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Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coaft, whose waves o'erthrew

Bufiris and his Memphian chivalry,

While with perfidious hatred they pursued

The fojourners of Goshen, who beheld

From the safe shore their floting carcafes

310

And broken chariot wheels: fo thick beftrown
Abject and loft lay thefe, covering the flood,

Virgil (and therefore may be allow'd to Milton) in a comparifon, after they have shown the refemblance, to go off from the main purpose and finish with fome other image, which was occafion'd by the comparison, but is itself very different from its Milton has done thus in almost all his fimilitudes; and therefore what he does for frequently, cannot be allow'd to be an objection to the genuinnefs of this paffage before us. As to Milton's making Pharaoh to be Bufiris (which is another of the Doctor's objections to the paffage) there is authority enough for to juftify a poet in doing fo, tho' not an hiftorian: It has been fuppos'd by fome, and therefore Milton might fellow that opinion. Chivalry for cavalry, and cavalry (fays Dr. Bentley) for chariotry, is twice wrong. But it is rather twice right: for-chivalry (from the French chevalerie) fignifies not only knighthood, but thofe who use horfes in fight, both fuch as ride on horfes and fuch as ride in chariots drawn by them :

Under

In the fenfe of riding and fighting on horfeback this word chivalry is ufed in ver. 765. and in many places of Fairfax's Taffo, as in Cant. 5. St. 9. Cant 8. St. 67. Cant. 20. St. 61. In the fenfe of riding and fighting in chariots drawn by horfes, Milton ufes the word chi valry in Parad. Reg. III. ver. 343. compar'd with ver. 328.

Pearce.

308.-perfidious hatred] Because Pharaoh, after leave given to the Ifraelites to depart, follow'd after them like fugitives. Hume. T

310. From the Safe Shore their.

floting carcafes &c.] Much has been faid of the long fimilitudos of Homer, Virgil, and our author, wherein they fetch a compafs as it were to draw in new images, befides thofe in which the direct point of likenefs confifts. I think they have been fufficiently juftify'd in the general: but in this before us, while the poet is digref fing, he raifes a new fimilitude from the floting carcafes of the Egyptians. Heyline

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328.- with

Under amazement of their hideous change."

He call'd fo loud, that all the hollow deep

Of Hell refounded. Princes,' Potentates,

315

Warriors, the flow'r of Heav'n, once yours, now loft,

If fuch aftonishment as this can feife"

Eternal Spi'rits; or have ye chos'n this place

After the toil of battel to repofe

Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find

320

To flumber here, as in the vales of Heaven?

Or in this abject posture have ye fworn
To' adore the conqueror? who now beholds
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood
With scatter'd arms and enfigns, till anon
His swift purfuers from Heav'n gates difcern

Th' advantage, and defcending tread us down

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Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts

Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf.

Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n.

325

330

They heard, and were abafh'd, and up they fprung

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Upon

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Who pleaseth to read the Devil's

Taffo, Cant. 4. from Stanza 9 to:

Stanza

Illum expirantem transfixo pectore fpeech to his damned affembly in

Lammas

Upon the wing, as when Men wont to watch--
On duty, fleeping found by whom they dread,
Rouse and beftir themselves ere well awake.

Nor did they not perceive the evil plight

In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;
Yet to their general's voice they foon obey'd
Innumerable. As when the potent rod

Of Amram's fon, in Egypt's evil day,

335

Wav'd round the coaft, up call'd a pitchy cloud 340
Of locufts, warping on the eastern wind,
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like night, and darken'd all the land of Nile:
So numberless were those bad Angels feen
Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell
'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires;
Till, as a fignal giv'n, th' up-lifted spear
Of their great Sultan waving to direct
Their course, in even balance down they light
On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain;

him.

Hume.

345

350

A

Stanza 18, will find our author has upon the land, and the eaft-wind feen him, tho' borrow'd little of brought the locufis: and the locufis went up over all the land of Egypt338. As when the potent rod &c.] fo that the land was darken'd. See Exod. X. 13. Mofes fretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, felves forward, a fea term. and the Lord brought an eaft-wind

VOL. I.

341-warping] Working them

M

Hume and Richardfon.

351 A

A multitude, like which the populous north
Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass
Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous fons
Came like a deluge on the fouth, and spread
Beneath Gibraltar to the Lybian sands.
Forthwith from every squadron and each band
The heads and leaders thither hafte where stood
Their great commander; Godlike fhapes and forms
Excelling human, princely Dignities,

And Pow'rs that erft in Heaven fat on thrones;
Though of their names in heav'nly records now

351. A multitude, like which &c.] This comparison doth not fall below the reft, as fome have imagin'd. They were thick as the leaves, and numberless as the locufts, but fuch a multitude the north never pour'd forth; and we may obferve that the fubject of this comparison rifes very much above the others, leaves and locufts. The populous north, as the northern parts of the world are obferved to be more fruitful of people, than the hotter countries: Sir William Temple calls it the northern hive. Pour'd never, a very proper word to exprefs the inundations of these northern nations. From her frozen loins, it is the Scripture expreffion of children and defcendents coming out of the loins, as Gen. XXXV. 11. Kings fall come out of thy loins; and these are call'd frozen loins only on ac

355

360

Be

count of the coldness of the climate. To pafs Rhene or the Danaw, He might have faid confiftently with his verfe The Rhine or Danube, but he chofe the more uncommon names Rhene of the Latin, and Danaw of the German, both which words are ufed too in Spenfer. When her barbarous fons &c. They were truly barbarous; for befides exercifing feveral cruelties, they deftroy'd all the monuments of learning and politenefs wherever they came. Came like a deluge. Spenfer defcribing the fame people has the fame fimile. Fairy Queen. B. 2. Cant. 10. St. 15.

And overflow'd all countries far

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Be no memorial, blotted out and ras'd
By their rebellion from the books of life.
Nor had they yet among the fons of Eve

364

Got them new names, till wand'ring o'er the earth,
Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man,
By falfities and lies the greatest part

Of mankind they corrupted to forfake
God their Creator, and th' invifible

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Glory of him that made them to transform
Oft to the image of a brute, adorn'd
With gay religions full of pomp and gold,

and Vandals, who overrun all the fouthern provinces of Europe, and croffing the Mediterranean beneath Gibraltar landed in Africa, and fpread themselves as far as the fandy country of Libya. Beneath Gibraltar that is more fouthward, the north being uppermoft in the globe. 363-the books of life.] Dr. Bentley reads the book of life, that being the Scripture expreffion. And Shakefpear fays likewife blotted from the book of life, Richard II. A&I.

My name be blotted from the

book of life.

But the author might write books in the plural as well as records juft before; and the plural agrees better with the idea that he would give of the great number of Angels.

357. By falfities and lies] That

379

And

is, as Mr. Upton obferves, by false idols, under a corporeal reprefentation, belying the true God. The poet plainly alludes to Rom. I. 22, &c. When they knew God, they glorified him not as God and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image who changed the truth of God into a lie. So Amos H. 4. Their lies caufed them to crr. Jerem. XVI. 19. Surely our fathers have inherited lies &c.

369.

and th' invifible Glory of him that made them to transform

Oft to the image of a brute,] Alluding to Rom. I. 23. And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God, into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beafts, and creeping things.

372. With gay religions full of tomp and gold,] By religions Milton

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