The Paradife of Fools, to few unknown Long after, now unpeopled, and untrod. All this dark globe the Fiend found as he pafs'd, aut poterit videre aliquis. Æn. VIII. 691. -pelago credas innare revulfas Cycladas; that is Credat quis. See Cowley's Davideis II. Note 17. 493. The sport of winds :] Ludibria ventis. Virg. Æn. VI. 75. 495. Into a Limbo large and broad,] The Limbus patrum as it is call'd, is a place that the Schoolmen fuppofed to be in the neighbourhood of Hell, where the fouls of the patriarchs were detain'd, and those good men who died before our Saviour's refurrection. Our author gives the fame name to his Paradife of Fools, and more rationally places it beyond the backfide of the aworld. gems 500 505 The 501: His travel'd fteps: ] Tir'd fteps, from travagliato (Italian.) Richardfon 506. With frontispiece of diamond and gold] Imitated from Ovid, Met. II. 1. Regia folis erat fublimibus alta columnis, Clara micante auro, flammafque imitante pyropo. The fun's bright palace, on high columns rais'd, With burnish'd gold and flaming jewels blaz'd. Addison. 507.-with sparkling orient gems] Dr. Bentley would read ardent gems, because orient is proper to fay upon earth only: but Sparkling and The portal fhone, inimitable on earth Dreaming by night under the 510 514 open sky, And waking cry'd, This is the gate of Heaven. Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood There always, but drawn up to Heav'n fometimes Viewless; and underneath a bright sea flow'd and ardent are too near akin to be both used together, and fince (as the Doctor allows) the best gems come from the Eaft Indies, it may be allow'd to Milton to mean by orient gems no more than the best and most precious ones. Milton very frequently uses the word orient in fuch a fenfe as this, and Dr. Bentley generally corrects it, tho' he has made no objection to the expreffion in I. 546. Of Which are array'd with much more orient hue. Spenfer's Hymn of Beauty. I have tranfcribed these lines to deMilton's application of the word fend, against Dr. Bentley's remark, orient. Thyer. 510. The fairs, the degrees mention'd before, ver. 502. were fuch as whereon Jacob faw &c.] A comparifon fetch'd from Gen. XXVIII. 12, 13. And he dreamed, and bebold a ladder fet upon the earth, and the top of it reached to Heaven, and behold the Angels of God afcending and defcending on it; and behold the Lord flood above it. &c. But this With orient colors waving. Poets, who write of things out of this world, muft ufe epithets and metaphors drawn from things in this world, if they would make themselves understood. Pearce, line Why do not then the bloffoms of the field To Padan-Aram in the field of Lux, muft not be understood as if Padan Aram Of jafper, or of liquid pearl, whereon Who after came from earth, failing arriv'd 520 Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds. The stairs were then let down, whether to dare His fad exclufion from the doors of blifs: Aram was in the field of Luz; but he was flying to Padan-Aram or the country of Aram, that is Syria; and by the way refted and dreamed this dream in the field of Luz, for fo the adjoining city was called at the first; Jacob upon this occafion gave it the name of Bethel, by which it was better known afterwards. The paffage was wrong pointed in all the editions, for there fhould be no comma after Luz: the comma fhould be after PadanAram, in the field of Luz being to be join'd on to dreaming in the next verse. 525 Over 521. Wafted by Angels, &c.] As Lazarus was carried by Angels, Luke XVI. 22; and Elijah was rapt up in a chariot of fire and horses of fire, 2 Kings II. 11. 525. doors] Milton writes this word dore and dores except only in one inftance in I. 504. of the fecond edition, which he alter'd from the first edition: but the other approaches nearer in found to the original word, if it be deriv'd from the Saxon duru, the German dure, dura, tura; and all as Junius fays from the Greek Jug, janua. And yet I think we commonly pronounce it dore tho' we conftantly write it door. But in all fuch cafes we want an advantage, that the French have enjoy'd, of an Academy to fix and fettle our language. Some proposals were made for erecting Over mount Sion, and, though that were large, 530 Over the Promis'd Land to God fo dear, On high behefts his Angels to and fro Pafs'd frequent, and his eye with choice regard To Beërfaba, where the Holy Land 535 So wide the opening feem'd, where bounds were set Satan from hence, now on the lower ftair 540 Of fheba, that is the whole extent of the Promis'd Land from Paneas in the north to Beerfaba in the fouth, where the Holy Land is bounded by Egypt and Arabia. The limits of the Holy Land are thus exprefs'd in Scripture, from Dan even unto Beersheba, Dan at the northern and Beersheba at the fouthern extremity; and the city that was called Dan was afterwards named Paneas. So wide the opening feem'd, that is fo wide as I have reprefented it, wider than the paffage over mount Sion and the Promis'd Land; So wide the opening feem'd, where the fame divine power fixed the limits of darkness, that said to the Of all this world at once. As when a fcout Through dark and defert ways with peril gone 545 First seen, or fome renown'd metropolis With glift'ring fpires and pinnacles adorn'd, 550 Which now the rifing fun gilds with his beams: Such wonder feis'd, though after Heaven seen, the proud ocean, Hitherto halt thou come and no farther. 540. Satan from hence, &c.] Satan, after having long wander'd upon the furface, or outmost wall of the universe, discovers at laft a wide gap in it, which led into the creation, and is defcribed as the opening through which the Angels país to and fro into the lower world upon their errands to mankind. His fitting upon the brink of this paffage, and taking a furvey of the whole face of nature that appeared to him new and fresh in all its beauties, with the fimile illuftrating this circumstance, fills the mind of the reader with as furprising and VOL. I. |