Within their stony caves, but rush'd abroad 415 420 Complêrunt, magno indignantur learned father observes, that murmure clausi Nubibus. Dunster. 415. From the four hinges of the world,] That is, from the four cardinal points, the word cardines signifying both the one and the other. This, as was observed before, is a poetical tempest like that in Virgil, Æn. i. 85. Unà Eurusque Notusque ruunt, cre- And as Mr. Thyer adds, though 417. Though rooted deep as high,] Virgil, Georg. ii. 291. Æn. iv. 445. -quantum vertice ad auras Ethereas, tantum radice in Tartara tendit. Richardson. Christ was tempted forty days and the same number of nights Και επειδήπερ ημεραις τεσσαρα novтa, xai Tais ToσAUTAIS VUŽIV ETSIGA(ro. And to these night temptations he applies what is said in the ninety-first Psalm, v. 5 and 6. Ov Polninon año Pobov vuxtegivov, Thou shalt not be afraid for any terror by night, -απο πραγματος εν σκοτεί διαπορευομενον, nor for the danger that walketh in darkness. The first is thus paraphrased in the Targum, (though with a meaning very different from Eusebius's,) Non timebis à timore Dæmonum qui ambulant in noote. The fiends surround our Redeemer with their threats and terrors; but they have no effect. Infernal ghosts, and hellish furies, round Environ'd thee. This too is from Eusebius, [ibid. p. 435.] Επείπερ εν τῷ πειράζειν δε ναμεις ποιηραι εκυκλουν αυτον. quoniam dum tentabatur, malignæ potestates illum circumsta-bant. And their repulse, it seems, is predicted in the seventh verse of this Psalm: A thousand shall fall beside thee, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Calton. Infernal ghosts, and hellish furies, round Environ'd thee, some howl'd, some yell'd, some shriek'd, 422. Infernal ghosts, &c.] This is taken from the legend or the pictures of St. Anthony's temptation. Warburton. From a print which I have seen of the temptation of St. Anthony. Jortin. In these lines our author copies Fairfax's Tasso, c. xv. 67. You might have heard, how through the palace wide, Some spirits howl'd, some bark'd, some hist, some cride. It is where Armida, returning to destroy her palace, assembles her attendant spirits in a storm. Indeed, the circumstances and behaviour of Christ in this haunted wilderness, are exactly like those of the Christian champions in Tasso's inchanted forest, who calmly view, and without resistance, the threats and attacks of a surrounding group of the most horrid demons. See c. xiii. 28, 35. Milton adds, Some bent at thee their fiery darts, T. Warton. 424. their fiery darts,] Eph. vi. 16. the fiery darts of the wicked. The contrast which the next line, Sat'st unappall'd &c. gives to the preceding description of the horrors of the storm, has a singularly fine effect. Dunster. 426. till morning fair 425 As there is a storm raised by evil spirits in Tasso as well as in Milton, so a fine morning succeeds after the one as well as after the other. See Tasso, cant. viii. st. 1. But there the morn ing comes with a forehead of rose, and with a foot of gold; con la fronte di rose, e co' piè d'oro; here with pilgrim steps in amice gray, as Milton describes her progress more leisurely, first the gray morning, and afterwards the sun rising: with pilgrim steps, with the slow solemn pace of a pilgrim on a journey of devotion; in amice gray, in gray clothing; amice, a proper and significant word, derived from the Latin amicio to clothe, and used by Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. iv. st. 18. Array'd in habit black, and amice Came forth with pilgrim steps in amice gray, Not dissimilar is the justly admired description of evening coming on, Par. Lost, iv. 598. Now came still Evening on, and twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad. 480 428. Who with her radiant finger still'd the roar Of thunder, chas'd the clouds, &c.] This is a very pretty imitation Sic ait, et dicto citius tumida æquora reducit. There is the greater beauty in the English poet, as the scene he is describing under this charming figure is perfectly consistent with the course of nature, nothing being more common than to see a stormy night succeeded by a pleasant serene morning. Thyer. We have here the ῥοδοδάκτυλος Homer and Hesiod; but the Has, the rosy-fingered Aurora of image, which in them is only pleasing, is here almost sublime. Dunster. injudicious to retail this popular 430. And grisly spectres,] Very superstition in this place. War burton. 432. And now the sun &c.] the bloom of Milton's youthful There is in this description all fancy. See an evening scene of the same kind in the Paradise Lost, ii. 488. Had cheer'd the face of earth, and dried the wet Who all things now behold more fresh and green, 435 Clear'd up The prince of darkness, glad would also seem As when from mountain tops &c. Thyer. Compare also part of Spenser's Sonnet xl. is ➡the fair sunshine in summer's day, At sight whereof each bird that sits And every beast that to his den was fled, Came forth afresh out of their late dismay, And to the light lift up their drooping head. rage, 440 445 435. Who all things now behold] Doth not the syntax require, that we should rather read Who all things now beheld? 449.-in wonted shape,] That is, in his own proper shape, and not under any disguise, as at each of the former times when he appeared to our Lord. He comes now hopeless of success, without device or disguise, and, as the And the following stanza in poet expressly says, When, goddess, thou lift'st up thy Out of the morning's purple bed, Desperate of better course, to vent his rage And mad despite to be so oft repell'd. P And in a careless mood thus to him said. 450 Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God, After a dismal night; I heard the wrack As earth and sky would mingle; but myself Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them As dang'rous to the pillar'd frame of heaven, Mr. Dunster may be right in this; but there is perhaps an obscurity as to the degree of concealment assumed by Satan at different periods in the course of these temptations, which we shall in vain endeavour to clear up. At first indeed he appears disguised as an aged man in rural weeds, b. i. 314; and it would seem from v. 498. that he retained that disguise till his disappearance, at the end of the first book. But in the interval he had answered undisguised, 'Tis true I am that spirit unfor tunate, &c. b. i. 358. So again, at his next appearance he stood before Christ as a man, not rustic as before, but seemlier clad, &c. b. ii. 298. yet he accosts Jesus under his former character, With granted leave officious I return, &c. ii. 301. As indeed his super-human power was displayed in the sudden appearance and disappearance of the regal banquet, 337, 401. as well as by his conveying our Lord to the specular mount, and back again through the air to the wilderness, b. iii. 251, 394. And he had a second time openly declared his proper character, when he proposed the conditions on which he would be 455 stow the kingdoms of the world, 155-194. His wonted shape may very well therefore be understood of that in which he had now for so long a time conversed with Jesus. But it may be better to leave such matters undetermined. Milton did not display any want of judgment, considering the peculiar difficulties of his subject, if he designedly left these things unexplained. E. 453. As earth and sky would mingle;] Virgil, Æn. i. 137. Jam cœlum terramque, meo sine numine, venti, Miscere, et tantas audetis tollere moles? |