A while; but fuddenly at head appear'd Vanguard, to right and left the front unfold; may So fcoffing in ambiguous words, he scarce Had ended; when to right and left the front hear. 560 565 Divided, and to either flank retir'd: Which to our eyes difcover'd, new and ftrange, On wheels (for like to pillars moft they feem'd, 570 574 With in the 16th book of the Iliad. Eneas throws a spear at Meriones; and he artfully avoiding it, Æneas jefts upon his dancing, the Cretans (the countrymen of Meriones) being famous dancers. A little afterwards in the fame book, Patro clus kills Hector's charioteer, who falls headlong from the chariot, upon which Patroclus infults him for feveral lines together upon his kill in diving, and fays that if he was at fea, he might catch excellent oifters. Milton's jefts cannot be lower and more rivial than thefe; but if he is like Homer in his faults, let it be member'd that he is like him in his beauties too. And Mr. Thyer farther obferves, that Milton is the less to be blam'd for this punning scene, when one confiders the characters of the fpeakers, fuch kind of infulting wit being moft peculiar to proud contemptuous Spirits. very little of this kind of wit any where in the poem but in this place, and in this we may fuppofe Milton to have facrific'd to the taste of his times, when puns were better relish'd than they are at prefent in the learned world; and I know not whether we are not grown too delicate and faftidious in this particular. It is certain the Ancients practic'd them more both in their converfation and in their writings; and Ariftotle recommends them in his book of Rhetoric, and likewife Cicero in his treatife of Oratory; and if we fhould condemn them abfolutely, we must condemn half of the good fayings of the greatest wits of Greece and Rome. They are lefs proper indeed in ferious works, and not at all becoming the majefty of an epic poem; but our author feems to have been betray'd into this excess in great meafure by his love and admiration of Hoiner. For this account of the Angels jefting and infulting one 574. Or hollow'd bodies &c.] another is not unlike fome paffages We must carefully preserve the pa renthefis With hideous orifice gap'd on us wide, Portending hollow truce: at each behind A Seraph ftood, and in his hand a reed Stood waving tipt with fire; while we fufpenfe 580 renthefis here, as Milton himfelf has put it. The conftruction then will be, Which to our eyes difcover'd a triple row of pillars laid on wheels, of brass, iron, ftony mold or fubftance, had not their mouths gap'd wide, and fhow'd that they were not pillars; the intermediate words containing a reafon why he call'd them pillars (for like to pillars moft they feem'd or hollow'd bodies &c.) being included in a parenthefis. 576. Brafs, iron, flony mold,] Mold here fignifies fubftance as in II. 355 but Dr. Bentley by reading caft in mold changes the fenfe of it to one of a very different nature. By this emendation (he fays) he has rid the poem of flone cannon: but fuch cannon have been heard of elsewhere, and are now to be feen (I think) at Delf in Holland. Whether they ever were, or could have been used in war, may be queftion'd: but it is probable that Milton by feeing fuch flone cannon in foreign countries, With niceft touch. Immediate in a flame, 584 But foon obfcur'd with fmoke, all Heav'n appear'd, From thofe deep throated engins belch'd, whofe roar Imbowel'd with outrageous noife the air, 590 And all her entrails tore, difgorging foul 594 Have 586. deep throated engins] all her entrails. So in ver. 740, 741. So Shakefpear in Othello, A&t III. And oh, you mortal engins, whofe rude throats Th' immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit. That from thy just obedience could revolt, Thy for of thee; and to this fense the word whom refers. This is common in Milton's poem. Pearce. 586. whofe roar Imbowel'd with outrageous noife the air, The most natural and obvious conAnd all her entrails tore,] The ftruction is, whofe roar imbowel d conftruction feems to be, The roar or fill'd the air with outrageous of which (engins) imbowel'd with ncife; but to this it is objected, outrageous noije tore the air and that it is as much as to fay that the Have eafily as Spi'rits evaded fwift By quick contraction or remove; but now What should they do? if on they rush'd, repulse Repeated, and indecent overthrow бол Doubled, would render them yet more defpis'd, Stood rank'd of Seraphim another row, In posture to difplode their fecond tire 605 A cry of Hell hounds never ceafing bark'd, we have a cry of Hell hounds for the roar fill'd the air with roar. Neither do I fee how the matter is much mended by faying that the roar of the cannon imbowel'd with roar tore the air &c. The cannon I think cannot themselves be properly faid to be imbowel'd with noife, tho' they might imbowel with noise the air. I would therefore endevor to juftify this by other fimilar paffages. It is ufual with the poets to put the property of a thing for the thing itfelf: and as in that verfe, II. 654. (where lian word ferrato, close, compact. fee the note) 599. ferried files.] The Ita Thyer. 620. Te |