard to thofe authors whom he is known to have read; and much lefs can he be certainly charged with stealing from authors, when it is very uncertain whether he has read them or not. NEWTON. Mr. R. Richardfon, of Clare-Hall, Cambridge, the earliest vindicator of Milton from the invidious charges of Lauder, obferves, that he was once inclined to think that, as the motion and working of a hip are compared to the motions of a ferpent in the fifth Æneid, Milton might apply the fimile vice versa; but So varied he, and of his tortuous train that he finds Milton to be his own beft commentator; because, within three lines, are these remarkable words, or the god in Epidaurus ; where it is vifible, he fays, to any one, that Milton has traced Ovid throughout the whole transformation of Æsculapius in the 15th Metamorpholis, and from the various circumftances of the ship which carries into port the god in the serpent (parallel to which is Satan in the ferpent) has compofed this fine fimile. Zoilomaftix, &c. 1747, pp. 21, 22. I beg leave to cite a beautiful fimile, comparing the fhip to the ferpent, (which has escaped Mr. Richardfon) from Apollonius Rhodius, in whofe poetry Milton manifeftly delighted, Argon. iv. 1541. Ως δε δράκων σκολίην εἰλιγμένος ἔρχεται οἶμον, It may be obferved that he particularly mentions the Argo, P. L. B. ii. 1017. And therefore it is more probable that this remarkable fimile, applied to fo remarkable a thip, might have here occured to his memory. TODD. The fimile may, I think, be traced to another fource. See Nicander, Ther. 266. Αυτάρ όγε σκαιός μεσάτῳ ἐπαλίνδεται ὁλκῷ, Milton feems to have treasured up these lines in his mind, with a defign, when the occafion offered, to imitate and excel them. That he recollected the admired fimile in his favourite poet Apollonius Rhodius, is the juft remark of his prefent editor. It is well known, that fo extenfive was Milton's reading, and fo deep his refearch, that fcarcely any author of eminence, ancient To lure her eye; fhe, bufied, heard the found Of rufling leaves, but minded not, as us'd or modern, facred or profane, efcaped his observation. If the writer, whofe work he was perufing, appeared to poffefs a congenial spirit; if that writer's fubject in any degree affimilated to his own; every page was then explored with unabating industry, and the casket was fure to be rifled for the jewels it contained. Among the many poets, with whose works Milton was converfant, no inconfiderable portion of his esteem was referved for Nicander. The subjects, which that poet had undertaken to discufs, were calculated to excite the curiofity of Milton. He was then bufily employed in depicting a new and another ferpent: more alluring in its afpect, and more malignant in its purposes, than any of that finuous brood, which Nicander had defcribed. His defcriptions are luxuriant and elegant. They were pearls too precious, our poet thought, to lie for ever buried in the dust of antiquity. It remained for him to determine, in what place they might be set to advantage. This, it seems, was the place, where the paradifiacal ferpent should be taught to wreath his fpires with the fame obliquity, that characterized, according to Nicander, one species of ferpents. The resemblance, it may be faid, is thus far accidental. Be it fo. But the oblique movements of Nicander's and of Milton's ferpent are illuftrated, in both poets, by a comparison taken from the same subject. Their movements are compared to those of a ship; rolling from fide to fide, as fudden gufts impel it; and marking by its keel the finuofity of its track. Amidst the vast variety of objects, which the works of nature and of art present, and from which fimilitudes may be drawn, it cannot be thought a cafual coincidence, that both poets, in their illustrations of the fame fubject, fhould have had recourse to the fame image; and that image by no means trite or common. Milton was indeed too great a master of his art, to acquiefce in fervile imitations. He, like Virgil, embellished what he borrowed; and, by an artful intertexture of adventitious ornaments, conferred the grace of novelty on that which was not new, and diverted his reader's thoughts from the fufpicion of imitation. MEEN. |