231 "Was never; arms on armour clashing bray'd 66 And, flying, vaulted either host with fire: " "Both battles main, with ruinous assault 66 Resounded; and had earth been then, all earth "A numerous host; in strength each armed hand 1 What daring figures are here! Every thing is animated. The very chariot-wheels are mad and raging; and how admirably do these rough verses bray the horrible discord they would describe! "Bray" was applied to any loud harsh noise. Fairy Queen, I. viii. 11: "He loudly bray'd with beastly yelling sound." Shakspeare, Hamlet, act i. :— "The kettle drum and trumpet thus oray out The triumph ol his pledge."—(N., Johns.) > Benlley thinks that Milton was hurried away by poetic fury in this sublime passage to be regardless of propriety and syntax, as it is incorrect to say, "the hiss flew and vaulted," and proposes to read "with dismal hiss the fiery darts," etc. But Pearce observes, that there is a peculiar force sometimes in ascribing, as here, that to a circumstance of a thing, which more properly belongs to Ihe thing itself; that to the "hiss,' which belongs to the "darts." "Hiss of darts" is a poetic way of speaking for hissing darts. So ii. 654: "A cry of hell hounds never ceasing barked," is the same as crying hell hounds never ceasing barked. So vii. 66: "As one whose drought still eyes the stream," for "one who droughty eyes." So Virgil, Mn. iv. 132:— —"ruunt equites et odora canum vis," where what is proper to the dogs is said of their scent. Upton, in his Critical Observations on Shakspeare, says, the substantive is sometimes to be classically construed as an adjective, when governing a genitive case; as Aristophanes, in Plut. 258: Sexpuccy αγγείλας επων, "O thou who lellest me a gold of words," for golden words. So Sydney's Arcadia, p. 2, "opening the cherry of her lips," for her cherry lips. See T. s The syntax of this obscure sentence, which the commentators have not noticed, I take to be, "Of how much greater power (than an individual angel, however mighty) to raise, etc. was army against army numberless (of such angels) warring: and they would have destroyed it, bad not, etc."; such an ellipsis is necessary to explain "bad not the eternal King overruled;" and is warranted by 570, 671. Milton, in imitation of the ancient classics, occasionally uses such an ellipsis. 254 "A legion; led in fight, yet leader seemed 2 "The ridges of grim war: no thought or flight— "That argued fear; each on himself relied, Were done, but infinite; for wide was spread 66 6 8 "Saw where the sword of Michael smote, and fcll'd Wide-wasting! Such destruction to withstand "He hasted, and oppos'd the rocky orb i Each single warrior, though led in fight, was as expert as a commander-in-chief. So the angels are celebrated, first for their numbers, then for their strength, and lastly for their eipertness in war.—(N.) But what strikes me as the main difficulty, the appli cation of "though" before, I do not find noticed. Does it mean that God limited their might, though so numerous, and individually powerfully and experienced; or that, though so numerous, yet each individual was as powerful as a whole legion, and appeared as experienced as a leader? » A metaphor taken from a ploughed field; the rows of men answer to the "ridges," which here means the ranks and the files; the ranks are the rows from flank to flank, or from left to right; the files are from front to rear.—(R.) Homer often uses the words modeμoio yepupus, the bridges of the war or battle, which are applied to the intervals between the lines.—"No thought of flight." So 11. xxiv. 216 : - ούτε φοβου μεμνημένον ουτ' αλεωσης. 9 In the Latin sense of momentum, that which gives a preponderance to one scale. So x. 45. The thought, which is afterwards more fully developed in the words," in even scale the battle bung," is exemplified by a parallel passage in Homer, II. xii. 433 :— Ως μεν των επι ισα μαχη τετατο πτολεμος τε. (Ν.) In order to comprehend the full force of the word "tormented" here, we must, I think, look to the root of the word, which is lormenlum, an engine used in ancient warfare for the projection of destructive missiles. Hy you (opporos. Eurip. Supplic. 706.—(7\) s Though Abdiel foiled him before (ISO), yet Milton seems to think that Satan would have eventually proved an overmatch for him, had not the combat been broken off by the general engagement.—(N.) 1 See Samson Agon. 138.—(T.) In allusion to the two-handed sword used in the Gothic limes.-(N.) 291 "Of tenfold adamant,1 his ample shield,— "Author of evil; unknown till thy revolt, 66 6 Though heaviest, by just measure, on thyself 666 "Of thy rebellion! how hast thou inslill'd But think not here "To trouble holy rest: heaven casts thee out "So spake the prince of angels; to whom thus 36 “‘Of aery threats to awe, whom yet with deeds 4 "Unvanquish'd, easier to transact with me "That thou shouldst hope, imperious, and with threats, "To chase me hence? Err not, that so shall end "The strife which thou call'st evil, but we style "The strife of glory; which we mean to win, "Or turn this heaven itself into the hell i Tasso (vii. 82) mentions an adamantine shield; but Milton says, " Unfold adamant." -(N.) 3 So in Tasso, ii. 61, Michael rebukes the infernal spirits who fought against the Chrislians.—(N.) » "Satan" properly means adversary. II. xx. 200: Πηλείδη μη δη μ' επέεσσι γε, νηπυτίον ως, Ελπες δειδίξεσθαι — (Ν.) Observe the peculiarity of construction here: the tubstanlive "flight" is connected by the ron/unction "or" with the infinitive fall," Loth depending on "turned." There are similar instances in Milton, in imitation of the classics. 319 "Thou fablest; here, however, to dwell free, "Of godlike power? for likest gods they seem'd, "Should combat, and their jarring spheres confound. Uplifted imminent, one stroke they aim'd "That might determine, and not need repeat, i /. e. Can relate that fight, or to what conspicuous things on earth which may lift, etc. can liken it.—(N.) So Shakspeare, Hen. V.:— "For now sits Expectation in the air."—(T.) » The conjunction copulative is here omitted before "two planets," as is not unusua in rapid and impassioned descriptions. Some commentators think that the grandeur of this simile is tarnished by the introduction or the notion of the malignancy of the planets in a particular aspect. But I rather think that it is appropriately introduced to express the determined rancour of the combatants' hostility. The notion was an ancient one, and made use of in poetry. Todd quotes Beaumont and Fletcher, Span. Curate, act i. sc. 1:— "Now they begin to burn like opposed meteors." The meaning and prosaic construction of this difficult passage, which the commentators have overlooked, is, 1 think, this:—"They both together, each with an arm next in power to the Almighty one, lifted up and imminent, (like the Latin imminent, hanging overhead ready to fall) aimed one stroke which might determine (i. e. bring the matter to a terminus or end) and need not repeat (i. «. renew or try it again) as not of power at once (i. e. as if there was not sufficient power in it at once to decide the combat)." If the stroke had not sufficient power at once, they should repeat it. But they intended such a blow as had this power to end the matter at once, at the lirst touch, and required no repetition. Latinisms run through the whole sentence; "determine" and "repeal" are to be taken here as neuter verbs; repetere in Suetonius is applied to the repetition "In might or swift prevention: but the sword "Was given him temper'd so, that neither keen, 2 1 "A stream of nectarous humour issuing flow'd 66 333 Sanguine, such as celestial spirits may bleed, of a blow. Suet, in Caligul. c. 58: "Cæteri vulnerihus triginla confecerunt (soil- Caligulam), nam signum erat omnium, Repele." In Celsus it is the same as redire, b. iv. c. 14: "Cum morbi repelunl." t Milton, notwithstanding the vaslness of his genius, has drawn to his aid all the helps he could find in the most approved authors. Homer and Virgil give their heroes swords of divine temper; and in 2 Maccabees xv. the Jewish hero receives a sword from Jeremiah the prophet, as the gift of God. Jeremiah also mentions the armoury of God, i. 25. But this sword of Michael seems to be copied from Artbegal's in Spenser's Fairy Queen, T. i. to. There is a beautiful passage in the Iliad, iii. 363, where the sword of Menelaus in his combat with Paris breaks in pieces; and the line is so contrived that, as Eustathius observes, we not only see the action as it were, but fancy we hear the sound of the breaking: Τριχθα τε και τετραχθα διατρυφεν εκπεσε χειρος. As Virgil in his account of the combat between Eneas and Turnus could not equal this kind of beauty, he has, with great judgment, substituted another, by artfully making, breaks in the beginning of the verse, to express the breaking short of the sword of Turnus, when it struck against armour tempered by a god: Satan's sword is not broken in fragments like those of Menelaus and Paris, but quite and clean in two; and the dividing of the sword in two is very well expressed by half a verse. Milton carries on beauties of the same kind to the description of the wound, and the verses seem almost painful in describing Satan's pain. "Shared," divided: "griding," cutting; both used by Spenser in this sense. "Discontinuous," separating the continuity of parts.—{Ad., N-, T.) > Bentley objects to "nectarous," because nectar was the drink of the gods; and proposes ichorous. Pearce replies, Hint this stream was not of nectarous humour only, but of nectarous humour sanguine, i. e. ichor; besides, ichorous would be a wrong substitute; for, from its derivation, yii, the middle syllabic of it should be long. Homer, ». 839, where Diomede wounds Venus, represents a pure thin kind of liquid, not blood, called ichor, which was not produced from earthly food, issuing from the wound. And though the pain was great, the wound soon closed. II. v. 339: - Ρεε δ' αμβροτον αιμα θεοίο, Ιχωρ, οιος περ τε ρέει μακαρετσι θεοίσιν· |