in flight Of Galileo, less aflur'd, observes prone 270 Of tow'ring eagles, to all the fowls he seems A Phenix, gaz'd by all, as that fole bird, When to inshrine his reliques in the sun's Bright crown'd with cedars which were names to them: Or pilot, from amidst higher than the highest bills. the Cyclades, a parcel of ilands in 261. As when by night the the Archipelago, Delos or Samos for glass &c.] The Angel from appearing, two of the largeft of Heaven gate viewing the earth is these ilands and therefore first apcompared to an astronomer ob- pearing, kens a cloudy spot, for ilands serving the moon thro' a telescope, seem to be such at their first apor to a pilot at sea discovering an pearance. But the Angel sees with iland at a distance. As when by greater clearness and certainty than night the glass of Galileo, the tele- these ; the glass is less afur'd, and scope first used in celestial observa- the pilot kens only a cloudy spot, tions by Galileo a native of Flo- when the Angel sees not the whole rence, less assur'd than the Angel, globe only, but distinctly the mount as was likewise the pilot, observes, of Paradise. a poetical expression, the instru 266. Down thither prone in ment put for the person who makes flight &c.] Virg. Æn. IV. 253. use of it, imagin'd lands and regions hinc toto præceps se corpore in the moon, it is not only imagin'd ad undas that there are lands and regions Mifit, avi fimilis. in the moon, but astronomers give 272, A Phenix,] Dr. Bentley ob jects 275 Bright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies. With jcets to Raphael's taking the shape See Plin. Nat. Hif. L. 10. c. 2. of a Phenix, and the objection Ovid. Met. XV. and Claudian de would be very just if Milton had Phænice. Armida in Taffo is in like said any such thing: but he only manner compared to a Phænix, says that to all the fowls be seems Cant. 17. St. 35. a Phænix ; he was not really a Come all'hor, che'l rinato unico Phænix, the birds only fancied him augello, &c. one. This bird was famous among the Ancients, but generally looked As when the new-born Phoenix upon by the Moderns as fabulous. doth begin The naturalifts speak of it as single, To fly to Ethiope-ward, at the fair or the only one of its kind, and bent therefore it is called here that fole Of her rich wings, ftrange plumes, bird, as it had been before by Taffo and feathers thin, unico augello. They describe it as Her crowns and chains, with naof a moft beautiful plumage. They tive gold besprent, hold that it lives five or fix hun. The world amazed stands; and dred years; that when thus ad. with her fly vanc'd in age, it builds itself a fu. An host of wond'ring birds that neral pile of wood and aromatic fing and cry: gums, which being kindled by the So paft Armida, look'd on, gaz'd sun it is there consumed by the fire, on so. Fairfax. and another Phænix arises out of the ashes, ancefor and successor to there was the only gate of Para, 275. - on th' eastern cliff] For himself, who taking up the re- dise, IV. 178. The good Angel liques of his funeral pile Aies with them to Egyptian Thebes to in enters by the gate, and not like Satan. shrine them there in the temple of the fun, the other birds attending 276. and to bis proper Joape and gazing upon him in his flight. returns] The word snape here Egyptian Tbebes to diftinguish it (I suppose) occafond Dr. Bentley from the other Thebes in Bæotia. in his note on the former passage to fay With regal ornament; the middle pair 280 285 And say that Milton makes Raphael tion of Angels : But I do not retake the shape of a Phoenix. But by member to have met with any so returning to his proper shape Milton finely drawn, and so conformable means only that he stood on his to the notions which are given of feet, and gather'd up his fix wings them in Scripture, as this in Milinto their proper place and situation. ton. After having set him forth Pearce. in all his heavenly plumage, and Or as another ingenious person ex- represented him as alighting upon preses it, He seemd again what he the earth, the poet concludes his really was, a Seraph wing'd; where- description with a circumstance, as in' his flight he appear'd what he which is altogether new, and imawas not, a Phænix. gin'd with the greatest strength of 277.-fix wings he wore, &c.] fancy. The Seraphim seen by Isaiah, VI. 2. had 'the same number of wings, Like Maia's son he stood, Above it ftood the Seraphims, each one And shook his plumes, that hear'nhad fix wings: but there the wings ly fragrance filla are disposed differently. The circuit wide. Addison. 284. — with feather'd mail, Sky-tin&ur'd grain.] Feathers lie The comparing of the Angel to one short of another resembling the Maia's son, to Mercury, hows plates of metal of which coats of evidently that the poet had partimail are composd. Sky-color'd, cularly in view those sublime paldy'd in grain, to express beauty sages of Homer and Virgil, which and durableness. Richardson. describe the flight and descent of 285.- Like Maia's fon be stood,&c.) Mercury to the earth That of HoRaphael's descent to the earth, with mer is in the Iliad. XXIV. 339. the figure of his person, is represented in very lively colors. Se'ls epat' sd'amionos draxlop @ veral of the French, Italian and Apget oulns. English poets have given a loose to Aυτική επενδ' υπο σοσιν εδησα. . their imaginations in the descrip το καλα σεδιλα, , AU And shook his plumes, that heav'nly fragrance fill& Into olas syesper. Αμβροσια, χρυσαά, τα μιν φέ Seu terram, rapido pariter cum ear nuev eo urpuu, Aamine portant. HN ST" a telegra falar, azuch Tum virgam capit : hâc animas Wroing arepolo' ille evocat Orco Eleto dn edib dov, Ty t'avd gay Pallentes, alias fub triftia Tartara ομματα θελγε, mittit; Dy Beact, Tos aute nad ÚTYW Dat somnos adimitque et lumina morte resignat. The God obeys, his golden pi. Hermes obeys; with golden pinions binds, nions binds And mounts incumbent on the His Aying feet, and mounts the wings of winds, western winds : That high thro' fields of air his And whether o'er the seas or earth flight sustain, he flies, O'er the wide earth, and o'er the With rapid force, they bear him boundless main : down the kies. Then grafps the wand that causes But first he grasps within his awsleep to fly, ful hand, Or in soft slumbers seals the wake. The mark of foy'reign pow's, his ful eye. Pope. magic wand: With this, he draws the ghosts Virgil has translated it almoft lit from hollow graves, terally, but with some additions, With this, he drives them down Æn. IV. 238. the Stygian waves; With this, he seals in fleep the Dixerat: ille patris magni parere wakeful fight; parabat And eyes, tho clos'd in death, reImperio, et primum pedibus tala stores to light. Dryden. ria nectit Aurea : : quæ sublimem alis, five If it is hard to determin (as Mr. æquora fupra, Pope says) which is more excellent, the Into the blissful field, through groves of myrrh, Him the copy or the original, yet I be 288. and to his state, lieve every reader will easily de And to his message high in honor termin that Milton's description is rife;} With the fame respect better than both. The reader may as the Muses pay to Gallus in Virlikewise, if he pleases, compare gil, Ecl. VI. 66. this descent of Raphael with that of Gabriel in Tasso, Cant. I. Utque viro Phæbi chorus affur. St. 13, 14, 15; But (as Dr. Pearce rexerit omnis. observes)" it is the graceful' pofure in standing, after alighting, 296. — pouring forth more sweet, that is particularly compar'd to Wild above rule or art; enormous Mercury ; bliss.] So the two first edi. Hic paribus primum nitens Cylle- tions point this passage : Dr. Bent. nius alis ley puts no stop after art; for want Conftitit, Æn. IV. 253. of which he has fallen into a con siderable mistake: instead of pourIt is probable that the idea was first ring forth more sweet, he would have taken from the graceful attitudes us read pouring forth profuse. He of the antique ftatues of Mercury: says more sweet than what? nobut our author might have it more thing: for the comparison is dropt. immediately from Shakespear's But the sense is, pouring forth Hamlet, Act III. what was the more sweet for A station, like the herald Mercury being wild and above rule or art. New-lighted on a Heaven-kissing Pearce. Or should there not be a comma as the image of the Angel's shaking only after art ? and is not enormous his fragranc plumes is borrow'd bliss the accusative case after pourparticularly from Fairfax's Talio, ing farth? which bliss was the more 298. Him hill : |