Then both from out hell gates into the waste Flew diverse, and with pow'r (their pow'r was great) Tost up and down, together crowded drove 285 From each side shoaling tow'ards the mouth of hell: ex quo sagaces dicti canes. Cic. de Divinat. A fit comparison for the chief hell-hound. Hume. 289. As when two polar winds, &c.] Sin and Death, flying into different parts of Chaos, and driving all the matter they meet with there in shoals towards the mouth of hell, are compared to two polar winds, north and south, blowing adverse upon the Cronian sea, the northern frozen sea, (A Thule unius diei navigatione mare concretum, a nonnullis Cronium appellatur. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. iv. cap. 16.) and driving together mountains of ice, that stop th' imagin'd way, the north-east passage as it is called, which so many have attempted to discover, Beyond Petsora eastward, the most north-eastern province of Muscovy, to the rich Cathaian 290 295 coast, Cathay or Catay, a country of Asia and the northern part of China. 296. As Delos floating once:] An island in the Archipelago said to have floated about in the sea, till it became the birth place of Apollo. Callimachus, in his hymn called Delos, has given a most enchanting description of this matter. Richardson. 296. —the rest his look &c.] In Milton's own editions the passage was thus, -the rest his look Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move, And with Asphaltic slime; broad as the gate, Deep to the roots of hell the ga ther'd beach They fasten'd. A difficult passage, which Dr. Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move; Bentley perceived and tried to mend. To Gorgonian rigour he objects, that the rigour or hardness was not in the Gorgon's look, but in the object turned into stone. And so it may be understood here-a rigour such as was caused by the Gorgon's look. Milton has the authority of Claudian for expressing himself thus, -rigidâ cum Gorgone Perseus. In Ruffin. i. 279. Again, the Doctor objects to, And with Asphaltic slime, because then the construction would be, his look bound it with slime. I agree with him that this could not come from Milton. There is only one way (I think) in which all these difficulties are to be got over, and that is by changing two of the points in the passage, and reading thus; -the rest his look Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move. And with Asphaltic slime, broad as the gate, 300 And with Asphaltic slime, broad as the gate, Deep to the roots of hell &c. The sense is then the very same as in the foregoing most excellent remark of Dr. Pearce's, and we venture to print it accord Deep to the roots of hell, the ga- ingly. We generally follow ther'd beach They fasten'd, The first part of the passage, ending at move, I understand as carefully Milton's own punctuation; but though he was extremely accurate, yet he was not always infallible. Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad, 305 310 And scourg'd with many a stroke th' indignant waves. Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. Matt. vii. 13. Greenwood. 305. inoffensive] Unembarrassed; without stop or obstruction. A Latin mode of speech. Johnson. 306. So Xerxes &c.] This simile is very exact and beautiful. As Sin and Death built a bridge over Chaos to subdue and enslave mankind: So, if great things to small may be compared, Si parva licet componere magnis, as Virgil says, Georg. iv. 176. Xerxes, the Persian monarch, to bring the free states of Greece under his yoke, came from Susa, the chief city of Susiana, a province of Persia, the residence of the Persian monarchs, called Memnonia by Herodotus, of Memnon who built it and reigned there; and over Hellespont bridging his way, and building a bridge over Hellespont, the narrow sea by Europe from Asia, to march his Constantinople, that divides large army over it, Europe with Asia join'd, and scourg'd with many a stroke th indignant waves; alluding particularly to Xerxes's madness in ordering the sea to be whipped for the loss of some of his ships; indignant waves, scorning and raging to be so confined, as Virgil says, Pontem indignatus Araxes, En. viii. 728. and Georg. ii. 162. Atque indignatum magnis stridoribus æquor. Lucan has likewise made a the Hellespont. Pharsal. ii. 672. simile of Xerxes's bridge over Tales fama canit tumidum super æquora Xerxem Construxisse vias, multum cum pontibus ausus, Europamque Asiæ, Sestonque admovit Abydo, Incessitque fretum rapidi super Hel. lesponti. Now had they brought the work by wondrous art Over the vex'd abyss, following the track Of this round world: with pins of adamant And chains they made all fast, too fast they made The confines met of empyréan heaven And of this world, and on the left hand hell Pontifical,] By the strange art of raising bridges. Pontifex, the high priest of the Romans, had that name from pons a bridge and facere to make: Quia sublicius pons a Pontificibus factus est primum, et restitutus sæpe, according to Varro. Hume. Art pontifical, this is a very bad expression to signify the art of building bridges, and yet to suppose a pun would be worse, as if the Roman priesthood were as ready to make the way easy to hell, as Sin and Death did. Warburton. 317. From out of Chaos, to the outside bare] In Milton's own editions the verses are thus, Of Satan, to the self same place where he First lighted from his wing, and 315 320 false pointing? and should not the comma after Satan be omitted, and be inserted after Chaos ? and is not this the construction of the whole passage? Now had they brought the work-over the vexed abyss-to the outside bare of this round world, following the track of Satan to the self same place where he first lighted from his wing, and landed safe from out of Chaos. We venture to print it accordingly, not knowing well how to make sense and grammar of it otherwise. 322. -on the left hand hell] He places hell on the left hand, according to our Saviour's description of the day of judgment, Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Matt. xxv. 41. or rather according to Virgil, who makes hell to lie on the left hand, as Elysium lay on the right, Æn. vi. 542. -At læva malorum Exercet pœnas, et ad impia tartara mittit, In sight, to each of these three places led. Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering 328. Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering His zenith, while the sun in Aries rose:] Alluding to a ship steering her course betwixt two islands: so Satan directed his way between these two signs of the zodiac, upwards: the zenith is overhead. Richardson. Dr. Bentley puts a comma after steering; but there should be none; for the sense is, steering to his zenith, or upwards, towards the outside of this round world, from whence he had come down, ver. 317. Besides the Doctor instead of rose reads rode but it was evening, when Messiah came and passed the 325 330 335 340 sentence on the transgressors, ver. 92. and after that Sin and Death made the bridge; so that the sun might be rising in Aries, when they met Satan steering his zenith. And this is confirmed by what follows here in ver. 341, &c. Pearce. Satan to avoid being discovered (as he had been before, iv. 569, &c.) by Uriel regent of the sun, takes care to keep at as great a distance as possible, and therefore while the sun rose in Aries, he steers his course directly upwards betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion, two constellations which lay in a quite different part of the heavens from Aries. |