10

The tempter ere the accufer of mankind,
To wreak on innocent frail Man his lofs
Of that first battle, and his flight to Hell:
Yet, not rejoicing in his speed, though bold
Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast,
Begins his dire attempt; which nigh the birth 15
Now rolling boils in his tumultuous breast,
And like a devilish engine back recoils
Upon himself; horrour and doubt distract
His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom ftir
The Hell within him; for within him Hell 20

earth, and of the fea; for the Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath." NEWTON.

Ver. 10. the accufer of mankind,] As he is reprefented in the fame chapter of the Revelations, v. 10. "For the accufer of our brethren is caft down." NEWTON.

Ver. 13. Yet, not rejoicing in his speed,] Does not this confirm what I have obferved of v. 741 of the preceding Book, and prove that Milton did not intend by it to attribute any Sportive motion to Satan for joy that he was near his journey's end?

THYER.

No more than "but glad that now his fea fhould find a fhore," B. ii. 1011, and "Sped with hop'd fuccefs," B. iii. 740, prove the contrary. Satan was bold far off and fearless; and, as he drew nearer, was pleased with hop'd fuccefs: But, now he is come to earth to begin his dire attempt, he does not rejoice in it; his heart mifgives him; horrour and doubt diftract him. This is all very natural. NEWTON.

Ver. 20. The Hell within him; &c.] See also ver. 75.

"Which way I fly is Hell; myfelf am Hell."

Mr. Bowle obferves, that Landino, in his comment on the thirtyfourth canto of Dante's Inferno, fpeaking of the Devils, fays, "Sempre portano feco il fuo inferno." It may be added, that

He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell
One step, no more than from himself, can fly
By change of place: Now confcience wakes
despair,

That flumber'd; wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was, what is, and what must be 25
Worfe; of worse deeds worse fufferings must ensue.
Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view
Lay pleasant, his griev'd look he fixes fad;

venerable Bede in like manner fuppofed the Devils to be neverfree from torture, however they might be employed: "Ubicunque, vel in aere volitant, vel in terris, aut fub terris vagantur, five detinentur, fuarum secum ferunt tormenta flammarum." Bede has alfo drawn a hell which spouts cataracts of fire, and in which the damned feel the varying extremes of heat and cold; he has reprefented Satan plunged into Tartarus profound, “quia videret inferos apertos, et Sathanan dimerfum in profundis Tartari;" and he perhaps fuggefted, by the account which he makes a fuffering finner relate of himfelf, the circumftance of Sin's monfters gnawing her bowels, "furgentéfque duo nequiffimi fpiritus, habentes in manibus vomeres, percufferunt me, unus in capite, alius in pede: qui videlicet modo cum magno tormento irrepunt in interiora corporis mei, móxque, ut ad fe invicem perveniunt, moriar, et paratis ad rapiendum me dæmonibus, in inferni clauftra pertrahar." Hift. Ecc. lib. v. cap. xiii. ed. Smith. p. 198. Shakspeare ufes the fame expreffion, as Milton, in K. John, A. v. S. vii. "Within me is a Hell."- -See alfo Fairfax's Tao, C. xii. ft. 77.

"Swift from myself I runne, myself I feare,

"Yet ftill my Hell within myself I beare." TODD. Ver. 27. Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view Lay pleasant, his griev'd look he fixes fad;] Homer,

Oduff. xiii. 197.

Στῆ δ ̓ ἄρ ἀναΐξας, καὶ ῥ ̓ ἔἴσιδε πατρίδα γαῖαν
Ωμωξίν τ' ἄρ ̓ ἔπειτα. STILLINGFLEET.

Sometimes towards Heaven, and the full-blazing

fun,

Which now fat high in his meridian tower: 30 Then, much revolving, thus in fighs began.

O thou, that, with furpaffing glory crown'd, Look'ft from thy fole dominion like the God Of this new world; at whose fight all the stars

Ver. 30.

meridian tower:] At noon the fun is lifted up, as in a tower. The metaphor is used by Virgil in his Culex, v. 41.

"Igneus æthereas jam fol penetrârat in arces." Spenfer, in his admirable translation of that poem, has followed him punctually:

"The fiery fun was mounted now on hight

"Up to the heavenly towers." RICHARDSON.

Ver. 32. This speech bears a general resemblance to the first which Prometheus fpeaks in the tragedy of that name by Æfchylus; which, therefore, induces Mr. Stillingfleet to imagine (what really was intended by the poet) that this paffage would have been part of Milton's tragedy on the Fall of Man, and most probably the beginning of it. The opening of this fpeech, as Mr. John Warton alfo remarks, is indebted to the opening of the Phoenifae of Euripides. TODD.

Ver. 33. Look'ft from thy fole dominion like the God

Of this new world;] Drummond, in a Song, de

fcribes the Sun"in highest top of heaven,

"Moft princely looking from that glorious height."

Orpheus, as Mr. Dunster remarks, calls the fun dioñora xooper, Hymn. ad Sol. vii. 16. Compare ver. 758 of the present book, where the fun's " lordly eye" is noticed. TODD.

Ver. 34.

at whofe fight all the stars

Hide their diminish'd heads;] So, in Harington's

Orl. Fur. C. iv. ft. 55.

"Rinaldo doth perceave

"The funne appeare, and starres their heads to hide." BowLE.

35

Hide their diminish'd heads; to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O Sun! to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down 40
Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless
King:

Ah, wherefore! he deferv'd no fuch return
From me, whom he created what I was
In that bright eminence, and with his good
Upbraided none; nor was his service hard.
What could be less than to afford him praise,

Ver. 37.

45

how I hate thy beams,] So, in the Hip

polytus of Euripides, v. 355, ed. Barnes. ἐχθρὸν ἦμαρ, ἐχθρὸν εἰσορῶ φάος.

STILLINGFLEET.

Ver. 40. Till pride and worse ambition] Pride is a kind of exceffive and vicious self-esteem, which raises men in their own opinions above what is juft and right: But ambition is that which adds fuel to this flame, and claps fpurs to these furious and inordinate defires that break forth into the most execrable acts, to accomplish their haughty defigns; which makes our author ftigmatize ambition as a worse fin than pride. HUME.

Dr. Bentley reads, "and curs'd ambition," because he thinks it hard to fay whether pride or ambition is worfe: But Milton feems to mean by pride the vice confidered in itself, and only as it is the tempter of the proud man; and by ambition the vice that carried him to aim at being equal with God: And was not this vice the worst of the two? I obferve that Satan always lays the blame on his ambition, as in v. 61, and v. 92. PEARCE. and with his good Upbraided none;] James i. 5. all men liberally, and upbraideth not." TODD.

Ver. 44.

"God-giveth to

The easiest recompence, and pay him thanks,
How due! yet all his good prov'd ill in me,
And wrought but malice; lifted up fo high
I fdein'd fubjection, and thought one step higher
Would fet me highest, and in a moment quit 51
The debt immenfe of endless gratitude,
So burdensome still paying, ftill to owe,
Forgetful what from him I still receiv'd,
And understood not that a grateful mind
By owing owes not, but ftill pays, at once
Indebted and discharg'd; what burden then?
O, had his powerful destiny ordain'd
Me fome inferiour Angel, I had stood

55

Then happy; no unbounded hope had rais'd 60
Ambition! Yet why not? fome other Power
As great might have afpir'd, and me, though mean,
Drawn to his part; but other Powers as great
Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within
Or from without, to all temptations arm'd.

65

Ver. 50. I fdein'd fubjection,] For difdain'd; an imitation of the Italian fdegnare. HUME.

Spenfer has repeatedly ufed the fame freedom with our language. Thus alfo Drayton, Mofes' birth &c. B. i. "Which though it fdain'd the pleafdneffe to confeffe." And Fairfax, Tao, B. xx. ft. 128. "Her fdeignfull eies." TODD.

Ver. 55. And understood not] This verb is to be connected with the other verbs in v. 50, 1 fdein'd and thought. NEWTON. Ibid.

a grateful mind

By owing owes not, but ftill pays,] Satan here has anticipated a fentence, afterwards ufed by Cicero: "Gratiam autem et qui retulerit, habere, et qui habeat, retuliffe." BENTLEY.