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To highth of nobleft temper heroes old Arming to battle; and instead of rage Deliberate valour breath'd, firm and unmov'd With dread of death to flight or foul retreat; 555 Nor wanting power to mitigate and fwage With folemn touches troubled thoughts, and chafe

Anguish, and doubt, and fear, and forrow, and pain,

From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they,
Breathing united force, with fixed thought, 560
Mov'd on in filence to foft pipes, that charm'd
Their painful steps o'er the burnt foil: and now
Advanc'd in view they ftand; a horrid front
Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise
Of warriours old with order'd spear and shield; 565
Awaiting what command their mighty Chief
Had to impofe: He through the armed files
Darts his experienc'd eye, and foon traverse
The whole battalion views; their order due;
Their vifages and stature as of Gods;

570

fears, he commanded his standard to be upreared at the warlike found of trumpets and clarions; which immediately inspired them with fuch a flow of fpirits, that they are represented fending up a fhout that tore Hell's concave. But, when this ardour was once blown up, and they were to move in perfect phalanx, then the inftruments are changed for flutes and recorders to the Dorian mood, which compofed them into a more cool and deliberate valour, fo that they marched on with filence and refolution. GREENWOOD. Ver. 560. Breathing united force,] Homer, Il. ii. 536.

Οἲδ' Εὔβοιαν ἔχο ΜΕΝΕΑ ΠΝΕΙΟΝΤΕΣ ̓́Αβαντες.

STILLINGFLEET.

Their number laft he fums. And now his heart Diftends with pride, and hardening in his ftrength Glories for never, fince created man,

Met fuch imbodied force, as nam'd with these Could merit more than that small infantry 575 Warr'd on by cranes; though all the giant brood Of Phlegra with the heroick race were join'd That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each fide Mix'd with auxiliar Gods; and what refounds In fable or romance of Uther's fon

580

Ver. 571, &c. Dan. v. 20. "His heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride." GILLIES.

Ver. 575.

that fmall infantry

Warr'd on by cranes ;] All the heroes and armies that ever were affembled, were no more than pygmies in comparison with thefe Angels. NEWTON.

Ver. 576.

the giant brood] An expreffion which he repeats in Samfon Agon. ver. 1247. It occurs in Goffe's Amurath, 1632. A. v. S. 3.

"the whole gyant brood

"Of thofe fame fonnes of Earth." TODD.

Ver. 579. Mix'd with auxiliar Gods;] In the war between the fons of Edipus at Thebes, and between the Greeks and Trojans at Ilium, the heroes were affifted by the gods, who are therefore called "auxiliar gods." NEWTON.

Ver. 580.

Uther's fon] King Arthur,

whofe exploits Milton once intended to celebrate in an epick poem. Of his achievements in Armorica (now called Bretagne), as well as in England, the old legends are full. "In fable," here perhaps particularly alludes to Geoffry of Monmouth's account of Arthur, which Milton, in his Hift. of England, calls "that fabulous book." The old French "romance" of La Morte d'Arthur was here alfo remembered. The names of places, which follow, are written as they are in romance; and thefe

Begirt with British and Armorick knights;
And all who fince, baptiz'd or infidel,
Joufted in Afpramont, or Montalban,
Damafco, or Marocco, or Trebifond,
Or whom Biferta fent from Africk fhore,
When Charlemain with all his peerage fell
By Fontarabbia. Thus far thefe beyond
Compare of mortal prowess, yet obferv'd
Their dread Commander: he, above the rest

585

places were famous for joustings, or fingle combats, between the Saracens and Chriftians. See Boiardo, Ariofto, and Taffo, in many descriptions. And the combatants are alfo thus diftinguished by the writers of romance. Thus Boiardo, Orl. Innam. 1. 1. C. 1. ft. 30.

"E fia chi vuol Chriftiano, o Saracino."

And Ariofto, Orl. Fur. C. xxx. ft. 40.

"Macommetani, e genti di battesmo."

In the story of Charlemain, Milton follows the fabulous relation of the Spanish writers, by faying that the emperour and his twelve peers "fell at Fontarabbia :” He sustained indeed, in returning home over the Pyrenean mountains, a partial defeat by the Duke of Gafcony; but, according to the best French hiftorians, he died in peace, many years after. Dr. Newton here obferves, "It is much to be wifhed that our poet had not fo far indulged his tafte for romances, of which he profeffes himfelf to have been fond in his younger years; and had not been oftentatious of fuch reading, as perhaps had better never have been read." I differ, with fubmiffion, from this remark. Milton's imagination, naturally fublime, was enlarged, as Fenton has obferved, by reading of romances. And hence his poetry often unites, with his own unborrowed imagery, the ftriking embellishments and graces of romantick fiction. ToDD.

Ver. 589.

he, &c.] The greatest mafters in painting had not fuch fublime ideas as Milton; and, among all their devils, have drawn no portrait comparable to this; as

590

In fhape and gefture proudly eminent,
Stood like a tower: his form had yet not loft
All her original brightness; nor appear'd
Lefs than Arch-Angel ruin'd, and the excess
Of glory obfcur'd: as when the fun, new rifen,

every body muft allow who has feen the pictures or the prints of Michael and the Devil by Raphael; and of the fame by Guido: and of the Laft Judgement by Michael Angelo. NEWTON.

And in what does this poetical picture confift? in images of a tower; an archangel; the fun rifing through mifts, or in an eclipfe; the ruin of monarchs; and the revolutions of kingdoms. The mind is hurried out of itself, by a crowd of great and con fufed images; which affect, because they are crowded and confufed. For, feparate them, and you loofe much of the greatnefs; and join them, and you infallibly lofe the clearnefs. BURKE.

I can find neither confufion nor obfcurity in this paffage. The firmnefs of the devil's ftation or pofture is here compared to that of a tower; and his faded or diminished splendour to that of the fun feen through a morning haze, or from behind the moon during an eclipfe; all which is perfectly clear; the objects of comparison being at once grand and illuftrative; and the defcription of them, as far as they are defcribed, diftinct, correct, and circumftantial. The properties of folidity and firmnefs only, in the tower, being the objects of comparifon, to have defcribed its form or magnitude would have been filly and im pertinent but the diminution of brightness is an occafional effect; and when an occafional effect is made the object of poetical comparison or description, it is always necessary to state its caufes and circumstances; which the poet has here done with equal concifenefs, precision, perfpicuity, and energy; and it is to this that its fublimity is, in a great degree, owing.

R. P. KNIGHT. Ver. 591. Stood like a tower:] Mr. Stillingflect refers the defcription of Satan's perfon to Homer, Il. iii. 226. perfuaded Milton had Dante here in mind, Purgator. C. v. 14. "Sta, come torre ferma." TODD.

Ver. 594.

as when the fun, new rifen, &c.] The

595

Looks through the horizontal misty air
Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon,
In dim eclipfe, difaftrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs. Darken'd fo, yet fhone
Above them all the Arch-Angel: but his face 609
Deep fears of thunder had intrench'd; and care

contraft between the fun in a mift and in all his unclouded brightnefs, has been applied, by an elder poet, to the effectual reformation of those whofe faith had been "vayl'd within the mift of errour." See Quarles's Feaft for Wormes, 4to. 1620, fign. F. i.

"As when bright Phoebus, in a fummer tide,
"New rifen from the pillow of his bride,

"Enveloped with mifty foggs, at length

"Breaks forth, &c."

But we may refer, as Mr. Dunfter remarks, the fimile of Milton to a very fine one of fomewhat the fame kind in Shakspeare; who (in Rich. II. A. iii. S. iii.) compares Richard, appearing with much difcontent and indignation, to

"the blushing difcontented fun

"From out the fiery portal of the eaft;

"When he perceives the envious clouds are benț

"To dim his glory, &c.

"Yet looks he like a king." TODD.

Ver. 597.

difaftrous twilight] The fine

effect of the epithet difaftrous muft ftrike us. We may illuftrate it by a paffage in Hamlet;

"Difafters in the fun."—

Where Warburton obferves that difafter is finely used in its original fignification of evil conjunction of ftars. Thus in Sylyefter, fpeaking of the planet Saturn, Du Bart. p. 80.

"His froward beams' difaftrous frowns." DUNSTER. Ver. 601. intrench'd;] Cut into, had made trenches in his face; from the French trencher. So Shak

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