935

I, therefore, I alone firft undertook
To wing the desolate abyss, and spy
This new created world, whereof in Hell
Fame is not filent, here in hope to find
Better abode, and my afflicted Powers
To fettle here on earth, or in mid air;
Though for poffeffion put to try once more
What thou and thy gay legions dare against;
Whose easier business were to serve their Lord
High up in Heaven, with songs to hymn his
throne,

940

And practis'd distances to cringe, not fight. 945

To whom the warriour Angel foon replied. To say and straight unfay, pretending first Wife to fly pain, profeffing next the spy, Argues no leader but a liar trac'd,

949

Satan, and couldst thou faithful add? O name,
O facred name of faithfulness profan'd!
Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew?
Army of Fiends, fit body to fit head.
Was this your discipline and faith engag'd,

Ver. 944.

With fongs to hymn his throne, And practis'd distances to cringe, not fight.] This is the untamed infolence of Prometheus to the Chorus, Prom. Vinc. v. 945, edit. Schütz.

Σέβη, προσεύχε, θῶστε τὸν κρατοῦντ ̓ ἀεί.

Ἐμὸν δ ̓ ἔλασσον Ζηνὸς ἢ μηδὲν μέλει. TODD.

Ver. 945. And practis'd diftances to cringe,] With is underftood. "With fongs to hymn his throne, and with practis'd distances to cringe." Dr. Bentley has strangely mistaken it.

PEARCE.

VOL. IIL.

M

955

Your military obedience, to diffolve
Allegiance to the acknowledg'd Power fupreme?
And thou, fly hypocrite, who now wouldft feem
Patron of liberty, who more than thou
Once fawn'd, and cring'd, and fervily ador'd
Heaven's awful Monarch? wherefore, but in
hope

960

To difpoffefs him, and thyself to reign?
But mark what I arreed thee now, Avant;
Fly thither whence thou fledft! If from this hour
Within thefe hallow'd limits thou appear,
Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chain'd, 965
And feal thee fo, as henceforth not to scorn
The facile gates of Hell too flightly barr'd.

So threaten'd he; but Satan to no threats Gave heed, but waxing more in rage replied.

Ver. 962. But mark what I arreed thee now,] The manner, in which Mercury denounces punishment to Prometheus, is fimis lar. See Æfch. Prom. Vinc. v. 1079, ed. fupr.

̓Αλλ' οὖν μέμνησθε ἀπ' ἐγὼ προλέγων κ. τ. λ.

Areed, or aread, is a Saxon word fignifying to appoint, to decree; in which fenfe it is used by Chaucer, and alfo by bishop Hall in his Satires. TODD.

Ver. 965.

--I drag thee] The present tense used for the future, to fignify the immediate execution of the menace. HUME.

A Latiuifm, and very emphatical. "Quæ prima pericula vito," Virgil, En. iii. 367. "Cui famula trador? Quem dominum Toco?" Seneca, Troad. 473. RICHARDSON.

Ver. 966. And feal thee fo,] chaining of Satan, Rev. xx. 3.

This feems to allude to the "And he caft him

tomless pit, and fhut him, and fet a feal upon him."

into the bot

HUME.

Then when I am thy captive talk of chains, Proud limitary Cherub! but ere then Far heavier load thyself expect to feel

971

From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's King Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers, Us'd to the yoke, draw'ft his triumphant wheels In progress through the road of Heaven ftarpav'd.

976

Ver. 971. Proud limitary Cherub !] Thou proud prescribing Angel, that prefumeft to limit me, and appoint my prifon, according to Mr. Hume. Or rather, limitary, fet to guard the bounds; a taunt infulting the good Angel as one employed in a little mean office, according to Mr. Richardfon. For limitary, as Dr. Heylin Remarks, is from limitaneus. Milites limitanei are foldiers in garrifon upon the frontiers. And, as Mr. Thyer adds, the word is intended as a fcornful fneer upon what Gabriel had juft faid,

"if from this hour

"Within these hallow'd limits thou appear." NEWTON.

Limitour in Chaucer means a friar restrained to the exercise of his function in certain limits. See Glofs. Urry's Chaucer, V. limitour. STILLINGFLEET.

Ver. 974. Ride on thy wings, &c.] This feems to allude to Ezekiel's vifion, where four cherubims are appointed to the four wheels: "And the Cherubims did lift up their wings, and the wheels befide them; and the glory of the Lord God of Ifrael was over them above." See chap. i and x. and xi. 22. NEWTON.

Or the allufion may be perhaps to that fublime paffage, Pfalm xviii. 10. “He rode upon a Cherub, and did fly." TODD.

Ver. 976. Heaven ftar-pav'd.] So, in Epigrammes &c. by J. Afhmore, 4to. 1621, p. 33. A speech made to the King &c. at Rippon:

High Jove, with all the gods together met,
"To fee, great King, thy coming to this town,
"The cafements large of heauen have open fet,

While thus he fpake, the angelick fquadron

bright

Turn'd fiery red, fharpening in mooned horns Their phalanx, and began to hem him round With ported spears, as thick as when a field 980 Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends

Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind Sways them; the careful plowman doubting ftands,

Left on the threshing floor his hopeless fheaves

"And from their ftar-pav'd floors have sent me down,

"Thee in their name to welcome, &c." TODD.

Ver. 977.

the angelick Squadron] This is a

frequent phrafe in Italian poetry. Thus in Poefie Del S. F. Tefti,

Milan 1658, p. 473.

"Efulti il mondo,

"E da gl' empirei regni

"Tutto a nozze sì degne

"De l'angeliche Squadre applauda il coro."

And in the Adamo of Andreini, Milan 1617, p. 3.

"O merauiglie noue, ò facro, ò fanto

"De l'angeliche Squadre eterno oggetto." TODD.

Ver. 980. With ported Spears,] With their fpears borne pointed towards him. A military term. HUME.

Ibid. as thick as when a field &c.] It is familiar with the poets to compare an army with their fpears and fwords to a field of standing corn, Homer has a fimile much of the fame nature comparing the motion of the army, after Agamemnon's fpeech, to the waving of the ears of corn, Iliad ii, 147.

NEWTON.

Virgil has compressed the fimile into a single metaphor, equally fignificative, Georg. ii. 142.

“Nec galeis densisque virûm seges horruit haftis.” TODD.

Prove chaff. On the other fide, Satan, alarm'd, Collecting all his might, dilated ftood,

Ver. 986.

986

dilated food,] Milton is indebted, I fancy, for this nervous expreffion to the following description of Taffo's Argantes addreffing himself to fight with Tancred, Gier. Lib. C. xix. ft. 12.

"Ma diftefo e eretto il fero Argante."

Diftefo in Italian, is exactly the same with dilated in English, and expreffes very strongly the attitude of an eager and undaunted combatant, where fury not only feems to erect and enlarge his ftature, but expands as it were his whole frame, and extends every limb. I do not remember to have ever before met with the word dilated applied in the fame manner in our language.

THYER.

If Milton had intended dilated in the fenfe fuppofed by Mr. Thyer, it would have been a condenfed but exactly fimilar description to what he has given of Death, in the preparation for the combat with Satan, where the grifly Terrour is actually fwelled and distended with rage and fury, Par. L. B. ii. 705.

"So fpake the grifly Terrour, and in shape,
"So fpeaking and fo threatening, grew tenfold
"More dreadful and deform:"

While

on the other fide,

"Incens'd with indignation, Satan stood

"Unterrified, and like a comet burn'd."

This is a fine description of two defperadoes, equally matched, from the violence of altercation rushing to furious combat; the refult of which feems doubtful. But how different is the fituation of Satan in this place! Satan is here fo far from being unterrified, that he is abfolutely alarm'd; and he only collects his might, and dilates himself, that is, makes the most of his perfonal bulk and ftature, to take the fineft poffible pofition, and beft to oppose the foes that encircle him. His object here is felf-defence. But it is a felf-defence worthy of the great Adversary of God and Man, one of the interefting features of whofe character,