Page images
PDF
EPUB

Compare this book with Cup. vii. of Milton's work De Doctrina Christianas. p. 124 el sag. De Creatione. ___ The First matter wint of which the world was created. The of the Son. The sense- in which the word "Spirit" is employed!

agency

THE ARGUMENT.

Raphael, at the request of Adam, relates how and wherefore this world was first created; that God, after the expelling of Satan and his Angels out of Heaven, declared his pleasure to create another world, and other creatures to dwell therein; fends his Son with glory, and attendance of Angels, to perform the work of Creation in fix days: the Angels celebrate with hymns the performance thereof, and his reafcenfion into Heaven.

PARADISE LOST.

BOOK VII.

DESCEND from Heaven, Urania, by that name If rightly thou art call'd, whofe voice divine Following, above the Olympian hill I foar, Above the flight of Pegaféan wing!

The meaning, not the name, I call: for thou 5

"Defcende cœlo,"

applied, as now his The word Urania in

Ver. 1. Defcend from Heaven, Urania,] Hor. Od. iii. iv. 1. But here it is better fubject leads him from Heaven to Earth. Greek fignifies heavenly; and he invokes the heavenly Mufe as he had done before, B. i. 6. And as he had faid in the beginning that he intended to foar above the Aonian mount, fo now he fays very truly that he had effected what he intended, and foars above the Olympian hill, above the flight of Pegaféan wing, that is, his fubject was more fublime than the loftieft flight of the heathen poets. NEWTON.

Mr. Dunfter is of opinion that Sylvefter's poem, entitled Vrania or The Heavenly Mufe, and following the tranflation of Du Bartas, ed.1621, p. 525 and feq., might here occur in Milton's mind. I find indeed two or three paffages in the poem to illuftrate this fuppofition. TODD.

[blocks in formation]

Nor of the Mufes nine, nor on the top

Of old Olympus dwell'ft; but, heavenly-born,] Taffo, in his invocation, has the fame fentiment, Gier. Lib. C. i, ft. 2.

Nor of the Mufes nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'ft; but, heavenly-born,
Before the hills appear'd, or fountain flow'd,
Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy fister, and with her didft play
In prefence of the Almighty Father, pleas'd

"O Mufa, tu, che di caduchi allori
"Non circondi la fronte in Helicona;
"Ma fù nel cielo infra i beati chori

"Hai di ftelle immortali aurea corona." THYER.

Ver. 7.

10

-old] Some would read "cold Olympus," as in B. i. 516. But Milton calls it old, as being famed of old and long celebrated. So, in B. i. 420, he fays" old Euphrates," and, in B. ii. 593, "Mount Cafius old." NEWTON.

Ver. 8. Before the hills appear'd, &c.] From Prov. viii. 24, 25, and 30, where the phrafe of Wifdom always rejoicing before God, is playing, according to the Vulgar Latin, "ludens coram eo omni tempore," to which Milton alludes, v. 10. And fo he quotes it likewife in his Tetrachordon: "God himself conceals not his own recreations before the world was built; I was, faith the eternal Wisdom, daily his delight, playing always before him." NEWTON. So Spenfer, in his Hymne of Heavenly Beautie, having described the throne of God, thus proceeds, v. 183.

"There in his bofom Sapience doth fit,

"The foveraine dearling of the Deity."

Mr. Dunster here agrees with me, in referring alfo to the opening of Taffo's Il Mondo Creato, where there is a prolix but well imagined addrefs to the Sapienza eterna:

"O (se n'è degno) il chiaro fuono ascolti

"Di lei, ch' ufcio da la Divina bocca
"De l'altiffimo Padre inanti al tempo

"De le cofe create; e feco alberga
"D'antica eternità gli eccelfi monti:
"Primogenita fua ne l'alta luce,

"A cui la mente humana afpira indarno," TODD,

With thy celeftial fong. Up led by thee
Into the Heaven of Heavens I have prefum'd,
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,
Thy tempering: with like fafety guided down 15

1

Ver. 14.

and drawn empyreal air,

Thy tempering:] This is faid in allufion to the difficulty of respiration on high mountains. This empyreal air was too pure and fine for him, but the heavenly Muse tempered and qualified it fo, as to make him capable of breathing in it: which is a modeft and beautiful way of bespeaking his reader to make favourable allowances for any failings he may have been guilty of, in treating of fo fublime a fubject. NEWTON.

Dr. Bentley makes himself very merry in his infulting manner, with the word tempering, and calls it the printer's blunder; but I think the following application of it in Spenfer may justify both printer and poet, Faerie Queene, ii. ii. 39.

"Thus fairly fhe attempered her feast,

"And pleas'd them all with meet fatiety."

But I agree with doctor Bentley that thee is better than thy tempering. THYER.

Milton's expreffion is fo far from being intended as apologetick for any failings in this part of his fubject, or conciliating favour towards his inadequate execution of it, that in my opinion it be fpeaks a decent confidence in the poet, that he had perfectly fucceeded in this most fublime and adventurous part of his subject. In closing his addrefs to the heavenly Mufe, he tells her that under her divine conduct he had fuccessfully adventured even into the third or highest Heaven, and had prefumed even to breathe that highly tempered air which he had tempered from eternity thus empyreally pure, and in which the herself refided with the Almighty Father. Having been fo far fuccefsful, he now prays her in like manner to guide him fafely back to his native element, by a due tranfition to the Creation of the world and mankind, the now fucceeding part of his fubject. This tranfition then is admirably effected by this poetical and devout invocation of the heavenly Mufe. DUNSTER.

Return me to my native element:

Left from this flying steed unrein'd, (as once Bellerophon, though from a lower clime,) Difmounted, on the Aleian field. I fall,

Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn.

20

Half yet remains unfung, but narrower bound Within the visible diurnal sphere;

Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole,

Ver. 18. Bellerophon, &c.] Pope remarks, that Milton has interwoven the offence of Bellerophon with Homer's relation of this valiant youth, in the fixth Iliad. Endeavouring to mount up to heaven on the winged horfe Pegafus, he fell upon the Aleian fields, where he wandered till he died. In Homer, his wanderings are attributed to a distracted mind. And doctor Newton obferves, that the plain truth of the story seems to be, that, in his latter days, he grew mad with his poetry; which Milton begs may never be his own cafe: "Left from this flying steed &c." And he says this, to distinguish his from the common Pegafus," above the flight of whose wing he foared," as he speaks, v. 4. TODD.

Ver. 21. Half yet remains unfung,] I understand this with Mr. Richardfon, that it is the half of the episode, not of the whole work, that is here meant; for, when the poem was divided into but ten books, that edition had this paffage at the beginning of the feventh as now. The epifode has two principal parts, the war in Heaven, and the new Creation; the one was fung, but the other remained unfung, and he is now entering upon it—but narrower bound. Bound here feems to be a participle as well as unfung. Half yet remains unfung; but this other half is not rapt so much into the invisible world as the former, it is confined in narrower compass, and bound within the visible sphere of day. NEWTON.

Ver. 23. rapt above the pole,] Poffibly with a reference, as in ver. 13, to St. Paul's account of his being caught up into the third Heaven, 11 Cor. xii. 2. But it must be noticed that the opening of The Columns in Sylvefter's Du Bartas exhibits the phrase, p. 286.

« PreviousContinue »