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New courage and revive, though now they lie
Groveling and proftrate on yon lake of fire,
As we ere while, astounded and amaz'd,
No wonder, fall'n fuch a pernicious highth.
He scarce had ceas'd when the fuperior Fiend
Was moving tow'ard the fhore; his pond'rous fhield,
Ethereal temper, maffy, large and round,
Behind him caft; the broad circumference

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Hung on his fhoulders like the moon, whofe orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At evening from the top of Fefolé,

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Or

Είλετο, τεδ' απάνευθε σελας γενετ', ούτε μήνης.

but the fhield of Satan was large as the moon feen through a telefcope, an inftrument firit applied to celeftial obfervations by Galileo, a native of Tufcany, whom he means here by the Tuscan artist, and afterwards mentions by name in V. 262. a teftimony of his honor for fo great a man, whom he had known and vifited in Italy, as himfelf informs us in his Arcopagitica.

289. Fefolé,] Is a city in Tufcany; Valdarno, or the valley of Arno, a valley there. Richardson.

292. His fpear, to equal which the tal eft pine &c.] He walk'd with his fpear, in comparison of which

the

Or in Valdarno, to defcry new lands,
Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe.
His fpear, to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Of fome great ammiral, were but a wand,
He walk'd with to fupport uneafy steps
Over the burning marle, not like those steps
On Heav'ns azure, and the torrid clime
Smote on him fore befides, vaulted with fire!
Nathlefs he fo indur'd, till on the beach
Of that inflamed fea he ftood, and call'd

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37

290

295

300 His

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His legions, Angel forms, who lay intranc'd
Thick as autumnal leaves that ftrow the brooks
In Vallombrofa, where th' Etrurian fhades
High over-arch'd imbow'r; or fcatter'd fedge
Aflote, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd 305
Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coaft, whose waves o'erthrew

Bufiris

which it feems to be a contracted valley in Etruria or Tufcany, fo diminutive. Hume.

named of Valis and Umbra, remarkable for the continual cool

This word is frequently ufed by fhades, which the vast number of Spenfer, and the old poets. trees that overspread it afford.

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Hume.

305. when with fierce winds Orion arm'd &c.] Orion is a

Quam multa in fylvis autumni fri- conftellation represented in the fi

gore primo

Lapfa cadunt folia.

Thick as the leaves in autumn

ftrow the woods. Dryden.

But Milton's comparison is by far the exacteft; for it not only expreffes a multitude, but alfo the posture and fituation of the Angels. Their lying confufedly in heaps, covering the lake, is finely reprefented by this image of the leaves in the brooks. And befides the propriety of the application, if we compare the fimiles themfelves, Milton's is by far fuperior to the other, as it exhibits a real landfkip. See An Efay upon Milton's imitations of the Ancients, p. 23.

303. Vallombrofa,] A famous

gure of an armed man, and fupposed to be attended with ftormy weather, affurgens fluctu nimbofus Orion. Virg. Æn. I. 539. And the Red-Sea abounds fo much with fedge, that in the Hebrew Scripture it is called the Sedgy Sea. And he fays bath vex'd the Red-Sea coaft particularly, because the wind ufually drives the fedge in great quantities towards the fhore.

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Bufiris and his Memphian chivalry,

While with perfidious hatred they pursued
The fojourners of Gofhen, who beheld

From the safe shore their floating carcafes
And broken chariot wheels: fo thick beftrown
Abject and loft lay thefe, covering the flood,

310

and Virgil (and therefore may be allow'd to Milton) in a comparifon, after they have shown the refemblance, to go off from the main purpose and finish with fome other image, which was occafion'd by the comparifon, but is itself very different from it. Milton has done thus in almost all his fimilitudes; and therefore what he does fo frequently, cannot be allow'd to be an objection to the genuinnefs of this paffage before us. As to Milton's making Pharoah to be firis (which is another of the Doctor's objections to the paffage) there is authority enough for to juftify a poet in doing fo, tho' not an hiftorian: It has been fuppofed by fome, and therefore Milton might follow that opinion. Chivalry for cavalry, and cavalry (fays Dr. Bentley] for chariotry is twice wrong. But it is rather twice right: for chivalry (from the French chevalerie) fignifies not only knighthood, but thofe who use horfes in fight, both fuch as ride on horfes and fuch as ride in chariots drawn by them: In the fenfe of riding and fighting on horfeback this word

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Under amazement of their hideous change.
He call'd fo loud, that all the hollow deep
Of Hell refounded. Princes, Potentates,

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Warriors, the flow'r of Heaven, once yours, now loft, If fuch aftonishment as this can feife

Eternal Spi'rits; or have ye chos'n this place

After the toil of battel to repose

Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find
To fumber here, as in the vales of Heaven?
Or in this abject posture have ye fworn
To' adore the conqueror? who now beholds
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood
With fcatter'd arms and enfigns, till anon
His fwift purfuers from Heav'n gates discern
Th' advantage, and defcending tread us down
Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts.
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf.
Awake, arife, or be for ever fall'n.

320

325

339

They heard, and were abafh'd, and up they sprung

Upon

tore flammas

328.with linked thunderbolts Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf.] This alludes to the

fate of Ajax Oileus,

Turbine corripuit, fcopuloque in

Virg. Æn. I. 44, 45•

Illum expirantem transfixo pec- fpeech to his damned affembly in

fixit acuto.

Who pleafeth to read the Devil's

Taffo, Cant. 4. from Stanza 9 to
Stanza

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