By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour What in an age they with inceffant toil 700 With wondrous art founded the maffy ore, paffage has been mifunderstood by Dr. Bentley and others. Strength and art are not to be conftrued in the genitive cafe with fame, but in the nominative with monuments. And then the meaning is plainly thus, Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, and how their firength and art are easily outdone &c. A 704. and fcumm'd the bullion drofs:] Dr. Bentley says that bullion drofs is a ftrange blunder to pass thro' all editions: He fuppofes that the author gave it, and feumm'd from bullion drofs. But I believe that the common reading may be defended. The word bullion does not fignify purify'd are, as the Doctor fays; but ore boiled or boiling; then it is purify'd ore. Agreeably and when the drofs is taken off, 699. And hands innumerable] There were 360000 men employ'd for near twenty years upon one of the Pyramids, according to Diodo-to this Milton in his tract called Of rus Siculus, Lib. 1. and Pliny Lib. the Reformation of England, fays 36. cap. 12. 702. -a fecond multitude With wondrous art founded the mally ore,] The first band dug the metal out of the mountain, a fecond multitude on the plain hard by founded or melted it; for founded it should be read as in the first edition, and not found out as it is in the fubfequent ones; founded from fundere, to melt, to caft metal, to extract heaps of gold and filver out of the drofly bullion of the people's fins. And Milton makes bullion an adjective here, tho' commonly it is a fubftantive; juft as in V. 140. we have ocean brim, and in III. 284. virgin feed. And fo bullion drofs may fignify the drafs that came from the metal, as Spenfer expreffes it, or the drofs that fwam on the furface of the boiling ore. The fense of the paffage is this; They founded ог A various mold, and from the boiling cells By strange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook, Το many a row of pipes the found-board breathes. Rofe like an exhalation, with the found ́or melted the ore that was in the mass, by feparating or fevering each kind, that is, the fulphur, earth, &c. from the metal; and after that, they fumm'd the dros that floted on the top of the boiling ore. Pearce. Bullion drofs, as one would fay golddrofs or filver-drofs, the drofs which arofe from the melted metal in refining it. Richardson. 708. As in an organ &c.] This fimile is as exact, as it is new. And we may observe, that our author frequently fetches his images from mafic more than any other English poet, as he was very fond of it, and was himself a performer upon the organ and other inftruments. 1711. Rofe like an exhalation, ] The fudden rifing of Pandemonium is fuppofed, and with great probability, to be a hint taken from fome of the moving fcenes and machines invented for the ftage by the famous Inigo Jones. 710 713.where pilafters round &c.] One of the greatest faults of Milton is his affectation of fhowing his learning and knowledge upon every occafion. He could not so much as defcribe this ftructure without bringing in I know not how many terms of architecture, which it will be proper for the fake of many readers to explain. Pilafters round, pillars jutting out of the wall, were Jet, and Doric pillars, pillars of the Dóric order; as their mufic was to the Dorian mood, ver. 550, fo their architecture was of the Doric order; overlaid with golden architrave, that part of a column above the capital; nor did there want cornice, the uppermost member of the O 2 inta With golden architrave; nor did there want. 715 Belus or Serapis their Gods, or feat 720 Their kings, when Egypt with Affyria ftrove In wealth and luxury. Th' afcending pile A Stood fix'd her stately highth, and ftrait the doors intablature of the column, or freeze, that part of the intablature of columns between the architrave and cornice, fo denominated of the La'tin phrygio an imbroiderer, because it is commonly adorn'd with fculptures in baffo relievo, imitating imbroidery, and therefore the poet adds, with boy fculptures graven; the roof was fretted gold, fret-work is fillets interwoven at parallel diftances. This kind of work has ufually flowers in the fpaces, and muft glitter much efpecially by lamp-light, as Mr. Richardfon obferves. 717. Not Babylon, &c.] It muft be confefs'd there is fome weight in Dr. Bentley's objection, that in this fame narration the author had challeng'd Babylon and Memphis, ver. 694. Babylon the capital of Affyria, and Memphis of old Egypt; and now as quite forgetful he re Opening and this latter the worfe; becaufe Alcairo is the modern name of Memphis, and not fo fit to join with Belus or Serapis. But tho' thefe lines may poffibly be faulty, yet that is not authority fufficient for an editor to reject them as fpurious. 720. Belus or Serapis] Belus the fon of Nimrod, fecond king of Babylon, and the first man worshipped for a God, by the Chaldæans ftiled Bel, by the Phoenicians Baal. Serapis the fame with Apis the God of the Egyptians. iterates it, Babylon and Alcaire: and another from Callimachus. But there Opening their brazen folds discover wide there are other authorities, which may serve to justify Milton; for we read in Martianus Capella, Te Serăpin Nilus &c. and in Prudentius Ifis enim et Serapis &c. Pearce. 725. Within,] An adverb here and not a præpofition: and therefore Milton puts a comma after it, that it may not be join'd in conftruction with her ample spaces. So Virgil En. II. 483. Apparet domus intus, et atria longa patefcunt. 725.-her ample spaces,] A beautiful Latinifm this. So Seneca defcribing Hercules's defcent into Hell. Herc. Fur. III. 673. Hinc ampla vacuis fpatia laxantur locis. Thyer. 726.-from the arched roof, &c.] How much fuperior is this to that in Virgil En. I. 726. 725 730 In dependent lychni laquearibus aureis Incenfi, et noctem flammis funa- From gilded roofs depending lamps, In Heav'n by many a towred ftructure high, And fat as princes, whom the fúpreme King 735 In ancient Greece; and in Aufonian land was not fo common a name as "Vulcan." I think it is very exactly exprefs'd. Milton is here Speaking of a Devil exercifing the founder's art and fays he was not unknown in Greece and Italy. The poet has his choice of three names to tell us what they called him in the claffic world, Hepbaftos, Vulcan, and Mulciber, the laft only of which defigning the office of a founder, he has very judiciously chofen that. Warburton. 740. and how he fell From Heav'n, &c.] Alluding to thefe lines in Homer's Iliad. I. 590. Ηδη γαρ με και αλλοτ' αλεξέμε 749 From Παν δ' ημαρ φερομην, άμα δ' ηε λιῳ καταδιωξε Καππεσον εν Λημνώ όλιγο δε τι θυμΘ εγκεν Ένθα με Σίντιες ανδρες άφαρ και μισαντο πεσοντα Once in your caufe I felt his matchlefs might, Hurl'd headlong downward, from th'ethereal height, Toft all the day in rapid circles round; Nor till the fun defcended, touch'd the ground: Breathless I fell, in giddy motion, The Sinthians rais'd me on the με is worth obferving how Milton ναι μεμαωτα, 'Pife, wod TeTaywv, aо Bil- mer, that it was all day long, but λε θεσπέσιολο we are led through the parts of the day, |