trains mi vod-agaphs): he view'd it round; nic vber dad', da vrsto him address'd: 233 300 "Es possibly suggested by Milton's 2-DUNSTER. ཟླVགླ"ལྤགཊ་གླེག་པ་ཀཞིན _&m[3 1 of Airasia, “Fier Qu.” ii. xii. 58. ris åth most agcrace. mucts, appeared in ne place. ČI VOLÀ MT Den a nagy the rade La de dec)vdan kalify, &c. *76*12 2oritai n la spre ressur Tasso, in his description of the 23. 1. Secise - Faer. Qu."ii. v. 29.-DUNSTER. SEN TUNTY mae 2 Jang is annearance and habit with the tempta* be ame to amatur Saviour to turn the stones into sa prod 242 rural weeds;" but now, seemler clad," and appears as a: speech be addresses his words; there, ivas da pa i quin" Lee lesser particulars have a propriety in at he reader s obervaziz—NEWTON. Ts me the Senehe oraclusia of the former book, had asked leave to ved. 24. Lr that our Setar returned was. Dy aming hither thach I know thy socpe, 12 febid, & as theu £nd'st Nemission the stre But as the temper mast seeds have been a most impudent being, it was perfectly in characht to reprochas permission" for granted leave."-NEWTON. (3.1.4920 jete s “permission from above." In answer to Satan's request, Permission from above. Satan therefore here introduces himself with a boast of " that permission from him," who But much more wonder that the Son of God Of Israel here had famish'd, had not God Rain'd from heaven manna; and that prophet bold ", Native of Thebez, wandering here was fed * 305 310 had before given up Job to be tempted by him, b. i. 368. Indeed our author makes the Deity, in his speech to Gabriel, say, speaking of our blessed Lord, b. i. 140, This man, born and now upgrown, To show him worthy of his birth divine The fugitive bond-woman, with her son, &c. Hagar, who fled from the face of her mistress, Gen. xvi. 6, is therefore called a "fugitive :" her son was not a fugitive, but an "outcast" so exact was our author in the use of his epithets. But then what shall we say to the words "Outcast Nebaioth ?" For Nebaioth was the eldest son of Ishmael (Gen. xxv. 13), and grandson of Abraham and Hagar. He seems here to be put by mistake for Ishmael; at least, it is not usual to call the father by the name of the son.-NEWTON. There is no immediate instance of a grandson being substituted for a son in Scripture: and yet the curse is addressed to Canaan (Gen. ix. 25), though it was Ham, his father, who had offended Noah: but Nebaioth and Canaan both gave names to a people descended from them, viz. the Canaanites and Nabathans; and therefore each of their names might attach to their fathers as the first stock of their respective nations. Ishmael was not born when Hagar fled from her mistress's face, Gen. xvi. 6. But the term "fugitive" here refers to what is said of her, Gen. xxi. when she and her son were both cast out at the instigation of Sarah, and with the approbation of God; when also, in her distress in the wilderness, "she cast the child from her to die." This moment of distress is the exact moment of Milton's description.-DUNSTER. w And that prophet bold. In the character of Elijah, as it stands portrayed in Scripture, we trace a spirit and resolution of the most dignified kind. Hence it is said, 1 Maccab. ii. 58, that "he was taken up into heaven for being fervent and zealous for the law." The first twelve verses of the 48th chapter of Ecclesiasticus are entirely occupied with a panegyric upon him; in which is said, that "he stood up like fire," and that "his words burned like a lamp: " which expressions must be understood to imply a peculiar fervour of zeal and spirit. Milton seems to have been much struck with the character of this "prophet bold," as he here terms him. He had before, ver. 16 of this book, called him the "great Thisbite," and has mentioned him no less than four times in this poem, and three times in his juvenile Latin poems. El. iv. "In Prodit. Bombard," and "In Obit. Præsul. Eliens." But it may be observed (and I hope without impropriety), that possibly he had a political predilection for this eminent prophet, to whose lot it fell to resist the tyranny of wicked kings, and to denounce the judgments of God against them. In this part of his office he particularly manifested his undaunted spirit; on which account he might be a favourite scripture character with our author. Compare Sylvester's "Du Bartas," ed. 1621, p. 480. Thesbite Elijah Who, burning bold in spirit and speech, cries out In Ahab's ear, and all his court about, "O impious Ahab!"-DUNSTER. Wandering here was fed. It appears that Milton conceived the wilderness, where Hagar wandered with her son, and where the Israelites were fed with manna, and where Elijah retreated from the rage of Twice by a voice inviting him to eat. Of thee these forty days none hath regard, Furry and more deserted here indeed. To whom this Jess:-What concludest thou hence? How hust the bunger then? Satan replied. T Tell me, if food were now before thee set, Wai serrple that, with want oppress'd? Behold, Trvalued that the shoclist hunger, hath purvey'd 315 330 333 Irene, u de de same with de vierness where our Saviour was tempted: and yet it is rul de der ver verr öderent pinces; for the wilderness, where Hagar wandered, De varies of Beersheba." Gen. xx. 14; and where the Israelites were fed with “The woärtness of Sin.” Exod. xvi. 1: and where Elijah retreated, was "in AVTORI it's promer form. Beersheba,” 1 Kings, xix. 4; and where our Saviour EN FIN. Edhe vleres near Jordan. But our author considers all that tract at orda 29 28 case and the same wilderness, though distinguished by different names from the diferent pinces at veng-NEWYORK 2 Ton.dat han not eat 9—Thereafter as I like Il grier, expeer & Jenus. Cars,” when the enchanter cfers the cup to the Lady, and presses her to Were is drsnight for Jume when she banquets, I wraż not taste thy treas bras cffer: none But such as are good men can give good things, &c-DUNSTER, • Fast Don not right to all created things? TC đang say By đi nghi to thee Dug and artur, &c. &c. Ts part of the temper's speech allies to the beavenly declaration which he had heard at Jean-Dis's my kind S&="&c. Cze may cbserve too, that it is much the saame saet at fa eơng nướes wià that which he had before made use of to seduce Eve, * Praise Lac*)IN Dher all things Fring gare on, all things thine, ■ Hath purvey'd From aŭ the elements her choicest store. The lat z poets have sim ar passages, descriptive of that unbounded luxury, which ransacked all the elements to furnish eat the requisite delicacies of their banquets. Thus Jur. Siz X 14. Interea gustus elementa per omnis quærunt.-DUNSTER. He spake no dream'; for, as his words had end, In ample space under the broadest shade, b He spake no dream. This was no dream, as before, ver. 264, but a reality.-NEWTON. A table richly spread, &c. 340 345 This temptation is not recorded in Scripture, but is however invented with great consistency, and very aptly fitted to the present condition of our Saviour. This way of embellishing his subject is a privilege which every poet has a just right to, provided he observes harmony and decorum in his hero's character; and one may farther add, that Milton had in this particular place a still stronger claim to an indulgence of this kind; since it was a pretty general opinion among the fathers, that our Saviour underwent many more temptations than those which are mentioned by the evangelists: nay, Origen goes so far as to say, that he was every day, whilst he continued in the wilderness, attacked by a fresh one. The beauties of this description are too obvious to escape any reader of taste. It is copious, and yet expressed with a very elegant conciseness: every proper circumstance is mentioned; and yet it is not at all clogged or encumbered, as is often the case, with too tedious a detail of particulars. It was a scene entirely fresh to our author's imagination, and nothing like it had before occurred in his " Paradise Lost ;" for which reason he has been the more diffuse, and laboured it with greater care, with the same good judgment that makes him in other places avoid expatiating on scenes which he had before described. word, it is in my opinion worked up with great art and beauty, and plainly shows the crudity of that notion which so much prevails among superficial readers, that Milton's genius was upon the decay when he wrote his "Paradise Regained.”—THYER. d In regal mode. In a "Regal mode" was probably intended to glance at the luxury and expense of the court at that time: it is however well covered by classical authority. Thus Sil. Ital. xi. 272. Instituunt de more epulas, festamque per urbem Regifice extructis celebrant convivia mensis. And Virgil, "Æn." vi. 604: : epulæque ante ora paratæ Regifico luxu.-DUNSTER. e In pastry built. The pastry, in the beginning of the last century, was frequently of considerable magninitude and solidity of such kind must have been the pie, in which Geoffrey Hudson, afterwards King James's dwarf, when eight years old, was served up to table at an entertainment given by the duke of Buckingham. We may suppose this pie was not considerably larger than was usual on such occasions; otherwise the joke would have lost much of its effect from something extraordinary being expected. A species of mural pastry seems to have prevailed in some of the preceding centuries, when artificial representations of castles, towers, &c. were very common at all great feasts, and called " suttleties," "subtilties," or "sotilties." Leland, in his account of the entertainment at the inthronization of archbishop Warham in 1504, (“ Collectanea," vol. vi.) mentions "a suttlety of three stages, with vanes and towres embattled," and "a warner with eight towres embattled, and made with flowres;" which possibly meant made in pastry. In the catalogue of the expenses at this feast, there is a charge for wax and sugar, in operatione de le sotilties. Probably the wax and sugar were employed to render the paste of flour more adhesive and tenacious, the better to support itself when moulded into such a variety of forms.— DUSTER. "Freshet," a stream of fresh water. 8. iii. of fish, who 1 Freshet. So Browne, in his "Brit. Pastorals," 1613, b. ii. Now love the freshet, and then love the sea.-TODD. And all the while harmonious airs were heard Of chiming strings, or charming pipes; and winds in the old romance of "Morte d'Arthur, or The Lyf of King Arthur, of his noble knyghtes of the round table, and in thende the dolorus deth of them all; written originally in French, and translated into English by Sir Thomas Malleory, Knt. printed by William Caxton, 1484."-From this old romance, Mr. Warton (" Observations on Spenser," sect. 2) shows that Spenser borrowed much. Sir Lancelot is there called of " Logris ;" and Sir Tristram is named of "Lyones," under which title he appears also in the "Faery Queen." "Logris" is the same with Loegria (according to the more fabulous historians, and amongst them Milton), an old name for England. Holinshed calls it both Loegria and Logiers. See his "History of England," b. ii. 4, 5. The same author, in his Description of Britain," instead of Loegria, or Logiers, writes it Lhoegres. The title of his 22nd chapter is, "after what manner the sovereigntie of this isle doth remaine to the princes of Lhoegres or kings of England." Spenser, in his "Faery Queen," where he gives the "Chronicle of the early Briton kings from Brute to Uther's reign," calls it Logris, ii. x. 14 :— And Camber did possess the western quart, Which Severn now from Logris doth depart. In Lyones was an old name for Cornwall, or at least for a part of that county. Camden, in his "Britannia," speaking of the Land's End, says, " the inhabitants are of opinion that this promontory did once reach farther to the west, which the seamen positively conclude from the rubbish they draw up. The neighbours will tell you too, from a certain old tradition, that the land there drowned by the incursions of the sea was called Lionesse." Sir Tristram of Lyones, or Lionesse, is well known to the readers of the old romances. the French translation of the "Orlando Inamorato" of Boiardo, he is termed Tristran de Leonnois, although in the original he is only mentioned by the single name of Tristran. In the "Orlando Inamorato" also, among the knights, who defend Angelica in the fortress of Albracca against Agrican, is Sir Hubert of Lyones, Uberto dal Lione. Tristram, in his account of himself in the "Faery Queen," vi. ii. 28, says, And Tristram is my name, the only heire Of good king Meliogras, which did rayne In Cornewale, till that he through lives despeire Untimely dyde. He then relates how his uncle seized upon the crown; whereupon his mother, conceiving great fears for her son's personal safety, determined to send him into "some foreign land," Out of the countrie wherein I was bred, The which the fertile Lionesse is hight, Into the land of Faerie. These particulars, Mr. Warton shows, are drawn from the "Morte d'Arthur," where it is said there was a knight Meliodas, and he was lord and king of the county of Lyones, and he wedded king Marke's sister of Cornewale." The issue of this marriage was Sir Tristram. These knights, he also observes, are there often represented as meeting beautiful damsels in desolate forests. Sir Pelleas, "a very valorous knight of Arthur's round table," is one of those who pursue the blatant beast, when, after having been conquered and chained up by Sir Calidore, it "broke its iron chain" and again "ranged through the world,"-Faery Queen, vi. xii. 39. Milton's later thoughts could not, we find, but rove at times, where, as he himself told us, "his younger feet wandered," when he "betook him among those lofty fables and romances, which recount in solemn cantos the deeds of knighthood founded by our victorious kings, and from hence had in renowne over all Christendome." "Apol. for Smectym." p. 177, "Prose Works," ed. Amst. 1698.-DUNSTER. a And all the while harmonious airs were heard Thus in "Paradise Lost," b. xi. 558 : the sound Of instruments that made melodious chime. And again, ver. 594, "charming symphonies." Spenser, as Mr. Calton observes, thus likewise uses the verb to charm, "Faery Queen," v. ix. 13: Like as the fouler, on his guileful pype, Charmes to the birds full many a pleasant lay. |