By Sin and Death a broad way now is pav'd
To expedite your glorious march; but I

Toil'd out my uncouth paffage, forc'd to ride 475
Th' untractable abyfs, plung'd in the womb
Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild,

That jealous of their fecrets fiercely' oppos'd

My journey ftrange, with clamorous uproar
Protesting Fate fupreme; thence how I found 480
The new created world, which fame in Heaven
Long had foretold, a fabric wonderful

Of abfolute perfection, therein Man
Plac'd in a Paradife, by our exíle

Made

it would not have without the re- do not read of Chaos and the other

petition.

475. Toil'd out my uncouth passage,] My ftrange unusual paffage, of the Saxon uncud unknown, forc'd to ride th' untractable abyss, as in II. 540. and ride the air. IX. 63. he rode with darkness. Hor. Od. IV. IV. 44. Per Siculas equitavit undas. We have alfo in Scripture to ride upon the winds, to ride upon the clouds, and the like expreffions: But the toil was not only in riding, but riding an untratable abyss.

480. Protefing Fate fupreme;] Calling upon Fate as a witness against my proceedings. But this feems not perfectly to agree with the account in book the fecond. It was indeed with labor and difficulty that Satan journey'd thro' Chaos, but we

Powers fiercely oppofing him, or pretefting Fate with clamorous uproar. On the contrary Chaos bids him

go and speed; Havoc, and spoil, and ruin are my

gain.

But Satan is here extolling his own performances, and perhaps the author did not intend, that the father of lies fhould keep ftricly to truth. 480.

thence how I found] It is very wrong in Dr. Bentley to make here the beginning of a new period. It is the fame fenter ce fill continued, and refers to ver. 469. Long were to tell &c.

484.-by our exile] He conftantly places the accent upon the last fyllable in exile, as Spenier likewife does, R 2

Fairy

Made happy: Him by fraud I have seduc'd
From his Creator, and the more to' increase
Your wonder, with an apple; he thereat
Offended, worth your laughter, hath giv'n up
Both his beloved Man and all his world,
To Sin and Death a prey, and fo to us,
Without our hazard, labor, or alarm,
Το range in, and to dwell, and over Man
To rule, as over all he should have rul'd.
True is, me also he hath judg'd, or rather
Me not, but the brute ferpent in whose shape
Man I deceiv'd: that which to me belongs,
Is enmity, which he will put between
Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;
His feed, when is not fet, fhall bruise my head:

485

490

495

A

496. that which to me belongs,] Our author understands the fentence (as the most learned and othodox divines do) as referring partly to Satan the author of malice, and partly to the Serpent the inftrument of it.

513.— till fupplanted down he fell We may obferve here a fingular beauty and elegance in Milton's language, and that is his ufing words in their ftrict and litteral fenfe, which are commonly apply'd to a metaphorical meaning, whereby he gives peculiar force to his expreffions, and the litteral meaning appears more

new

A world who would not purchase with a bruise, 500
Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th' account
Of my performance: What remains, ye Gods,
But up and enter now into full blifs?

So having said, a while he stood, expecting
Their univerfal fhout and high applause
To fill his ear, when contrary he hears
On all fides, from innumerable tongues
A difmal univerfal hifs, the found

505

Of public fcorn; he wonder'd, but not long
Had leifure, wond'ring at himself now more; 510
His vifage drawn he felt to fharp and spare,
His arms clung to his ribs, his legs intwining
Each other, till fupplanted down he fell
A monftrous ferpent on his belly prone,

new and ftriking than the metaphor itself. We have an inftance of this in the word fupplanted, which is de. riv'd from the Latin Jupplanto, to trip up one's heels or overthrow, a planta pedis fubtus enota: and there are abundance of other examples in feveral parts of this work, but let it fuffice to have taken notice of it here once for all.

514. A monftrous ferpent on his belly prone,] Our author, in defcribing Satan's transformation into a ferpent, had no doubt in mind the transformation of Cadmus in the

Re

Reluctant, but in vain, a greater power

Now rul'd him, punish'd in the fhape he finn'd
According to his doom: he would have spoke,
But hifs for hifs return'd with forked tongue
To forked tongue, for now were all transform'd
Alike, to ferpents all as acceffories

In partes eft fiffa duas: nec verba

volenti

Sufficiunt; quotiefque aliquos parat
edere queftus,
Sibilat; hanc illi vocem Natura
relinquit.

But there is fomething much more
aftonishing in Milton than in Ovid;
for there only Cadmus and his wife
are chang'd into ferpents, but here,
myriads of Angels are transform'd'
all together.

524. Amphisbæna dire, &c.] Amphisbæna faid to have a head at both ends, fo named of aut and Bara, because it went forward either way. Ceraftes horn'd, of Os a horn. Hydrus, the water fake, of dc water. Elops drear, a dumb ferpent that gives no notice by hifling to avoid him, drear fad, dreadful Dipfas of a thirst, because thofe it itung were tormented with unquenchable thirst.

Hume and Richardfon. These and several verfes which follow Dr. Bentley throws quite away. He diflikes Milton's reckoning Scorpion, and Afp, among the ferpents, and thinks them rather infects: But Pliny VIII. 23. numbers the Ap among the ferpents; and Nicander in his

515

520 To

Theriac. gives both the Scorpion and Afp that title: fo does Lucan, from whom our poet feems to have taken his catalogue of ferpents; for in Book IX. of his Pharfalia, he gives us the names of all these ferpents But what is the Elops? Dr. Bentley mention'd by Milton except the Elops. fays that the editor has here difcover'd himfelf to be an ignorant fellow, the Elops being no ferpent but a fish, and one of the most admir'd too, the Acipenser. But Pliny (from whom the Doctor learn'd this) only fays of the Acipenser, that fome people call it Elops; quidam eum Elopem vocant, IX. 17. he does not tell us whether he thought that they call'd it by a right name or no. But if they did, might there not have been a ferpent of that name too? That there was, we have Pliny's own teftimony in XXXII. 5. where he tells us of the remedies to be ufed by thofe who were bit by the Elops and other ferpents, a Chalcide, Cerafte, aut quas Sepas vocant, aut Elope, Dipfadeve percuffis. Nicander too in his Theriac. mentions the Elops, Tes Frotas, Ailuaste &C. After thefe authorities I hope that the Doctor will allow Milton to mention the Elops, as a ferpent, without

To his bold riot: dreadful was the din

Of hiffing through the hall, thick fwarming now
With complicated monsters head and tail,

Scorpion, and Afp, and Amphisbæna dire,
Ceraftes horn'd, Hydrus, and Elops drear,
And Dipfas (not fo thick fwarm'd once the foil

Quas humus exceptas varios ani-
mavit in angues;
Unde frequens illa eft infeftaque
terra colubris.

The victor Perfeus with the Gorgon
head,

O'er Libyan fands his aery journey fped.

The gory drops diftill'd, as fwift he flew,

And from each drop envenom'd
ferpents grew.

The mifchiefs brooded on the bar-
ren plains,
And fill th' unhappy fruitfulnes
remains.
Eufden.

And Lucan gives the fane account
Phar. IX 696. and there mentions
moft of the ferpents, which are here
mention'd by Milton.

525

Be