A kingdom they portend thee, but what kingdom,
Real or allegoric I discern not,
Nor when, eternal fure, as without end,
Without beginning; for no date prefix'd
Directs me in the' ftarry rubric fet.

power

395

So fay'ing he took (for still he knew his
Not yet expir'd) and to the wilderness
Brought back the Son of God, and left him there,
Feigning to disappear. Darkness now rose,
As day-light funk, and brought in louring night
Her fhadowy ofspring, unfubftantial both,

390

Privation

'Gan thunder, and both ends of Heav'n, the clouds &c.

It thunder'd from both tropics,
that is perhaps from the right and
from the left. The Ancients had
very different opinions concern-
ing the right and the left fide of
the world. Plutarch fays, that
Ariftotle, Plato, and Pythagoras
were of opinion, that the eaft is
the right fide, and the weft the
that the right fide is towards the
left; but that Empedocles held
fummer tropic, and the left to-
wards the winter tropic. IIulα-
γορας, Πλατων, Αριςοτέλης, δεξια τε
oμg ta avtokina μefn, ap wo i
αρχη
αριστερα δε,
δυτικά. Εμπεδοκλης δεξία μεν
του θερινου τροπικον α-

της

κινήσεως·

Tu

Ta

xaTa

Ple%

Privatión mere of light and absent day.
Our Saviour meek and with untroubled mind
After his aery jaunt, though hurried fore,
Hungry and cold betook him to his reft,
Wherever, under fome concourse of shades,
Whose branching arms thick intertwin'd might
fhield

405

400

From dews and damps of night his shelter'd head,
But shelter'd slept in vain, for at his head
The Tempter watch'd, and foon with ugly dreams
Disturb'd his fleep; and either tropic now

T101 οιούται

Id.

ρίτερα δε τα κατα τον χειμερινον.
De Placit. Philof. II. 10. Ayuπ-
τα μεν έωα, το κοσμε
προσωπου ειναι, τα δε προ βοῤῥαν,
δεξια, τα δε προς νότον αριςερα.
de Ifid. p. 363. If by either tropic
be meant the right fide and the
left, by both ends of Heav'n may be
understood, before and behind. I
know it may be objected, that the
tropics cannot be the one the right
fide, and the other the left, to
those who are placed without the
tropics: but I do not think that
objection to be very material. I
have another expofition to offer,
which is thus: It thundered all
along the Heav'n, from the north
pole to the tropic of Cancer, from
thence to the tropic of Capricorn,
from thence to the fouth pole.

409

'Gan

'Gan thunder, and both ends of Heav'n, the clouds From many a horrid rift abortive pour'd Fierce ran with lightning mix'd, water with fire . In ruin reconcil'd: nor flept the winds Within their ftony caves, but rush'd abroad From the four hinges of the world, and fell On the vex'd wilderness, whose tallest pines,

ferving Milton's own punctuation,
unless there be very good reafon
for departing from it, and I under-
ftand the paffage thus: and either
tropic now 'gan thunder, it thunder-
ed from the north and from the
fouth, for this I conceive to be
Milton's meaning, tho' the expref-
fion is inaccurate, the fituation of
our Saviour and Satan being not
within the tropics: and both ends
of Heav'n, that is, and from or at
both ends of Heav'n, the præpo-
fition being omitted, as is frequent
in Milton, and feveral inftances
were given in the notes on the Pa-
radife Loft. See particularly Dr.
'Pearce's note on I. 282. and from
both ends of Heav'n, the clouds &c.
This ftorm is defcrib'd very much
like one in Taffo, which was raif-
ed in the fame manner by evil
Spirits. See Canto 7. St. 114,
115. for I would not lengthen this
note, .too long already with the
quotation.

415

415. From the four hinges of the

world,] That is from the four cardinal points, the word cardines fignifying both the one and the other. This, as was obferved before, is a poetical tempeft like that in Virgil. Æn. I. 85.

Unà Eurufque Notufque ruunt,
creberque procellis
Africus.

412.

water with fire In ruin reconcil'd:] That is, joining together to do hurt. Warburton. And as Mr. Thyer adds, tho' fuch

ftorms

Though rooted deep as high, and sturdieft oaks
Bow'd their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts,
Or torn up fheer: ill waft thou fhrouded then,
O patient Son of God, yet only stood'st
Unfhaken; nor yet ftay'd the terror there,
Infernal ghosts, and hellish furies, round [fhriek'd,
Environ'd thee, fome howl'd, fome yell'd, fome
Some

ftorms are unknown to us in these parts of the world, yet the accounts we have of hurricanes in the Indies agree pretty much with them.

417. Though rooted deep as high,] Virgil Georg. II. 291. Æn. IV.

445.

quantum vertice ad auras thereas, tantum radice in Tartara tendit. Richardson.

420,

・yet only food' ft Unfhaken; &c.] Milton feems to have raised this fcene out of what he found in Eufebius de Dem. Evan. Lib. 9. Vol. 2. p. 434. Ed. Col.] The learned father obferves, that Chrift was tempted forty days and the fame number of nights Kai Tep μspais τεσσαρακοντα, και τρις τοσαυταις νυξιν επειράζετο. And to thefe night temptations he applies what is faid in the 91ft Pfalm, v. 5. and 6. Ου φοβηθήση απο φο6ε νυκλεζινε, Thou shalt not be afraid for any terror by night, ATо @gayμat E OHOTEL Siaπogevoμerov, nor for the

420

danger that walketh in darkness. The first is thus paraphras'd in the Targum, (tho' with a meaning very different from Eufebius's) Non timebis à timore Dæmonum qui ambulant in nocte. The Fiends furround our Redeemer with their threats and terrors; but they have no effect.

Infernal ghofts, and Hellish furies, round Environ'd thee, This too is from Eufebius, [ibid. p. 435.] Επειπες εν τῷ πειράζειν δυναμεις ποιηςαι εκυκλων αυτον quoniam dum tentabatur, malignæ poteftates illum circumftabant. And their repulfe, it feems, is predicted in the 7th verfe of this Pfalm: A thousand shall fall befide thee, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Calton. 422. Infernal ghosts, &c.] This taken from the legend or the pictures of St. Anthony's temptation. Warburton. This defcription is taken from a print which I have feen of the temptation of St. Anthony. Fortin. 426.-till

Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou
Satft unappall'd in calm and finless
peace. 425
Thus pafs'd the night so foul, till morning fair ́
Came forth with pilgrim fteps in amice gray,
Who with her radiant finger still'd the roar
Of thunder, chas'd the clouds, and laid the winds,
And grifly spectres, which the Fiend had rais'd 430
To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.
And now the fun with more effectual beams
Had chear'd the face of earth, and dry'd the wet
From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,
Who all things now behold more fresh and green,
After a night of storm so ruinous,
Clear'd up their choicest notes in bush and spray

436

426. till morning fair Came forth &c] As there is a ftorm raised by evil Spirits in Taffo as well as in Milton, fo a fine morning fucceeds after the one as well as after the other. See Taffo Cant. 8. St. 1. But there the morning comes with a forehead of rofe, and with a foot of gold; con la fronte di rofe, e co' piè d'oro; here with pilgrim fteps in amice gray, as Milton describes her progrefs more leifurely, firft the gray morning, and afterwards the fun rifing: with pilgrim fteps, with the flow folemn pace of a pilgrim on a journey of

To

devotion; in amice gray, in gray cloathing; amice, a proper and fignificant word, derived from the Latin amicio to clothe, and used by Spenfer, Faery Queen. B. 1. Cant. 4. St. 18.

Array'd in habit black, and amice thin,

Like to an holy monk, the fervice to begin.

428. Who with her radiant finger ftill'd the roar

Of thunder, chas'd the clouds, &c] This is a very pretty imitation of a paffage in the firft Eneid of Vir