These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry
Surround me, as thou saw'st; hourly conceived
And hourly born, with sorrow infinite

To me: for, when they list, into the womb
That bred them they return, and howl and gnaw
My bowels, their repast; then bursting forth
Afresh with conscious terrours vex me round,
That rest or intermission none I find.
Before mine eyes in opposition sits

Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on;
And me his parent would full soon devour
For want of other prey, but that he knows
His end with mine involved; and knows that I
Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane,
Whenever that shall be; so Fate pronounced.
But thou, O father, I forewarn thee, shun
His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope
To be invulnerable in those bright arms,
Though temper'd heavenly; for that mortal dint,
Save he who reigns above, none can resist.

She finish'd, and the subtle fiend his lore
Soon learn'd, now milder, and thus answer'd smooth:
Dear daughter, since thou claim'st me for thy sire,
And my fair son here show'st me, the dear pledge
Of dalliance had with thee in heaven, and joys
Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change
Befallen us, unforeseen, unthought of; know,

I come no enemy, but to set free
From out this dark and dismal house of pain,
Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host
Of spirits, that, in our just pretences arm'd,
Fell with us from on high: from them I go
This uncouth errand sole, and one for all
Myself expose; with lonely steps to tread

The unfounded deep, and through the void immense
To search with wandering quest a place foretold
Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now
Created, vast and round, a place of bliss

In the purlieus of heaven, and therein placed
A race of upstart creatures, to supply
Perhaps our vacant room; though more removed,
Lest heaven, surcharged with potent multitude,
Might hap to move new broils. Be this, or aught
Than this more secret, now design'd, I haste

To know; and, this once known, shall soon return,

y Dear daughter.

sight more detestable;"

Satan had now learned his lore or lesson; and the reader will observe how artfully he changes his language: he had said before that he had never seen but now it is dear daughter, and fair son.-NEWTON.

And bring ye to the place where thou and Death
Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen
Wing silently the buxom air, imbalm'd

With odours; there ye shall be fed and fill'd
Immeasurably; all things shall be your prey.

He ceased, for both seem'd highly pleased, and Death
Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile, to hear

His famine should be fill'd, and bless'd his maw

Destined to that good hour: no less rejoiced

His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire :—
The key of this infernal pit by due,

And by command of heaven's all-powerful King,
I keep, by him forbidden to unlock

These adamantine gates; against all force
Death ready stands to interpose his dart,
Fearless to be o'ermatch'd by living might.
But what owe I to his commands above,

Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down
Into this gloom of Tartarus profound,

To sit in hateful office, here confined,
Inhabitant of heaven and heavenly-born,
Here, in perpetual agony and pain,

With terrours and with clamours compass'd round
Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed?
Thou art my father, thou my authour, thou
My being gavest me; whom should I obey

But thee? whom follow? thou wilt bring me soon
To that new world of light and bliss, among
The gods who live at ease; where I shall reign
At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems
Thy daughter and thy darling, without end.

Thus saying, from her side the fatal key2,
Sad instrument of all our woe, she took;

And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train,
Forthwith the huge portcullis high up drew,
Which but herself not all the Stygian powers

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Could once have moved: then in the keyhole turns
The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar

Of massy iron or solid rock with ease

Unfastens on a sudden open fly

* Thus saying, from her side the fatal key.

It is one great part of the poet's art to know when to describe things in general, and when to be very circumstantial and particular. Milton has in these lines showed his judgment in this respect the first opening of the gates of hell by Sin is an incident of that importance, that, if I can guess by my own, every reader's attention must be greatly excited, and Consequently as highly gratified, by the minute detail of particulars our author has given us. It may with justice be farther observed, that in no part of the poem the versification is better accommodated to the sense. The drawing up of the portcullis, the turning of the key, the sudden shooting of the bolts, and the flying open of the doors, are in some sort described by the very break and sound of the verses.-THYER.

With impetuous recoil and jarring sound
The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook
Of Erebus. She open'd, but to shut
Excell'd her power; the gates wide open stood,
That with extended wings a banner'd host,
Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through
With horse and chariots rank'd in loose array;
So wide they stood, and like a furnace mouth

Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame.
Before their eyes in sudden view appear
The secrets of the hoary deep; a dark
Illimitable ocean, without bound,

Without dimension, where length, breadth, and highth,
And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night
And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold

Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand :

For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce,
Strive here for mastery, and to battel bring

Their embryon atoms; they around the flag
Of each his faction, in their several clans,

Light-arm'd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow,
Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the sands
Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil,

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise

Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere,

Excell'd her power.

■ She open'd, but to shut

The grandeur here both of the thought and the picture is incomparable.

b The secrets of the hoary deep.

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This prospect, as the gates flew open, astonishes the imagination, and awakens all its curiosity.

And Chaos.

e Where eldest Night

All the ancient naturalists, philosophers, and poets, hold that Chaos was the first principle of all things; and the poets particularly make Night a goddess, and represent Night or darkness, and Chaos or confusion, as exercising uncontrolled dominion from the beginning. Thus Orpheus, in the beginning of his Hymn to Night, addresses her as the mother of the gods and men, and origin of all things. See also Spenser in imitation of the ancients, F. Q. I. v. 22. And Milton's system of the universe is, in short, that the empyrean heaven, and chaos, and darkness, were before the creation, heaven above and chaos beneath; and then, upon the rebellion of the angels; first, hell was formed out of chaos, stretching far and wide beneath; and afterwards heaven and earth, another world hanging over the realm of Chaos, and won from his dominion.-NEWTON.

Ovid. Met. i. 19:

d For hot, cold, &c.

Frigida pugnabant calidis, humentia siccis,

Mollia cum duris, sine pondere habentia pondus.

The reader may compare this whole description of Chaos with Ovid's, and he will easily see how the Roman poet has lessened the grandeur of his by puerile conceits and quaint antitheses everything in Milton is great and masterly.-NEWTON.

He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits,
And by decision more imbroils the fray,

By which he reigns:
Chance governs all.

next him, high arbiter,
Into this wild abyss,
The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave,—
Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd
Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds ;-
Into this wild abyss the wary fiend
Stood on the brink of hell', and look'd a while,
Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith
He had to cross. Nor was his ear less peal'd
With noises loud and ruinous, (to compare

Great things with small) than when Bellona storms,
With all her battering engines bent to rase
Some capital city; or less than if this frame
Of heaven were falling, and these elements
In mutiny had from her axle torn

The stedfast earth. At last his sail-broad vans
He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke
Uplifted spurns the ground; thence many a league,
As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides
Audacious; but, that seat soon failing, meets
A vast vacuity: all unawares

Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops
Ten thousand fathom deep; and to this hour
Down had been falling, had not by ill chance
The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud,
Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
As many miles aloft: that fury stay'd,
Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea,
Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on he fares,
Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,
Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail".
As when a gryphon, through the wilderness
With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale,

e To whom these most adhere,

He rules a moment.

To whatever side the atoms temporarily adhere, that side rules for the moment.

Satan

Stood on the brink of hell.

pauses for a moment, terrified at the danger of his enterprise.

• Half on foot,

Half flying.

Spenser, Faer. Qu. 1. xi. 8:

Half flying, and half footing in his haste.-NEWTON.

b Behoves him now both oar and sail.

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It behoveth him now to use both his oars and his sails, as galleys do, according to the proverb,-remis velisque, with might and main.-HUME.

Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth,
Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd
The guarded gold; so eagerly the fiend

O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare',
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.
At length a universal hubbub wild

Of stunning sounds and voices all confused,
Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear
With loudest vehemence: thither he plies,
Undaunted to meet there whatever power
Or spirit of the nethermost abyssi

Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask

Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies,

Bordering on light; when straight behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread

Wide on the wasteful deep: with him enthroned

Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things,
The consort of his reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Ades', and the dreaded name

Of Demogorgon"; Rumour next, and Chance,

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And Tumult and Confusion all imbroil'd ;

And Discord with a thousand various mouths.

To whom Satan turning boldly, thus :-Ye powers,

And spirits of this nethermost abyss,

Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy,

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With purpose to explore or to disturb

The secrets of your realm; but by constraint

Wandering this darksome desert,—as my way

Lies through your spacious empire up to light,—

Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek

What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds

i O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare.

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The difficulty of Satan's voyage is very well expressed by so many monosyllables as follow, which cannot be pronounced but slowly, and with frequent pauses.-NEWTON.

The nethermost abyss.

Though the throne of Chaos was above hell, and consequently a part of the abyss was so, yet a part of that abyss was at the same time below hell; so far below, as that, when Satan went from hell on his voyage, he fell in that abyss ten thousand fathom deep; and the poet there adds, that if it had not been for an accident, he had been falling down there to this hour: nay, it was so deep, as to be illimitable, and where highth is lost. The abyss then, considered altogether, was nethermost in respect of hell, below which it was so endlessly extended.-PEARCE.

kAnd his dark pavilion spread.

Psalm xviii. 11:—“ He made darkness his secret place, his pavilion round about him.” -DUNSTER.

Orcus and Ades.

Orcus for Pluto, and Ades for any dark place.-RICHARDSON.

m Of Demogorgon.

The very name of Demogorgon the ancients supposed capable of producing the most terrible effects, which they therefore dreaded to pronounce. He is mentioned as of great power in incantations.-NEWTON.