Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Both her first-born and all her bleating Gods.

Belial came last, than whom a Spirit more lewd 490
Fell not from Heaven, or more grofs to love
Vice for itself: to him no temple stood
Or altar fmok'd; yet who more oft than he
In temples and at altars, when the priest
Turns atheist, as did Eli's fons, who fill'd
With luft and violence the house of God?

ram, hence corniger Ammon? Clemens Alexandrinus tells us that the people of Sais and Thebes worshipped fheep; and R. Jarchi upon Gen. XLVI. 34. fays that a fhepherd was therefore an abomination to the Egyptians, because the Egyptians worshipped fheep as Gods. We may farther add, that Onkelos, Jonathan, and several others are of the fame opinion, and fay that shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians, because they had no greater regard to thofe creatures which the Egyptians worshipped, than to breed them up to be eaten. These authorities are fufficient to juftify our poet for calling them bleating Gods; he might make ufe of that epithet as one of the most infignificant and contemptible, with the fame air of difdain as Virgil fays Æn. VIII. 698.

495

In

ends the paffage as he began it with the Gods of Egypt.

490. Belial came laft, &c.] The characters of Moloch and Belial prepare the reader's mind for their respective speeches and behaviour in the fecond and fixth book.

Addifen. And they are very properly made, one the firft, and the other the laft, in this catalogue, as they both make fo great a figure afterwards in the poem. Moloch the firft, as he was the fierceft Spirit that fought in Heaven, II. 44. and Belial the laft, as he is reprefented as the moft timorous and flothful, II. 117. It doth not appear that he was ever wor fhipped; but lewd profligate fellows, fuch as regard neither God nor Man, are called in Scripture the children of Belial, Deut. XIII. 13. So the fons of Eli are call'd 1 Sam. II. 12. Now the fons of El were fons of Belial, they knew not the Lord. So the men of Gibeah, and fo returns to his fubject, and who abus'd the Levite's wife, Judg.

Omnigenumque deûm monftra & latrator Anubis;

In courts and palaces he alfo reignsrud 63 af lok And in luxurious cities, where the noife

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

500

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Of riot afcends above their loftieft towers,
And injury and outrage: And when night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the fons
Of Belial, flown with infolence and wine,
Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night20
In Gibeah, when the hofpitable door

XIX. 22. are called likewife fons of Belial; which are the particular instances here given by our author. 502. flown with infolence and wine.] I have heard a conjecture of fome body propofing to read blown instead of flown, blown with infolence and wine, as thete is in Virgil inflatus Iaccho, Ecl. VI. 15€

Inflatum hefterno venas, ut femper,

[ocr errors]

Expos'd

504 when the hofpitable door Expos'd a matron to avoid worfe rape. So Milton caus'd it to be printed in the fecond edition; the first ran thus,

[ocr errors]

Fielded their matrons to prevent when hofpitable doors? * worse rape.

- yesu aya qaeg Tina And Milton did well in altering the paffage: for it was not true of So dom, that any matron was yielded, there; the women had not known man, Gen. XIX. 8. and as they were only offer'd not accepted, it is not proper to say that they were yielded. But obferve that Milton in the fecond edition changed yielded into expas'd, because in what was done at Gibeah, Judg. XIX. 25. the Levite's wife was not only yielded, but put out of doors and expos'd to the mens lewdnefs. Why then does Dr. Bentley prefer Milton's first reading to his fecond, when he alter'd the paffage to make it more agreeable to the Scriptural story?

But flown I conceive is a participle from the verb fy, and the meaning is that they were raifed and highten'd with infolence and wine, infolence and wine made them fy out into these extravagances. Or as others think, it may be a participle from the verb flow, as over. florun is fometimes ufed for over, flow'd, And the meaning is the fame as flub'd with infolence and wine. An expreffion very common from the verb fluo. In the fame fenfe we ufe flub'd with fuccefs, as Mr. Thyer obferves, sula buona od → VOL. I.

N

Pearce. 506. Thefe

Expos'd a matron to avoid worse rape.

These were the prime in order and in might;
The reft were long to tell, though far renown'd,
Th' Ionian Gods, of Javan's iffue held

505

Gods, yet confefs'd later than Heav'n and Earth,
Their boasted parents: Titan Heav'n's first-born, 510
With his enormous brood, and birthright feis'd
By younger Saturn; he from mightier Jove
His own and Rhea's fon like measure found;
So Jove ufurping reign'd: these first in Crete
And Ida known, thence on the fnowy top

506. These were the prime] It is obferved by Macrobius and others, in commendation of Homer's catalogue of ships and warriors, that he hath therein mention'd every body who doth, and no body who doth not afterwards make his appearance in the poem: whereas it is otherwife in Virgil; fome have a place in the lift, who are never heard of in the battels, and others make a figure in the battels, who are not taken notice of in the lift. Neither hath Milton in this refpect attain'd Homer's excellence and beauty; but then it fhould be confider'd what was his intent and purpose in this catalogue. It was not poffible for him to exhibit as complete a catalogue of the fallen Angels, as Homer hath given us of the Grecian and Trojan com

515

Of

manders; and as it was not poffible or indeed proper, fo neither was it at all his intention. He propos'd only to mention the chief, and fuch who were known in Palestine and the neighbouring countries, and had encroach'd upon the worfhip of the God of Ifrael: and what he propos'd he hath executed with wonderful learning and judg ment. He hath inlarg'd very much upon each of thefe idols, as he drew most of his materials from Scripture: The reft were long to tell, the reft he flightly paffes over, as our knowledge of them is deriv'd only from fabulous antiquity.

508. Th' Ionian Gods, of Javan's iffue beld

Gods, &c.] Javan, the fourth fon of Japhet, and grandfon of Noah,

Of cold Olympus rul'd the middle air,

Their highest Heav'n; or on the Delphian cliff,
Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds

Of Doric land; or who with Saturn old

Fled over Adria to th' Hefperian fields,
And o'er the Celtic roam'd the utmost iles.

520

All these and more came flocking; but with looks Down caft and damp, yet fuch wherein appear'd Obfcure fome glimpse of joy, to' have found their chief Not in despair, to' have found themselves not loft 525 In lofs itself; which on his count'nance caft

Noah, is fuppofed to have fettled in the fouth-weft part of Afia Minor, about Ionia, which contains the radical letters of his name. His defcendents were the Ionians and Grecians; and the principal of their Gods were Heaven and Earth; Titan was their eldest fon, he was father of the giants, and his empire was feifed by his younger brother Saturn, as Saturn's was by Jupiter fon of Saturn and Rhea. These first were known in the iland Crete, now Candia, in which is mount Ida, where Jupiter is faid to have been born; thence paffed over into Greece, and refided on mount Olympus in Theffaly; the fnowy top of cold Olympus, as Homer calls it, Ολυμπον αγαννιφον, Iliad. I. 420. and XVIII. 615. Ouauja vipoerlos. which mountain af

Like

terwards became the name of Heaven among their worshippers; or on the Delphian cliff, Parnaffus, whereon was feated the city Delphi famous for the temple and oracle of Apollo; or in Dodona, a city and wood adjoining facred to Jupiter; and through all the bounds of Doric land, that is of Greece, Doris being a part of Greece; or fled over Adria, the Adriatic, to th' H:fperian fields, to Italy; and o'er the Celtic, France and the other countries overrun by the Celtes, roam'd the utmost iles, Great Britain, Ireland, the Orkneys, Thule or Iceland, Ultima Thule, as it is call'd, the utmoft boundary of the world. Such explications are needless to thofe who are converfant with the claffic authors; they are written for thofe who are not.

N 2

529. Sim

Like doubtful hue: but he his wonted pride
Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore
Semblance of worth not fubftance, gently rais'd
Their fainting courage, and difpell'd their fears. 539
Then ftrait commands that at the warlike found
Of trumpets loud and clarions be uprear'd
His mighty standard: that proud honor clam'd
Azazel as his right, a Cherub tall;

Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurl'd 535
Th' imperial enfign, which full high advanc'd

529. Semblance of worth not fubftance,] An expreffion of Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. z. Cant. 9. St. z.

Full lively is the femblaunt, though

the fubftance dead. Thyer.

530. Their fainting courage,] In the first edition he gave it Their fainted courage, if that be not an error of the prefs.

532. Of trumpets loud and clarions] A clarion is a fmall fhrill treble trumpet, a claro quem edit fono.

Hume. So Fairfax mentions and diftinguishes them; Cant. I. St. 71. When trumpets loud and clarions fhrill were heard.

[blocks in formation]

Shone

Demon, as the learned Dr. Spencer hath abundantly proved in his differtation De birco emiffario. He fhows that this name is ufed for ancient authors Jewish and Chrifome Demon or Devil by feveral

stian, and derives it from two Hebrew words, Az and Azel fignifying brave in retreating, a proper appellation for the ftandard-bearer to the fall'n Angels. We fee Milton gives Azazel a right to be ftandard-bearer on account of his ftature; he had no notion of a dapper enfign who can hardly carry his colors.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »