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Sung with the voice, and this the argument.
Victory' and triumph to the Son of God
Now ent'ring his great duel, not of arms,
But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles.
The Father knows the Son; therefore secure

Nativity, st. ix. and Lucretius,
iv. 588. Dunster.

174. Now ent'ring his great duel,] There is, I think, a meanness in the customary sense of this term that makes it unworthy of these speakers and this occasion; and yet it is observable, that Milton in his Paradise Lost makes Michael use the very same word where he is speaking to Adam of the same thing, xii. 386.

To whom thus Michael. Dream not of their fight,

As of a duel, &c.

The Italian duello, if I am not mistaken, bears a stronger sense, and this, 1 suppose, Milton had in view. Thyer.

If it be not a contradiction, it is inaccurate at least in Milton, to make an angel say in one place, Dream not of their fight as of a duel; and afterwards to make the angels express it by the metaphor of a duel, Now ent'ring his great duel.

174. The Paradise Regained however exhibits the temptation of our blessed Saviour in the light of a duel, or personal contest between him and the archenemy of mankind; in which our Lord by his divine patience, fortitude, and resignation to the will of his heavenly Father, vanquishes the wiles of the devil. He thereby attests his own superiority over his anta

175

gonist, and his ability to restore the lost happiness of mankind, by regaining Paradise for them, and by rescuing and redeeming them from that power, which had led them captive.

In the opening of the poem we may notice allusions to the duel, or trial by combat;

-the tempter foiled

In all his wiles defeated and repuls’d. And in the Invocation,

Thou Spirit, who ledd'st this glorious eremite

Into the desert, his victorious field, Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st him thence

By proof th' undoubted Son of God. And ver. 130.

Gabriel, this day by proof thou shalt

behold.

Fleta defines the duel, or trial by combat, "singularis pugna inter duos ad probandam veritatem litis, et qui vicit probasse intelligitur. Dunster.

175. But to vanquish by wisdom] He lays the accent on the last syllable in vanquish, as elsewhere in triumph; and in many places, in my opinion, he imitates the Latin and Greek prosody, and makes a vowel long before two consonants. Jorlin.

175. by wisdom] This is wisdom in its frequent scriptural sense of true piety. Dunster.

176. The Father knows the Son;
therefore secure
Ventures his filial virtue, though
untried,]

Ventures his filial virtue, though untried,

Against whate'er may tempt, whate'er seduce,
Allure, or terrify, or undermine.

Be frustrate all ye stratagems of hell,

And devilish machinations come to nought.

So they in heav'n their odes and vigils tun'd:
Mean while the Son of God, who yet some days
Lodg'd in Bethabara where John baptiz'd,
Musing and much revolving in his breast,
How best the mighty work he might begin
Of Saviour to mankind, and which way first
Publish his God-like office now mature,
One day forth walk'd alone, the Spirit leading,

Could this have been said by
the angels, if they also had
known this Son to be the eternal
Word, who created all things;
and who had before driven this
Tempter and all his powers out
of heaven? The incarnation was
generally believed by the Fathers
to have been a secret to angels,
till they learned it from the
Church. See Huetii Origeniana.
Lib. ii. cap. 2. quæst. 5. 18. As
to the time and means of their
information, Milton seems to be
particular. Calton.

182. their odes and vigils tun'd:] This is a very uncommon expression, and not easy to be understood, unless we suppose that by vigils the poet meant those songs which they sung while they kept their watches. Singing of hymns is their manner of keeping their wakes in heaven. And I see no reason why their evening service may not be called vigils, as the morning service is called mattins.

180

185

182. The evening service in the Roman Catholic churches is called vespers. There was formerly a nocturnal service called vigils or nocturns, which was chanted and accompanied by music. Ducange explains vigilia" ipsum officium nocturnum quod in vigiliis nocturnis olim decantabatur." The old writers often speak of the vigiliarum cantica. Dunster.

183. who yet some days Lodg'd in Bethabara where John baptiz'd,] The poet, I presume, said this upon the authority of the first chapter of St. John's Gospel, where several particulars, which happened several days together, are related concerning the Son of God, and it is said ver. 28. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

189. One day forth walk'd alone, the Spirit leading, And his deep thoughts,]

And his deep thoughts, the better to converse
With solitude, till far from track of men,

190

Thought following thought, and step by step led on, He enter'd now the bord'ring desert wild,

This is wrong pointed in all the Lake, or Dead Sea. The differeditions thus,

One day forth walk'd alone, the
Spirit leading;
And his deep thoughts, &c.

ent parts of it had different names from the neighbouring cities or mountains; thus 1 Sam. xxiii. 14. it is called the wilderness

of Ziph, and xxiv. 1. the wilderness of Engaddi. The word

rendered in our version of מדבר

But at most there should be only a comma after leading, for the construction is, his deep thoughts leading as well as the Spirit. And as Mr. Thyer observes, what a fine light does Milton here place that text of Scripture in, where it is said, that Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, and how excellently adapted to embellish his poem! He adheres strictly to the inspired historian, and yet without any sort of profanation gives it a turn which is vastly poetical. 190. the better to converse With solitude,]

Comus, 375.

-wisdom's self

Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude.

Dunster.

193. He enter'd now the bor

dering desert wild, And with dark shades and rocks

environ'd round,] The wilderness, in which John preached the Gospel, and where Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, went out to him, and were baptized in Jordan, was according to St. Matt. iii. 1. the wilderness of Judea; which extended from the river Jordan all along the western side of the Asphaltic

does not mean a country absoScripture wilderness or desert lutely barren or uninhabited, but only uncultivated. In Joshua

wilderness. Of these Engaddi xv. we read of six cities in the stood nearest to the river Jordan, and the northern end of the Dead Sea. And we may suppose the desert where Milton now places our Lord to be that part of the wilderness of Judea in the neighbourhood of Engaddi. The wildernesses, or uncultivated parts of Judea, appear chiefly to have been forests and woods. (See Reland's Palæstina, 1. i. c. 56.) About Engaddi also there were many mountains and rocks. (See 1 Sam. xxiii. 29. xxiv. 2.) Milton's description accordingly is extremely accurate. It should be observed that Bethabara was not, where D'Anville places it, on the eastern bank of Jordan almost opposite Enon; but, in all probability, at the southern end of the river Jordan, on the western bank; and within a little distance of this "bordering desert," being only a very few miles from the Dead Sea. Dunster.

And with dark shades and rocks environ'd round,
His holy meditations thus pursu❜d.

O what a multitude of thoughts at once
Awaken'd in me swarm, while I consider
What from within I feel myself, and hear
What from without comes often to my ears,
Ill sorting with my present state compar'd!
When I was yet a child, no childish play
To me was pleasing; all my mind was set
Serious to learn and know, and thence to do
What might be public good; myself I thought

195.-meditations] This is the reading in Milton's own edition; in all the rest that I have seen it is meditation.

201. When I was yet a child,

no childish play To me was pleasing ;] How finely and consistently does Milton here imagine the youthful meditations of our Saviour! how different from and superior to that superstitious trumpery which one meets with in the Evangelium Infantia, and other such apocryphal trash? Vid. Fabricii Cod. Apoc. N. Test. Thyer.

He seems to allude to Callimachus, who says elegantly of young Jupiter, Hymn. in Jov. 56. Οξυ δ' αναβησας, ταχινοι δε τοι ήλθον

ιουλοι.

Αλλ' ετι παιδνος των έφρασσας παντα

τέλεια.

Swift was thy growth, and early was thy bloom,

But earlier wisdom crown'd thy infant days.

Jortin. Henry Stephens's translation of the latter verse is very much to our purpose,

195

200

Verum ætate, puer, digna es meditatus adulta:

or rather his more paraphrastical translation,

Verum ætate puer, puerili haud more

solebas

Ludere; sed jam tum tibi seria
cuncta placebant,
Digna ætate animus jam tum volve-

bat adulta.

And Pindar in like manner praises Demophilus. Pyth. Od.

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de Boudais #geobus. Our author
might allude to these passages,
but he certainly alluded to the
words of the Apostle, 1 Cor. xiii.
11. only inverting the thought.
When I was a child, I spake as a
child, &c.

204. myself I thought
Born to that end, born to pro-

mote all truth,]
Alluding to our Saviour's words,
John xviii. 37. To this end was 1
born, and for this cause came I
into the world, that I should bear
witness unto the truth.

Born to that end, born to promote all truth,
All righteous things: therefore above my years,
The law of God I read, and found it sweet,
Made it my whole delight, and in it grew
To such perfection, that ere yet my age
Had measur'd twice six years, at our great feast
I went into the temple, there to hear

The teachers of our law, and to propose

What might improve my knowledge or their own;
And was admir'd by all: yet this not all

206.-therefore above my years, The law of God I read] This resembles Virgil's

Ante annos animumque gerens curamque virilem. En. ix. 311.

205

210

Succumbitque oneri, et mentem sua

non capit atas. 5. Sylv. ii. 12. It is seldom we can trace Milton to the Christiad. There is however some resemblance here to

And thus Spenser, Faery Queen, Vida's description of Jesus at

b. ii. c. ii. 15.

-gravity Above the reason of her youthful years. Dunster.

207. The law of God I read,

and found it sweet, Made it my whole delight,] How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Ps. cxix. 103. And his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Ps. i. 2. Dunster.

209. —that ere yet my age Had measur'd twice six years, at our great feast I went into the temple, &c.] The following verses of Statius bear some resemblance not only to this passage, but also to some of the preceding lines.

-octonos bis jam tibi circuit annos Vita; sed augustis animus robustior

annis,

this early age, when at Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover, going into the temple, and sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions.

Ecce sacerdotum in medio conspexi. mus illum,

(Prima rudimenta, et virtutis signa futuræ,)

Alta recensentem ratum monumenta,

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