His ftature reach'd the sky, and on his creft Sat horror plum'd; nor wanted in his grafp What seem'd both fpear and fhield: now dreadful deeds Might have enfued, nor only Paradise 989. Sat horror plum'd;] Horror is perfonify'd, and is made the plume of his helmet; and how much nobler an idea is this than the horses tails and fphinxes and dragons and other terrible animals on the helmets of the ancient heroes, or even than the Chimera vomiting flames on the crest of Turnus, Æn. VII. 785. 990 Of Suftinet, Ætnæos efflantem faucibus ignes. A triple pile of plumes his creft On which with belching flames 989.-nor wanted in his grafp&c.] This is faid to fignify that he wanted not arms, tho' he was but juft raised out of the form of a toad. He was reprefented as in arms, II. 812. when he was upon the point of engaging with Death; and we muft fuppofe that his power, as an Angel, was fuch, that he could affume them upon occafion whenever he pleased. 991. nor only Paradife &c.] This reprefentation of what muft have happen'd, if Gabriel and Satan had encounter'd, is imaged in thefe few lines with a nobleness fuitable to the occafion, and is an improvement upon a thought in Homer, where he reprefents the terrors which must have attended the conflict of two such powers as Cui triplici crinita juba galea alta Jupiter and Neptune, Iliad. XV. Chimæram Of Heav'n perhaps, or all the elements At least had gone to wrack, disturb'd and torn μαλα γαρ με μαχης επι- And all the Gods that round old Had heard the thunders to the deeps of Hell. Pope. feen 995 Wherein rying on of his fable, and for the breaking off the combat between the two warriors, who were upon the point of engaging. To this we may further add, that Milton is the more justify'd in this paffage, as we find the fame noble allegory in holy Writ, where a wicked prince, fome few hours before he was affaulted and flain, is said to have been weighed in the fcales, and to have been found wanting. Addison. 996. Th' Eternal to prevent fuch horrid fray] The breaking off the combat between Gabriel and Satan, by the hanging out of 997. bis golden fcales,] So the golden fcales in Heaven, is a they are in Homer xpuotia Tαrefinement upon Homer's thought, la, both where he weighs the who tells us that before the battel deftinies of the Greeks and Trobetween Hector and Achilles, Ju- jans in book the 8th, and the fates piter weighed the event of it in a of Hector and Achilles in book pair of fcales. The reader may the 2zd. And this figure of weighfee the whole paffage in the 22d ing the deftinies of men appear'd Iliad. Virgil before the laft deci- fo beautiful to fucceeding poets, five combat defcribes Jupiter in the that Efchylus (as we are inform'd fame manner, as weighing the fates by Plutarch in his treatife of Hearof Turnus and Eneas. Milton, ing the poets) writ a tragedy upon tho' he fetch'd this beautiful cir- this foundation, which he intitled cumftance from the Iliad and Eneid, Luxosaola or the weighing of does not only infert it as a poeti- fouls. cal embellishment, like the authors above mention'd; but makes an artful use of it for the proper car 998. Betwixt Aftrea and the Scorpion fign,] Libra or the Scales is Wherein all things created firft he weigh'd, The pendulous round earth with balanc'd air 1000 is one of the twelve figns of the zodiac, as Aftrea (or Virgo the Virgin) and Scorpio alfo are. This does as it were realize the fiction, and gives confequently a greater force to it. Richardfon. This allufion to the fign Libra in the Heavens is a beauty that is not in Homer or Virgil, and gives this paffage a manifeft advantage over both their defcriptions. 999. Wherein all things created firft he weigh'd, &c.] This of weighing the creation at firft and of all events fince gives us a fublime idea of providence, and is conformable to the ftile of Scripture, Job XXVIII. 25. To make the weight for the winds, and be weigheth the waters by measure. Chap. XXXVII. 16. Doft thou know the balancings of the clouds? Ifaiah XL. 12. Who weighed the mountains in fcales, and the hills in a balance? And then for weighing particular events fince fee 1 Sam. II. 3. By him actions are weigh'd. Prov. XVI. 2. The Lord weigheth the spirits. I do not recollect an inftance of weighing battels particularly, but there is foundation enough for that in Homer and Virgil as we have feen; and then for weighing king. doms we fee an inftance in Belfhazzar, and it is faid exprefsly, Dan. V. 26, 27. God hath number'd thy Battels kingdom, and finish'd it, thou art weighed in the balances. So finely hath Milton improv'd upon the fictions of the poets by the eternal truths of holy Scripture. and of fight;] Dr. Bentley reads 1003. The fequel each of parting The fignal each &c. To understand which of these two readings fuits the place beft, let us confider the God put in the golden fcales two poet's thought, which was this: weights: in the one fcale he put the weight, which was the fequel (that is reprefented the confe quence) of Satan's parting from them; in the other fcale he put the weight, which was the Sequel of Satan's fighting: neither of the fcales had any thing in it immediately relating to Gabriel and therefore Dr. Bentley mistakes (I think) when he fays, that the afcending weight, Satan's, was the fignal to him of defeat; the defcending, Gabriel's, the fignal to him of victory: they were both fignals (if fignals) to Satan only, for he only was weigh'd, ver. 1012; or rather they fhow'd him what would be the confequence both of his fighting and of his retreating. The fcale, in which lay the weight, that was the fequel of his fighting, by afcending fhow'd him that he was light in arms, and could not Battels and realms: in these he put two weights obtain victory; whereas the other scale, in which was the fequel of his parting or retreating, having defcended, it was a fign that his going off quietly would be his wifeft and weightiest attempt. The reader will excufe my having been fo long in this note, when he confiders that Dr. Bentley and probably many others have misunderstood Milton's thought about the scales, judging of it by what they read of Jupiter's fcales in Homer and Virgil; the account of which is very different from this of Milton; for in them the fates of the two combatants are weigh'd one against the other, and the defcent of one of the scales foreshow'd the death of him whofe fate lay in that scale, quo vergat pondere lethum: whereas in Milton nothing is weigh'd but what relates to Satan only, and in the two scales are weigh'd the two different events of his retreating and his fighting. From what has been faid it may appear pretty plainly, that Milton by fequel meant the confequence or egent, as it is exprefs'd in ver. 1001. and then there will be no occafion for Dr. Bentley's fignal; both because it is a very improper word in this place, and becaufe a fignal of parting and of fight, can be nothing elfe than a fignal when to part and when to fight; which he will not pretend to be the poet's meaning. Which Pearce. It may be proper, before we conclude, to produce the passages out of Homer and Virgil, whereof fo much has been faid, that the reader may have the fatisfaction of comparing them with our author, Iliad. VIII. 69. Και τοτε δη χρύσεια πατηρ ετιταινε ταλανία Εν δ' ετίθει δυο κηρε τανηλεγε θανατοι, Τρώων θ' ιπποδάμων, και Αχαι ων χαλκοχιτώνων Ελκε δε μεσία λαβων, ρεπε δι' αισιμον ήμαρ Αχαιων. Αι μεν Αχαίων κήρες επι χθονι πολυβοτείρη Elenv Tpwwv de wegs vegrov ευρύν αερθεν. The Sire of Gods his golden scales fufpends, With equal hand: in thefe ex- Of Greece and Troy, and pois'd balance lies Low funk on earth, the Trojan ftrikes the skies. Pope. The fame lines, mutatis mutandis, are apply'd to Hector and Achilles in Which Gabriel spying, thus befpake the Fiend. 1005 Satan, I know thy ftrength, and thou know'ft mine, Neither our own but giv'n; what folly then To boast what arms can do? fince thine no more Than Heav'n permits, nor mine, though doubled now Το in the 22d book, and there are thus Every reader, who compares these tranflated. paffages with our author, muft fee plainly that tho' there is fome refemblance, yet there is also great difference. There are golden fcales in Homer as well as in Milton; but Milton in some measure authorizes the fiction by making his fcales the balance in the Heavens. In Homer and Virgil the combatants are weigh'd one against another; but here only Satan is weigh'd, in one scale the confequence of his retreating, and of his fighting in the other. And there is this farther improvement, that in Homer and Virgil the fates are weigh'd to fatisfy Jupiter himself, but here it is done only to fatisfy the contending parties, for Satan to read his own deftiny. So that when Milton imitates a fine paffage, he does not imitate it fervily, but makes it as I may fay an original of his own by his manner of vary ing and improving it. |