Him haply slumb'ring on the Norway foam The pilot of some small night-founder'd skiff Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, With fixed anchor in his scaly rind
Moors by his side under the lee, while night Invests the sea, and wished morn delays:
So stretch'd out huge in length the arch-fiend lay, Chain'd on the burning lake, nor ever thence Had risen or heav'd his head, but that the will And high permission of all-ruling heaven Left him at large to his own dark designs;
205 Deeming some island] At Sir William Drury's house in Hawstead in Suffolk (built in regn. Elizab.), is a closet with painted pannels of the age of James I. One (no. 36.) is a ship that has anchored on a whale which is in motion. The motto, 'nusquam tuta fides.' See Cullum's Hist. of Hawstead, p. 164, where is an engraving of it.
205 island] Thus Dionysii Perieg. 598.
Κήτεα θίνες ἔχουσιν, ερυθραίου βοτὰ πόντου, Οὔρεσιν ἠλιβάτοισιν ἐοικότα.
And so in the Orlando Innam. of Boiardo, rifac. da Berni, lib. ii. canto xiii. stan. 60.
'Il dosso sol mostrava ch'è maggiore
Ch' undici passi, ed anche più d'altezza,
E veramente, a chi la guarda, pare
Un' isoletta nel mezzo del mare.'
Compare also Avieni Disc. Orbis, p. 784-5, and Pia Hilaria, p. 92. 'Basil affirms that whales are equal to the greatest mountains, and their backs, when they show above the water, like to islands. v. Brerewood on Languages, p. 133.
208 Invests] v. Stat. Theb. lib. v. 51.
'tellurem proximus umbrâ,
That with reiterated crimes he might Heap on himself damnation, while he sought Evil to others, and enrag'd might see
How all his malice serv'd but to bring forth Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy shewn On man by him seduc'd; but on himself Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance pour'd. Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool His mighty stature; on each hand the flames Driv'n backward slope their pointing spires, and roll'd
In billows leave i̇' th' midst a horrid vale.
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 With solid, as the lake with liquid, fire; And such appear'd in hue, as when the force Of subterranean wind transports a hill Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter'd side Of thund'ring Etna, whose combustible And fuel'd entrails thence conceiving fire, Sublim'd with mineral fury, aid the winds, And leave a singed bottom, all involv'd With stench and smoke: such resting found the sole Of unbless'd feet. Him follow'd his next mate, Both glorying to have scap'd the Stygian flood,
232 Pelorus] See Dante, Paradiso, c. 8. ver. 68. 'Tra Pachino e Peloro sopra 'l golfo,
Che riceve da Euro maggior briga.'
As gods, and by their own recover'd strength, Not by the sufferance of supernal power. +
Is this the region, this the soil, the clime, Said then the lost arch-angel, this the seat That we must change for heav'n, this mournful gloom For that celestial light? be it so, since he,
Who now is Sov'reign, can dispose and bid
What shall be right: farthest from him is best, Whom reason hath equall'd, force hath made supreme Above his equals. Farewell happy fields, Where joy for ever dwells: hail horrors; hail Infernal world; and thou profoundest hell Receive thy new possessor; one who brings A mind not to be chang'd by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater? here at least We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition, though in hell: Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.
240 recover'd strength] Revigorate, resumed, recovering, reviving self-raised, self-recovered. Bentl. Conj. MSS.
241 sufferance] Compare Hom. Od. iv. 503.
Φῆ ὁ ἀέκητι θεῶν φυγέειν μέγα λαϊτμα θαλάσσης.
263 Better] See Eschyli Prometheus, ver. 976. Κρέισσον γὰρ οἶμαι τῇδε λατρεύειν πέτρα,
*Η πατρὶ φῦναι Ζηνὶ πιστὸν ἄγγελον.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, Th' associates and copartners of our loss, Lie thus astonish'd on th' oblivious pool, And call them not to share with us their In this unhappy mansion; or once more With rallied arms to try what may be yet Regain'd in heaven, or what more lost in hell? So Satan spake, and him Beëlzebub
Thus answer'd: Leader of those armies bright, Which but th' Omnipotent none could have foil'd, If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
Of battle when it rag'd in all assaults Their surest signal, they will soon resume New courage and revive, though now they lie Grov❜ling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, As we erewhile, astounded and amaz'd; No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth.
He scarce had ceas'd, when the superior fiend Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,
Behind him cast; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At ev'ning, from the top of Fésolé
288 optic glass] See Henry More's Poems (Inf. of Worlds): st. 91. 'But that experiment of the optick glasse,'
and Davenant's Gondibert, p. 188.
Or reach with optick tubes the ragged moon.
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe. His spear, to equal which the tallest pine, Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the mast Of some great ammiral, were but a wand, He walk'd with to support uneasy steps Over the burning marle, not like those steps On heaven's azure, and the torrid clime Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. Nathless he so indur'd, till on the beach Of that inflamed sea he stood, and call'd His legions, angel forms, who lay entranc'd, Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades High overarch❜d imbow'r; or scatter'd sedge Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd
Hath vex'd the Red-sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew Busiris and his Memphian chivalry,
porro huic majus bacillum
Quam malus navi in corbità maximus ullâ.'
And Ovid Metam. xiii. 783.
'Cui postquam pinus, baculi quæ præbuit usum,
Ante pedes posita est, antennis apta ferendis.'
Cowley's Davideis, lib. iii. ver. 47.
'His spear the trunk was of a lofty tree,
Which nature meant some tall ship's mast to be.'
Keysler's Travels, ii. 117. They shew here the mast of a ship, which the common people believe to be the lance of Rolando the great.' Pope probably mistook the sense, when, in Hom. Il. xiii. 494,
'Or pine, fit mast for some great admiral.'
Mr. Dyce refers to Quintus Smyrnæus, lib. v. ver. 118.
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