Nor can any one want an interpretation for Nimrod, on whose character he dwells fo long. "Till one fhall rife "Of proud ambitious heart, who (not content "With fair equality, fraternal state) "Will arrogate dominion undeferv'd "Over his brethren, and quite difpoffefs "Concord, and law of nature from the earth : Hunting, (and men, not beafts fhall be his "With war and hoftile fnare, such as refuse "Subjection to his empire tyrannous. "A mighty hunter thence he shall be stil'd "Before the Lord, as in defpite of heav'n "Or of heav'n claiming second fov'reignty: "And from rebellion fhall derive his name, "Tho' of rebellion others be accufe.” Could the character of Charles the second, with his rabble rout of riotous courtiers, or the cavalier spirit and party just after the restoration be mark'd stronger and plainer, than in the beginning of the feventh book? "But drive far off the barbarous diffonance “Of Bacchus and his revellers, &c. It needs not be told what nation he points at in the twelfth book. "Yet "Yet fometimes nations will decline fo low "From virtue (which is reason) that no wrong, *But juftice, and fome fatal curse annex'd, Deprives them of their outward liberty, "Their inward loft." Again, how plain are the civil wars imagined in the fixth book? The Michaels and Gabriels, &c. would have lengthen'd out the battles endless, nor would any folution been found; had not Cromwell, putting on celeftial armour, ΤΗΝ ΠΑΝΟΠΛΙΑΝ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ, (for this was + Milton's opinion) like the Meffiah all armed in heavenly panoply, and ascending his fiery chariot, 4 Milton points out this allegory himself, in his defence of Smectym. p. 180. fol. edit. "Then (that I may have "leave to foare awhile as the poets ufe) then ZEAL, "whose substance is ethereal, arming in compleat diamond, ❝ ascends his fiery chariot drawn with two blazing meteors, figured like beafts, but of a higher breed, than any the "zodiack yields, resembling two of those four which "Ezechiel and St. John faw, the one vifaged like a lion, to "express a power, high autority and indignation; the "other of count'nance like a man, to caft derifion and scorn 66 upon perverfe and fraudulent feducers: with these the "invincible warriour ZEAL fhaking loosely the flack reins "drives over the heads of scarlet prelats and fuch as are "infolent to maintain traditions, brufing their ftiff necks "under his flaming wheels." I have often thought that chariot, driven over the malignant heads of those who would maintain tyrannic sway. Let us confider his tragedy in this allegorical view. Sampfon imprison'd and blind, and the captive state of Ifreal, lively represents our blind poet with the republican party after the restoration, afflicted and perfecuted. But these revelling idolaters will foon pull an old house on their heads; and God will send his people a deliverer. How would it have rejoiced the heart of the Milton plan'd his poem long before he was blind, and had written many paffages. There is now extant the first book written in his own hand. He let the world know he was about an epic poem; but defignedly kept the subject a secret. In his effay on church government, p. 222. fol. edit. speaking of epic poems, "If to the instinct of nature and the imboldning of art ought may be trufted, and that there "be nothing advers in our climat or the fate of this age, it haply would be no rashness from an equal diligence and inclination, to prefent the like offer,in our ancient ftories." How near is this to what he writes? IX, 44. Unless an age too late, or cold Climate, or years, damp my intended wing 'Tis easy to fhew from other places in his profe works many the like allufions to his epic poem; which in his blindness and retreat from the noifie world, he compleated and brought to a perfection perhaps equal with Homer's or Virgil's. blind feer, had he lived to have feen, with his mind's eye, the accomplishment of his prophetic predictions? when a deliverer came and rescued us from the Philiftine oppreffors. And had he known the fobriety, the toleration and decency of the church, with a Tillotfon at it's head, our laws, our liberties, and our conftitution ascertain'd; and had confidered too the wildness of fanaticism and enthusiasm ; doubtless he would never have been an enemy to fuch a church, and such a king. However these myftical and allegorical reveries have more amusement in them, than folid truth; and favour but little of cool criticism, where the head is required to be free from fumes and vapours, and rather sceptical than dogmatical. 5 Veri fpeciem dignofcere calles, Ne qua fubaerato mendofum tinniat auro? THE 5 Perfius. V, 105. SECT. III. HE editors of Shakespeare are not without many inftances of this over-refining humour upon very plain paffages. In the comedy of Errors, Act III. (the plot of which Book II. play is taken from the Menaechmi of Plautus) Dromio of Syracufe is giving his mafter a ludicrous description of an ugly woman, that laid claim to him as his wife. "S. Dro. I could find out countries in her. "S. Ant. In what part of her body stands << Ireland? "S. Dro. Marry, Sir, in her buttocks; I "found it out by the bogs. "S. Ant. Where Scotland? "S. Dro. I found it out by the barrenness, "hard in the palm of her hand. "S. Ant. Where France ? “S. Dro. In her forehead ; arm'd and reverted, "making war against her bair. 1 2 Shakespeare had the hint from * Rabelais, where friar John is humourously mapping, as it were, Panurge: "Behold there Afia, here are Tygris and "Euphrates; lo here Afric-on this fide lieth "Europe. But our poet improves every hint, and with comic fatyre ridicules the countries, as he goes The editors would have it, making war against her heir: i. e. making war against Henry IV. of Navarre ; whom the French refifted, on account of his being a protestant. 2 Rabelais B. III. chap. 28. along; |