Me from attempting. Wherefore do I affume 450 Of hazard as of honor, due alike To him who reigns, and fo much to him due 455 High honor'd fits? Go therefore mighty Powers, More tolerable; if there be cure or charm 450.-Wherefore do I affume &c.] Our author has here caught the fpirit of Homer in that divine fpeech of Sarpedon to Glaucus, Iliad. XII. 310. Γλαύκο, τι δη νωι τετιμημεπα μαλικά Έδρη τε, κρέασιν τε, ίδε πλείοις Εν Λυκίη; παιζες δε, θεὸς ὡς, εισορόωσι; Και τεμεν θ νεμόμεθα μεγά Ξάνθοιο παρ' όχθας, Κάλον, φυταλιής και αργής του ep00103 460 Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad Through all the coafts of dark destruction feek None shall partake with me. Thus faying rofe Others among His rivals, winning cheap the high repute 465 470 Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they Dreaded not more th' adventure than his voice Forbidding; and at once with him they rofe; 475 Why on those fhores are we with Unless great acts fuperior merit And vindicate the bounteous "Tis our's, the dignity they give, This is one of the nobleft and beft- Their rifing all at once was as the found Of thunder heard remote. Tow'ards him they bend With awful reverence prone; and as a God را Extol him equal to the Hig'heft in Heaven: J That for the general safety he despis'd 1099481 His own for neither do the Spirits damn'd R Lofe that, and made that remark to prevent their boasting. *** Pearce. As our author has drawn Satan with fome remains of the beauty, fo he reprefents him likewife with fome of the other perfections of an Arch-Angel; and herein he has follow'd the rule of Ariftotle in his Poetics, chap. 15. that the manners fhould be as good as the nature of the fubject will poffibly admit. A Devil all made up of wickedness would be too fhocking to any reader or writer. 489.-while the north-wind fleeps,] So Homer expreffes it, Iliad. V. 524. 483.-left bad men should boaft &c.] Here Dr. Bentley afks, whether the Devils retain fome of their virtue, on purpose left bad men should boaft &c. This being an absurdity, he reads lefs fhould bad men boaft &c. But there is no occafion for the alteration. To take the force of the word left, we muft fuppofe the author to have left his reader to fupply fome fuch expreffion as this, This remark (of the Devils not lofing op udnos μ& Bopsomme all their virtue) I make, left bad men fhould boaft &c. Dr. Bentley knows that in Greek, and ne in Latin are often thus ufed. Milton here feems to have had in view Eph. II. 8, 9. By grace ye are faved through faith not of works, left any man should boaft. Not, that they were faved not of works, on purpose left any man should boaft; but St. Paul puts them in mind of that wind generally clearing the fky, and difperfing the clouds. Every body must be wonderfully delighted with this fimilitude. The images are not more pleafing in nature, than they are refreshing to the reader after his attention to the foregoing debate. We have a fimile of the fame kind in Homer, but apply'd upon a very different occafion, Iliad. XVI. 297. Ως Lofe all their virtue; left bad men should boast ·Ds d'ór' aç' úfnans xopuens - Homer fays only that he remov'd ρει μεγάλοιο Κινήσεις συκινώ νεφελίω ςεροπη γερετα Ζευς, Εκ τ' εφανον πασαι σκοπίαι, και πρωινές ακροι, Και ναπαι, κρανόθεν δ' αρ' ὑπερ egyn aшETC alone. So when thick clouds inwrap the mountain's head, O'er Heav'n's expanse like one Burfts through the darkness, and And ftreams, and vales, and fo- And all th' unmeafur'd æther flames with light, Mr. Pope tranflates it as if Jupiter lighten'd, which makes it a horrid rather than a pleafing scene; but the thick clouds from the mountain top, and fo it is explained in the note of Pope's Homer, which fhows that the tranflation and notes were not always made by the fame perfon. We have a fimile too, much of the fame nature in a Sonnet of Spenfer, as Mr. Thyer hath obferved. Sonnet 40. Mark when she smiles with amiable chear, And tell me whereto can you liken it: When on each eye-lid fweetly do appear An hundred Graces as in fhade to fit. Likeft it seemeth, in my fimple wit, Unto the fair fun-fhine in fummer's day; That when a dreadful storm away is flit, Through the broad world doth fpread his goodly ray: At fight whereof each bird that fits on spray, And every beaft that to his den was fled, R 3 Come 490 Heav'n's chearful face, the louring element 495 O fhame to men! Devil with Devil damn'd Firm concord holds, men only disagree Of creatures rational, though under hope 500 Man 494.bleating herds] Dr. Bentley reads flocks, and fays that herd is a word proper to cattel, that do not bleat. But herd is originally the common name for a number of any fort of cattel: Hence Shepherd, that is Sheepherdsman, see VII. 462. Pearce. -Bleating herds is much fuch an expreffion as Spenser's fleecy cattel in Colin Clout's come home again. 496. O fhame to men! &c.] This reflection will appear the more pertinent and natural, when one confiders the contentious age, in which Milton liv'd and wrote. Thyer. |