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Pavilions numberlefs, and fudden rear'd,

Celestial tabernacles, where they flept

654

Fann'd with cool winds; fave those who in their course

Melodious hymns about the fovran throne

Alternate all night long: but not fo wak'd
Satan; fo call him now, his former name
Is heard no more in Heav'n; he of the first,
If not the first Arch-Angel, great in power,
In favor and præeminence, yet fraught
With envy' against the Son of God, that day
Honor'd by his great Father, and proclam'd

Meffiah King anointed, could not bear

660

664

Through pride that fight, and thought himself impair'd. Deep malice thence conceiving and disdain,

Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour

Th'immortals flumber'd on their thrones above,

Friend

Illi alternantes multa vi prælia mifcent.

All, but the ever-wakeful eyes Virg. Georg. III. 220. of two bulls

Pope.

of Jove. 653.—and fudden rear'd,] There is no need to read rear with Dr. Bentley. Rear'd here is a participle. Their tents were numberlefs, and

rear'd of a fudden.

657. Alternate all night long:] Alternate is a verb here; alternate bymns, fing by turns, and anfwer one another.

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670

Friendlieft to fleep and filence, he refolv'd
With all his legions to diflodge, and leave
Unworshipt, unobey'd the throne fupreme
Contemptuous, and his next fubordinate
Awak'ning, thus to him in secret spake.
Sleep'ft thou, Companion dear, what fleep can close
Thy eye-lids? and remember'st what decree

Of yesterday, so late hath pass'd the lips

675

Of Heav'n's Almighty. Thou to me thy thoughts Waft wont, I mine to thee was wont to'impart; Both waking we were one; how then can now Thy fleep diffent? New laws thou feeft impos'd; New laws from him who reigns, new minds may In us who serve, new counfels, to debate

What doubtful

may enfue: more in this place

673. Sleep ft thou, Companion dear, what fleep can clofe Thy eye-lids? and remember'ft what decree &c.] We have printed the paffage with Milton's own punctuation. Sleep' At thou, Companion dear, Eude Arp ve; Iliad. II. 23. What fleep can close thy eye-lids? and remember ft &c. that is when tbou remember ft &c.

potes hoc fub cafu ducere fomnos ?

raise

68I

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more in this place

To utter is not fafe.] This is a verse, but I believe the reader will

Virg. Æn. IV. 560. agree, that it could not have had

so

To utter is not fafe.

Affemble thou

Of all those myriads which we lead the chief;

Tell them that by command, ere yet dim night 685

Her fhadowy cloud withdraws, I am to haste,
And all who under me their banners wave,
Homeward with flying march where we poffefs

fo good an effect, had it been an entire verse by itself, as it has now it is broken and made part of two verfes.

684. Of all thofe myriads which we lead the chief] Dr. Bentley reads the chiefs: but Milton fpeaks after the fame manner as here, in II. 469. Others among the chief &c. And in both places the chief fignifies the fame as the chiefs, only this is a fubftantive, and that is an adjective, agreeing with the word Angels understood in the conftruction. Pearce.

685. Tell them that by command, &c.] He begins his revolt with a lie. So well doth Milton preferve the character given of him in Scripture. John VIII. 44. The Devil is a liar, and the father of lies.

689. The quarters of the north;] See Sannazarius De partu Virginis, III. 40.

Vos, quum omne arderet cœlum

fervilibus armis, Arctoumque furor pertenderet impius axem Scandere, et in gelidos regnum transferre Triones, Fida manus mecum manfiftis.

The

There are other paffages in the fame poem of which Milton has made ufe. For sin. Some have thought that Milton intended, but I dare fay he was above intending here, a reflection upon Scotland, tho' being himfelf an Independent, he had no great affection for the Scotch Prefbyterians. He had the authority, we fee, of Sannazarius for fixing Satan's rebellion in the quarters of the north, and he had much better authority, the fame that Sannazarius had, that of the Prophet, whose words though apply'd to the king of Babylon, yet allude to this rebellion of Satan, Ifaiah XIV. 12, 13. How art thou fall'n from Heaven, O Lucifer, fon of the morning!

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The quarters of the north; there to prepare
Fit entertainment to receive our king
The great Meffiah, and his new commands,
Who fpeedily through all the hierarchies
Intends to pass triumphant, and give laws.
So fpake the false Arch-Angel, and infus'd

north, Jer. VI. 1. St. Auftin fays that the Devil and his Angels, being averfe from the light and fervor of charity, grew torpid as it were with an icy hardness; and are therefore by a figure placed in the north. Diabolus igitur et Angeli ejus a luce atque fervore caritatis averfi, et nimis in fuperbiam invidiamque progreffi, velut glaciali duritia torpuerunt. Et ideo per figuram tanquam in aquilone ponuntur. Epift. 140. Sect. 55. And Shakespear in like manner calls Satan the monarch of the north, 1 Henry VI. Act. V.

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690

Bad

tione. This poem is longer than the Iliad, for it confifts of five and twenty books; but it equals the Iliad in nothing but in length, for the poetry is very indifferent. However in fome particulars the plan of this poem is very like Paradife Loft. It opens with the exaltation of the Son of God, and thereupon Lucifer revolts, and draws a third part of the Angels after him into the quarters of the north.

pars tertia lævam Hoc duce perfequitur, gelidoque aquilone locatur.

It is more probable, that Milton had feen this poem than fome others, from which he is charged with borrowing largely. He was indeed an univerfal fcholar, and read all forts of authors, and took hints from the Moderns as well as the Ancients. He was a great genius, but a great genius form'd by reading; and as it was faid of Virgil, he collected gold out of the dung of other authors.

702. Tells

Bad influence into th' unwary breast

Of his affociate: he together calls,

Or feveral one by one, the regent Powers,
Under him regent; tells, as he was taught,
That the most High commanding, now ere night,
Now ere dim night had difincumber'd Heaven,
The great hierarchal standard was to move;
Tells the fuggefted cause, and cafts between
Ambiguous words and jealoufies, to found

702. Tells the fuggefted caufe,] The caufe that Satan had fuggefted, namely to prepare entertainment for their new king and receive his laws and cafts between ambiguous words, imitated from Virg. En. II. 98.

hinc fpargere voces In vulgum ambiguas.

708. His count'nance, as the morn

ing far that guides &c.] This fimilitude is not fo new as poetical. Virgil in like manner compares the beautiful young Pallas to the morning ftar, Æn. VIII. 589.

Qualis, ubi oceani perfufus Luci

fer unda, Quem Venus ante alios aftrorum

diligit ignes,

Extulit os facrum cœlo, tenebrafque refolvit.

So from the feas exerts his radiant

head

The star, by whom the lights of
Heav'n are led;

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700

Or

Shakes from his rofy locks the pearly dews,

Dispels the darkness, and the day

renews. Dryden. But there is a much greater propriety in Milton's comparing Satan to the morning ftar, as he is often fpoken of under the name of Lucifer, as well as denominated in Scripture, Lucifer fon of the morning. Ifaiah XIV. 12.

709. and with lies &c.] Dr. Bentley fays that the author gave it and his lies &c. but by the expreffion bis countenance is meant the whole, as in II. 683. we have he himself, a part being put for front put for the whole perfon: it is very frequent in Scripture to use the word face or countenance in this fenfe as in Luke IX. 53. we read of our Saviour, that the Samaritans did not receive him, because his face was as tho' he (Greek, it) would ga to Jerufalem. See alfo Levit, XIX. 32. But if this will not be allow'd

to

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