Which would have set thee in short time with ease Or heaven write aught of fate, by what the stars In their conjunction met, give me to spell; A kingdom they portend thee; but what kingdom, Nor when; eternal sure, as without end, So saying, he took (for still he knew his power Galat. iv. 4.-NEWTON. "Fulness of time, thy season. • If I read aught in heaven. 380 363 390 395 A satire on Cardan, who with the boldness and impiety of an atheist and a madman, both of which he was, cast the nativity of Jesus Christ; and found by the great and illustrious concourse of stars, at his birth, that he must needs have the fortune which befell him, and become the author of a religion, which should spread itself far and near for many ages. The great Milton, with a just indignation of this impiety, hath satirized it in a very beautiful manner, by putting these reveries into the mouth of the devil.-NEWTON. P As without end, Without beginning. "The poet," says Dr. Newton, "did not think it enough to discredit judicial astrology by making it patronized by the devil: to show at the same time the absurdity of it, he makes the devil also blunder in the expression of portending a kingdom which was without beginning. This," he adds, "destroys all he would insinuate." But the poet certainly never meant to make the tempter a blunderer. The fact is, the language is here intended to be highly sarcastic on the eternity of Christ's kingdom, respecting which the tempter says, he believes it will have one of the properties of eternity, that of never beginning. This is that species of insulting wit which the devils, in the sixth book of the Paradise Lost,' indulge themselves in on the first effects of the artillery they had invented; where Mr. Thyer, as cited by Dr. Newton, observes that Milton is not to be blamed for introducing it, "when we consider the character of the speakers, and that such kind of insulting wit is most peculiar to proud, contemptuous spirits."-DUNSTER. Her shadowy offspring. Night was sometimes the parent, and Darkness the offspring: but Milton's theo. is conformable to Hyginus, who makes Caligo, or Darkness, the mother of Night, Day, Erebus, and Ether.-DUNSTER. gony Unsubstantial both. Euripides, in a chorus of his "Orestes," personifying Night, calls upon her to arise from Erebus, or the shades below; where, it may be observed, the scholiast rectifies the philosophy of the poet, by explaining night or darkness as really substantial," and merely produced by the absence of light, or day.-DUNSTER. 66 un Privation mere of light and absent day". 'Gan thunder, and both ends of heaven "; the clouds, Absent day. This description, with what follows in the next nine lines, is very beautiful. 400 405 410 In the 'Paradise Lost,' the tempter begins his temptation of Eve by working on her imagination in dreams, b. iv. 800, &c. Here it may be observed, the tempter tries only "to disturb our Lord with ugly dreams ;" and not to excite in him, as he did in Eve, "vain hopes, vain aims, inordinate desires."-DUNSTER. " And either tropick now 'Gan thunder, and both ends of heaven. It thundered from both tropics, that is perhaps from the right and from the left. -JORTIN. By "either tropick now 'gan thunder," Dr. Newton understands it thundered from the north and from the south; but he observes that the expression is inaccurate, the situation of our Saviour not being within the tropics. By "and both ends of heaven," he understands "from" or "at both ends of heaven;" the preposition being omitted, as is frequent in Milton. He therefore reads the passage thus:Either tropick now 'Gan thunder; and, both ends of heaven, the clouds From many a horrid rift abortive pour'd, &c. I agree, that by "either tropick" Milton most probably meant that it thundered from the north and south; but I conceive that by "both ends of heaven," he means east and west, the points where the sun rises and sets; as his purpose is to describe a general storm, not coming from any particular quarter, nor only from north and south, but from every point of the horizon at once.-DUNSTER. ▾ The clouds, From many a horrid rift, &c. This storm of Milton will lose nothing by a comparison with the celebrated ones of Homer in his fifth Odyssey, and of Virgil in his first Æneid. It is painted from nature, and in the boldest style. The night is a lowering one, with a heavy overcharged atmosphere: the storm commences with thunder from every part of the heavens the rain then pours down in sudden precipitated torrents, finely marked by the epithet "abortive," as materially different from the gradual progression of the most violent common showers; and the lightnings seem to burst in a tremendous manner from "horrid rifts," from the most internal recesses of the sky. To make the horror complete, the winds, as is often the case in those countries where thunderstorms are most violent, join their force to that of the other two elements. Violent winds do not often attend violent thunder-storms in this country; and therefore Mr. Thyer has thought it necessary to observe that the accounts we have of hurricanes in the West Indies agree pretty much to this description: but such storms are not confined to tropical situations, or even to countries approaching towards them.-Dunster. Water with fire In ruin reconciled. Dr. Warburton understands this, "joined together to do hurt." Mr. Thyer says it is Within their stony caves, but rush'd abroad Environ'd thee; some howl'd, some yell'd, some shriek'd, Sat'st unappall'd in calm and sinless peace! Thus pass'd the night so foul, till Morning fair 415 420 425 a bold figure borrowed from Æschylus's description of the storm that scattered the Grecian fleet," Agamem." v. 559. But I apprehend Dr. Newton sees the passage in its true light, when he says, it only means "the fire and water fell (i. e. rushed down) together," according to Milton's usage of the word "ruin," "Paradise Lost,' b. i. 46, and "ruining," b. vi. 868: thus also ver. 436 of this book: "After a night of storm so ruinous."-Dunster. * Nor slept the winds Within their stony caves. Virgil describes the winds as placed by Jupiter in certain deep dark caves of the earth, under the control of their god Eolus, En. i. 521. Lucan also speaks of the "stony prison" of the winds, lib. v. 609 and see Lucretius, lib. vi.—Dunster. 66 But rush'd abroad That is, from the four cardinal points; cardo signifying both a "hinge" and a cardinal point," Virgil, Æn. i. 85. Virgil, En. iv. 445: Though rooted deep as high, &c. Quantum vertice ad auras Æthereas, tantum radice in Tartara tendit.-RICHARDSON. a Loaden with stormy blasts. This has some resemblance to Horace's "aquilonibus querceta Gargani laborant," Od. II. ix.-DUNSTER. b Or torn up sheer. This magnificent description of the storm thus raised by Satan in the wilderness, is so admirable and striking that it need not be enlarged upon. Unshaken. e Yet only stood st Milton seems to have raised this scene out of what he found in Eusebius, "De Dem. Evan." (lib. ix. vol. ii. p. 434. ed. Col.) The fiends surround our Redeemer with their threats and terrors; but they have no effect.—CALTON. a Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round This too is from Eusebius, ibid, p. 435.— CALTON. 66 e Till morning fair Came forth, with pilgrim steps, in amice gray. 'Amice," Dr. Newton observes, a significant word, is derived from the Latin amicio, "to clothe." But this does not hit the full meaning of Milton's imagery. The combination, "amice gray," is from what is called graius amictus, an officiating garment in the Roman ritual. "Amice" occurs simply for a priest's service-habit in Spenser's "Faer. Qu." I. iv. 18.-T. WARTON. Who with her radiant finger still'd the roar Clear'd up their choicest notes in bush and spray, Back'd on the north and west by a thick wood. Who with her radiant finger still'd the roar Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds, &c. 430 435 440 445 450 This is an imitation of a passage in the first Æneid of Virgil, where Neptune is represented with his trident laying the storm which Æolus had raised, ver. 142. There is the greater beauty in the English poet, as the scene he is describing under this charming figure is perfectly consistent with the course of nature, nothing being more common than to see a stormy night succeeded by a pleasant serene morning.-THYER. And grisly spectres, &c. See our author's Ode on the Nativity,' st. xxvi. where he beautifully applies the vulgar superstition of spirits disappearing at the break of day as the ground-work of a comparison. He supposes that all the false deities of every species of the heathen theology departed at the birth of Christ, as spectres and demons vanish when the morning dawns. Under the same superstitious belief, Milton here makes the fiends retire, who had been assembled in the night to terrify our Saviour, when the morn arose.-T. WARTON. To tempt the Son of God, &c. An eminent and excellent divine is of the same opinion as the poet with respect to "the evil spirits which the fiend raised," when he tempted our Lord:-"This, as we may probably suppose, was the devil's way of tempting or trying our Lord, during the forty days and nights of his fast; and many opportunities, no doubt, he had in so long a time by frightful dreams when he slept, frequent apparitions and illusions of evil spirits in the night," &c. Bragge on the Miracles, vol. ii. p. 12.-TODD. i And now the sun, &c. There is in this description all the bloom of Milton's youthful fancy. We may compare an evening scene of the same kind, 'Paradise Lost,' b. ii. 488-495.-THYER. It is impossible to forbear remarking that the preceding description exhibits some of the finest lines which Milton has written in all his poems.-Jos. WARTON. In wonted shape. That is, in his own proper shape, and not under any disguise, as at each of the former times when he appeared to our blessed Lord.-DUNSTER. Compare Par. Lost,' b. iv. 819: So started up in his own shape the fiend.-TODD. Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God, Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them 455 And harmless, if not wholesome, as a sneeze m Of gaining David's throne, no man knows when, Ere thou of Israel's sceptre get fast hold; Whereof this ominous night, that closed thee round, May warn thee, as a sure foregoing sign. These flaws. 460 465 470 475 480 "Flaw" is a sea-term, as Mr. Dunster observes, for a sudden storm or gust of wind. See 'Par. Lost,' b. x. 697.-TODD. 1 As dangerous to the pillar'd frame of heaven. See also 'Comus,' v. 597 : In both, If this fail, The pillar'd firmament is rottenness. no doubt, alluding to Job xxvi. 11: "The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof.”—THYER. Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject The perfect season offer'd with my aid, &c. Here is something to be understood after "Did I not tell thee?" The thing told we may suppose to be what Satan had before said, b. iii. 351: Thy kingdom, though foretold By prophet or by angel, unless thou "What I foretold thee, &c. See ver. 374, and ver. 381 to ver. 389 of this book.-Dunster. |