Not half so far casts his usurped sway, 170
And wroth to see his kingdom fail,
Swindges the scaly horror of his folded tail.

XIX.
The oracles are dumb,
No voice or hideous hum

Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine

176 Can no more divine,

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance, or breathed spell
Inspires the pale-ey'd priest from the prophetic cell.

XX.
The lonely mountains o'er,

181
And the resounding shore,
A voice of weeping heard and loud lament;

From in his younger years, for he was Apollo who should reign after him, ftill pleased with it when he was and her answering that an Hebrew older, and had his eye upon it se- boy had commanded her to leave veral times in the Paradise Lost. that temple and return to Hell. See

176. Apollo from his forine Suidas in Augustus Cæfar.

Can no more divine, &c] Our au- 183. A voice of weeping heard thor builds here upon the common and loud lament ; ] Alluding to hypothesis of the oracles being the story of a voice proclaming that kruck dumb at the coming of the great Pan was dead, and imChrist, which is allowable enough mediately was heard a great groanin a young poet : and in this paf- ing and lamentation. See more to fage he alludes particularly to the this purpose in Plutarch's treatise famous story of Augustus Cæsar's De oraculorum defe&u. sonsulting the Pythia or priestess of

185

From haunted spring, and dale
Edgd with poplar pale,

2019
The parting Genius is with fighing sent; ? 19.0?
With flowr-inwoven treffes torn 11: tuistilock?
The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets

cur mourn.

XXI.

In consecrated earth,
And on the holy hearth,

igo
The Lars, and Lemures moan with midnight plaint;
In urns, and altars round,
A drear and dying sound

Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint; And the chill marble seems to sweat,

195 While each peculiar Pow'r forgoes his wonted seat.

XXII.
Peor and Baälim
Forsake their temples dim,

M.
With

*191. Lars, and Lemures) Houf- Judg. XVI. and by the ark of höld Gods and Night Spirits. Fla- God, : Sam. V. Our author is mens, priests.

larger in his account of these dei199 With that twice batter'd ties in the first book of the Para

God of Paleftine ; ) Dagon, dise Loft, and thither we must rewho was twice batter'd by Samson, fer our reader and to the notes

With that twice batter'd God of Palestine; And mooned Ashtaroth,

200 Heav'n's queen and mother both,

Now fits not girt with tapers holy fhine ; The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn, In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz

mourn.

XXIII. And sullen Moloch fled,

205 Hath left in shadows dread

His burning idol all of blackest hue;
In vain with cymbals ring
They call the grilly king,

In dismal dance about the furnace blue; 21.
The brutish Gods of Nile as fast,
Ifis and Orus, and the dog Anubis haste.

XXIV.
Nor is Ofiris seen
In Memphian grove or green,

Trampling there.. Selden had a few years.

201. Heav'n's queen and mother before publish'd his De Diis Sy- beth,] She was caHed regina ris Syntagmata duo, and there. cæli and mater Deúm. See Selden. fore we may suppose Milton was

the dog Anubis) Virg. so well instructed in this kind of Æn. VIII. 698. latrator Anubis. learning

212.

215. the 216

Trampling the unshowr'd grass with lowings loud: Nor can he be at rest Within his facred chest,

Nought but profoundest Hell can be his shroud;
In vain with timbrel'd anthems dark
The fable-stoled sorcerers bear his worshipt ark. 220

XXV.
He feels from Juda's land
The dreaded Infant's hand,
The
rays

of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn;
Nor all the Gods beside,
Longer dare abide,

225 Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine : Our babe to show his Godhead true, Can in his swadling bands controll the damned crew.

XXVI. So when the sun in bed, Curtain'd with cloudy red,

230 Pillows his chin upon an orient wave,

The 215.--the unshowr'd grass] There, Our Babe to sew his Godhead being no rain in Egypt, but the country made fruitful with the over. but this pitiful jingle could not be flowings of the Nile. Richardson.

The flocking shadows pale
Troop to th’infernal jail,

Each fetter'd ghost flips to his several grave, 234 And the yellow-skirted Fayes

[maze. Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-lov'd

XXVII.
But see the Virgin blest
Hath laid her Babe to rest,

Time is our tedious fong should here have ending: Heav'n's youngest teemed ftar

240 Hath fix'd her polish'd car,

Her Deeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending: And all about the courtly stable Bright-harnest Angels sit in order serviceable,

IV.

* The PASSION.

I.

E ,

Rewhile of music, and ethereal mirth,
Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring,

And