Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

Wallowing unwieldy', enormous in their gate
Tempest the ocean: there leviathan,
Hugest of living creatures, on the deep
Stretch'd like a promontory fleeps or fwims
And feems a moving land, and at his gills
Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out a fea.
Mean while the tepid caves, and fens and shores
Their brood as numerous hatch, from th'

And how smooth is the verfe that describes the feal and dolphin fport ing upon the fmooth water!

on smooth the seal, And bended dolphins play: It is much finer than if it had all been exprefs'd in a fingle line. The verfe is bent, as I may fay, to be better fuited to the bended dolphin: as in the rough meafures following one almoft fees porpoifes and other unwieldy creatures tumbling about in the ocean.

412. Tempeft the ocean:] Milton has here with very great art and propriety adopted the Italian verb tempeftare. He could not poffibly have expreffed this idea in mere English without fome kind of circumlocution, which would have weaken'd and enervated that energy of expreffion which this part of his defcription requir'd. Befides no word could be more proper in the beginning of the verfe to make it labor like the troubled ocean, which he is painting out. Thyer. 412, there leviathan,] The

-

415

egg that foon

Burfting

[blocks in formation]

and at his trunk spouts out Et acceptum patulis mare naribus a fea.]

efflant. Ovid. Met. III. 686. 421. They fumm'd their pens,] Pens from penna a feather. Summ'd is a term in falconry; a hawk is faid to be full fumm'd, when his feathers are grown to their full ftrength. So

Par. Reg. I. 14:

With profp'rous wing full fumm'd.
Richardfon.

422. With clang defpis'd the ground,
under a cloud

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

fo many that the ground, from whence In profpe&t;] That is, the birds were they rofe, would have appeared to be under a cloud, if one had seen it at a distance: in this fenfe we have ver. 555 bow it (the world) Show'd

Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd

but feather'd foon and fledge 420

Their callow young,
They fumm'd their pens,

and foaring th' air fublime

With clang defpis'd the ground, under a cloud
In profpect; there the eagle and the stork
On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build:

Part loofly wing the region, part more wife
In common, rang'd in figure wedge their way,

425

Intelligent

in profpect from his throne. Pearce. dentibus: feffos duces ad terga reciUnder a cloud, the ground being fhaded by the multitude of birds feem'd as when a cloud paffes over it.

Richardfon. 423.there the eagle and the fork On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build:] Thefe birds build their eries, that is their nefts in such high places. In Job XXXIX. 27, 28. it is faid particularly of the eagle, Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her neft on high? She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the frong place. And Pliny fays of them, Nidificant in petris et arboribus. L. 10. Sect. 4. 426.

[ocr errors]

rang'd in figure wedge their way,] Pliny has defcribed certain birds of paffage, flying in the form of a wedge, and fpreading wider and wider. Those behind rest upon thofe before, till the leaders being tir'd are in their turn receiv'd into the rear. A tergo fenfim dilatante fe cuneo porrigitur agmen, largèque impellenti præbetur aura. Colla imponunt præce.

piunt. Nat. Hift. L. 10. Sect. 32.. But as this migration of birds is one of the most wonderful inftincts of nature, it may be proper to add fome better authorities to explain and juftify our author than Pliny. Jerem. VIII. 7. takes notice of this remarkable inftinct; Yea the ftork in the Heaven knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the fwallow observe the time of their coming, &c. So very intelligent are they of feafons. And as Milton inftances in the crane particularly, we will quote what the ingenious author of Spectacle de la Nature fays upon this occafion. Dial. XI. " Ás "to wild ducks and cranes, both the "one and the other at the approach "of winter fly in queft of more "favorable climates. They all af"femble at a certain day like fwal"lows and quails. They decamp "at the fame time, and 'tis very "agreeable to observe their flight. "They generally range themselves " in a long column like an I, or "in two lines united in a point like

Intelligent of seasons, and set forth

Their aery caravan high over feas

Flying, and over lands with mutual wing

Eafing their flight; fo fteers the prudent crane 430 Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air

: a V reverfed." And fo as Milton fays,

-rang'd in figure wedge their way.

"The duck or quail, who forms "the point, cuts the air, and facilitates a paffage to thofe who follow; but he is charged with "this commiffion only for a certain "time, at the conclufion of which "he wheels into the rear, and ano"ther takes his poft." And thus as Milton fays,

with mutual wing Eafing their flight.

435.

-nor then the folemn nightin gale Sec.] Of all finging birds, we fee that he inftances in the nightingale particularly; and his fondness for this little bird is very remarkable, and he expreffes it upon every occafion. If the reader has not taken particular notice of it, he will be furpris'd as well as pleas'd to fee in how many paffages and with what admiration he fpeaks of this charming fongfter. He compares his own making verfes in his blindness to the nightingale's finging in the dark. III. 37.

Flotes,

Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird

Sings darkling, and in fhadieft covert hid

Tunes her nocturnal note.

In that charming defcription of evening, IV. 598. nothing can be more charming than what is faid of the nightingale.

Silence accompanied; for beaft and bird,

They to their graffy couch, these to their nefts

Were flunk; all but the wakeful
nightingale ;

She all night long her amorous de-
fcant fung;
Silence was pleas'd.

In that tender fpeech of Eve's to
Adam, IV. 639.

With thee converfing I forget all
time, &c

amongst other pleafing images he mentions twice

the filent night With this her folemn bird. And Adam and Eve are made to fleep lull'd by nightingales, IV. 771.

Then feed on thoughts, that volun- Thefe, lull'd by nightingales, em

tary move

bracing flept,

And

Flotes, as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes :
From branch to branch the smaller birds with fong
Solac'd the woods, and fpread their painted wings
Till ev'n, nor then the folemn nightingale
Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays:
Others

And on their naked limbs the

flow'ry roof Show'rd roses, which the morn repair'd.

And when the evil Spirit tempts Eve in her dream, he mentions this as one of the strongest temptations to induce her to walk out in the cool evening, V. 38.

Why fleep'st thou Eve? now is the

pleasant time,

The cool, the filent, fave where filence yields

To the night warbling bird, that now awake

Tunes (weetest his love-labor'd fong.

And here where the poet is defcribing the creation of all the forts and fpecies of fowl, of finging birds he particularizes the nightingale alone.

From branch to branch the smaller

birds with fong Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings

Till ev'n, nor then the folemn nightingale

Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her foft lays.

And upon Adam's and Eve's first coming together the nightingale fung the epithalamium or wedding fong, VIII. 518.

435

The amorous bird of night Sung fpoufal, and bid hafte the evening ftar

On his hill top to light the bridal lamp.

Other poets mention the nightingale perhaps by way of fimile, but none of them dwells, or delights to dwell, fo much upon it as our author. And he expreffes the fame fondness and admiration in other parts of his works. We will give an instance out of the Il Penferofo as it is rather more particular than the reft,

And the mute filence hift along, 'Lefs Philomel will deign a fong, In her sweetest, faddeft plight, Smoothing the rugged brow of night.

Sweet bird that fhunn'ft the noise of folly,

Moft mufical, most melancholy! Thee chauntrefs oft the woods among

I woo to hear thy even-fong; And miffing thee, I walk unfeen On the day fmooth-fhaven green, To behold the wand'ring moon Riding near her highest noon. And in his fonnets the firft is addrefs'd To the nightingale.

438.-the

Others on filver lakes and rivers bath'd

Their downy breaft; the fwan with arched neck
Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows
Her ftate with oary feet; yet oft they quit

The dank, and rifing on ftiff pennons, tower
The mid aereal sky: Others on ground

440

Walk'd firm; the crested cock whose clarion founds
The filent hours, and th' other whofe gay train
Adorns him, color'd with the florid hue

Of rainbows and ftarry' eyes. The waters thus
With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl,
Evening and morn folemniz'd the fifth day.

438.-the fwan with arched neck] The ancient poets have not hit upon this beauty, fo lavish as they have been in their defcriptions of the fwan. Homer calls the fwan longneck'd faryodespor, but how much more pittorefque if he had arched this length of neck! her wings mantling proudly, her wings are then a little detach'd from her fides, rais'd and spread as a mantle, which she does with an apparent pride, as is alfo feen in her whole figure, attitude, and motion. Richardfon. Dr. Bentley wonders that he fhould make the fwan of the feminine gender, contrary to both Greek and Latin. I fuppofe he did it, becaufe he thought it would be more agreeable to the ear. Rows his ftate founds rather too rough.

445

The

450. when God faid, &c.] So Gen. I. 24. And God faid, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind. We obferv'd before, that when Milton makes the divine Perfon fpeak, he keeps clofely to Scripture. Now what we render living creature is living foul in the Hebrew, which Milton ufually follows rather than our tranflation; and foul it fhould be here as in ver. 388. living foul, and 392. foul living. It is indeed forul in all the printed copies,

Let th' earth bring forth fowl living in her kind:

but Dr. Bentley, Dr. Pearce, Mr. Richardfon, and common fenfe, all condemn this reading; it is mani

festly

« EdellinenJatka »