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In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood1
Of flutes and soft recorders; such as raised
To height of noblest temper heroes old
Arming to battle; and, instead of rage,
Deliberate valour breathed, firm and unmoved
With dread of death to flight or foul retreat;
Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage
With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase
Anguish, and doubt, and fear, and sorrow, and pain,
From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they,
Breathing united force, with fixed thought
Moved on in silence to soft pipes, that charmed
Their painful steps o'er the burnt soil: and now
Advanced in view they stand; a horrid3 front
Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise
Of warriors old with ordered spear and shield,
Awaiting what command their mighty chief
Had to impose. He through the armed files
Darts his experienced eye, and soon travèrse5
The whole battalion views, their order due,
Their visages and stature as of gods;

Their number last he sums. And now his heart
Distends with pride, and hardening in his strength,
Glories for never, since created man,6

Met such embodied force.

He, above the rest,

In shape and gesture proudly eminent,

8

Stood like a tower; his form had yet not lost
All her original brightness, nor appeared

1 Dorian mood-"There seem to have been three principal modes or measures among the ancients; the Lydian, the Phrygian, and the Dorian. The Lydian was the most doleful, the Phrygian was the most sprightly, and the Dorian the most grave and majestic:" Newton.

2 Recorders-pipes, flageolets.

3 Horrid-in the Latin sense-bristling.

4 Ordered-in regular order, or equipment.

5 Traverse-transversely, obliquely.

6 Since created man-a Latinism-since man was created, or, since the creation of man.

He above, &c.-"There is no single passage," says Addison, "in the whole poem, worked up to a greater sublimity, than that wherein his [Satan's] person is described in those celebrated lines, He above, &c."

8 Like a tower-It may be observed, that no possible limitation of Satan's dimensions could have equalled the effect produced by the indefiniteness of this image.

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Less than archangel ruined, and the excess
Of glory obscured: as when the sun,1 new risen,
Looks through the horizontal misty air
Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs; darkened so, yet shone
Above them all the archangel: but his face
Deep scars of thunder had intrenched; and care
Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows
Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride
Waiting revenge; cruel his eye, but cast
Signs of remorse and passion, to behold

The fellows of his crime-the followers rather-
(Far other once beheld in bliss!) condemned
For ever now to have their lot in pain:
Millions of spirits for his fault amerced3
Of heaven, and from eternal splendours flung
For his revolt; yet faithful how they stood,
Their glory withered: as when heaven's fire
Hath scathed the forest-oaks, or mountain pines,
With singed top their stately growth, though bare,
Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared
To speak; whereat their doubled ranks they bend
From wing to wing, and half enclose him round
With all his peers: attention held them mute.
Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn,
Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth at last
Words, interwove with sighs, found out their way.

PANDEMONIUM, AND THE ASSEMBLING OF THE COUNCIL.

ANON, Out of the earth a fabric huge

Rose like an exhalation, with the sound

1 As when the sun, &c.-"The fallen archangel is compared to the sun when he shines through the horizontal, misty air, shorn of his beams; this is a splendid picture in itself; but Milton does not think it enough: he presses on with another magnificent feature, the eclipse. Nor is this all: the concomitant horrors of the disasters it is believed to portend, perplexity to monarchs, and revolution to nations, are superadded, and then the charm's' wound up: "" Quarterly Review, ubi supra.

2 Passion-feeling, sympathy.

3 Amerced-deprived, as a punishment.

4 Yet faithful-i. e. to behold how faithful they stood, though they were punished for his fault.

Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet;
Built like a temple, where pilasters1 round
Were set, and Doric pillars, overlaid

With golden architrave;1 nor did there want
Cornice or frieze,1 with bossy sculptures graven ;
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,
Nor great Alcairo, such magnificence
Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine
Belus or Serapis,2 their gods, or seat

Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove
In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile
Stood fixed3 her stately height; and straight the doors,
Opening their brazen folds, discover wide
Within her ample spaces o'er the smooth
And level pavement. From the arched roof,
Pendent by subtle magic, many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets,+ fed
With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light
As from a sky. The hasty multitude
Admiring entered; and the work some praise,
And some the architect: his hand was known
In heaven by many a towered structure high,
Where sceptered angels held their residence,
And sat as princes; whom the supreme King
Exalted to such power, and gave to rule,
Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright.
Nor was his name unheard or unadored
In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land5
Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell
From heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o'er the chrystal battlements: from morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A summer's day; and with the setting sun
Dropt from the zenith, like a falling star,

1 Pilasters, architrave, &c.-These architectural terms may be thus briefly explained: pilasters, pillars jutting out from the wall; architrave, the part of a column immediately above the capital; frieze, the part between the architrave and cornice of a column.

2 Serapis-the usual quantity of this word is Serapis.

3 Stood fixed, &c.-Stood (with) her stately height (now) fixed.

4 Cresset from the French croisette, a little cross, because beacons had anciently crosses on their tops-any great light set on high.

5 Ausonian land-Italy.

1

On Lemnos, the Ægean isle: thus they relate,
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout

Fell long before; nor aught availed him now

To have built in heaven high towers; nor did he 'scape
By all his engines, but was headlong sent
With his industrious crew to build in hell.

Meanwhile, the winged heralds, by command
Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony
And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim
A solemn council, forthwith to be held

At Pandemonium,' the high capital

Of Satan and his peers; their summons called
From every band and squared regiment,

By place or choice the worthiest; they anon
With hundreds and with thousands, trooping came,
Attended: all access was thronged; the gates
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall
(Though like a covered field, where champions bold
Wont ride in armed, and at the soldan's chair
Defied the best of Panim3 chivalry

To mortal combat, or career with lance,)
Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air,
Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees
In spring-time, when the sun with Taurus rides,
Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers
Fly to and fro, or on the smoothéd plank,
The suburb of their straw-built citadel,
New rubbed with balm, expatiate,5 and confer
Their state affairs: so thick the aëry crowd
Swarmed, and were straitened; till, the signal given,
Behold a wonder! They but now who seemed
In bigness to surpass earth's giant sons,
Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room
Throng numberless, like that pygmëan race
Beyond the Indian mount; or fairy elves,

Pandemonium-from the Greek Tα, every, and daioviov, a demon-the

rendezvous of all the demons.

2

Covered field-i. e. enclosed or listed field, the lists.

3 Panim-Pagan. See p. 74, note 4.

4 Brushed-This line, by the abundance of sibilants, aptly illustrates the subject.

5 Expatiate-range at large, traverse to and fro.

1

2

Whose midnight revels by a forest side
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,

Or dreams he sees, while over head the moon
Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth2

Wheels her pale course; they, on their mirth and dance
Intent, with jocund musick charm his ear;
At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.
Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms
Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large,3
Though without number still, amidst the hall
Of that infernal court. But far within,
And in their own dimensions+ like themselves,
The great seraphic lords and cherubim
In close recess and secret conclave sat ;
A thousand demi-gods on golden seats,
Frequents and full. After short silence then,
And summons read, the great consult began.

ADDRESS TO LIGHT.6

HAIL, holy Light! offspring of heaven first-born,
Or of the Eternal" coeternal beam

May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluences of bright essence increate.

Arbitress-witness, spectatress.

Nearer to the earth-in allusion to the superstitious notion of witches and fairies having the power of drawing down the moon towards the earth.

3 At large-at liberty, without restraint.

4 In their own dimensions, &c.-Addison particularly admires the ingenuity of the poet in preserving the natural dimensions of the chiefs, while those of the common crowd are contracted.

5 Frequent-in the Latin sense-crowded.

6 "Our author's address to Light; and lamentation of his own blindness, may perhaps be censured as an excrescence or digression not agreeable to the rules of epic poetry; but yet this is so charming a part of the poem, that the most critical reader, I imagine, cannot wish it were omitted. One is even pleased with a fault, if it be a fault that is the occasion of so many beauties, and acquaints us so much with the circumstances and character of the author: " Newton.

7 Or of the eternal, &c.-i. e. "or may I without blame call ("express") thee the co-eternal beam of the eternal God?"

Newton.

8 Bright efluence, &c.-" Thou bright overflowing of that bright, uncreated, elf-existent being :" Richardson.

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