Escap'd the Stygian pool, though long detain'd I fung of Chaos and eternal Night, Taught by the heav'nly Mufe to venture down that is here applied to Chaos, without form and void. A fhort but noble description of Chaos, which is faid to be infinite, as it extended underneath, as Heaven above, infinitely. Richardson. 16. Through utter and through middle darkness] Through Hell which is often call'd utter darkness, and through the great gulf between Hell and Heaven, the middle darkness. 17. With other notes than to th' Or phéan lyre &c.] Orpheus made a hymn to Night, which is ftill extant; he alfo wrote of the creation out of Chaos. See Apoll. Rhodius I. 493. Orpheus was infpir'd by his mother Calliope only, Milton by the heav'nly Mufe; therefore he boasts he fung with other notes than Orpheus, tho' the subjects were the fame. Richardfon. 19. Taught by the heav'nly Mufe VOL, I. 15 20 To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; So thick a drop ferene hath quench'd their orbs, 25 Or dim fuffufion veil'd. Yet not the more 1 Cease I to wander, where the Muses haunt 25. So thick a drop ferene hath quench'd their orbs, Or dim fuffufion weil d.] Drop ferene or Gutta ferena. It was formerly thought that that fort of blindness was an incurable extinction or quenching of fight by a tranfparent, watry, cold humor diftilling upon the optic nerve, tho' making very little change in the eye to appearance, if any; 'tis now known to be moft commonly an obftruction in the capillary veffels of that nerve, and curable in fome cafes. A cataract for many ages, and till about thirty years ago, was thought to be a film externally growing over the eye, intercepting or veiling the fight, beginning with dimnefs, and fo increafing till vifion was totally obftructed: but the difeafe is in the cryftallin humor lying between the outmoft coat of the eye and the pupilla. The dimnefs which is at the beginning is called a fuffufion; and when the fight is loft, 'tis a cataract; and cur'd by couching, which is with a needle paffing through the external coat and driving down the difeas'd cryftallin, the lofs of which is fomewhat fupply'd by the ufe of a large convex glass. When Milton was firft blind, he Ceafe I to wander,] Dr. Bentley would read Yet not for that &c. there being as he fays no gradation in ceafing. Dr. Pearce prefers as coming nearer to the text, Yet not therefore, our poet and Fairfax frequently placing the tone on the laft fyllable of therefore. But I cannot fee the neceffity for an alteration; Yet not the more ceafe I to wander may be allow'd, if notjuftify'd by Et fi quid ceffare potes in Virgil, Ecl. VII. 10. We may underftand cease here in the fenfe of forbear; Yet not the more forbear I to wander: I do it as much as I did before I was blind. 29. Smit Smit with the love of facred fong; but chief Those other two equal'd with me in fate, 30 So botch at beft. The most probable explanation of this paffage I conceive to be this. Tho' he mentions four, yet there are but two femble, and thofe he diftinguishes whom he particularly defires to reboth with the epithet blind to make the likenefs the more ftriking, Blind Thamyris and blind Maonides. Mæonides is Homer, fo call'd from the name of his father Mæon: and no wonder our poet defires to equal him in renown, whofe writings he fo much ftudied, admir'd and imitated. The character of Thamyris is not fo well known and establish'd: but Homer mentions him in the Iliad. II. 595; and Euftathius ranks him with Orpheus and Mufæus, the most celebrated poets and muficians. That luftful challenge of his to the nine Mufes was probably nothing more than a fable invented to exprefs his violent love and affection for poetry. Plato mentions his hymns with honor in the beginning of his eighth book of Laws, and towards the conclufion of the last book of his Republic feigns, upon the principles of tranfmigration, that the foul of Thamyris paffed into a nightingale. He was a Thracian by So were I equal'd with them in renown, by birth, and invented the Doric mood or measure, according to Pliny, L. 7. c. 57. Plutarch in his treatife of Mufic fays that he had the finest voice of any of his time, and wrote a poem of the war of the Titans with the Gods: and from Suidas we learn that he compos'd likewife a poem of the generation of the world, which being fubjects near of kin to Milton's might probably occafion the mention of him in this place. Thamyris then and Homer are thofe other two whom the poet principally defires to refemble: And it seems as if he had intended at first to mention only these two, and then currente calamo had added the two others, Tirefias and Phineus, the one a Theban, the other a king of Arcadia, famous blind prophets and poets of antiquity,, for the word prophet fometimes comprehends both characters as vates doth in Latin. And Tirefas and Phineus prophets old. 35 40 Day, Dr. Bentley is totally for rejecting this verfe, and objects to the bad accent of Tirefias: but as Dr. Pearce obferves the accent may be mended by fuppofing that the interlin'd copy intended this order of the words, And Phineus and Tirefias prophets old. And the verfe appears to be ge nuin by Mr. Marvel's alluding to it in his verses prefix'd to the fecond edition; Juft Heav'n Thee, like Tirefias, to requite, Rewards with prophecy thy lofs of fight. And as Mr. Lauder obferves, they are all four joined together by Mafenius; Vatibus antiquis numerantur lu : mine caffis Tirefias, Phineus, Thamyrifque, et magnus Homerus. 37. Then feed on thoughts, ] No Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn, Of nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd, thing could better exprefs the mufing thoughtfulness of a blind poet. The phrafe was perhaps borrowed from the following line of Spenfer's Tears of the Mufes, I feed on fweet contentment of my thought. Thyer. 37. that voluntary move Harmonious numbers; &c.] And the reader will obferve the flowing of the numbers here with all the ease and harmony of the finest voluntary. The words feem of themfelves to have fall'n naturally into verfe almoft without the poet's thinking of it, And this harmony appears to greater advantage for the roughness of fome of the preceding verfes, which is an artifice frequently practic'd by Milton, to be careless of his numbers in some places, the better to fet off the mufical flow of those which immediately follow, 45 And thor, but I find it used several times in Shakespear and the authors of that age. Lear's fool fays, Act I. So out went the candle, and we were left darkling. 41. Seafons return, but not to me returns] This beautiful turn of the words is copied from the rini's Paftor Fido. Mirtillo adbeginning of the third act of Gua dreffes the spring. Tu torni ben, ma teco Thou brought'ft me last is not re- Thou art return'd; but nought mory. Fanshawe. 49. Of nature's works &c.] Dr. Bentley reads All nature's map &c. because (he says) a blank of X 3 works |