Created hugest that swim the ocean stream: So stretch'd out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay Driven backward, slope their pointing spires, and, roll'd 205 210 215 220 Then with expanded wings he steers his flight Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air That felt unusual weight, till on dry land' He lights; if it were land, that ever burn'd 225 And such appear'd in hue, as when the force 230 235 With stench and smoke: such resting found the sole Of unblest feet. Him follow'd his next mate; Both glorying to have 'scaped the Stygian flood, As gods, and by their own recover'd strength, 240 Is this the region, this the soil, the clime, Said then the lost Archangel, this the seat Satan 204. Night-founder'd. A ship is said to founder at sea, (from the French fondre, to melt, to fall,) when she is overtaken by a leak, fills, and sinks. So she is here said to be night-founder'd, when she is overtaken by the night, and is stopped, not knowing which way to go. The same phrase is used in Comus. The two brothers in the night have lost their way in the wood: one hears a noise, and asks what it is. The other replies For certain Either some one like us night-founder'd here. Line 483. 232. Pelorus. Pelorus was the northeastern promontory of Sicily. "Here again Milton brings in his learned allusions and illustrations: the picture is highly poetical and sublime.”—BRYDGES. 240. Recovered, resumed, self-raised, self-recovered. For that celestial light? Be it so, since he, He scarce had ceased, when the superiour fiend Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield, 249. Farewell, happy fields. The pathos of this passage is exquisite.-BRYDGES. 286. The broad circumference, &c. Here Milton shines in all his majestic splendour: his mighty imagination almost excels itself. There is indescribable magic In this picture—BRYDGES. A 245 250 255 260 265 270 275 280 285 289. Fesolé. A town near Florence. "We are here in Arno's vale, (Valdarno ;) the full moon shining over Fesolé, which I see from my windows; Milton's verses every moment in one's month, and Gali leo's house twenty yards from one's door." -MRS. PIɔZZI's "Journey through Italy." Or in Valdárno, to descry new lands, 290 295 300 305 Hath vex'd the Red-sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore their floating carcases 310 And broken chariot-wheels: so thick bestrown, Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood, Under amazement of their hideous change. He call'd so loud, that all the hollow deep 315 Warriors, the flower of heaven, once yours, now lost, If such astonishment as this can seize Eternal spirits: or have ye chosen this place After the toil of battel to repose Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find 293. Norwegian hills. The hills of Nor- | way abound in vast woods, from whence are brought masts of the largest size. "The annotators leave unnoticed the marvellous grandeur of this description, while they babble on petty technicalities. The walking over the burning marle is astonishing and tremendous."-BRYDGES. 320 bower,' has been rendered classical by the immortal verse of Milton, who is supposed to have drawn from it his picture of Paradise, when he describes it -shade above shade A woody theatre of stateliest view." MURRAY. 305. Orion. This constellation was supposed to be attended with stormy weather. 302. Thick as autumnal leaves. "Here we see the impression of scenery made upon Milton's mind in his youth when he was at Florence. This is a favourite 307. Busiris. Pharaoh is called by some passage with all readers of descriptive writers Busiris; and he is here said to poetry."-SIR E. BRYDGES. "The situa-have pursued the Israelites with perfidition of Florence is peculiarly happy in the vale of Arno, which forms one continued interchange of garden and grove, enclosed by hills and distant mountains. Vallombrosa, (a vale about eighteen miles listant,) a grand and solemn scene, where • Etrurian shaḍles high over-archod im ous hatred, because, after having given them leave to depart, he followed them as fugitives. 314. The hollow deep. This magnificent call of Satan to his prostrate host could have been written by nobody but Milton.-BRYDGES. With scatter'd arms and ensigns, till anon They heard, and were abash'd, and up they sprung On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, Nor did they not perceive the evil plight In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel; $25 330 335 340 345 350 355 And powers, that erst in heaven sat on thrones; 360 By their rebellion from the Book of Life. Got them new names; till, wandering o'er the earth, 338. Potent rod. See Ex. x. 13. 341. Warping. Working themselves forward; a sea-term. 353. Rhene or the Danaw. He might have said Rhine or the Danube, but he chose Rhene of the Latin and Danaw of 365 370 the German. The barbarous sons of the great "northern hive" were the Goths, the Huns, and the Vandals, who overran all the provinces of Southern Europe, destroying all the monuments of learning and the arts that came in their way. Oft to the image of a brute, adorn'd And devils to adore for deities: Then were they known to men by various names, Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last, 375 380 385 390 Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud Their children's cries unheard, that pass'd through fire 395 To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite Worshipp'd in Rabba and her watery plain, In Argob, and in Basan, to the stream Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such 392. Moloch was the god of the Ammonites, (1 Kings xi. 7) and was worshipped in Rabba, their capital city, called the "city of waters," 2 Sam. xii. 27. The idol of this deity was of brass, sitting on a throne, and wearing a crown, having the head of a calf, and his arms extended to receive the miserable victims which were to be sacrificed; and therefore it is here probably styled "his grim idol," 2 Kings xxiii. 10; see also Jer. vii. 31. 398. · Argob was a city to the east of the Jordan, and in the district Bashan. The river Arnon was the northern boundary of Moab and emptied into the Dead Sea. 400. Solomon built a temple to Moloch on the Mount of Olives, (1 Kings xi. 7) which is therefore called "that opprobrious hill." 404. The valley of Hinnom was south 400, 405 of Jerusalem, where the Canaanites and afterwards the Israelites offered their children to Moloch. The good king Josiah defiled this place, by casting into it the bones of the dead and other disgusting refuse substances of a large city. A perpetual fire was kept there to consume these things, and hence under the name of Gehenna it is frequently alluded to in the New Testament as a type of Hell. It was also called Tophet, from the Hebrew Toph, a drum; since drums and such like noisy instruments were used to drown the cries of the miserable children who were offered to the idol here. 406. Chemos is the god of the Moabites, and is mentioned with Moloch in 1 Kings xi. 7. Some suppose him to be the same as that most shameful divinity, Priapus, and therefore here called the obscene dread |