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F.Kayman inv: et del

Book 7.

IS.Müller fe:

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PARADISE LOST.

D

во о к
OOK VII.

Efcend from Heav'n, Urania, by that name

If rightly thou art call'd, whose voice divine Following, above th' Olympian hill I foar, Above the flight of Pegaféan wing.

The meaning, not the name I call: for thou

1. Defcend from Heav'n, Urania,] Defcende cœlo, Hor. Od. III. IV. 1. but here it is better apply'd, as now his fubject leads him from Heaven to Earth. The word Urania in Greek fignifies heav'nly; and he invokes the beav'nly Mufe as he had done before, I. 6. and as he had faid in the beginning that he intended to foar above th' Aonian mount, so now he says very truly that he had effected what he intended, and foars above th' Olympian bill, above the flight of Pegafean wing, that is his fubject was more fublime than the loftieft flights of the Heathen poets. Dr. Bentley propofes Parnaffus inftead of Olympus, but the mountain Olympus is likewife celebrated for the feat of the Mufes, who were therefore called Olympiades, as in Homer, Iliad II. 491. Ολυμ Trades Moar. And fome would read cold Olympus, as in I. 516.

on the snowy top Of cold Olympus

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Nor

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Nor of the Mufes nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'ft, but heav'nly born,
Before the hills appear'd, or fountain flow'd,
Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy fifter, and with her didft play
In presence of th' almighty Father, pleas'd
With thy celestial song. Up led by thee
Into the Heav'n of Heav'ns I have prefum'd,

8 Before the bills appear'd, or foun

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printer and poet, Fairy Queen, B. 2. Cant. 2. St. 39.

Thus fairly she attempered her feast, And pleas'd them all with meet fatiety.

agree with the Doctor that thee is better than thy temp'ring. Thyer.

tain flow'd, &c.] From Prov. VIII. 24, 25, 30. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water: Before the mountains were fettled, before the hills was II brought forth: Then was I by him as one brought up with him; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always be fore him, or playing according to the Vulgar Latin (ludens coram eo omni tempore) to which Milton alludes, when he fays and with her didft play &c. And fo he quotes it likewife in his Tetrachordon, p. 222. Vol. I. Edit. 1738. "God himself conceals "not his own recreations before "the world was built; I was, faith "the eternal Wisdom, daily his delight, playing always before him.'

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15 Thy temp'ring:] This is faid in allufion to the difficulty of refpiration on high mountains. This empyreal air was too pure and fine for him, but the heavenly Mufe temper'd and qualify'd it fo as to make him capable of breathing in it: which is a modest and beautiful way of befpeaking his reader to make favorable allowances for any failings he may have been guilty of in treating of fo fublime a subject.

17.

(as once

Bellerophon, &c.] Bellerophon and drawn empyreal air, Thy temp'ring;] Dr.Bentley makes was a beautiful and valiant youth, himself very merry in his infulting fon of Glaucus; who refufing the manner, with the word temp'ring, amorous applications of Antea wife and calls it the printer's blunder; of Prætus king of Argos, was by but I think the following application her falle fuggeftions like those of of it in Spenfer may juftify both Jofeph's mitrefs to her husband,

fent

An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,
Thy temp'ring; with like fafety guided down
Return me to my native element:
Left from this flying steed unrein'd, (as once
Bellerophon, though from a lower clime)
Difmounted, on th' Aleian field I fall
Erroneous there to wander and forlorn.

Half yet remains unfung, but narrower bound

fent into Lycia with letters defiring his deftruction; where he was put on feveral enterprises full of hazard, in which however he came off con

queror: but attempting vain-glorioufly to mount up to Heaven on the winged horfe Pegafus, he fell and wander'd in the Aleian plains till he died. Hume and Richardfon. His ftory is related at large in the fixth book of Homer's Iliad; but it is to the latter part of it that Milton chiefly alludes, ver. 200. &c.

Αλλ' ότε δη κακεινος απήχθετο

πασι θεοίσιν,

Ήτοι ὁ καππεδιον το Αληον οιος

αλατο,

των αλεείνων.

But when at laft, distracted in his mind,

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21. Half yet remains unfung,] I understand this with Mr. Richardson,

The

Ὃν θυμον κατέδων, πατον ανθρω- that 'tis the half of the epilode, not of the whole work, that is here meant; for when the poem was divided into but ten books, that edition had this paffage at the beginning of the feventh as now. epifode has two principal parts, the war in Heaven, and the new creation; the one was fung, but the other remained unfung, and he is Pope. now entring upon it. but narrower A 4

Forlook by Heav'n, forfaking human kind,

Wide o'er th' Aleian field he chofe to stray,

A long, forlorn, uncomfortable way.

bound.

Within the visible diurnal sphere';

Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole,
More fafe I fing with mortal voice, unchang'd
To hoarfe or mute, though fall'n on evil days, 25
On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues;
In darkness, and with dangers compass'd round,
And folitude; yet not alone, while thou
Vifit'ft my flumbers nightly, or when morn
Purples the east: ftill govern thou my song,
Urania, and fit audience find, though few.

bound. Bound here feems to be a participle as well as unfung. Half yet remains unfung; but this other half is not rapt fo much into the invifible world as the former, it is confin'd in narrower compafs, and bound within the vifible fphere of day.

24. More fafe I fing with mortal

voice, unchang'd

To boarfe or mute,] Dr. Bentley reads with lofty voice. Why mortal aice? fays the Doctor. I answer, becaufe Milton had faid in ver. 2. that he had follow'd Urania's voice divine. Again (fays the Doctor) if his voice had grown hoarfe, would it not have been ftill mortal? and what is a voice changed to mute? Both thefe queftions are fatisfy'd by putting only a comma, as in the first editions, (not a colon, as the Doctor has done) after mute. The words unchang'd to boarfe or mute refer to I, and not to voice, as he

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But

fuppofes; and then all is good sense, and there will be no need to read with the Doctor, To boarfe or low.

Pearce. 25.-though fall'n on evil days,] The repetition and turn of the words is very beautiful,

though fall'n on evil days, On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues; &c.

A lively picture this in a few lines of the poet's wretched condition. In darkness, though is ftill understood; he was not become boarfe or mute though in darkness, though he was blind, and with dangers compass'd round, and folitude, obnoxious to the government, and having a world of enemies among the royal party, and therefore oblig'd to live very much in privacy and alone. And what ftrength of mind was it, that could not only fupport him under the weight of thete misfortunes, but ena

ble

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