280 New courage and revive, though now they lie 285 Hung on his fhoulders like the moon, whofe orb 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, 37 290 295 300 His His legions, Angel forms, who lay intranc'd 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. 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. Bufiris and his Memphian chivalry, While with perfidious hatred they pursued From the safe shore their floating carcafes 310 น 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 Under amazement of their hideous change. 315 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 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 |