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With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused
Fanatic Egypt and her priests, to seek
Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms
Rather than human. Nor did Israel 'scape
The infection, when their borrow'd gold composed
The calf in Oreb: and the rebel king

Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan,
Likening his Maker to the grazed ox;
Jehovah, who in one night, when he pass'd
From Egypt marching, equall'd with one stroke
Both her first-born and all her bleating gods.

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tians were worshipped in monstrous shapes, bulls, cats, dogs, &c. [Virg. Æn. viii. 698. Omnigenûmque Deûm monstra et latrator Anubis:'] and the reason alleged for this monstrous worship is derived from the fabulous tradition, that when the giants invaded heaven, the gods were so affrighted that they fled into Egypt, and there concealed themselves in the shapes of various animals; and the Egyptians afterwards out of gratitude worshipped the creatures, whose shapes the gods had assumed. Ovid, Met. v. 319.' N. Juvenal xv. 7.

479. abused, deceived, imposed upon.

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483. Psalm cvi. 19. They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the golden image. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.' Exod. xii, 35. xxxii. 4.

484. 'The rebel king: Jeroboam, made king by the Israelites who rebelled against Rehoboam, 1 Kings xii., doubled that sin by making two golden calves, probably in imitation of the Egyptians with whom he had conversed, who had a couple of oxen which they worshipped; one called Apis at Memphis, the metropolis of the Upper Egypt; and the other, Mnevis at Hierapolis, the chief city of the Lower Egypt.' N.

488. marching: as in Exod. xii. 51. And it came to pass the self-same day that the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.'

489. bleating gods: see Exod. xii. 12. Numb. xxxiii, 4. The term bleating may be used for the cry of any animal; as bleating herds, ii. 494.: but it is contended that the Egyptians also worshipped sheep; for instance, Jupiter Ammon was worshipped as a ram ;

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Belial came last, than whom a spirit more lewd
Fell not from heaven, or more gross to love
Vice for itself to him no temple stood,
Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he
In temples and at altars, when the priest
Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who fill'd
With lust and violence the house of God?
In courts and palaces he also reigns,
And in luxurious cities, where the noise
Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers,
And injury and outrage: and when night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night
In Gibeah, when the hospitable door
Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape.
These were the prime in order and in might :

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('corniger Ammon,' Ovid:) and hence, shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians.

490. It does not appear that Belial was ever worshipped; but lewd profligate fellows, such as regard neither God nor man, are called in Scripture the children of Belial, Deut, xiii. 13. So the sons of Eli are called, 1 Sam. ii. 12. Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial, they knew not the Lord.' So the men of Gibeah, Judges xix. 22.' N. 2 Cor. vi. 15.

499. So Homer makes Eumæus, speaking of the riotous deeds of the suitors, say, Τῶν ὕβρις τε βίη τε σιδήρεον οὐρανὸν ἵκει, Od. xv. 328.' COWPER.

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502. flown, puffed, inflated, elate. Newton notices the con jecture blown for flown, as Virg. Ecl. vi. 15. Inflatum hesterno venas, ut semper, Iuccho.' Flown is properly the participle from the verb to fly. But Milton most probably uses it for overflown, a participle of which Johnson gives instances from Bentley and Swift, but notices it as improperly formed from the verb to flow. It thus corresponds to flushed.

503. See Gen. xix. 8. Judges xix. 25.

The rest were long to tell, though far renown'd,
The Ionian gods, of Javan's issue; held
Gods, yet confess'd later than Heaven and Earth,
Their boasted parents: Titan, Heaven's first-born,
With his enormous brood, and birthright seized
By younger Saturn he from mightier Jove,
His own and Rhea's son, like measure found;
So Jove usurping reign'd: these first in Crete
And Ida known, thence on the snowy top
Of cold Olympus, ruled the middle air,
Their highest heaven; or on the Delphian cliff,

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507. long to tell: Cic. Verr. 3, 60. Jam vero quas iste prædas, quam aperte, quam improbe fecerit, longum est dicere.'

508. Javan, the fourth son of Japhet and grandson of Noah, (Gen. x.) is supposed to have settled in the south-west part of Asia Minor, about Ionia, which contains the radical letters of his name. His descendants were the Ionians and Grecians; and the principal of their gods were Heaven and Earth; Titan was their eldest son; he was father of the giants, and his empire was seized by his younger brother Saturn, as Saturn's was by Jupiter, son of Saturn and Rhea. These first were known in the island Crete, now Candia, in which is mount Ida, where Jupiter is said to have been born; thence passed over into Greece, and resided on mount Olympus in Thessaly; the snowy top of cold Olympus, as Homer calls it, Ολυμπον ἀγάννιφον, Il. i. 420. Οὐλύμπου νιφόεντος, xviii. 615. which mountain afterwards became the name of Heaven among their worshippers; or on the Delphian cliff, Parnassus, whereon was seated the city Delphi, famous for the temple and oracle of Apollo; or in Dodona, a city and wood (in Epirus) sacred to Jupiter; and through all the bounds of Doric land, i. e. of Greece, of which Doris was a part; or fled over Adria, the Adriatic, to the Hesperian fields, to Italy; and o'er the Celtic, France and the other countries overrun by the Celts, roam'd the utmost isles, Great Britain, Ireland, the Orkneys, Thule or Iceland, ultima Thule, as it is called, the utmost boundary of the world.' N.

516. ruled the middle air: a portion which the poet seems to allot to Jupiter on the authority of Homer Il. xv. 192. Zeùs d' éλax' οὐρανοῦ εὐρὺν ἐν αἰθέρι καὶ νεφέλῃσι. COWPER

Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds
Of Doric land or who with Saturn old
Fled over Adria to the Hesperian fields,
And o'er the Celtic roam'd the utmost isles.

520

All these and more came flocking; but with looks Downcast and damp; yet such wherein appear'd Obscure some glimpse of joy, to have found their chief

Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost 525
In loss itself: which on his countenance cast
Like doubtful hue: but he, his wonted pride
Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore
Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised
Their fainting courage, and dispell'd their fears. 530
Then straight commands, that at the warlike sound
Of trumpets loud and clarions be uprear'd
His mighty standard; that proud honour claim'd
Azazel as his right, a cherub tall;

Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurl'd
The imperial ensign; which, full high advanced,
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind,
With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed,
Seraphic arms and trophies; all the while

535

523. damp, depressed, dejected, dispirited: damp horror, v. 65. 526. which, i. e. the looks downcast and damp: the intermediate part should be in a parenthesis, according to the suggestion of Bp. Pearce.

532. clarion, from the Latin clarus, emitting a shriller sound than the trumpet. Fr. clairon.

537. So Gray, in his Ode entitled the Bard,

Loose his beard, and hoary hair

Stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air.'

Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds :
At which the universal host up-sent

A shout, that tore hell's concave, and beyond
Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night.
All in a moment through the gloom were seen
Ten thousand banners rise into the air
With orient colours waving: with them rose
A forest huge of spears; and thronging helms
Appear'd, and serried shields in thick array
Of depth immeasurable: anon they move
In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood

Of flutes and soft recorders; such as raised

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542. Homer's is a noble shout, of which he says in the last line of the Iliad xiii. ἠχὴ δ ̓ ἀμφοτέρων ἵκετ ̓ οὐρανὸν καὶ Διὸς αὐγάς. But this as far surpasses it, as the fallen angels were more terrible than the Greeks and the Trojans, and the vault of hell more congenial to such an uproar than the plain of Troy.' CowPER. 543. reign, as the Latin regnum, for kingdom. Bentley would read realm.

546. orient colors: bright, shining, sparkling, as with the beams of the rising sun: so orient pearl iv. 238.

547. Virg. Æn. vii. 525. atraque late Horrescit strictis seges ensibus xi. 600.tum latè ferreus hastis Horret ager, campique armis sublimibus ardent.'

548. serried shields: locked one within another, linked and clasped together, from the French serrer, to lock, shut close.' HUME. vi. 599. Nor served it to relax their serried files.'

550. The phalanx was a large, square, compact body of foot-soldiers, set close to one another, with their shields joined, and their spears laid cross-ways. It consisted usually of about 8000 men; and the invention is attributed to the Macedonians. The word however is in use in Homer, Il. M. 415.' MASSEY. There seem to have been three principal modes or measures among the ancients; the Lydian, the Phrygian, and the Dorian. The Lydian was the most doleful, the Phrygian the most sprightly, and the Dorian the most grave and majestic.' N.

551. Milton is thought to have had in view the account of the march of the Lacedæmonian phalanx in Thucydides v. 70. Kal μετὰ ταῦτα ἡ ξύνοδος ἦν, Αργεῖοι μὲν καὶ οἱ ξύμμαχοι ἐντόνως καὶ ὀργῇ

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