Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; Sad Acheron of forrow, black and deep; Heard on the rueful ftream; fierce Phlegethon, 580 Her watry labyrinth, whereof who drinks, 577. Abborred Styx, &c.] The Greeks reckon up five rivers in Hell, and call them after the names of the noxious fprings and rivers in their own country. Our poet follows their example both as to the number and the names of these infernal rivers, and excellently defcribes their nature and properties with the explanation of their names. Styx fo named of a Greek word Toys that fignifies to hate and abbor, and therefore called here Abborred Styx, the flood of deadly hate, and by Virgil palus inamabilis, n. VI.438. Acheron has its name from uyos dolor and pew fluo, flowing with grief; and is reprefented accordingly Sad Acheron, the river of Jorrow as Styx was of hate, black and deep, agreeable to Virgil's cha -racter of it --- tenebrofa palus Acheronte refufo. En. VI. 107. Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation, becaufe derived from a Greek word เร Tartareus Phlegethon. Erba μer eis Axiela Пueixe- διατα εσιν απορρωξ. and perhaps he describes their fituation as it really was in Greece: but Virgil and the other poets fre quently 2 Forthwith his former ftate and being forgets, quently confound them, and mention their names and places without fufficient difference or diftinc tion. Our poet therefore was at liberty to draw (as I may fay) a new map of these rivers; and he fuppofes a burning lake agreeably to Scripture that often mentions the lake of fire; and he makes thefe four rivers to flow from four different quarters and empty themselves into this burning lake, which gives us a much greater idea than any of the Heathen poets. Befides thefe there is a fifth river called Lethe, which name in Greek fignifies forgetfulness, and its waters are faid to have occafion'd that quality, Æn. VI. 714. Lethæi ad fluminis undam Securos latices, et longa oblivia potant: and Milton attributes the fame effect to it, and defcribes it as a flow and filent fiream, as Lucan had done before him, IX. 355. 585 590 Betwixt Damiata and mount Cafius old,...! Where armies whole have funk: the parching air Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire. 595 Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd At certain revolutions all the damn'd Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change mies have been swallow'd up. Read Herodotus, L. 3. and Luc. Phar. VIII. 539. &c. Perfida qua tellus Cafis excurrit arenis, Et vada teftantur juntas Ægyptia Syrtes, &c. Hume. 595. Burns frore,] Frore an old word for frofty. The parching air burns with froft. So we have in Virg. Georg. F. 93. Borea penetrabile frigus adurat: and in Ecclus. XLIII. 20, 21. When the cold north-wind bloweth-it devoureth the mountains, and burneth the wilderness, and confumeth the grafs as fire. And is not the expreffion ufed by the Pfalmift of the like nature? The fun fhall not burn thee by day, nor the moon by night, Pfal. CXXI. 6. in the old tranflation and the Septuagint ? $96. by barty-footed furies bald The word hard in 600. Immoveable, this line is deriv'd from the Belgie halen or the French baler, and therefore should be fpelt as it is here, and not bail'd as in Milton's own editions. Spenfer ufes the word, Fairy Queen. B. 5. Cant. 2, St. 26. Who rudely bald her forth without remorfe : and we meet with it feveral times in Shakespear. This circumftance of the damned's 603.-thence hurried back to fire.] fuffering the extremes of heat and cold by turns is finely invented to aggravate the horror of the defcription, and feems to be founded upon Job XXIV. 19. but not as it is in the English tranflation, but in the Vulgar Latin verfion, which Milton frequently used. Ad nimium calorem tranfeat ab aquis nivium & Let him pafs to exceffive beat from waters of now. And fo Jerom and other commentators understand it. There Immoveable, infix'd, and frozen round, Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire.: Both to and fro, their forrow to augment, 605 All in one moment, and fo near the brink; There is a fine paffage likewife in Shakespear, where the punishment after death is fuppofed to confift in extreme heat or extreme cold; but thefe extremes are not made alter nate, and to be fuffer'd both in their turns, as Milton has defcrib'd them, and thereby has greatly refin'd and improv'd the thought. Measure for Meafure, A&t III. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where : To lie in cold obítruction, and to rot; This fenfible warm motion to be come A kneaded clod; and the delighted fpirit To bathe in fiery floods, or to refide In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice, &c. they were fo near the brink, so near the brim and furface of the water, yet they could not taste one drop of it. But the reafons follow, fate withstands, fata obftant as it is in Virgil, Æn. IV. 440. and Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards the ford. Medufa was one of the Gorgon monfters, whofe locks were ferpents fo terrible that they turned the beholders into stone. Ulyffes in Homer was defirous of feeing I was afraid, fays he, Odyff. XI: more of the departed heroes, but 633. Μη μοι Γοργώην κεφαλήν δύνοια πέλωρο EE Aïd weμter a yawn Пep σεφόνεια. Left Gorgon rifing from th'infer nal lakes, With horrors arm'd, and curls of hiffing snakes, Should Medufa with Gorgonian terror guards The ford, and of itself the water flies All taste of living wight, as once it fled In cónfus'd march forlorn, th' adventrous bands 615 View'd first their lamentable lot, and found No reft: through many a dark and dreary vale O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 620 Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs,dens, and fhades of death, Should fix me, ftiffen'd at the A ftony image, in eternal night! So frightful a creature is very pro- 628. Gorgons, and Hydra's, and Chimera's dire.] Our author |