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I'll read you matter, deep and dangerous;
As full of peril and adventrous spirit,

As to 'er-walk a current, roaring loud,

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On the unstedfast footing of a spear.

Hot If he fall in, good night, or sink or swim.

287.- like the moon, whose orb, &c.] Homer compares the splendor of Achilles' shield to the moon, Iliad. xix. 373. But the shield of Satan was large as the moon seen through a telescope, an instrument first applied to celestial observations by Calileo, a native of Tuscany, whom he means here by the Tiscan artist, and afterwards mentions by name in v. 262. a testimony of his honour for so great a man, whom he had known and visited in Italy, as himself informs us in his Areopagitica.

292. His spear, to equal which the tallest pine, &c.] He walk'd with his spear, in comparison of which the tallest pine was but a wand. For when Homer, Odyss. ix. 322. makes the club of Polyphemus as big as the mast of a ship; and Virgil gives him a pine to walk with, Æn. iii. 659; and Tasso arms Tancred and Argantes with two spears as big as masts, Cant. 6. St. 40; well might Milton assign a spear so much larger to so superior a being.

299. Nathie s. Nevertheless, of which it seems to be a Contracted diminutive. Hume.

This word is "frequently used by Spenser, and the old poets.

302. Thick as autumnal leaves] Virgil. Æn. vi. 309. Thick as the leaves in Autumn strow the woods. Dryden. But Milton's comparison is by far the exactest; for it not only expresses a multitude, but also the posture and situa.. tion of the Angels. Their lying confusedly in heaps, covering the lake, is finely represented by this image of the leaves in the brooks. And besides the propriety of the application, if we compare the similes themselves, Milton's is by far superior to the other, as it exhibits a real landskip. See An Essay upon Milton's Imitations of the Ancients, p. 23. -when with fierce winds

305.

Orion arm'd, &c.] Orion is a constellation represented in the figure of an armed man, and supposed to be attended with stormy weather, Virg. Æn. i. 539: and the Red. Sea

abounds so much with sedge, that in the Hebrew Scripture it is called the Sedgy Sea. And he says bath vex'd the RedSea coast particularly, because the wind usually drives the sedge in great quantities towards the shore.

30%.perfidious hatred] Because Pharaoh, after leave given to the Israelites to depart, followed after them like fugitives. H me.

310. From the sea-shore their floating carcases, &c.] Much has been said of the long similitudes of Homer, Virgil, and our author, wherein they fetch a compass as it were to draw in new images, besides those in which the direct point of likeness consists. I think they have been sufficiently justified in the general; but in this before us, while the poet is digressing, he raises a new similitude from the floating carcases of the Egyptians. Heylin.

328.

with linked thunderbolts

Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf.] This alludes to the fate of Ajax Oileus, Virg. Æn. i. 44. 45.

338. As when the potent rod, &c.] See Exod. x. 13, "Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land, and the eastwind brought the locusts: and the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt so that the land was darkened."

341. warping] Working themselves forward, a sea term. Hume and Richardson.

351. A multitude, like which, &c.] This comparison doth not fall below the rest, as some have imagined. They were thick as the leaves, and numberless as the locusts, but such a multitude the north never poured forth: and we may observe that the subject of this comparison rises very much above the others, leaves and locusts. The populous north, as the northern parts of the world are observed to be more fruitful of people, than the hotter countries: Sir William Temple calls it the northern bive. Pour'd never, a very proper word to express the inundations of these northern nations. From ber frozen loins, it is the Scripture expression of children and descendants coming out of the loins, as Gen. XXXV.II. "Kings shall come out of thy loins:" and these are called frozen loins only on account of the coldness of the climate. To pass Rhene or the Danaw. He might have said consistently with his verse The Rhine and Danube, but he chose

the more uncommon names Rhene of the Latin, and Danary of the German, both which words are used too in Spenser's Faery Queen, B. 2. Cant, 10. St. 15. They were the Goths, and Huns, and Vandals, who over-run all the southern provinces of Europe, and crossing the Mediterranean beneath Gibraltar landed in Africa, and spread themselves as far as the sandy country of Libya. Beneath Gibraltar, that is, more southward, the north being uppermost in the globe.

36. By fulsities and lies] That is, as Mr. Upton observes, by false idols, under corporeal representation belying the true God. The Poet plainly alludes to Rom. i. ver. 22, Amos ii, ver. 4. and Jer. xvi. 19.

&c.

369.

--and to' invisible

Glory of bim that made them to transform

Oft to the image of a brute,] Alluding to Rom. i. 23.

376. Say, Mu e, &c.] The catalogue of evil Spirits has abundance of learning in it, and a very agreeable turn of poetry, which rises in a great measure from its describing the places where they were worshipped, by those beautiful marks of rivers, so frequent among the ancient poets. The author had doubtless in this place Homer's catalogue of ships, and Virgil's list of warriors, in his view. Addison.

376.-their nam s then known,] When they had got them new names. Milton finely considered that the names he was obliged to apply to these evil Angels carry a bad signifi.. cation, and therefore could not be those they had in their state of innocence and glory; he has therefore said their former names are now lost, rased from amongst those of their old associates who retain their purity and happiness. Richard on.

386. thron'd

Between the Cherubim ;] This relates to the ark being placed between the two golden Cherubim, 1 Kings vi. 23. 1 Kings viii. 6, 7. See also 2 Kings xix. 15.

387.yea often plac'd

Within bis sanctuary itself their shrines,

Abominations ;] This is complained of by the prophet Jeremiah vii. 30. 2 Kings xxi. 4, 5. Ezek. vii. 20, and vii. 5, 6.

392. First Meloch, borrid king,] First-after Satan and

Beelzebub. The name Moloch signifies king, and he is called borrid king, because of the human sacrifices which were made to him. This idol is supposed by some to be the same as Saturn, to whom the Heathens sacrificed their children, and by others to be the Sun. It is said in Scripture, that the children passed through the fire to Moloch, and our author employs the same expression, by which we must understand not that they always actually burnt their children in honour of this idol, but sometimes made them only leap over the flames, or pass nimbly between two fires, to purify them by that illustration, and consecrate them to this false deity.

406. Next Chemos, &c.] He is rightly mentioned next after Moloch, as their names are joined together in Scripture, 1 King xi. 7. and it was a natural transition from the God of the Ammonites to the God of their neighbours the Moabites. St. Jerom, and several learned men, assert Chemos and Baal Peor to be only different names for the same idol, and suppose him to be the same with Priapus or the idol of turpitude, and therefore called here th' obscene dread of Moab's sons, from Aroar, a city upon the river Arnon, the boundary of their country to the north, afterwards belong ing to the tribe of Gad, to Nebo, a city eastward, afterwards belonging to the tribe of Reuben, and the wild of southmost Abarim, a ridge of mountains the boundary of their coun try to the south; in Hesebon or Heshbon, and Heronaim, Seen's realm, two cities of the Moabites, taken from them by Sihon King of the Amorites, Numb. xxi. 26. beyond the flow'ry dale of Silma clad with vines, a place famous for vineyards, as appears from Jer. xlviii. 32. Ovine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee, and Eleälé, another city of the Moabites not far from Heshbon, to the Asphaltic pool, the Dead Sea, so called from the Asphaltus or bitumen abounding in it; the river Jordan empties itself into it, and that river and this sea were the boundary of the Moabites to the west. It was this God, under the name of Baal Peor, that the Israelites were induced to worship in Si tim, and committed whoredom with the daughters of Moab, for which there died of the plague twenty and four thousand, as we read in Numbers xxv.

·415: orgies] Wild frantic rites; generally by orgies are understood the feasts of Bacchus.

417. lust burd by bate] What a fine moral sentiment has our author here introduced and couched in half a verse! He might perhaps have in view Spenser's Mask of Cupid, wh re Aner, Strife, &c. are represented as immediately following Cupid in the procession. See Faery Queen, B. 3.

Cant. 12.

422. Baalim and Ashtaroth,] These are properly named together, as they frequently are in Scripture; and there were many Baalim and many Astaroth; they were the general names of the Gods and Goddesses of Syria, Palestine, and the neighbouring countries. It is supposed that by them is meant the Sun and the host of Heaven.

437. With these in troop, &c.] A toreth or Astarte was the Goddess of the Phenicians, and the moon was adored under this name. She is rightly said to come in troop with Ashtaroth as she was one of them, the moon with the stars. Sometimes she is called queen of Heaven, jer. vii. 18. and xli, 1. 18. She is likewise called the Goddess of the Zdonians, 1 Kings xi. 5. and the abomination af the Zidimians, 2 Kings xxiii. 13. as she was worshipped very much in Zidon or Sidon, a famous city of the Phænicians, situated upon the editerranean. Solo on, who had many wives that were foreigners, was prevailed upon by them to intro uce the worship of this Goddess into Israel, 1 Kings xi. 5. and built her temple on the mount of Olives, which on account of this and other idols is called the mountain of corruption. 2 Kings xxiii. 13. as here by the poet th offensive muntain, and before that of probrious bill, and that bill of scandal

446. Tbammuz came next, &c.] The account of Thammuz is finely romantic, and suitable to what we read among the Ancients of the worship which was paid to that idol. The reader will pardon me, if I insert as a note on this beautiful passage, the account given us by the late ingeni ous Mr. Maundrel of this ancient piece of worship, and probably the first occasion of such a superstition. came to a fair large river-doubtless the ancient river. Adonis, so famous for the idolatrous rites performed here

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