Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. 259 260 But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, Th' affociates and copartners of our loss, 265 Lie thus astonish'd on th' oblivious pool, 257. — all but I have heard it propos'd to read albeit, that is although; but prefer the common reading. 259th Almighty hath not built Here for his envy,] This is not a place that God fhould envy us, or think it too good for us; and in this fenfe the word envy is used in feveral places of the poem, and particularly in IV. 517. VIII. 494. and IX. 770. 263. Better to reign in Hell, than Serve in Heaven.] This is a wonderfully fine improvement upon Prometheus's anfwer to Mercury in Efchylus. Prom. Vinct. 965. Tus ons Aarpeias our spar duo. πραξίαν, It was a memorable saying of Julius Cæfar, that he had rather be the first man in a country-village than the fecond at Rome. The reader will obferve how properly the faying is here applied and accommodated to the fpeaker. It is here made a fentiment worthy of Satan, and of him only; -nam të nec sperent Tartara regem, Nec tibi regnandi veniat tam dira cupido. Virg. Georg. I. 36. Grotius And call them not to fhare with us their part Regain'd in Heav'n, or what more loft in Hell? 270 Thus anfwer'd. Leader of thofe armies bright, Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft 275 In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge New courage and revive, though now they lie 280 285 He scarce had ceas'd when the fuperior Fiend Was moving tow'ard the shore; his pond'rous fhield, Ethereal temper, maffy, large and round, Behind him caft; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At like the moon, whofe orb &c.] Homer compares the fplendor of Achilles fhield to the moon, Iliad. XIX. 373. Or after all may not the edge of bat- 287. On the rough edge of battel ere it 282. fall'n fuch a pernicious bighth.] Dr. Bentley reads fall'n from fuch prodigious bighth: but the epithet pernicious is much ftronger, and as for the want of a præpofition, that is common in this poem; for thus in I. 723. Stood fix'd her ftately highth, And in II. 409. ere he arrive αυταρ έπειτα σακΘ μεγά τε, ςιβαρον τε, Είλετο, τοδ' απανευθε σελας γε VET', NÜTE μnvas: but the fhield of Satan was large as the moon feen through a telescope, an inftrument firft applied to celetial obfervations by Galileo, a native of Tuscany, whom he means here by the Tufcan artift, and afterwards mentions by name in V. 262. a teftimony of his honor for fo great a man, whom he had known and vifited in Italy, as himself informs us in his Areopagitica. 289. Fefolé, At evening from the top of Fefolé, Or in Valdarno, to defcry new lands, His spear, to equal which the tallest pine and Virgil gives him a pine to walk with, En. III. 659. Thefe fons of Mavors bore (inftead of fpears) Two knotty mafts which none but they could lift. Fairfax. well might Milton affign a spear fo much larger to fo fuperior a being, 293. Norwegian bills] The hills of Norway, barren and rocky, but abounding in vaft woods, from whence are brought mafts of the largeft fize. Hume. 294. ammiral] According to its German extraction amiral or Trunca manu pinus regit et vefti- amiracl, fays Hume; from the Ita gia firmat. and Taffo arms Tancred and Ar- Pofero in refta, e dirizzaro in alto lian ammiraglio, fays Richardfon more probably. Our author made choice of this, as thinking it of a better found than admiral: and in Latin he writes ammiralatûs curia, the court of admiralty. 299. Natk Nathlefs he fo indur'd, till on the beach Of that inflamed fea he ftood, and call'd 299. Nathlefs] Nevertheless, of which it feems to be a contracted diminutive. Hume. This word is frequently used by Spenfer, and the old poets. 302. Thick as autumnal leaves] Virg. Æn. VI. 309. Quam multa in fylvis autumni frigore primo Lapfa cadunt folia. Thick as the leaves in autumn ftrow the woods. Dryden. But Milton's comparifon is by far the exacteft; for it not only expreffes a multitude, but alfo the pofture and fituation of the Angels. Their lying confufedly in heaps, covering the lake, is finely reprefented by this image of the leaves in the brooks. And befides the propriety of the application, if we compare the fimiles themselves, Milton's is by far fuperior to the other, as it exhibits a real landkip. See An Effay upon Milton's imitations of the Ancients, p. 23. 303. Vallombrofa,] A famous valley in Etruria or Tufcany, fo лізов go5 Hath |