5 PARADISE LOST. B 0 0 K VII. D Escend from Heav'n, Urania, by that name Following, above the Olympian hill I foar, The meaning, not the name I call: for thou - on the snowy top Nor fam'd of old and long celebrated, as he says old Euphrates, I. 420. and mount Cafius old, II. 593. His heavenly Muse was before the hills, which were from the beginning, as it follows. 1. Descend from Heav'n, Urania,] Descende cœlo, Hor. Od. III. IV. 1. but here it is better apply'd, as now his subject leads him from Heaven and snowy is an epithet often given to Earth. The word Urania in to this mountain by the ancient Greek fignifies heav'nly; and he poets: but he calls it old, that is invokes the heav'nly Muse as he had done before, I. 6. and as he had faid in the beginning that he intended to foar above th Aonian mount, so now he says very truly that he had effected what he intended, and foars above th Olympian hill, above the flight of Pegaféan wing, that is his fubject was more fublime than the loftieft flights of the Heathen poets. Dr. Bentley proposes Parnassus inftead of Olympus, but the mountain Olympus is likewise celebrated for the feat of the Muses, who were therefore called Olympiades, as in Homer, Iliad II. 491. Ολυμ πια Γες Μέσαι. And some would read cold Olympus, as in I. 516. 5. - for thou Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top Of old Olympus dwell'st, but heav'nly born,] Tasso in his invocation has the same sentiment. Gier. Lib. Cant. 1. St. 2. O Musa, tu, che di caduchi allori A 3 rona. 8. Before Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top printer and poet, Fairy Queen, B. 2. Cant. 2. St. 39. Thus fairly she attempered her feast, And pleas'd them all with meet satiety. 8 Before the hills appear'd, or fountain flow'd, &c.] From Prov. VIII. 24, 25, 30. When there were no depths, 1 was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water: Before the mountains were fettled, before the hills was I brought forth: Then was I by him as one brought up with him; and I was daily bis delight, rejoicing always be fore him, or playing according to the ration on high mountains. This Vulgar Latin (ludens coram eo omni tempore) to which Milton alludes, when he says and with her didst play &c. And fo he quotes it likewife in his Tetrachordon, p. 222. Vol. I. Edit. 1738. "God himself conceals not his own recreations before " the world was built; I was, faith "the eternal Wifdom, daily his de" light, playing always before him." 14 I agree with the Doctor that thee is better than thy temp'ring. Thyer. 15 Thy temp'ring;] This is faid in allufion to the difficulty of refpiempyreal air was too pure and fine for him, but the heavenly Muse temper'd and qualify'd it so as to make him capable of breathing in it: which is a modest and beautiful way of bespeaking his reader to make favorable allowances for any failings he may have been guilty of in treating of so sublime a fubject. 17. (as once and drawn empyreal air, Bellerophon, &c.] Bellerophon Thy temp'ring;] Dr. Bentley makes was a beautiful and valiant youth, himself very merry in his insulting son of Glaucus; who refufing the manner, with the word temp'ring, amorous applications of Antea wife and calls it the printer's blunder; of Prætus king of Argos, was by but I think the following application her false suggestions like those of of it in Spenfer may justify both Joseph's mittress to her husband, fent An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air, Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound 15 20 Within fent into Lycia with letters defiring his destruction; where he was put on several enterprises full of hazard, in which however he came off con It is thus translated by Cicero in his third book of Tusculan Difputations. Qui mifer in campis mærens errabat Aleis, tigia vitans. queror: but attempting vain-glo- Ipfe fuum cor edens, hominum vefrioufly to mount up to Heaven on the winged horse Pegasus, he fell and wander'd in the Aleian plains till he died. Hume and Richardfon. His story is related at large in the fixth book of Homer's Iliad; but it is to the latter part of it that Milton chiefly alludes, ver. 200. &c. Ήτοι ὁ καππεδιον το Αληίον οιος αλατο, πων αλεείνων. But when at last, distracted in his mind, Forsook by Heav'n, forsaking human kind, 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. Не fays this to diftinguith his from the common Pegasus, above the flight of whose wing he foared, as he fpeaks, ver. 4. 21. Half yet remains unfung.] [ understand this with Mr. Richardton, The Ὁν θυμον κατεδων, πατὸν ἀνθρω- that 'tis the half of the epifode, not of the whole work, that is here meant; for when the poem was divided into but ten books, that edition had this passage at the beginning of the seventh as now. episode has two principal parts, the war in Heaven, and the new creation; the one was fung, but the other remained unfung, and he is Pope. now entring upon it. -bat narrower A 4 bound. Wide o'er th' Aleian field he chose to stray, A long, forlorn, uncomfortable way. Within the visible diurnal sphere ; More fafe I fing with mortal voice, unchang'd : To hoarfe or mute, though fall'n on evil days, 25 Urania, and fit audience find, though few. 30 But bound. Bound here seems to be a supposes; and then all is good sense, participle as well as unfung. Half and there will be no need to read yet remains unsung; but this other with the Doctor, To hoarse or low. half is not rapt so much into the Pearce. invisible world as the former, it is confin'd in narrower compass, and bound within the visible sphere of day. 24. More safe I fing with mortal voice, unchang'd To hoarse or mute,] Dr. Bentley reads with lofty voice. Why mortal voice? fays the Doctor. I answer, because Milton had faid in ver. 2. that he had follow'd Urania's voice divine. Again (fays the Doctor) if his voice had grown hearse, would it not have been still mortal? and what is a voice changed to mute? Both these questions are fatisfy'd by putting only a comma, as in the first editions, (not a colon, as the Doctor has done) after mute. The words unchang'd to boarse or mute refer to I, and not to voice, as he 25.- though fall'n on evil days,] The repetition and turn of the words is very beautiful, - though fall'n on evil days, On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues; &c. A lively picture this in a few lines of the poet's wretched condition. In darkness, though is still understood; he was not become hoarse or mute though in darkness, though he was blind, and with dangers compass'd round, and folitude, obnoxious to the government, and having a world of enemies among the royal party, and therefore oblig'd to live very much in privacy and alone. And what strength of mind was it, that could not only fupport him under the weight of these misfortunes, but enable But drive far off the barbarous dissonance The affable Arch-Angel, had forewarn'd ble him to foar to such highths, as no 33. Of Bacchus and his revelers,] It is not improbable that the poet intended this as an oblique fatir upon the diffoluteness of Charles the second and his court; from whom he feems to apprehend the fate of Orpheus, a famous poet of Thrace, who tho' he is faid to have charm'd woods and rocks with his divine fongs, yet was torn to pieces by the Bacchanalian women on Rhodope a mountain of Thrace, nor could the Muse Calliope his mother defend him. So fail not thou, who thee implores; nor was his with ineffectual, for the government suffer'd him to live and die unmolefted. i 35 40 Adam 40.- what ensued when Raphaël, &c.] Longinus has observed, that there may be a loftiness in sentiments, where there is no passion, and brings instances out of ancient authors to fupport this his opinion. The pathetic, as that great critic observes, may animate and inflame the fublime, but is not essential to it. Accordingly, as he further remarks, we very often find that those who excel most in stirring up the passions, very often want the talent of writing in the great and fublime manner, and so on the contrary. Milton has shown himself a mafter in both these ways of writing. The seventh book, which we are now entring upon, is an instance of that sublime, which is not mixed and worked up with passion. The author appears in a kind of composed and fedate majesty; and tho' the sentiments do not give so great an emotion, as those in the former book, they abound |