So spake our Morning Start, then in his rise And he still on was led, but with such thoughts Or cedary to defend him from the dew2, ; 295 300 305 pro temporum ratione: nam quid aliud est, si verba non torquemus, τроéкоTтe σopią, Luc. ii. 52?" And our Tillotson approved the opinion:-"It is not unreasonable to suppose, that the Divine Wisdom, which dwelt in our Saviour, did communicate itself to his human soul according to his pleasure, and so his human nature night at some times not know some things: and if this be not admitted, how can we understand that passage concerning our Saviour, Luke ii. 52, that 'Jesus grew in wisdom and stature?'”—CALTON. So spake our Morning Star. So our Saviour is called, in the Revelation, xxii. 16, "the bright and morning star." -NEWTON. And thus Spenser, in his "Hymn of Heavenly Love: O blessed well of love! O flowre of grace! O glorious Morning-star! &c. Compare also Luke i. 78, 2 Pet. i. 19.-DUNSTER. " A pathless desert. Eschyl. "Prom. Vinct." ver. 2. And see Beaumont and Fletcher's "Nice Valour :"Fountain heads, and pathless groves; Places which pale Passion loves.-DUNSTER. ▾ Dusk with horrid shades. Thus Virgil describes the wood in which Euryalus is taken, in his ninth Æneid, 381:— Sylva fuit, late dumis atque ilice nigra Horrida, quam densi complerant undique sentes: Rara per occultos lucebat semita calles. But "dusk with horrid shades" is more immediately from Æn. i. 165: Horrentique atrum nemus imminet umbra.-DUNSTER. Probably not without a reference also to Tasso. See my note on "Comus," ver. 428. - TODD. And he still on was led, but with such thoughts The poet here resumes and continues the description he had given of our blessed Lord, previous to his soliloquy, on his first entering the desert, v. 189.-Dunster. * Full forty days he pass'd, whether on hill Here the poet of "Paradise Lost" breaks out in his meridian splendour. There is something particularly picturesque in this description.-DUNSTER. y Or cedar. There is great propriety in mentioning this tree, as being peculiar to the country where the scene is laid.-Jos. WARTON. 2 To defend him from the dew. That the dews of that country are very considerable, may be collected from several parts of Scripture. The dews of Mount Hermon are particularly noticed in the 133rd Psalm, Or harbour'd in one cave, is not reveal'd; 310 315 as producing the most irriguous effects. Maundrell, in his "Travels," when within little more than half a day's journey of this mountain, says, "we were sufficiently instructed by experience what the Holy Psalmist means by the dew of Hermon;' our tents being as wet with it, as if it had rained all night."-DUNSTER. says, ■ Among wild beasts: they at his sight grew mild. St. Mark's short account of the temptation is, that our blessed Lord "was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered unto him," ch. i. 13. Archbishop Secker, in his "Sermon on the Temptation," During these forty days, it is observed by St. Mark, that our blessed Redeemer was with the wild beasts; which words must imply, else they are of no significance, that the fiercest animals were awed by his presence, and so far laid aside their savage nature for a time; thus verifying literally, what Eliphaz in Job saith figuratively, concerning a good man; At destruction and famine shalt thou laugh, neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth: for they shall be at peace with thee.'" Before the Fall, Milton supposes those beasts, which are now wild, to have been harmless, void of ferocity to cach other, and even affectionate towards man. See" Paradise Lost," b. iv. 340, &c. Immediately after the Fall, among other changes of nature, the animals begin to grow savage. See "Paradise Lost," b. x. 707. Here, upon the appearance of perfect innocence in a human form amongst them, they begin to resume a certain proportion of the paradisiacal disposition. In Homer's "Hymn to Venus," where that goddess descends on Mount Ida, to visit Anchises at his folds, her appearance is described as having the same effect, in its fullest extent, ver. 68, &c. Giles Fletcher, in his "Christ's Triumph on Earth," 1610, has given a similar but more diffuse description of the effect of our Lord's presence on the wild beasts in the wilderness.-DUNSTER. b The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof. So in "Paradise Lost," b. iv. 401 : About them round A lion now he stalks with fiery glare; Then as a tiger—— Again b. x. 712, it is said that, after the Fall, the wild beasts, ceasing to graze, Devour'd each other, nor stood much in awe Of man; but fled him, or with countenance grim Glared on him passing : The latter part of which description is palpably taken from Shakspeare," Jul. Cæs." a. i. s. 4 : I met a lion Who glared upon me, and went surly by, Without annoying me.-DUNSTER. e But now an aged man. As the Scripture is entirely silent about what personage the tempter assumed, the poet was at liberty to indulge his own fancy; and nothing, I think, could be better conceived for his present purpose, or more likely to prevent suspicion of fraud. The poet might perhaps take the hint from a design of David Vinkboon, where the devil is represented addressing himself to our Saviour, under the appearance of an old man. It is to be met with among Vischer's cuts to the Bible, and is engraved by Landerselt.-THYER. d When winds blow keen. This is a descent to human imagery, but in that regard it is beautifully poetical. To warm him wet return'd from field at eve, For that to me thou seem'st the man, whom late Of Jordan honour'd so, and call'd thee Son Who dwell this wild, constrain'd by want, come forth Where aught we hear, and curious are to hear To whom the Son of God:-Who brought me hither, Will bring me hence; no other guide I seek. By miracle he may, replied the swain ; e In troop or caravan? 320 325 330 335 A caravan, as Tavernier says, is a great convoy of merchants, who meet at certain times and places, to put themselves into a condition of defence from thieves who ride in troops in several desert places upon the road. Hence the safest way of travelling in Turkey and Persia is with the caravan. See Travels into Persia," in Harris, vol. ii. ch. 2. -NEWTON. For single none Durst ever, who return'd. Milton seems here to have had in his mind the vast sandy deserts of Africa; which Diodorus Siculus describes as a "desert full of wild beasts, of vast extent; and from its being devoid of water, and bare of all kinds of food, not only difficult, but absolutely dangerous to pass over." In Jeremiah, the desert is described "a land that no man passed through." Compare the opening of Dante's "Inferno," where, having passed through the more dreadful part of the piaggia deserta, the poet turns himself to regard the dangerous region: Così l'animo mio, ch' ancor fuggiva, Si volse 'ndietro a rimírar lo passo, Che non lasciò giammai persona viva.-DUNster, Pined with hunger. Death, in the tenth book of the "Paradise Lost," thus describes himself :— Me, who with eternal famine pine.-DUNSTER. h I saw and heard, for we sometimes Who dwell this wild, constrain'd by want, come forth To town or village nigh. All this is finely in character with the assumed person of the tempter, and tends at the same time to give more effect to the preceding descriptions. It should be considered also that it was not necessary to confine those descriptions merely to that part of the wilderness of Judea, into which our Lord was just now entering, v. 193, or where at most he had not advanced any great way, v. 299.-That wilderness was of a great length, the most habitable part being northward towards the river Jordan; southward it extended into vast and uninhabited deserts, which, in the map in Reland's "Palestina," are termed "vastissime solitudines." To describe these, in such a manner as might impress a deep sense of danger in the mind of him to whom he addressed himself, was perfectly consistent with the tempter's purpose.-DUNSTER. Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inured But, if thou be the Son of God, command That out of these hard stones be made thee bread; So shalt thou save thyself, and us relieve With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste. He ended, and the Son of God replied: Think'st thou such force in bread? Is it not written, Knowing who I am m, as I know who thou art? Whom thus answer'd the arch-fiend, now undisguised : 'Tis true, I am that spirit unfortunate ", Who, leagued with millions more in rash revolt, i Stubs. Stubs, not shrubs, is undoubtedly the right word, as connected with roots. Milton's own edition of 1671. To thirst inured More than the camel. 340 343 250 335 Thus It is commonly said that camels will go without water three or four days;-"Sitim et quatriduo tolerant," Plin. " Nat. Hist." lib. viii. sect. 26. But Tavernier says, that they will ordinarily live without drink eight or nine days.-NEWTON. k For I discern thee other than thou seem'st. In the concluding book of this poem, our Lord says to the tempter, Desist; thou art discern'd And toil'st in vain.-DUNSTER. 1 Man lives not by bread only, but each word Our fathers here with manna. The words of St. Matthew, iv. 14, which refer to the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, ver. 3, where the humiliation of the Israelites in the wilderness, and their being there miraculously fed with manna, are recited as arguments for their obedience; "And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, The poet but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." who was, beyond a doubt, " mighty in the Scripture," has with much art availed himself of the original passage in the old Testament, as it affords him such an immediate and apposite transition to the miraculous feeding the children of Israel, their great lawgiver, and afterwards Elijah, in the wilderness.-DUNSTER. m Knowing who I am. This is not to be understood of Christ's divine nature. The tempter knew him to be the person "declared the Son of God" by a voice from heaven, v. 385, and that was all that he knew of him.-CALTON. n 'Tis true, I am that spirit unfortunate. Satan's instantaneous avowal of himself here has a great and fine effect: it is consistent with a certain dignity of character which is given him in general, through the whole of the "Paradise Lost. The rest of his speech is artfully submissive.-DUNSTER. 1 Kept not my happy station, but was driven 360 365 Or range in the air; nor from the heaven of heavens I came among the Sons of God, when he Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job', To prove him and illustrate his high worth; That he might fall in Ramoth; they demurring, Through many a dark and dreary vale Again, in his "Hymn on the Nativity," st. xiv : And hell itself will pass away, And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. 370 375 Although the adjective “dolorous" be common in our old poetry, Milton, I am inclined to think, did not forget Dante's usage of it in the "Inferno," where Satan is called, c. xxxiv., Lo 'mperador del doloroso regno.-TODD. P To round this globe of earth. Milton uses the same phrase in his "Paradise Lost," b. x. 684, speaking of the sun : Had rounded still the horizon.-THYER. In Quarle's "Job Militant," the devil thus concludes his reply to God's question, Whence comest thou? This story of Ahab is related, 1 Kings, xxii. 19, &c. :—“I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of Heaven standing by him, on his right hand, and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another on that manner. And there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so." This symbolical vision of Micaiah, in which heavenly things are spoken of after the manner of men, in condescension to the weakness of their capacities, our author was too good a critic to understand literally, though as a poet he represents it so.NEWTON. The expression here is copied from the "Paradise Lost," vii. 143:— |