Nor left at Jordan, tidings of him none; m Within her breast though calm, her breast though pure, From the bleak air; a stable was our warmth, Were dead, who sought his life, and missing fill'd From Egypt home return'd, in Nazareth m0, what avails me now that honour high, &c. 63 70 75 80 In this In several parts of this speech Milton appears to have had Vida in his mind. opening of it, at verse 77, and from verse 87 to 92, we plainly trace him to Mary's lamentation under the "Christ." v. 870 : cross, At non certe olim præpes demissus Olympo Sic una ante alias flix ego, sic ego cœli Hic meus altus honos. Quo reges munera opima Sors tamen, et vitam, cladem hanc visura, trahebam? Insontes regis furor ipso in limine vitæ, Dum tibi vana timens funus molitur acerbum. Ut cuperem te diluvio cecidisse sub illo ! Hos, hos horribili monitu trepidantia corda Et cecinit fore, cum pectus mihi figeret ensis: Nunc alte mucro, nunc alte vulnus adactum.-DUNSTER. n Yet soon enforced to fly, &c. We may compare the following stanza of Giles Fletcher's "Christ's Victory in Heaven:" And yet but newly he was infanted, But scarcely fled away, when by and by The tyrant's sword with blood is all defiled, &c.-DUNSTER. • In Nazareth Hath been our dwelling many years. She mentions this as part of their distress; because the country of Galilee, whereof Nazareth was a city, was the most despised part of Palestine, despised by the Jews themselves: and therefore Nathaniel asketh Philip, John i. 46,-"Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?"-NEWTON. This passage does not strike me exactly in the same light as it does Dr. Newton. All Little suspicious to any king; but now, Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest"; But where delays he now? some great intent Conceals him when twelve years he scarce had seen, His Father's business: what he meant I mused, I lost him, but so found, as well I saw He could not lose himself, but went about Since understand; much more his absence now 100 this description of the early private life of our Saviour seems rather designed to contrast and to give more effect to the expectations of Mary, where she says, but now Full grown to man, acknowledged, as I hear, P His life Private, unactive, calm, contemplative, Very possibly not without an intended reference to Milton's own way of life after the Restoration.-DUNSTER, See St. Luke ii. 34, 35. That to the fall and rising he should be Of many in Israel, &c. These are the afflictions that Mary notices: not the circumstances of dwelling in a disreputable place; but her anxiety about her son, and what she then suffered, and was still to suffer, upon his account.-DUNSTER. Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest. How charmingly does Milton here verify the character he had before given of the blessed Virgin in the lines above! Within her breast though calm, her breast though pure, We see at one view the piety of the saint, and the tenderness of the mother; and I think nothing can be conceived more beautiful and moving than the sudden start of fond impatience in the third line, "but where delays he now?" breaking in so abruptly upon the composed resignation expressed in the two preceding ones. The same beauty is continued in her suddenly checking herself, and resuming her calm and resigned character again in these words:"Some great intent conceals him."-THYER. He could not lose himself. A conceit and jingle unworthy of our author.-Jos. WARTON. What jingle exists between found and lose I know not; but these are the associations of language, not conceits: contrariety is one of the principles of association. But went about His father's business. "And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Luke ii. 49.-DUNSTER. Thus long to some great purpose he obscures. Had left him vacant; and with speed was gone Where all his potentates in council sat: 105 110 115 There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy, 120 Princes, Heaven's ancient sons, ethereal thrones; Powers of fire, air, water, and earth beneath!! My heart hath been a storehouse long of things And sayings laid up, portending strange events. Alluding to what is said of her, Luke ii. 19. "But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart :" and see also ver. 51. So consistent is the part that she acts here with her character in Scripture.-NEWTON. By recurring to what passed at the river Jordan among Jesus's new disciples and followers upon his absence, and by making Mary express her maternal feelings upon it, the poet has given an extent and variety to his subject. It might perhaps be wished that all which he has put into the mouth of the Virgin respecting the early life of her son, had been confined solely to this place, instead of a part being incorporated in our Lord's soliloquy in the first book. There it seems awkwardly introduced; but here I conceive her speech might have been extended with good effect.-DUNster. With thoughts Meekly composed awaited the fulfilling. This is beautifully expressed. There is a passage somewhat similar, in "Paradise Lost," b. xii. 596, where Michael, having concluded what he had to show Adam from the mountain, and what he had farther to inform him of in narration there, says they must now descend from this "top of speculation ;" and bidding Adam “ go waken Eve," adds, Pers. Sat. iv. 23, Her also I with gentle dreams have calm'd w Into himself descended. Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere!-NEWTON. * There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy. In contrast to the boasting manner in which Satan had related his success against man, on his return to Pandemonium, "Paradise Lost," b. x. 460.-DUNster. y Demonian spirits now, from the element It was a notion among the ancients, especially among the Platonists, that there were Mini - Hovey of Engint,” tas sit – The member was foll and frequent:" and in ~ Parative Loan." 1797, the mean) of terla va “İçe J. and fill Here the adjective la formed into a muletnie w ak. 118: and Shakspeare uses it in the same manter, "Time," a T. £. 3. This is a Greciem. Devouas signifies not only gusto, but likewise experior, periculum facio-DesTER. ↳ However to this men inferitur for, kc. I have ventured to correct the punctuation. The passage in the first editions, and in Dr. Newton's, stands pointed thus: However to this man inferiour far, If he be man by mother's side at least, With more than human gifts from Heaven adorn'd, &c. On this, Mr. Calton observes: "The Tempter had no doubt of Christ's being a man by the mother's side; but the want of a comma in its due place after if he be man,' ha'h puzzled both the sense and the construction. He is must be understood at the end of the verse to support the syntax; If he be man, by mother's side at least (he is)." Dr. Newton has however preserved the pointing of Milton's own edition, because some, he says, may choose to join the whole together, and understand it thus: Satan had heard Jesus declared from Heaven, and knew him to be the Son of God; and now, after the trial | he had made of him, he questions if he be man even by the mother's side; " If he be man by mother's side at least." He farther observes, that it is the purport of Satan, in this speech, not to say any thing to the evil spirits that may lessen, but every thing that may raise their idea of his antagonist. It seems to me that there can be no doubt respecting this равваде. Dr. Newton certainly sees it in its true light but I conceive his sense of it is strengthened and brought forward with additional beauty, and the whole of the sentence is rendered more clear and perfect, by the punctuation which I have adopted; and which I think most probable to have been intended by Milton.-DUNSTER. Perfections absolute, graces divine, Thought none my equal, now be over-match'd. So spake the old serpent, doubting; and from all With clamour was assured their utmost aid At his command: when from amidst them rose The sensualest; and, after Asmodai, The fleshliest incubus"; and thus advised: Set women in his eye, and in his walk, With more than human gifts from Heaven adorn'd, And amplitude of mind to greatest deeds. 140 345 150 Many lines of the "Paradise Regained" have been censured as harsh and inharmonious; but even of these the greater part may be vindicated, (as it has been done in some instances by Mr. Thyer) by showing that they were very far from being of that kind quas incuria fudit; and that many of them are peculiarly expressive, and were purposely designed as such by the poet. The three lines above cited seem however secure from every possibility of disapprobation they are so eminently beautiful, that they must strike every ear that is not quite devoid of feeling and of taste. Mr. Thyer particularly notices the fine effect of the last line, and the dignity and significancy of the expression "amplitude of mind;" which he also supposes might have been suggested by the following passage in Tully's "Tusc. Disput." ii. 25. Hoc igitur tibi propone, amplitudinem et quasi quandam exaggerationem quain altissimam animi, quæ maxime eminet contemnendis et despiciendis doloribus, unam esse omnium rem pulcherrimam.”— Dunster. d Belial, the dissolutest spirit that fell, The sensualest; and, after Asmodai, I have heard these three lines objected to as harsh and inharmonious, but in my opinion the very objection points out a remarkable beauty in them. It is true, they do not run very smoothly off the tongue; but then they are with much better judgment so contrived, that the reader is obliged to lay a particular emphasis, and to dwell for some time upon the word in each verse which most strongly expresses the character described, viz. “dissolutest, sensualest, fleshliest." This has a very good effect by impressing the idea more strongly upon the mind, and contributes even in some measure to increase our aversion to the odious character of Belial, by giving an air of detestation to the very tone of voice with which these verses must necessarily be read.-THYER. This is a just remark of Thyer; it is happy where the metre requires that the strongest accent should be thrown where it is most necessary to enforce the sense. The character of Belial in the "Paradise Lost," and the part he sustains there, sufficiently show how properly he is introduced upon the present occasion. He is here said to be the "fleshliest incubus after Asmodai;" or "Asmadai," as it is written, "Paradise Lost," b. vi. 365; or Asmodeus," b. iv. 168, the lustful angel who loved Sarah the daughter of Raguel, and destroyed her seven husbands, as we read in the book of Tobit.-NEWTON. e Set women in his eye, &c. As this temptation is not mentioned in the Gospels, it could not with any propriety have been proposed to our Saviour; it is much more fitly made the subject of debate among the wicked spirits themselves. All that can be said in praise of the power of beauty, and all that can be alleged to depreciate it, is here summed up with greater force and elegance, than I ever remember to have seen in any other author.-NEWTON. |