Among daughters of men the fairest found; made the subject of debate among the wicked spirits themselves. All that can be said in commendation of the power of beauty, and all that can be alleged to depreciate it, is here summed up with greater force and elegance, than I ever remember to have seen it in any other author. And the character of Belial in the Paradise Lost, and the part that he sustains there, sufficiently shew how properly he is introduced upon the present occasion. He is said to be the fleshliest Incubus after Asmodai, or Asmadai as it is written Paradise Lost, vi. 365, or Asmodeus, iv. 168, the lustful angel, who loved Sarah the daughter of Raguel, and destroyed her seven husbands, as we read in the book of Tobit. 153. It should be remarked, that the language of Belial is exquisitely descriptive of the power of beauty, yet without a single word introduced, or even thought conveyed, that is unbecoming its place in this divine poem, Dunster. a 155. —passing fair] Our author had several times met with this phrase in his beloved Spenser and Shakespeare; and particularly 155 160 in Romeo's commendations of his mistress, act i. sc. 2. Show me a mistress, that is passing fair; What doth her beauty serve, but as a note, Where I may read who pass'd that passing fair? 159. virgin majesty with mild And sweet allay'd, yet terrible t' approach,] Possibly suggested by Claudian's Miscetur decori virtus, pulcher que severo Armatur terrore pudor. Con. Prob. et Ol. 91. And thus, Par. Lost, xi. 489. -divinely fair, fit love for Gods, Not terrible, though terror be in love And beauty. Dunster. 161. Skill'd to retire, and in retiring draw Hearts after them] In the same manner Milton in his description of Eve, Paradise Lost, viii. 504. Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retir'd, The more desirable. Hearts after them tangled in amorous nets. Milton seems to use the word amorous rather in the sense of the Italian amoroso, which is applied to any thing relating to Hearts after them tangled in amorous nets. the passion of love, than in its common English acceptation, in which it generally expresses something of the passion itself. Thyer. 162.-tangled in amorous nets.] Our author has the same image in his first Elegy, v. 60, and in the Par. Lost, xi. 585. Thus also Spenser, Sonnet 37. Shakespeare, Henry VIII. act iii. sc. 2. and Drummond, Sonnet 58. In the following verses, Such object hath the power to soften and tame, &c. it is probable that Milton had a stanza of his favourite Spenser in his mind, Faery Queen, b. v. c. viii. 1. Dunster. 164. smooth the rugged'st brow,] Thus in the Penseroso, 58. →Smoothing the rugged brow of night. And in the opening of Shakespeare's Richard III. Grim visag'd war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front. 165 166. Draw out with credulous desire,] This beautiful expression was formed partly upon the spes animi credula mutui of Horace. Od. iv. 1. 30. -fond hope of mutual fire, The still-believing, still-renew'd desire, as Mr. Pope paraphrases it. And as Mr. Thyer thinks, it is partly an allusion to Terence. Andria, iv. 1, 23. -Non tibi satis esse hoc visum soli dum est gaudium Nisi me lactasses amantem, et falsa spe produceres. 167. At will the manliest resolutest breast,] Thus Euripides, Hippol. 1282. Σε ταν θεων ακαμπτον φρενα 'Tis thine, O Venus, to controul 168. As the magnetic hardest iron draws.] Lucian hath this simile in his Imagines, vol. ii. p. 2. Ed. Græv. E di xaxum #goobλidu σε, τις εσται μηχανη αποσηναι αυτής; απάξει γαρ σε αναδησάμενη ενθα αν εθέλῃ, όπερ και ἡ λίθος ή ήρακλεια δρα τον σιδηρον. But if the fair one once look upon you, what is it that can get you from her? She will draw you after her at pleasure, bound hand and foot, just Women, when nothing else, beguil'd the heart Thou thyself doat'dst on womankind, admiring as the loadstone draws iron. We may observe that Milton, by restraining the comparison to the power of beauty over the wisest men and the most stoical tempers, hath given it a propriety, which is lost in a more general application. See a little poem of Claudian's on the Magnet. It is the fifth of his Idyllia. Calton. As the magnetic, it should be the magnet, or the magnetic stone: but Milton often converts the adjective, and uses it as the substantive. Mr. Thyer wishes some authority could be found to justify the omitting of this line, which in his opinion is very low and mean; and appears too the more so, as it immediately follows some of the finest and most masterly verses in the whole poem. The simile is in itself trite and common, and the conceit implied in the word hardest boyish to the last degree. This shews that all Milton's learning 170 175 180 and genius could not entirely preserve him from being infected with that fanciful sort of wit, which too much prevailed in the age in which he first formed his taste. 170. Of wisest Solomon, and made him build, &c.] See Par. Lost, i. 337, and the note there. E. 178. Before the flood &c.] It is to be lamented that our author has so often adopted the vulgar notion founded upon that mistaken text of Scripture, Gen. vi. 2. The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. See Paradise Lost, iii. 463. and v. 447. Yet he shews elsewhere that he understood the text rightly, of the sons of Seth, who were the worshippers of the true God, intermarrying with the daughters of wicked Cain. Paradise Lost, xi. 621. Have we not seen, or by relation heard, In courts and regal chambers how thou lurk'st, Or Amymone, Syrinx, many more Too long, then lay'st thy scapes on names ador'd, Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan, Satyr, or Faun, or Sylvan? But these haunts Delight not all; among the sons of men, 188. many more A concise way of speaking for many more too long to mention. The author had used it before, Paradise Lost, iii. 473. And indeed more would have been too long, and it would have been better, if he had not enumerated so many of the loves of the Gods. Calisto, Semele, Antiopa were mistresses to Jupiter; Climene, and Daphne to Apollo; Amymone to Neptune, and Syrinx to Pan. These things are known to every schoolboy, but add no dignity to a divine poem: and in my opinion are not the most pleasing subjects in painting any more than in poetry, though wrought by the hand of a Titian or a Julio Romano. But our author makes ample amends in what follows. 188. I must confess my surprise at Bp. Newton's censure of this passage. It appears to me not only in the highest degree justifiable, but absolutely as one of the loci laudandi. Milton here admirably avails him 185 190 self of the fabulous amours of the heathen deities. He transfers them to the fallen angels, and, by the judicious application of these disgraceful tales, gives them a propriety which they never before possessed. He furnishes even "the schoolboy" with a moral to the fable which he has been reading. Dunster. 189. -scapes] Loose acts of vice or lewdness. Johnson's Dict. 190. Apollo, Neptune, &c.] Both here and elsewhere Milton considers the gods of the Heathens as Demons, or Devils. Παντες οἱ θεοι των εθνών δαιμονια. Psalm xcv. 5. And the notion of the Demons having commerce with women in the shape of the heathen Gods is very ancient, and is expressly asserted by Justin Martyr, from whom probably our author borrowed it. ειρήσεται γαρ τ' αληθες" επει το παι λαιον δαιμονες φαυλοι επιφανείας ποιησαμένοι, και γυναίκας εμοίχευσαν, κ. τ. λ. αλλ', ὡς προεφημεν, οἱ δαι μovis Tavтa sдgažav. Apol. i. p. 10. et 33. Edit. Thirlbii. How many have with a smile made small account Of beauty and her lures, easily scorn'd All her assaults, on worthier things intent? Remember that Pellean conqueror, 195 A youth, how all the beauties of the east Of honour, wealth, high fare, aim'd not beyond Thence to the bait of women lay expos'd: But he whom we attempt is wiser far 196. Remember that Pellean conqueror, &c.] Alexander the Great, who was born at Pella in Macedonia: and his continence and clemency to Darius's queen, and daughters, and the other Persian ladies whom he took captive after the battle at Issus, are commended by the historians. Tum quidem ita se gessit, ut omnes ante eum reges et continentia et clementia vincerentur. Virgines enim regias excellentis formæ tam sancte habuit, quam si eodem quo ipse parente genitæ forent: conjugem ejusdem, quam nulla ætatis suæ pulchritudine corporis vicit, adeo ipse non violavit, ut summam adhibuerit curam, ne quis captivo corpori 200 205 210 illuderet &c. Quint. Curt. lib. iii. cap. 9. And this is the more extraordinary, as he was then a young conqueror of about twenty-three years of age, a youth, as Milton expresses it. 199. How he surnam'd of Africa &c.] The continence of Scipio Africanus at the age of twentyfour, and his generosity in restoring a handsome Spanish lady to her husband and friends, are celebrated by Polybius, lib. x. and after him by Livy, lib. xxvi. cap. 50. and Valerius Maximus lib. iv. cap. 3. and various other authors. 210. On whom his leisure will |