My time, I told thee, (and that time for thee David's truè heir, and his full scepter sway To just extent over all Israel's sons. But whence to thee this zeal? Where was it then For Israel, or for David, or his throne, When thou stood'st up his tempter to the pride 400 405 of speaking here, as too light and familiar for the dignity of the speaker, but it strikes me as censurable not so much for the lightness, as for the quaintness, of the expression, and somewhat of that jingling play upon words, of which our author was certainly too fond. To unpredict is something like to uncreate. See Par. Lost, B. v. 895, and B. ix. 943. Dunster. Ver. 396. My time, &c.] John vii. 6. NEWTON. Ver. 401. argument Of human weakness rather than of strength.] It is a proof of human weakness, as it shows that man is obliged to depend upon something extrinsical to himself, whether he would attack his enemy or defend himself. It alludes to the common observation, that Nature has furnished all creatures with weapons of defence, except man. See Anacreon's Ode on this thought. THYER. Ver. 409. When thou stood'st up his tempter &c.] Alluding to 1 Chron. xxi. 1. "And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel." Milton, we see, considers it not as the advice of any evil counsellor, as some understand the Of numbering Israël, which cost the lives 410 word Satan, but as the suggestion of the first author of evil: and he expresses it very properly by the pride of numbering Israel; for the best commentators suppose the nature of David's offence to consist in pride and vanity, in making flesh his arm, and confiding in the number of his people. And for this three things were proposed to him by the prophet, three years famine, or three months to be destroyed before his enemies, or three days pestilence; of which he chose the latter. "So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men," ver. 14. NEWTON. Ver. 414. As for those captive tribes, &c.] The captivity of the ten tribes was a punishment owing to their own idolatry and wickedness. They fell off from God to worship calves, the golden calves which Jeroboam had set up in Bethel and in Dan, and which the poet calls the deities of Egypt; for it is probable, (as some learned men have conjectured,) that Jeroboam, having conversed with the Egyptians, set up these two calves in imitation of the two which the Egyptians worshipped, the one called Apis at Memphis the metropolis of the upper Egypt, and the other called Mnevis at Hierapolis the metropolis of the lower Egypt. Baal next and Ashtaroth. Ahab built an altar and a temple for Baal, 1 Kings xvi. 32. and at the same time probably was introduced the worship of Ashtaroth, the Goddess of the Zidonians, 1 Kings xi. 5. For Jezebel, Ahab's wife, who prompted him to all evil, was the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, 1 Kings xvi. 31. And, by the prophets of the groves, (1 Kings xviii. 19.), Mr. Selden understands the prophets of Ashtaroth or Astarte ; and the groves under every green tree, 2 Kings xvii. 10. should be translated Ashtaroth under every green tree. See Selden de Diis Syris Syntag. ii. cap. 2. But for the wickedness and idolatry of the Israelites, and their rejection thereupon, and still Who wrought their own captivity, fell off And all the idolatries of Heathen round, Besides their other worse than heathenish crimes; Nor in the land of their captivity Humbled themselves, or penitent besought The God of their forefathers; but so died 415 420 425 continuing impenitent in their captivity, see 2 Kings xvii. and the prophets in several places. NEWTON. Ver. 428. Who, freed, as to their ancient patrimony, Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreform'd, Headlong would follow; and to their gods perhaps Of Bethel and of Dan?] There is some difficulty and obscurity in this passage; and several conjectures and emendations have been offered to clear it, but none, I think, entirely to satisfaction. Mr. Sympson would read Headlong would fall off, and &c. or Headlong would fall, &c. But Mr. Calton seems to come nearer the poet's meaning. Whom or what would they follow, says he? There wants an accusative case; and what must be understood to complete the sense can never be accounted for by an ellipsis, that any rules or use of language will justify. He therefore suspects by some accident a whole line may have been lost; and proposes one, which he says may serve at least for a commentary to explain the sense, if it cannot be allowed for an emendation: "Their fathers in their old iniquities 66 Headlong would follow, &c." Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreform'd, 429 Headlong would follow; and to their gods perhaps Of Bethel and of Dan? No; let them serve Or is not the construction thus, Headlong would follow as to their ancient patrimony, and to their gods perhaps, &c.? NEWTON. There is somewhat of obscurity here, it must be allowed; but I conceive our author to have many passages that are more implicate. The sense seems to be this: "Who, if they were freed from that captivity, which was inflicted on them as a punishment for their disobedience, idolatry, and other vices, would return to take possession of their country, as something to which they were justly entitled, and of which they had been long unjustly deprived; without shewing the least sense either of their former abandoned conduct, or of God's goodness in pardoning and restoring them. This change in their situation would produce none whatever in their conduct, but they would retain the same hardened hearts, and the same wicked dispositions as before, and most probably would betake themselves to their old idolatries and other abominations."―The expression headlong would follow seems allusive to brute animals hurrying in a gregarious manner to any new and better pasture; and headlong might be particularly suggested by Sallust's description of irrational animals, " pecora, quæ natura prona, atque ventri obedientia finxit." If a correction of the text be thought necessary, I should prefer, 66 Who, freed as to their ancient patrimony, "Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreform'd, Headlong would fall unto their gods, perhaps "Of Bethel and of Dan in recommendation of which it may be observed that fall to idols is Miltonick; as it is said of Solomon, Paradise Lost, B. i. 444. that his heart "Beguil'd by fair idolatresses fell "To idols foul." DUNSTER. Ver. 429. Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreform'd,] See my note on Par. Lost, B. ii. 185. Ver. 431. TODD. No; let them serve Their enemies, &c.] "Like as ye have forsaken me, Their enemies, who serve idols with God. So spake Israel's true king, and to the Fiend 435 440 and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours," Jer. v. 19. DUNSTER. Ver. 436. And at their passing cleave the Assyrian flood, &c.] There are several prophecies of the restoration of Israel: but in saying that the Lord would cleave the Assyrian flood, that is the river Euphrates, at their return from Assyria, as he cleft the Red Sea and the river Jordan at their coming from Egypt, the poet seems particularly to allude to Rev. xvi. 12, and to Isa. xi. 15, 16. NEWTON. Ver. 441. and to the Fiend Made answer meet, that made void all his wiles.] We may compare the following passage of Vida, where Satan, in his Speech to the Devils in Pandemonium, relates how he had been foiled in the Temptation of our blessed Lord, Christiad. i. 198. "Quas non in facies, quæ non mutatus in ora "Sed, tantum veterum repetito carmine vatum, "Irrita tentamenta, dolos, et vim exuit omnem." Dunster. So, in G. Fletcher's Christ's Victory, the Sorceress is thus foiled in the Temptation of our Lord; "But he her charms dispersed into wind "And her of insolence admonished." TODD. |