230 And such appeared in hue,] as when the force
Of subterranean wind transports a hill
Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side
Of thundering Etna, whose combustible
And fuelled entrails thence conceiving fire
235 Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds, |
And leave a singed bottom all involved

With stench and smoke :] such resting found the sole
Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate;
Both glorying to have 'scaped the Stygian flood
240 As gods, and by their own recovered strength,
Not by the sufferance of supernal Power. |

Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,]
[Said then the lost Archangel,] this the seat]

That we must change for Heaven: this mournful gloom] 245 For that celestial light ?] Be it so since he) Who now is Sovran, can dispose,) and bid]

:

What shall be right farthest from Him is best,|
Whom reason hath equalled, | force hath made supreme
Above his equals.] Farewell, happy fields, |
250 Where joy for ever dwells! | Hail, horrours | hail,
Infernal world! And thou, profoundest Hell,
Receive thy new possessour!-one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time:
The mind is its own place, and in itself
255 Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.]
What matter] where,] if I be still the same,
And) what I should be]-all but less) than He]
Whom thunder hath made greater? | Here at least
We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built

232. Pelorus, now Cape Faro, in Sicily. 235. Sublimed-Raised up by means of the molten minerals.

244. A very bold ellipse for, Is this the inournful gloom, which we must change for that celestial light?

248. Reason, to be read reas'n.

255. Factitive constructions-Gr. 76.

260 Here for his envy,❘ will not drive us hence :]
Here we may reign secure, and, in my choice,
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell :|
Better to reign in Hell,] than serve in Heaven!]
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
265 The associates and copartners of our loss,

Lie thus astonished on the oblivious pool,|
And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy mansion; or once more,
With rallied arms, to try] what may be yet
270 Regained in Heaven, ❘ or what more lost in Hell?]
So Satan spake, and him Beëlzebub

Thus answered. [Leader of those armies bright,]
Which, but the Omnipotent, none could have foiled! |
If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge
275 Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
Of battle) when it raged, | in all assaults
Their surest signal,) they will soon resume
New courage and revive ;] though now they lie
280 Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, |
As we erewhile, astounded and amazed ;]

No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth. |

He scarce had ceased, | when the superior Fiend Was moving toward the shore: his ponderous shield, 285 Ethereal temper, massy, large and round,

Behind him cast; | the broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, | whose orb
Through optick glass the Tuscan artist views

266. Oblivious, properly forgetful, here in the causative meaning, making forget, as in Shakspere's Macbeth,

"Come sweet oblivious antidote." The oblivious pool is introduced in imitation of Lethe.

282 Fallen such a pernicious highth-To fall a height is a rather unusual and bold expression, but need not be rejected with Bentley. Height is equivalent to depth, and

to fall a height is said in the same way as to run a distance. Analyse it thus: It is no wonder, as they are fallen such a pernicious height. Pernicious destructive.

284. His ponderous shield behind him cast.-Nomin. Absol.

288. Artist.-Astronomy was reckoned as one of the seven liberal arts. Hence Galileo is called artist.

At evening from the top of Fesolé, 290 Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,

Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. |
His spear,) to equal which the tallest pine,
Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the mast
Of some great ammiral, were but a wand, |
295 He walked with, to support uneasy steps

Over the burning marle, not like those steps
On Heaven's azure ;) and the torrid clime
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire :|
Nathless he so endured, | till on the beach
300 of that inflamed sea he stood, | and called
His legions, Angel forms,] who lay intranced
Thick as autumnal leaves] that strow the brooks
In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades,
High over-arched, imbower; | or scattered sedge
305 Afloat,] when with fierce winds Orion armed

Hath vexed the Red-Sea coast, | whose waves o'erthrew
Busiris and his Memphian chivalry,

While with perfidious hatred they pursued

The sojourners of Goshen, | who beheld

310 From the safe shore their floating carcasses

And broken chariot wheels | so thick bestrown,
Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change. [
He called so loud, | that all the hollow deep
[Princes, potentates,

315 Of Hell resounded! |

292. To equal which, i.e., to compare with which.

294. Ammiral, i.e., ship.

296. Read, Steps not like those on heaven's azure.

299. Nathless, nevertheless.

304. Imbower.-used without an Object. as an Intrans. verb. See 259, Note.

304. Or (thick as) scattered sedge, 299 to 311, is an uninterrupted string of ten sentences, the last seven of which are sub

ordinate each to its predecessor.
heavy drag.

A very

305. The constellation Orion, according to the classical conception, is represented as causing storms.

307. The Busiris of classical antiquity, the type of a cruel tyrant, is identified here with the Pharaoh of Scripture.

311. Bestrown.-Here it means scattered; but properly the thing bestrown is the ground, on which things are scattered, not the things themselves.

Warriours, the flower of Heaven! once yours, now lost,]
If such astonishment) as this] can seize

Eternal Spirits!) or have ye chosen this place
After the toil of battle to repose

320 Your wearied virtue, for the ease) you find]
To slumber here as in the vales of Heaven ?)
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn
To adore the Conquerour? who now beholds
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood,

325 With scattered arms and ensigns; | till anon
His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern
The advantage, and, descending, tread us down
Thus drooping,] or with linked thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf?]

330 Awake,] arise,] or be for ever fallen !]

They heard, and were abashed,] and up they sprung
Upon the wing; as when men, wont to watch
On duty, sleeping found) by whom they dread, |
Rouse and bestir themselves) ere well awake.]

335 Nor did they not perceive the evil plight|

In which they were, ❘ or the fierce pains not feel ;]
Yet to their General's voice they soon obeyed,
Innumerable. As when the potent rod

Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day,

340 Waved round the coast, | up called a pitchy cloud
Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind,]
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like night, | and darkened all the land of Nile :]
So numberless were those bad Angels seen
345 Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell,
'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires ;|
Till, at a signal given, the up-lifted spear

316. Lost and if must be connected. 333. By whom they dread-A Graecism for by one whom they dread.

337. The Dative with obey is not a Latinism; it occurs in Chaucer and Spenser.

338. The double negative for the affirmative is a Latinism.

341. Warping.-Working themselves forward-a nautical term.

347. Spear in Apposition with signal.

Of their great Sultan waving to direct

Their course, in even balance down they light 350 On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain; A multitude,] like which the populous North Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass

Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons Came like a deluge on the south, | and spread 355 Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands.]

Forthwith from every squadron and each band,
The heads and leaders thither haste,) where stood
Their great Commander; | Godlike shapes and forms
Excelling human; princely Dignities

360 And Powers) that erst in Heaven sat on thrones ; |
Though of their names in heavenly records now
Be no memorial; blotted out and rased
By their rebellion from the books of life. |
Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve

365 Got them new names; till wandering o'er the earth,
Through God's high sufferance, for the trial of man,
By falsities and lies, the greatest part
Of mankind they corrupted to forsake
God their Creator, and the invincible

370 Glory of him) that made them to transform
Oft to the image of a brute, adorned

With gay religions, full of pomp and gold,
And Devils to adore for Deities :)

Then were they known to men by various names, 375 And various idols through the Heathen world. |

351. A multitude.-This is the fourth illustration of the vastness of the number of the fallen angels, and a fifth is added, 354. Multitude in Appos. with they.

351. Like which-A Latinism, intended to render qualem, which we should render by such as.

355. Does beneath mean southwards, or at the foot?

358. Godlike shapes, &c., in Apposition with heads and leaders. The addition of

excelling human, after godlike shapes and forms is epic redundance, and not to be condemned with Bentley.

361. See Psalm ix. 5, 6.

367. Falsities and lies.-Bentley's suggestion, to read wiles for lies, to get rid of the tautology, is very ingenious.

372. Religions-Religious rites, like the Latin religiones.

373. And to adore devils for destres, go verned by corrupted, 368.