Leviathan, which God of all his works 205 So stretch'd out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay, Chain'd on the burning lake, nor ever thence 210 Had ris'n or heav'd his head, but that the will 205 Deeming some island] At Sir William Drury's house in Hawstead in Suffolk (built in regn. Elizab.), is a closet with painted pannels of the age of James I. One (no. 36.) is a ship that has anchored on a whale which is in motion. The motto, · nusquam tuta fides.' See Cullum's Hist. of Hawstead, p. 164, where is an engraving of it. 205 island] Thus Dionysii Perieg. 598. ἀμφὶ δὲ πάντη Κήτεα θῖνες ἔχουσιν, ἐρυθραίου βοτὰ πόντου, Οὔρεσιν ἠλιβάτοισιν ἐοικότα. And so in the Orlando Innam. of Boiardo, rifac. da Berni, lib. ii. canto xiii. stan. 60. Il dosso sol mostrava ch' è maggiore Un' isoletta nel mezzo del mare.' Compare also Avieni Disc. Orbis, p. 784-5, and Pia Hilaria, p. 92. Basil affirms that whales are equal to the greatest mountains, and their backs, when they show above the water, like to islands.' v. Brerewood on Languages, p. 133. 208 Invests] v. Stat. Theb. lib. v. 51. tellurem proximus umbrâ, Vestit Athos.' And high permission of all-ruling heaven Heap on himself damnation, while he sought 215 How all his malice serv'd but to bring forth That felt unusual weight, till on dry land 232 Pelorus] See Dante, Paradiso, c. 8. ver. 68. Tra Pachino e Peloro sopra 'l golfo, Che riceve da Euro maggior briga.' 235 Both glorying to have scap'd the Stygian flood, As Gods, and by their own recover'd strength, 240 Not by the sufferance of supernal pow'r. Is this the region, this the soil, the clime, Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat That we must change for heav'n, this mournful gloom For that celestial light? be it so, since he, Who now is Sov'reign, can dispose and bid What shall be right: farthest from him is best, Whom reason hath equall'd, force hath made supreme 245 Above his equals. Farewell happy fields, 255 And what I should be, all but less than he 260 240 recover'd strength] Revigorate, resumed, recovering, reviving, self-raised, self-recovered. Bentl. Conj. MSS. 241 sufferance] Compare Hom. Od. iv. 503. Φῆ ῥ' ἀέκητι θεῶν φυγέειν μέγα λαῖτμα θαλάσσης. Better to reign in hell, than serve in heav'n. 265 Regain'd in heav'n, or what more lost in hell? 270 So Satan spake, and him Beelzebub 275 Thus answer'd: Leader of those armies bright, shield, 280 285 Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, 263 Better] See Æschyli Prometheus, ver. 976. Κρέισσον γὰρ οἶμαι τῇδε λατρεύειν πέτρα, Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views. 288 st. 91. 290 295 300 optic glass] See Henry More's Poems (Inf. of Worlds): But that experiment of the optick glasse,' and Davenant's Gondibert, p. 188. 'Or reach with optick tubes the ragged moon.' 293 mast] See Lucilii Sat. lib. xv. 1. p. 132. porro huic majus bacillum Quam malus navi in corbitâ maximus ullà.' And Ovid Metam. xiii. 783. 'Cui postquam pinus, baculi quæ præbuit usum, Cowley's Davideis, lib, iii. ver. 47. His spear the trunk was of a lofty tree, Which nature meant some tall ship's mast to be.' Keysler's Travels, ii. 117. They shew here the mast of a ship, which the common people believe to be the lance of Rolando the great.' Pope probably mistook the sense, when, in Hom. Il. xiii. 494, he says, 'Or pine, fit mast for some great admiral.' Mr. Dyce refers to Quintus Smyrnæus, lib. v. ver. 118. |