With noises loud and ruinous (to compare

Great things with small) than when Bellona storms,
With all her battering engines bent to rase

Some capital city'; or less than if this frame
Of heav'n were falling, and these elements
In mutiny had from her axle torn

The stedfast earth. At last his sail-broad vans
He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke
Uplifted spurns the ground; thence many a league,
As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides
Audacious; but that seat soon failing, meets

925

930

before us, wings are likened to sails, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. xi. st. 10.

His flaggy wings when forth he did display,

Were like two sails.

921. -(to compare Great things with small)] An expression in Virg. Ecl. i. 24. parvis componere magna. And what an idea doth this give us of the noises of Chaos, that even those of a city besieged, and of And afterwards, st. 18. heaven and earth running from each other, are but small in comparison? And though both the similitudes are truly excellent and sublime, yet how surprisingly doth the latter rise above

the former!

927. —his sail-broad vans] As the air and water are both fluids, the metaphors taken from the one are often applied to the other, and flying is compared to sailing, and sailing to flying.

-he cutting way

With his broad sails, about him soared round.

927. This idea Milton had used before, of the English dragon Superstition, gon Superstition, "this mighty sail-winged monster." Ch. Government, b. ii. Conclus. Proseworks, vol. i. 74. And the monster in Ariosto, which fights with Bayards, has wings, che parean duo vele. Orl. Fur. xxxiii. 84. T. Warton.

A vast vacuity: all unawares

Fluttering his pennons vain plumb down he drops
Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour

Down had been falling, had not by ill chance
The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud,
Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
As many miles aloft: that fury stay'd,
Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea,

Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on he fares,
Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,
Half fly'ing; behoves him now both oar and sail.
As when a griffon through the wilderness

:

933. -pennons] This word is vulgarly spelt pinions, and so Dr. Bentley has printed it but the author spells it pennons after the Latin penna. The reader will observe the beauty of the numbers here without our pointing it out to him.

935. had not by ill chance] An ill chance for mankind, that he was thus speeded on his journey so far. Pearce.

938. that fury stay'd, &c.] That fiery rebuff ceased, quenched and put out by a soft quicksand: Syrtis is explained by neither sea nor good dry land, exactly agreeing with Lucan, Phar. ix. 304.

Syrtes-in dubio pelagi terræque reliquit.

Hume.

941. half on foot, Half flying;] Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. cant.

xi. st. 8.

Half flying, and half footing in his haste.

935

940

Our author seems to have bor-
rowed several images from the
old dragon described by Spenser.

942. behoves him now both
oar and sail.] It behoveth him
now to use both his oars and his

sails, as galleys do; according
to the proverb remis velisque,
with might and main. Hume.

943. As when a griffon &c.]
Satan half on foot, half flying, in
quest of the new world, is here
compared to a griffon with
winged course both flying and
running in pursuit of the Ari-
maspian who had stolen his gold.
Griffons are fabulous creatures,
in the upper part like an eagle,
in the lower resembling a lion,
and are said to guard gold mines.
The Arimaspians were a one-
eyed people of Scythia who
adorned their hair with gold,
Lucan, iii. 280.

Hinc et Sithoniæ gentes, auroque
ligatas

Substringens Arimaspe comas.

Herodotus and other authors re

With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale,
Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth
Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd
The guarded gold: so eagerly the fiend

945

O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet his way, pursues his

And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies: 950
At length a universal hubbub wild

Of stunning sounds and voices all confus'd,
Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear
With loudest vehemence: thither he'plies,
Undaunted to meet there whatever power
Or spirit of the nethermost abyss

late, that there were continual wars between the griffons and Arimaspians about gold, the griffons guarding it, and Arimaspians taking it whenever they had opportunity. See Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vii. cap. 2. Arimaspi, quos diximus, uno oculo in fronte media insignes: quibus assiduè bellum esse circa metalla cum gryphis, ferarum volucri genere, quale vulgo traditur, eruente ex cuniculis aurum, mirè cupiditate et feris custodientibus, et Arimaspis rapientibus, multi, sed maxime illustres Herodotus et Aristeas Proconnesius scribunt.

948. O'er bog, or steep, &c.] Dr. Bentley's reading is not amiss O'er bog, o'er steep, &c. The difficulty of Satan's voyage is very well expressed by so many monosyllables as follow, which cannot be pronounced but slowly, and with frequent pauses. There is a memorable

955

instance of the roughness of a road admirably described by a single verse in Homer, Iliad. xxiii. 116.

Пadvarta, xatarta, Tagayta τε, δοχμια τ', ηλέον, which Mr. Pope has been obliged to translate paraphrastically to give us some idea of the beauty of the numbers, and he has made use of several monosyllables, as Milton has done.

O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks they go;

Jumping, high o'er the shrubs of the rough ground,

Rattle the clatt'ring cars, and the

shock'd axles bound.

And as Mr. Thyer adds, so also Spenser in the same manner represents the distress of his Redcrosse Knight in his encounter with the old dragon, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. xi. st. 28.

Faint, weary, sore, embroiled, griev ed, brent,

With heat, toil, wounds, arms, smart, and inward fire.

Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask

Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies
Bord'ring on light; when straight behold the throne

Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread

Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthron'd

Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things,

The consort of his reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name

962. Sat sable-vested Night,] Μελαμπέπλος δε Νυξ. Euripides. Hume.

Milton here and in what follows seems to have had in his view Spenser's fine description of Night, which is very much in the taste of this allegory of Milton's. See Faery Queen, b. i. cant. v. st. 20.

Where grisly Night, &c. 964. Orcus and Ades,] Orcus is generally by the poets taken for Pluto, as Ades for any dark place. These terms are of a very vague signification, and employed by the ancient poets accordingly. Milton has personized them, and put them in the court of Chaos. Richardson. 964. and the dreaded name Of Damogorgon ;] There was a notion among the ancients of a certain deity, whose very name they supposed capable of producing the most terrible effects, and which they therefore dreaded to pronounce. This deity is mentioned as of great power in incantations. Thus Erictho is introduced, threatening the infernal powers for being too slow in their obedience by Lucan, Phar. vi. 744.

VOL. I.

Paretis? an ille

960

Of Damogorgon; Rumour next and Chance, And Tumult and Confusion all embroil'd,