He marches now in haste: see, though from far, They issue forth, steel bows and shafts their arms," All horsemen, in which fight they most excel : 305 b 310 In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings. с In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong, f e And Margiana to the Hyrcanian cliffs y To her aid He marches now in haste. 315 In the "Charon" of Lucian, Mercury, in a similar manner, shows, and describes to Charon, Cyrus marching on his expedition against Croesus.-DUNSTER. z Steel bows and shafts their arms. Catullus terms the Parthians "sagittiferosque Parthos," Ep. xi. and Dionysius distinguished them as "warlike, and armed with bows," Perieg. v. 1040.-DUNSTER. a Of equal dread in flight or in pursuit ; All horsemen, in which fight they most excel. Lucan notices the skill of the Parthians in discharging their arrows at their pursuers, while they fled from them, lib. i. 229, "missa Parthi post terga sagitta." Ovid refers to the same circumstance, "De Art. Amand.," i. 209, &c.; and Virgil speaks of "Fidentemque fuga Parthum," Georg. iii. 39.-DUNSTER. b What numbers numberless. A manner of expression, though much censured in our author, very familiar with the Greek poets. Thus Lucretius, iii. 799, and x. 1053, "Innumero numero." And see Tasso, "Gier. Lib." c. xix. 121. So, in Virgil, "Æn.” xii. 121. c The city gates outpour'd. Procedit legio Ausonidum, pilataque plenis d In coats of mail and military pride; Plutarch, in his account of the defeat of Crassus, says that the Parthians, on a sudden throwing off the covering of their armour, seemed all on fire from the glittering brightness of their helmets and breastplates, which were made of Margian steel; and from the brass and iron trappings of their horses. e In many provinces from bound to bound. He had before mentioned the principal cities of the Parthians, and he now recounts several of their provinces. Arachosia, near the river Indus, Strabo, 1. xi. p. 516. Candaor, not Gandaor, as in some editions: I suppose the Candari, a people of India, mentioned by Pliny, l. vi. sect. 18. These were provinces to the east; and to the north Margiana and Hyrcania, Strabo, l. ii. p. 72; and Mount Caucasus, and Iberia, which is called "dark," as the country abounded with forests. See Tacitus, Annal. vi. 34. f The Hyrcanian cliffs Of Caucasus, and dark Iberian dales. Shirvan and Daghestan, or "the country of rocks," are those provinces which Milton calls "the Hyrcanian cliffs of Caucasus," &c.-SIR W. JONES. Of Adiabene, Media, and the south Of Susiana, to Balsara's haven.§ 320 He saw them in their forms of battle ranged, How quick they wheel'd, and flying behind them shot From Atropatia and the neighbouring plains Of Susiana, to Balsara's haven. 321 330 This description of the Parthian provinces moves nearly in a circle. It begins with Arachosia east; then advances northward to Margiana; and from thence, turning westward, proceeds to Hyrcania, Iberia, and the Atropatian or northern division of Media: here it turns again southward, and carries us to Adiabene, or the western part of Babylonia, which, as Dr. Newton observes, Strabo (1. xvi. p. 745) describes as a plain country then, passing through part of Media, it concludes with Susiana, which extended southward to the Persian Gulf, called "Balsara's haven," from the port of Balsera, Bassorah, or Bussora.-DUNSTER. To the west of Pars is the province of Khuzistan, which the Greeks called Susiana; it has no mountain in it, but consists wholly of large plains: it has part of Persian Irák to the north, the gulf to the south; and it extends westward as far as the plains of Wasset and the port of Basra; whence Milton says "the south of Susiana to Balsara's haven." But he makes a considerable mistake, in putting into the mouth of the tempter the name of a city which was not built till six hundred years after the temptation.-SIR W. JONES. h Sharp sleet of arrowy showers. Mr. Richardson observes that this is not unlike Virgil's fundunt simul undique tela Gray has imitated this: Iron sleet of arrowy shower. i The field all iron cast a gleaming brown. Dr. Newton observes that this line greatly exceeds Fairfax's "Tasso," c. i. st. 64. Embattailed in walls of iron brown; and even a very fine passage in Virgil, which has certainly much resemblance to the "field all iron," En. xi. 601, tum late ferreus hastis Horret ager, campique armis sublimibus ardent. But I have met with a passage more immediately parallel in Euripides, who literally describes his field "all brass," in the "Phoenissæ," ver. 298.-DUNSTER. i Clouds of foot. Mr. Dunster observes, that by horsemen Milton meant only skilled in the management of a horse, as every Parthian was; and by no means that they never engaged except on horseback: and by chivalry he means, as I have already remarked, the army in general, like the Italian cavalleria. See "Par. Lost," b. i. 307.-TODD. k Cuirassiers all in steel for standing fight. Sallust, "Fragment." 1. iv. speaks of "equites cataphracti ferrea omni specie." Similar to the cataphracts of the Romans were the ßavágtot of the Persians; whom the author of the "Glossarium Nomicum" describes ôλocídnpot, "all in steel.”—DUNSTER. 1 Elephants indorsed with towers. Ammianus Marcellinus speaks of elephants in the Persian army, 1. 24. Pliny mentions them bearing towers with sixty soldiers on them, "turriti cum sexagenis propugnatoribus," viii. 7.-DUNSTER. To lay hills plain, fell woods, or valleys fill, His daughter, sought by many prowest knights, On no slight grounds thy safety; hear, and mark, Endeavour as thy father David did, 335 840 345 350 Thou never shalt obtain; prediction still In all things, and all men, supposes means; 355 Without means used, what it predicts revokes. 360 Alluding probably to Eschylus's description of Xerxes's bridge over the Hellespont, "Persæ," 71.-THYER. Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp When Agrican with all his northern powers What Milton here alludes to, is related in Boiardo's "Orlando Inamorato," I. i. c. 10. -THYER. o The fairest of her sex Angelica. This is that Angelica, who afterwards made her appearance in the same character in Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," which was intended as a continuation of the story which Boiardo had begun. As Milton fetches his simile from a romance, he adopts the terms used by these writers, viz. "prowest" and "Paynim."-THYER. "Prowest" is the superlative of "prow," from the old French preux, "valiant."— DUNSTER. P Thus his words renew'd. The speech of Satan (ver. 346), professing the purpose why he showed all this to Jesus, judiciously reverts to the immediate subject of the temptation; and by urging our Lord to avail himself of the Parthian power, that he might gain possession of David's throne, and free his countrymen from the Roman yoke, it applies to those patriotic feelings whie': he had expressed in the first Book of this poem, where he declares that one of his earliest sentiments of virtue, "more than human," was marked with a wish to rescue Israel from the Roman yoke." Our Lord's reply is close and pointed, and serves farther to unfold the character of our great pattern of every virtue.-DUNSTER. Roman and Parthian? Therefore one of these Thou must make sure thy own; the Parthian first Found able by invasion to annoy Thy country, and captive lead away her kings, Maugre the Roman: it shall be my task To render thee the Parthian at dispose; Choose which thou wilt, by conquest or by league: 8 By him thou shalt regain, without him not, And captive lead away her kings, Antigonus and old Hyrcanus, bound. 365 370 375 380 Here seems to be a slip of memory in our author. The Parthians, indeed, led Hyrcanus away captive to Seleucia, after his eyes were put out, and when he was past seventy years of age, so that he might well be called "old Hyrcanus:" but instead of leading away Antigonus captive, they constituted him king of the Jews, and he was afterwards deprived of his kingdom by the Romans. See Josephus, "Antiq." lib. xiv. cap. 13: "De Bel. Jud." lib. i. cap. 13. But it should be considered that Milton himself was old and blind; and composing from memory, he might fall into such a mistake, which may be pardoned among so many excellencies.-NEWTON. Dr. Newton's observation on the mistake of our "old blind" poet, is here rather unfortunate; as he himself, with his eyes open, seems to have fallen into a considerable mistake in this note, by describing Hyrcanus as having his eyes put out, which does not appear to have been the case. His ears were cut off by his rival Antigonus (see Joseph. "Antiq. Jud." xiv. 13), to render him incapable, when maimed in person, of filling the office of high priest; but (1. xv. c. 6, sect. 14, where the various misfortunes that befell Hyrcanus are particularly recited) nothing is said of his eyes being put out.-DUNSter. r Those ten tribes, Whose offspring in his territory yet serve, In Habor, and among the Medes dispersed. These were the ten tribes, whom Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, carried captive into Assyria, 2 Kings, xviii. 11; which cities were now under the dominion of the Parthians. -NEWTON. Ten sons of Jacob, two of Joseph. The ten captive tribes of the Israelites were those of Reuben, Simeon, Zebulon, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Ephraim, and Manasses. Only eight of these were sons of Jacob; the two others were the sons of Joseph. I would suppose therefore that the poet meant to give it, Eight sons of Jacob, two of Joseph lost. Otherwise he must have included, in the ten sons of Jacob, both Levi and Joseph. The Levites, it is true, did not form a distinct tribe, nor had any possessions allotted them; but, being carried into captivity with the other tribes, amongst whom they were scattered, Levi might be referred to among the lost sons of Jacob. It seems, however, quite incorrect to refer to Joseph as the head of a tribe, when he was really merged in the tribes of his two sons, Ephraim and Manasses.-DUNSTER. From Egypt to Euphrates, and beyond, W My brethren, as thou call'st them, those ten tribes, But whence to thee this zeal? where was it then For Israel, or for David, or his throne, When thou stood'st up his tempter to the pride t From Egypt to Euphrates. 385 390 395 400 405 That is, the kingdom of Israel in its utmost extent: for thus the land was promised to Abraham, Gen. xv. 18; and the extent of Solomon's kingdom is thus described, 1 Kings, iv. 21.-NEWTON. u Much ostentation vain of fleshly arm. "Fleshly arm" is scriptural:-2 Chron. xxxii. 8, and see Jer. xvii. 5.—Dunster. "Totius belli instrumento et apparatu," Ciceron. Academic. ii. 1.—DUNSTER. w Prediction else Will unpredict. This refers to what the tempter had said before, ver. 354, where he had fallaciously applied the argument, that the requisite reliance on Divine Providence does not by any means countenance a supine negligence, and a dereliction of all personal exertions. Mr. Thyer censures the manner of speaking here, as too light and familiar for the dignity of the speaker; but it strikes me as censurable, not so much for the lightness as for the quaintness of the expression, and somewhat of that jingling play upon words, of which our author was certainly too fond. To "unpredict" is something like to "uncreate." See "Par. Lost," b. v. 895, and b. ix. 943.-Dunster. John vii. 6. *My time, &c. y Argument Of human weakness rather than of strength. It is a proof of human weakness, as it shows that man is obliged to depend upon something extrinsical to himself, whether he would attack his enemy or defend himself. It alludes to the common observation, that nature has furnished all creatures with weapons of defence, except man. See Anacreon's Ode on this thought.-THYER. z When thou stood'st up his tempter, &c. Alluding to 1 Chron. xxi. 1. "And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David |