Lefs overweening, fince he fail'd in Job,
Whose constant perfeverance overcame
Whate'er his cruel malice could invent.
He now fhall know I can produce a Man,
Of female feed, far abler to resist
All his folicitations, and at length

150

155

All his vaft force, and drive him back to Hell;
Winning, by conquest, what the first Man lost,
By fallacy furpris'd. But first I mean
To exercise him in the wilderness ;
There he shall first lay down the rudiments
Of his great warfare, ere I fend him forth

"I, when no other durft, fole undertook &c."

Ver. 145.

THYER.

the throng

Of his apoftafy:] Thus, Par. Loft, B. ix. 142; -" and thinner left the throng

"Of his adorers”

Of his apoftafy: i. e. of his apoftates. In the twelfth Book of the Paradife Loft, there is the fame figure of speech, where the Angel defcribes Abraham paffing over the Euphrates, followed

"Of flocks and herds, and numerous fervitude."

Ver. 157.

DUNSTER,

the rudiments

Of his great warfare,] Virg. Æn. xi. 156.
"Primitiæ juvenis miferæ, bellique propinqui
"Dura rudimenta”-

And Statius, Sylv. v. ii. 3.

"Quod fi militiæ jam te, puer inclyte, prima
"Clara rudimenta, et caftrorum dulce vocaret
"Aufpicium".
DUNSTER.

160

To conquer
Sin and Death, the two grand foes,
By humiliation and strong sufferance:
His weakness fhall o'ercome Satanick strength,
And all the world, and mass of finful flesh,
That all the Angels and ethereal Powers,
They now, and Men hereafter, may difcern,
From what confummate virtue I have chofe
This perfect Man, by merit call'd my Son,
To earn falvation for the fons of men.

165

Ver. 161. His weakness shall o'ercome Satanick ftrength,] Thus in the firft Epiftle to the Corinthians, c. i. ver. 27. " And God hath chofen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty."

But the proper reference here is more probably to the fecond verfe of the eighth Pfalm. "Out of the mouth of babes and fucklings haft thou ordained ftrength, because of thine enemies; and that thou mighteft ftill the enemy and the avenger." This Pfalm is confidered by commentators as a faλμès imivínos: Bp. Patrick fuppofes it to have been compofed by David after his victory over Goliah," which," he adds, "was a lively emblem of Chrift's conqueft over our great enemy.' This latter is clearly the prophetick fenfe of the verfe just cited; which is accordingly referred to as fuch by our Lord himself, Matt. xxi. 16.

We may compare Par. Loft, B. xii. 567. DUNSTER. Ver. 162. And all the world,] "I have overcome the world." John xvi. 33. DUNSter.

Ver. 163. That all the Angels and ethereal Powers,

They now, and Men hereafter, may discern,
From what confummate virtue I have chofe
This perfect Man, by merit call'd my Son,
To earn falvation for the fons of men.]

Not a

word is faid here of the Son of God, but what a Socinian would allow. His divine nature is artfully concealed under a partial and ambiguous reprefentation: and the Angels are first to learn

So fpake the Eternal Father, and all Heaven Admiring stood a space, then into hymns Burst forth, and in celeftial measures mov'd, 170

the mystery of the Incarnation from that important conflict, which is the subject of this poem. They are feemingly invited to behold the triumphs of the Man Chrift Jefus over the enemy of mankind; and these surprise them with the glorious discovery of the God,

"enfhrin'd

"In fleshly tabernacle and human form."

The Father, fpeaking to his eternal Word, Par. Loft, B. iii. 308, on his generous undertakings for mankind, faith,

." and haft been found

"" By merit more than birthright Son of God."

CALTON.

Ver. 168. So spake the Eternal Father, and all Heaven

Satan is the speaker
Satan expresses his

Admiring food a space,] We cannot but take notice of the great art of the poet, in setting forth the dignity and importance of his fubject. He reprefents all beings as interested one way or other in the event. A council of Devils is fummoned; an affembly of Angels is held. in the one; the Almighty in the other. diffidence, but ftill refolves to make trial of this Son of God; the Father declares his purpofe of proving and illuftrating his Son. The infernal crew are distracted and surprised with deep difmay; all Heaven ftands awhile in admiration. The fiends are filent through fear and grief; the Angels burst forth into finging with joy and the affured hopes of fuccefs. And their attention is thus engaged, the better to engage the attention of the reader. NEWTON.

Ver. 169.

then into hymns

Burft forth, and in celeftial measures mov'd, Circling the throne and finging,] Milton, we may fuppofe, had here in his mind the ancient chorus. In his original plan of the Paradife Loft, under a dramatick form, he propofed to introduce a chorus of Angels. The drama feems to have

Circling the throne and finging, while the hand Sung with the voice, and this the argument.

been his favourite fpecies of poetry, and that which particularly caught and occupied his imagination: fo at least we may judge from the numerous plans of tragedies which he left behind him. Indeed he has frequent allufions to dramatick compofitions in all his works. DUNSTER.

Milton perhaps, at this time, had in mind Dante's reprefentation of the Angels formed into choirs, and finging praises to the Eternal Father, in his Paradifo, c. xxviii.

Ver. 171.

while the hand

Sung with the voice,] We have nearly the fame

phrafe in Tibullus, iii. iv. 41;

"Sed poftquam fuerant digiti cum voce locuti,

"Edidit hæc dulci triftia verba modo."

The word hand is used again in this poem, B. iv. 254. to distinguish instrumental harmony from vocal;

"There thou fhalt hear and learn the fecret power

"Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit

"By voice or hand."

Alfo in the Arcades, v. 77;

"If my inferiour hand or voice could hit
"Inimitable founds." CALTON.

So, in Lucretius, iv. 588.

"Chordarúmque fonos fieri, dulcéfque querelas,
"Tibia quas fundit digitis pulfata canentum :”-

Cano fignifies not only to fing, but alfo to perform on any infrument. Thus Afconius Pædianus, in Verrem; "Cum canunt cithariftæ, utriufque manus funguntur officio: dextra plectro utitur, et hoc eft foris canere; finiftra digitis chordas carpit, et hoc eft intus canere." DUNSTER.

This expreffion occurs in the beautiful verfion of the cxxxviith Pfalm, which I notice in the Account of Lawes. See the preliminary illuftrations of Comus.

Victory and triumph to the Son of God,
Now entering his great duel, not of arms,

"Nor may we our hymns prophane;
"Or tune either voice or hand,

"To delight a favage band."

So, in Carew's elegant Maik, Coelum Britannicum, 1634.

"Harmony, that not refides

"In ftrings or notes, but in the band and voice.”

Ver. 174. Now entering his great duel,] If it be not a contradiction, it is at least inaccurate in Milton, to make an Angel fay in Par. Loft, B. xii. 386. "Dream not of their fight as of a duel”—and afterwards to make the Angels express it here in the metaphor of a duel. NEWTON.

There is, I think, a meannefs in the customary sense of the word duel, that makes it unworthy of these speakers, and of this occafion. The Italian duello, if I am not mistaken, bears a ftronger sense, and this I suppose Milton had in view. THYER.

Milton might rather be fuppofed to look to the Latin; where duellum is equivalent to bellum. See Hor, I Epift. ii, 6. and Ode IV. xiv. 18.

But duel here is used by our author in its most common acceptation of fingle combat; and now entering his great duel means "" now entering the lifts to prove, in perfonal combat with his avowed antagonist and appellant, the reality of his own divinity." See note on ver. 130, of this Book.

In the opening of this poem we may notice allufions to the duel or trial by combat ;

"the tempter foil'd,

"In all his wiles defeated and repuls'd.”

And in the Invocation,

"Thou Spirit, who ledft this glorious eremite

"Into the defart, his victorious field,

"Against the fpiritual foe, and brought'ft him thence

"By proof the undoubted Son of God"