Were ready; in a moment up they turn'd Th' originals of nature in their crude To justify this great alteration of the text, the Doctor premises one poftulatum (tho' it is properly two) that Milton is here defcribing the making of gun-powder, and that he was not ignorant how it was made. Agreed. Let us now examin the Doctor's objections particularly. Sulphurous and nitrous fam adufted? (fays he) why at the leaft approach of heat they will fly away in exhalations. I think that this is not true: tho' thefe ingredients be heated to fome degree, yet they will not fly away in exhalations unless fome fpark of fire gets to them. But why must adufied fignify burnt or heated to a great 510 Το degree? If the word will fignify parch'd or dry'd any way in fuch a manner as things commonly are by fire, it will be a very proper expreffion here: for by being reduc'd to grain they were concocted, and by being reduc'd to the blackeft grain they were fufficiently adufted. Again, the Doctor obferves that only two materials are here mention'd, and these without charcoal can never make gunpowder. This is true; but is it neceffary that a poet fhould be as exact as a writer about arts and fciences? If fo, not only Milton but Spenfer muft be blam'd, who has done the fame thing as Milton has done; for in his Fairy Queen, Book 1. Cant. 7. St. 13. defcribing a cannon charg'd with gunpowder, he fays, With windy nitre and quick ful phur fraught, 1 To blackest grain, and into store convey'd: Part hidden veins digg'd up (nor hath this earth Whereof to found their engins and their balls Of miffive ruin; part incentive reed 515 520 So tractedly for charcoal; and is but a cant word fit only for the powdermill, not for a poem: for charcoal is, in its etymology, what is chark'd or rather charr'd to a coal, that is, burnt tho' not ashes. Sooty coal, V. 440. is right: but when the word chark, or charcoal at length, is ufed, footy feems a fuperfluous epithet, because it is implied in the word charr'd. In the common reading the Doctor miffes the word pound; a neceflary word, because without long pounding the three ingredients together, no powder can be made. But is not the fenfe of the word pound fufficiently imply'd in reduc'd to grain? The words found, mingled, reduc'd, convey'd, digg'd, were chang'd (fays the Doctor) from the prefent to the perfect tenfe for the prefent tense provide in ver. 520. demonftrates that all the foregoing verbs were of the fame manner. If there were any demonstration to be drawn from hence, one would think rather that it would fall against the prefent tenfe provide. But there is hardly a page where Milton has not run from one tenfe to another, and VOL. I. fometimes he has even coupled unlike tenfes. Pearce. 516. Part hidden veins digg'd up (nor hath this earth Entrails unlike) of mineral and ftone,] Dr. Bentley has carried on the mark of parenthefs to the end of the verfe; but it fhould be plac'd after unlike: and the ftone may have been mention'd here as what they ufed for balls. That ftone-bullets have been in ufe, fee Chambers's Univ. Dict. in Cannon. Or Milton by the word tone here would exprefs more diftinctly that the metal, of which they made their engins and balls, was inclos'd in and mix'd with a flony fubftance in the mine. See Furetiere's French Dictionary upon the word Mineral. Pearce. So all ere day-fpring, under confcious night, Now when fair morn orient in Heav'n appear'd, Up rose the victor Angels, and to arms The matin trumpet fung: in arms they stood Of golden panoply, refulgent hoft, Soon banded; others from the dawning hills 525 Look'd round, and fcouts each coaft light-armed fcour, Each quarter, to descry the distant foe, under conscious night,] 521. Ovid. Met. XIII. 15. quorum nox confcia fola eft. 526. The trumpet fung:] A claffical expreffion. V. 113. So Virg. Æn. 530 Where 528.athers from the dawning bills] This epithet is ufually apply'd to the light, but here very poetically to the bills, the Et tuba commiffos medio canit ag- dawn firft appearing over them, gere ludos. To arms the matin trumpet fung: So and they feeming to bring the rifing day; as the evening ftar is faid likewife firft to appear on his billtop, VIII. 520. 532. balt:] Milton fpells Quando à cantar la matutina it as the Italians do alto, but we tromba Comincia à l'arme. Gier. Lib. Cant. 11. St. 19. Where lodg'd, or whither fled, or if for fight, 535 Arm, Warriors, arm for fight; the foe at hand, Whom fled we thought, will fave us long purfuit This day; fear not his flight; fo thick a cloud He comes, and fettled in his face I fee Sad refolution and fecure: let each 540 His 793. and clouds of foot in Paradife Regain'd, III. 327. We have peditum equitumque nubes in Livy, Lib. 5. and even nubem belli in Virgil, En. X. 809. and armorum nubem in Statius, Theb. IV. 839. 541. Sad refolution and fecure:] By fad here is meant fower and fullen, as triftis in Latin and trifto in Italian fignify. Pearce, Or poffibly it means no more than His adamantin coat gird well, and each Fit well his helm, gripe faft his orbed fhield, 545 So warn'd he them aware themselves, and foon In order, quit of all impediment; Inftant without disturb they took alarm, And onward move imbattel'd: when behold 550 555 A His adamantin coat gird well, and each Fit well his helm, gripe feft his orbed field,] This is plainly copied from Agamemnon's directions in Homer, Iliad. II. 382. Eu per TIS Sopu Inžada, Eu His fharpen'd fpear let every Grecian wield, And every Grecian fix his brazen fhield, &c. Pope. 546. - barb'a |