Unspeakable; for who, though with the tongue Of angels, can relate, or to what things Of Godlike pow'r? for likest gods they seem'd, Now wav'd their fiery swords, and in the air 300 Made horrid circles; two broad suns their shields 305 In horror; from each hand with speed retir'd, 298. -can relate, &c.] The accusative case after the verbs relate and liken is fight before mentioned, and here understood. For who though with the tongue of angels can relate that fight, or to what conspicuous things on earth can liken it, so conspicuous as to lift human imagination &c. A general battle is a scene of too much confusion, and therefore the poets relieve themselves and their readers by drawing now and then a single combat between some of their principal heroes, as between Paris and Menelaus, Hector and Ajax, Hector and Achilles in the Iliad, and between Turnus and Pallas, Eneas and Mezentius, Turnus and Æneas in the Eneid; and 310 very fine they are, but fall very short of the sublimity of this description. 306. —while expectation stood In horror ;] Expectation is personified in the like sublime manner in Shakespeare, Hen. V. act ii. For now sits expectation in the air. 313. Two planets &c.] Milton seems to have taken the hint of this simile from that of Virgil, but varied and applied to his subject with his usval judgment. Æn. viii. 691. -pelago credas innare revulsas Cycladas, aut montes concurrere montibus altos. But (as Mr. Thyer observes) he has lessened the grandeur and sublimity of this simile by tar Of fiercest opposition in mid sky Should combat, and their jarring spheres confound. 315 nishing it with the idle superstitious notion of the malignancy of planets in a particular aspect or opposition, as the judicial astrologers term it. 316. Together both with next to' almighty arm Up-lifted imminent,] So I conceive the passage should be pointed with the comma after imminent, and not after arm, that the words up-lifted imminent may be joined in construction with arm, rather than with stroke or they following. The arm was quite lifted up, and hanging over just ready to fall. One thinks one sees it hanging almost like the stone in Virgil, En. vi. 602. 320 Was giv'n him temper'd so, that neither keen Nor solid might resist that edge: it met The sword of Satan with steep force to smite Descending, and in half cut sheer ; This passage is a copy of that in Virgil, wherein the poet tells us, that the sword of Eneas, which was given him by a deity, broke into pieces the sword of Turnus, which came from a mortal forge. As the moral in this place is divine, so by the way we may observe, that the bestowing on a man who is favoured by heaven such an allegorical weapon, is very conformable to the old eastern way of thinking. Not only Homer has made use of it, Quos super atra silex jam jam lap- but we find the Jewish hero sura cadentique Imminet assimilis. 321. from the armoury of God] Milton, notwithstanding the sublime genius he was master of, has in this book drawn to his assistance all the helps he could meet with among the ancient poets. The sword of Michael, which makes so great a havoc among the bad angels, was given him, we are told, out of the armoury of God, in the book of Maccabees, 2 Maccab. xv. 15, 16. who had fought the battles of the chosen people with so much glory and success, receiving in his dream a sword from the hand of the prophet Jeremiah. Addison. Tasso likewise mentions the armoury of God, cant. vii. st. 80. But this account of Michael's sword seems to be copied from Arthegal's in Spenser's Faery Queen, b. v. cant. i. st. 10. с с 2 Was given him temper'd so, that neither keen For of most perfect metal it was made, And was of no less virtue, than of fame. For there no substance was so firm and hard, But it would pierce or cleave, whereso it came ; Ne any armour could his dint outward, But wheresoever it did light it throughly shar'd. And this word shared is used in the same manner by Milton. 325. —and in half cut sheer;] We have here a fair opportunity to observe how finely great geniuses imitate one another. There is a most beautiful passage in Homer's Iliad. iii. 363. where the sword of Menelaus in a duel with Paris breaks in pieces in his hand; and the line in the original is so contrived, that we do not only see the action, as Eustathius remarks, but almost fancy we hear the sound of the breaking sword in the sound of the words, Τριχία τε και τετραχία διατρυφιν εκ πεσε χειρος. As this kind of beauty could hardly be equalled by Virgil, he has with great judgment substituted another of his own, and has artfully made a break in the verse to express the breaking short off the sword of Turnus against the divine armour of Eneas, Æn. xii. 731, &c. -at perfidus ensis Frangitur, in medioque ardentem deserit ictu. 325 And this beauty being more imitable in our language than the τριχθα τε και τετραχθα of Homer, the excellent translator of Homer has here rather copied Virgil than translated Homer. The brittle steel, unfaithful to his hand, Broke short: the fragments glit ter'd on the sand. The sword of Satan is broken as well as those of Paris and Turnus, but is broken in a different manner, and consequently a different kind of beauty is proper here. Their's broke short, and were shattered into various frag. ments; but the sword of Michael was of that irresistible sharpness, that it cut the sword of Satan quite and clean in two, and the dividing of the sword in half is very well expressed by half a verse, as likewise the word descending is placed admirably to express the sense. The reader cannot read it over again without perceiving this beauty. Neither does Milton stop here, but carries on beauties of the same But with swift wheel reverse, deep ent'ring shar'd A stream of necta'rous humour issuing flow'd kind to the description of the wound, and the verses seem almost painful in describing Satan's pain, -deep ent'ring shar'd All his right side: then Satan first knew pain, And writh'd him to and fro convolv'd; so sore The griding sword with discontinu ous wound Pass'd through him. 329. The griding sword with discontinuous wound] Discontinuous wound is said in allusion to the old definition of a wound, that it separates the continuity of the parts, vulnus est solutio continui: and griding is an old word for cutting, and used in Spenser, as in Faery Queen, b. ii. cant. viii. st. 36. That through his thigh the mortal steel did gride. 332. A stream of nectarous humour issuing flow'd Sanguine,] The passage wherein Satan is described as wounded by the sword of Michael is in imitation of Homer. Homer tells us, that upon Diomedes wounding the gods, there flowed from the 331 335 By angels many and strong, who interpos'd 340 Yet soon he heal'd; for spi'rits that live throughout Vital in every part, not as frail man 345 In entrails, heart or head, liver or reins, Cannot but by annihilating die; Nor in their liquid texture mortal wound 336. -who interpos'd] Thus Homer makes the chief of the Trojans interpose between their wounded hero when he was overborne by Ajax. Satan lighted out of his sun-bright chariot at ver. 103. and according to the Homeric manner, is now wounded, and borne (on the shields of Seraphim) back to it, where it was placed out of the range and array of battle, Iliad. xiv. 428. —Τον δ' αρ' ἑταιροι Xigoir augarris Digor in wovou, ofg' ἱκεθ ίππους Ωκιας, οἱ οἱ οπισθε μαχης ηδε πτολέμοιο Εστασαν, ἡνιοχοντε και άρματα ποικιλ $XOVTES, &C. much more loose and redundant than our expressive author. Hume. 344. for spirits that live throughout &c.] Our author's reason for Satan's healing so soon is better than Homer's upon a like occasion, as we quoted it just now. 848. Nor in their liquid texture The same comparison in Shakespeare, Macbeth, act v. As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed. |