That by strong hand his family obtain❜d,

Though priests, the crown, and David's throne usurp'd,
With Modin and her suburbs once content.

If kingdom move thee not, let move thee zeal
And duty: zeal and duty are not slow;
But on occasion's forelock watchful wait.
They themselves rather are occasion best,
Zeal of thy father's house, duty to free

171. If kingdom move thee not,] Mr. Dunster says, that "kingdom here, like regnum in Latin, signifies kingly state, the circumstances of regal power; or as our author in his political works writes, kingship;" and this interpretation is a very probable one. Yet it may not be thought unlikely, that if Milton had intended this sense, he would have used the same word that he adopts in his prose works; and it will be quite in accordance with his usual style in this poem to understand the article before kingdom." If a kingdom move "If thee not, &c." See the note on b. i. 137; see also Mr. Dunster's note on the Par. Lost, ii. 443, where there is a similar Latinism to that in the latter part of this verse, let move thee zeal. E.

173. But on occasion's forelock watchful wail.] So Spenser personifies Occasion, Faery Queen, b. ii. c. iv. st. 4. And in st. 12. Sir Guion,

170

175

Thy country from her heathen servitude;

So shalt thou best fulfil, best verify

The prophets old, who sung thy endless reign;
The happier reign the sooner it begins;

Reign then; what canst thou better do the while? 180

To whom our Saviour answer thus return'd.

All things are best fulfill'd in their due time,
And time there is for all things, Truth hath said:
If of my reign prophetic writ hath told,
That it shall never end, so when begin.

185

The Father in his purpose hath decreed,

He in whose hand all times and seasons roll.

What if he hath decreed that I shall first

Be tried in humble state, and things adverse,

By tribulations, injuries, insults,

Contempts, and scorns, and snares, and violence,
Suffering, abstaining, quietly expecting,

Psalm lxix. 9. For the zeal of thine
house hath eaten me up-applied
in St. John ii. 17. to the zeal
shewn by our Lord for the ho-
nour of his Father's house, when
he drove the buyers and sellers
out of the temple. Dunster.

183. And time there is for all things, Truth hath said:] Eccles. iii. 1. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

187. He in whose hand all times and seasons roll.] Alluding to Acts i. 7. It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power, 187.-times and seasons roll.] Thus Virgil, Æn. iii. 366.

-sic fata Deum rex Sortitur, volvitque vices.

190

And Claudian, In Prob. et Olyb.
Cons.

Sol, qui flammigeris mundum com-
plexus habenis

Volvis inexhausto redeuntia sæcula motu, &c.

Below, with ver. 189, Be tried in humble state, and things adverse, compare Sil. Ital. iv. 605.

Explorant adversa viros.

And the following lines, Suffering, abstaining, &c. ver. 192196, may be compared with Par. Lost, xii. 561-573. Dunster.

195. -best reign, who first Well hath obey'd;}

Here probably the author remembered Cicero, De Legib. iii. 2. Qui bene imperat, paruerit aliquando necesse est; et qui

K

Without distrust or doubt, that he may know
What I can suffer, how obey? who best
Can suffer, best can do; best reign, who first
Well hath obey'd; just trial ere I merit
My exaltation without change or end.
But what concerns it thee when I begin
My everlasting kingdom, why art thou
Solicitous, what moves thy inquisition?
Know'st thou not that my rising is thy fall,
And my promotion will be thy destruction?

To whom the Tempter inly rack'd replied.
Let that come when it comes; all hope is lost
Of my reception into grace; what worse?
For where no hope is left, is left no fear:
If there be worse, the expectation more
Of worse torments me than the feeling can.
I would be at the worst; worst is my port,
My harbour, and my ultimate repose,
The end I would attain, my final good.
My error was my error, and my crime
My crime; whatever for itself condemn'd,

modeste paret, videtur, qui ali-
quando imperet, dignus esse.
The same sentiment occurs in
Aristotle, Polit. iii. 4. vii. 14. and
in Plato, De Legg. vi. as Ursinus
and Davies have noted.

206. For where no hope is left, is left no fear: &c.] Milton in this and the five following verses plainly alludes to these lines in that fine soliloquy of Satan's in the beginning of the fourth book of Paradise Lost, ver. 108.

So farewell hope, and with hope fare

well fear,

195

200

205

210

Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost;

Evil be thou my good.

212.

Thyer.

-and my crime My crime; whatever for itself

condemn'd,] This is the pointing in Milton's own edition, and I conceive the expression to be elliptical, and this to be the meaning, My error was my error, and my crime my crime; whatever it be, it is for itself condemned, and will alike be punished, &c.

And will alike be punish'd, whether thou
Reign or reign not; though to that gentle brow
Willingly I could fly, and hope thy reign,
From that placid aspéct and meek regard,
Rather than aggravate my evil state,

Would stand between me and thy Father's ire
(Whose ire I dread more than the fire of hell)
A shelter and a kind of shading cool
Interposition, as a summer's cloud.

If I then to the worst that can be haste,
Why move thy feet so slow to what is best,
Happiest both to thyself and all the world,

215

220

225

That thou who worthiest art should'st be their king?
Perhaps thou linger'st in deep thoughts detain'd
Of th' enterprise so hazardous and high;
No wonder, for though in thee be united
What of perfection can in man be found,
Or human nature can receive, consider

217. From that placid aspéct] Spenser, Shakespeare, and the poets of that time, I believe, uniformly wrote aspéct thus accented on the second syllable. So also Milton in the Par. Lost, iii. 266, where he gives an exquisite description of the same Divine Person, and not unlike that before us;

His words here ended, but his meek aspéct

Silent yet spake, and breath'd immortal love

To mortal man.

Compare Vida, Christiad, v. 680, who makes Mary, at the foot of the cross particularly refer to our Lord's placid or meek aspect;

230

Heu! quem te, nate, aspicio? Tuane illa serena

Luce magis facies aspectu grata? The following expression, would stand between me and thy Father's ire, we find in one of Milton's earliest poems, On the death of a fair infant, st. 10.

To stand 'twixt us and our deserved
smart.
Dunster.

221. A shelter and a kind of
shading cool
Interposition, as a summer's
cloud.]

Thus Isaiah, (xxv. 4.) addressing
Jehovah, terms him a strength to
the needy in his distress, a refuge
from the storm, a shadow from
the heat. Dunster.

Thy life hath yet been private, most part spent
At home, scarce view'd the Galilean towns,
And once a year Jerusalem, few days

234

Short sojourn; and what thence could'st thou observe?
The world thou hast not seen, much less her glory,
Empires, and monarchs, and their radiant courts,
Best school of best experience, quickest insight
In all things that to greatest actions lead.
The wisest, unexperienc'd, will be ever
Timorous and loath, with novice modesty,
(As he who seeking asses found a kingdom,)
Irresolute, unhardy, unadvent'rous:

But I will bring thee where thou soon shalt quit
Those rudiments, and see before thine eyes
The monarchies of th' earth, their pomp and state,
Sufficient introduction to inform

Thee, of thyself so apt, in regal arts,

240

245

and prefer the emendation which Mr. Theobald, Mr. Meadowcourt, and Mr. Thyer have, unknown to each other, proposed,

quickest insight &c. and it was easy for Milton's amanuensis (his wife most probably) or his printer to mistake the one for the other. Those are the best and most probable emendations, which consist in such small alterations. When other words are substituted, we ought to have some better authority than conjecture.

242. As he who seeking asses found a kingdom] Saul, who seeking his father's lost asses, came to Samuel, and by him was anointed king, 1 Sam. ix.