Briareos or Typhon, whom the den
By ancient Tarfus held, or that fea-beaft
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugeft that swim the ocean-ftream:
Him haply flumb'ring on the Norway foam
The pilot of fome fmall night-founder'd fkiff
Deeming fome ifland, oft, as feamen tell,
With fixed anchor in his fcaly rind

Moors by his fide under the lee, while night
Invests the fea, and wished morn delays:

So ftretch'd out huge in length the arch-fiend lay
Chain'd on the burning lake: nor ever thence

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Jupiter came to age, who defeated Titan with his thunderbolts, and punished the Titans in hell and other places.

L. 199. Typhon,] or Typheas; Heb. and Phenic. i. e. an inundation, Gr. i. e. an inflammation or jmoking; because he was thunder-ftruck by Jupiter. A monftrous giant, half man half ferpent. His head, they fay, reached to heaven, his hands from one end of the earth to the other, and he blew fire out of his mouth. These two were the chief of the giants. In the war with the gods, they heaped mountains upon mountains, and battered heaven with huge rocks and islands plucked out of the fea; Jupiter ftruck him with thunderbolts, and laid him under mount Etna. By this fable they meant the winds which blow from one end of heaven to the other, and from it to the earth; Jupiter's conquering him fignifies, that the fun moderates and tempers the winds.

L. 200. Tarfus.] In a cave near this city Typhon was buried, according to fome authors, whom our author follows; but others fay, it was under mount Etna. Strabo fays, that Anchiale and Tarfus were built by Sardanapalus the last emperor of the Affyrian monarchy, about A. M. 3242, both in one day; and that Tarfus excelled Athens, Alexandria, and Rome, for polite literature.

L. 201. Leviathan.] Lat. Gr. from the Heb. i. e. a heap of ferpents; as if many serpents were gathered together into one, to make up that one huge creature. Some take it to be the whale, but the whale hath no fcales; others the crocodile or alligator. It is beautifully described, Job xli. 15.

L. 203. Norway.] Sax. i. e the north way; a country on the north of Europe, about 1300 miles in length, and 260 in breadth. Here, the German ocean, which washeth Norway, Greenland and Iceland. The whales live in these cold northern feas, and alfo in the cold coaft of Patagonia, near the ftreights of Magellan, in great abundance, but rarely in the warm, because of their exceffive fatnefs; for they would melt and be parboiled in hot waters. VOL. I. C

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Had ris'n, or heav'd his head, but that the will
And high permiffion of all-ruling Heaven
Left him at large to his own dark designs;
That with reiterated crimes he might
Heap on himself damnation, while he fought
Evil to others; and enrag'd might fee
How all his malice ferv'd but to bring forth
Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shown
On man by him feduc'd; but on himself
Treble confufion, wrath and vengeance pour'd.
Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool
His mighty ftature; on each hand the flames
Driv'n backward flope their pointing fpires, and roll'd
In billows, leave i' th' midst a horrid vale.
Then with expanded wings he fleers his fight
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air,
That felt unufual weight; till on dry land
He lights, if it were land that ever burn'd
With folid, as the lake with liquid fire;
And fuch appear'd in hue, as when the force
Of fubterranean wind transports a hill
Torn from Pelorus, or the fhatter'd fide
Of thund'ring Etna, whofe combustible
And fuel'd intrails thence conceiving fire,

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L. 232. Pelorus.] Lat. Gr. Heb. and Phen. i. e. a pilot ; or Gr. from Pelorus, an African pilot, whom, they fay, Hannibal flew and buried, fuppofing he had betrayed him; but finding his mistake, he erected a statue for him in a high place near the fea, which he alled Pelorus.

L. 233. Etna.] Lat. Gr. from the Heb. Attuna, i, e. a furnace, chimney; or tuna, i. e. a mift; because of the perpetual fmoke afcending from the top of it. Pindar, an ancient Greek poet, calls it a celeftial column, from its height, being the highest mountain there; on the top of it may be feen all the island, and to Africa. A volcano or burning mountain on the east fide of Sicily, about fix miles in compafs, 100 feet perpendicular, and a mile of afçent, which always cafts up fmoke, flames, afhes, and fometimes great ftones, liquid metal and fulphur, which devour all things before it. This mountain has burnt above 3000 years paft, but is not in the leaft confumed; it hath fnow upon the top, vineyards and fruitful pastures on the fides, and at the bottom. It

Sublim'd with mineral fury, aid the winds,

And leave a finged bottom all involv'd

With ftench and smoke: such resting found the fole
Of unblefs'd feet. Him follow'd his next mate,
Both glorying to have 'fcap'd the Stygian flood
As gods, and by their own recover'd strength,
Not by the fufferance of fupernal power.

Is this the region, this the foil, the clime,
Said then the loft archangel, this the feat

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That we must change for heav'n, this mournful gloom For that celeftial light? Be' it fo, fince he

Who now is fov'reign can difpofe and bid

What shall be right: farthest from him is best,

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Whom reas'on hath equall'd, force hath made fupreme Above his equals. Farewell happy fields,

Where joy for ever dwells: hail horrors, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundeft hell

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Receive thy new poffeffor; one who brings
A mind not to be chang'd by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.
What matter where, if I be still the fame,
And what I fhould be, all but lefs than he
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure;
and in my
To reign is worth ambition, though in hell:
Better to reign in hell, than ferve in heav'n.

choice

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But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,

Th' associates and copartners of our lofs,

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hath had nine terrible eruptions that we know of; the most dreadful were in A. D. 1538, 1669, and 1693.

Luke i. 19. Rev. xii. 7.

L. 243. Arch-angel.] Gr. i. e. an arch or principal angel, who has power over others. See Dan. viii. 16. Here, Satan; and probably he is the only heaven.

archangel that is out of

Ly thus aftonish'd on th' oblivious pool,
And call them not to fhare with us their part
In this unhappy manfion, or once more
With rallied arms to try what may be yet
Regain'd in heav'n, or what more loft in hell?
So Satan fpake, and him Beelzebub
Thus anfwer'd: Leader of thofe armies bright,
Which but th' Omnipotent none could have foil'd,
If once they hear that voice, their livelieft pledge
Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
Of battle when it rag'd, in all assaults
Their fureft fignal, they will foon resume
New courage and revive, though now they ly
Grovelling and proftrate on yon lake of fire,
As we erewhile, aftounded and amaz’d,
No wonder, fall'n fuch a pernicious height.
He fcarce had ceas'd when the fuperior fiend

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Was moving toward the shore; his pond'rous fhield,
Ethereal temper, maffy, large, and round,
Behind him caft; the broad circumference
Hung on his fhoulders like the moon, whofe orb
Through optick glafs the Tufcan artist views
At evening from the top of Fefolé,

L. 288. Tufcan] One of the Tufci or Hetrufci; the ancient people of Tuscany in Italy, that came from Phenicia, but Juffin fays from Lydia, lib. 20. The Latins had leng wars with them, and at last conquered them under Servius Tullus, the fixth king of Rome. It is now a fine country, fubject to the Grand Duke of Tufcany, in extent about 144 miles. It was called Hetruria, now Tufcany, and the people Tufcans or Hetrurians.

Ibid. Artift.] Fr. Lat. One that is fkill'd in any art or science : Milton means Galileo Galilei, an excellent aftronomer, and native of Florence, the capital of Tuscany, chief philofopher and mathematician to the Grand Duke of Tufcany, who invented thofe glaffes, whereby he discovered spots in the fun; mountains, rivers, &c. in the moon; the nature of the Milky-way; the various appearances of Saturn; many new ftars about Orion and Cancer; and 62,500 ftars, whereof 63 only appeared to the bare eye.

L. 289. Fefole.] Vulg. Fiefole and Fiezzole; called Fefale by

Or in Valdarno, to defcry new lands,
Rivers or mountains in her fpotty 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 thofe fteps
On heaven's azure), and the torrid clime
Smote on him fore befides, vaulted with fire.
Nathless he fo endur'd, till on the beach
Of that inflamed fea he stood, and call'd
His legions, angel-forms; who lay intranc'd.
Thick as autumnal leaves that ftrow the brooks

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In Vallombrofa, where th' Etrurian fhades

High over-arch'd imbow'r; or scatter'd sedge
Aflote, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd

Hath vex'd the Red-fea coaft, whofe waves o'erthrew

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Tit. Livius, Pliny, and Silius Italicus. It was an ancient city of Tufcany near Florence, the refidence of the Tufcan augurs, who taught the old Romans their fuperftitious divinations, facrifices, c. Here the great Galileo refided, and made his aftronomical obfervations from the top of the towers thereof.

L. 290. Valdarno.] Ital. from the Lat. i. e. the valley on the river Arnus. It is a fruitful vale on the river Arno, which runs through Tuscany and by Florence into the Tuscan fea.

L. 303. Vallombrefa.] Ital. Lat. i. e. a fhady valley; a fruitful and pleasant valley in Tuscany, full of fhades and fruitful trees. Ibid. Etrurian.] Hetruria, Thufcia, or Tufcia, Lat.; the great: dukedom of Tuscany.

L. 305. Orion.] Lat. from the Gr. i. e. urine, or tempeft. An aftron. term. It is a fouthern conftellation of 30 ftars, rifing on the 9th of March, and setting in November; and bringeth storms and. rain with it. See Job ix. 9. Amos v. 8. Some call Orion the god. of the winds..

I.. 306. Red-fea.] Heb. It is fo called from Efau or Edom, becaufe of the red-coloured pottage which he purchased of Jacob; for his dominions lay along that fea, and from him the country was called Idumea, i. e. red: and fo the old Egyptians called it Rythra,, i. e. red, which the Greeks turned into Erythra or Erythras, and!' the Latins into mare Erythreum, i. e. the Red-fa. But in the Hebrew it is called Suph, i. e. the fea of fedge or weeds, which grow and float upon it in abundance. This fea parts Egypt from. Ara-bia,, and therefore it is called alfo the Arabian gulf.