In billows, leave i'th' midt a horrid vale. Then with expanded wings he fteers his flight 225 That felt unusual weight, till on dry land And fuch appear'd in hue, as when the force 230 Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter'd fide 235 229 liquid fire;] Virg. Ed. 231. Of fubterranean wind] increase the winds which first blew 232. Pelorus] A promontory of Sicily, now Cape di Faro, about a With stench and smoke: Such resting found the fole Is this the region, this the foil, the clime, 248. Whom reason hath equal'd,] Reason is to be pronounced here as one fyllable, or too fhort ones, as it is likewise in VIII. 591. and IX. 559. See the note on ver. 39. 250. Hail horrors, hail &c.] His fentiments are every way anfwerable to his character, and fuitable to a created being of the most exalted and moft depraved nature. Such is that in which he takes poffeffion of his place of torments, Hail horrors, hail &c. Who now is Sovran can difpofe and bid What shall be right: farthest from him is best, worth, not fubftance. He is likewife with great art defcribed as owning his adverfary to be almighty. Whatever perverfe interpretation he puts on the justice, mercy and other attributes of the Supreme Being, he frequently confeffes his omnipotence, that being the perfection he was forced to allow him, and the only confideration which could fupport his pride under the fhame of his defcat. Nor muft I omit that beautiful circumftance of his bursting out into tears, upon his furvey of thofe innumerable Spirits whom he had involved in the fame guilt and ruin with himself. Addifon. 252. Receive thy new possessor; } This paffage feems to be an improvement upon Sophocles, Ajax 395. where Ajax, before he kills himself, cries out much in the fame manner. Ιω σκοτος, εμον φαος, εξεμένος VOD. I. Ελεσθ' ελεσθ' οικήτορα, Can is excellent in placing his words: 253.by place or time.] Milton invert them only, and fay by time or place, and if the reader has any ear, he will perceive how much the alteration is for the worfe. For the paufe falling upon place in the firft line by time or place, and again upon place in the next line The mind is its own place, would offend the ear, and therefore is artfully varied. A mind not to be chang'd by place or time. The mind is its own place. 254. The mind is its own place,] Thefe are fome of the extravagances of the Stoics, and could not be better ridiculed than they are here by being put in the mouth of Satan in his prefent fituation. Thyer. D Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. 255 What matter where, if I be still the fame, 260 And what I fhould be, all but less than he 257.all but] I have heard it propos'd to read albeit, that is although; but prefer the common reading. 259-th' Almighty hath not built Here for his envy,] This is not a place that God fhould envy us, or think it too good for us; and in this fenfe the word envy is used in feveral places of the poem, and particularly in IV. 517. VIII. 494. and IX. 770. 263. Better to reign in Hell, than ferve in Heaven.] This is a wonderfully fine improvement upon Prometheus's anfwer to Mercury in Æfchylus. Prom. Vinct. 965. Της σης λατρείας της εμην δυσπρα ξίαν, 265 And Σαφως επισασ, ४४ αν αλλαξαιμ εγω Κρείσσον γαρ οίμαι τηδε λατρεύειν Петра, Η πατρι φύναι Ζηνι πιτον a778 λον. lius Cæfar, that he had rather be It was a memorable faying of Juthe first man in a country-village reader will obferve how properly than the fecond at Rome. The the faying is here applied and acCommodated to the fpeaker. It is here made a fentiment worthy of Satan, and of him only; nam te nec fperent Tartara regem, Nec tibi regnandi veniat tam dira cupido. Virg. Georg. I. 36. 276.-02 And call them not to share with us their part Thus answer'd. Leader of those armies bright, 275 New As full of peril and adventrous fpirit, As to o'erwalk a current, roaring loud, On the unftedfaft footing of a fpear. Hot. If he fall in, good night, or fink or fwim. Or after all may not the edge of battel be exprefs'd from the Latin of a weapon, and alfo an army in acies, which fignifies both the edge battel array? The author himself would incline one to think fo by his ufe of this metaphor in another and fomething like it in 1 Hen. IV. place, VI. 108. A&. I. I'll read you matter, deep and dangerous; |