Deftin'd to this, is late of Woman born.

65

His birth to our juft fear gave no fmall cause : But his growth now to youth's full flower, difplaying

70

All virtue, grace, and wisdom to achieve
Things higheft, greatest, multiplies my fear.
Before him a great Prophet, to proclaim
His coming, is fent harbinger, who all;
Invites, and in the confecrated stream
Pretends to wash off fin, and fit them, fo
Purified, to receive him pure, or rather
To do him honour as their king: All come, 75
And he himself among them was baptiz'd; /
Not thence to be more pure, but to receive
The teftimony of Heaven, that who he is
Thenceforth the nations may not doubt; I faw
The Prophet do him reverence; on him, rifing so
Out of the water, Heaven above the clouds.
Unfold her cryftal doors; thence on his head

Ver. 74. Purified, to receive him pure,] 1 John iii. 3. "And every man that hath this hope in him, "purifieth himself even us he is pure." NEWTON..

Ver. 81.

Heaven above the clouds

Unfold her cryftal doors;] It is the fame idea in the Ode on the Natio. ft. 13. "Ring out, ye cryftal spheres." And in the Latin Ode, Præful. Elien, ver. 63.

"Donec nitentes ad fores

"Ventum eft Olympi, et regiam cryftallinam, &c."

Compare alfo Par. L. vi. 771.

He on the wings of Seraphs rode fublime

"On the crystalline sky"). TA 19 c

A perfect dove defcend, (whate'er it meant,)
And out of Heaven the fovran voice I heard,
"This is my Son belov'd, in him am pleas'd."
His mother then is mortal, but his Sire
He who obtains the monarchy of Heaven:

Again, B. i. 741.

"Sheer o'er the

See alfo B. vi. 756, 860.

the imagery of romance.

"Thrown by angry Jove

crystal battlements.”

86

Milton's "crystal battlements” are în The "cryftalline fphere" is from the Ptolemaick or Gothick system of Aftronomy, Par. L. iii. 482, And fo perhaps Spenfer, Tears of the Mufes :

"For hence we mount aloft into the skie,

"And look into the cryftall firmament." T. WARTON. Ver. 83. A perfect dove defcend,] He had expreffed it before, ver. 30. in likeness of a dove, agreeably to St. Matthew," the Spirit of God defcending like a dove," iii. 16. and to St. Mark, "the Spirit like a dove descending upon him," i. 10. But as Luke fays, that the Holy Ghost defcended in a bodily shape, iii. 22, the poet fuppofes with Tertullian, Auftin, and others of the fathers, that it was a real dove, as the painters always represent it.

NEWTON. Vida, like Milton, defcribes the Holy Ghoft defcending as a "perfect dove;" Chrift. iv. 214.

"Protinus aurifluo Jordanes gurgite fulfit,

"Et fuperum vasto intonuit domus alta fragore :

་་

Infuper et cœli claro delapfa columba eft

"Vertice per purum, candenti argentea pluma
"Terga, fed auratis circum et rutilantibus alis:
"Jámque viam late fignans fuper aftitit ambos,
"Cœleftique aurà pendens afflavit utrumque.
"Vox fimul et magni rubrâ genitoris ab æthrâ
"Audita eft, nati dulcem teftantis amorem."

DUNSTER.

Ver. 87. He who obtains the monarchy of Heaven:] Obtains is in the fenfe of obtineo in Latin; to hold, retain, or govern.

And what will he not do to advance his Son?.
His first-begot we know, and fore have felt,
When his fierce thunder drove us to the deep: 90
Who this is we must learn, for Man he feems
In all his lineaments, though in his face
The glimpfes of his Father's glory fhine.
Ye fee our danger on the utmoft edge
Of hazard, which admits no long debate,
But must with something fudden be oppos'd,

95

But obtains rather means here obtains by conqueft: Satan being the fpeaker, it is a word of much force. It implies ufurpation. It should be noted that the He is, in this place, fneeringly emphatical. DuNster.

Ver. 89.

and fore have felt,

When his fierce thunder drove us to the deep :] In reference to the fublime description, in the Paradife Loft, of the Meffiah driving the rebel Angels out of Heaven,. B. vi. S34, &c. DUNSTER.

Ver. 91. Who this is we must learn,] Our author favours the opinion of those writers, Ignatius and others among the ancients, and Beza and others among the moderns, who believed that the Devil, though he might know Jefus to be fome extraordinary perfon, yet knew him not to be the Meffiah, the Son of God. NEWTON..

It was requisite for the poet to affume this opinion, as it is a neceflary hinge on which part of the poem turns. DUNSTER. on the utmost edge

Ver. 94.

Of hazard,] Dr. Newton fays, this is borrowed from Shakspeare's All's well that ends well, A. iii. S. iii.

"We'll strive to bear it, for your worthy fake,

"To the extreme edge of hazard ;"

Et is certainly a ftrong coincidence of expreffion. But Milton may be supposed to have had in his mind a paffage in Homer: from whom Shak fpeare might alfo have borrowed a metaphos

(Not force, but well-couch'd fraud, well-woven fnares,)

fo perfectly Grecian, by the means of his friend Chapman's verfion. See Il. x. 173.

Νῦν γὰρ δὴ πάντεσσιν ΕΠΙ ΞΥΡΟΥ ΙΣΤΑΤΑΙ ΑΚΜΗΣ

Η μάλα λυγρὸς ὄλεθρος Αχαιδις, η βιῶναι.

For the very frequent ufe of 'Ei Eupe anus, among the Greek writers, fee a note of Valckenaer on Herodotus, 1. vi. c. 11.— And Warton on Theocritus, Idyll. xxii. 6. Milton has twice ufed nearly the fame expreflion in his Paradife Loft;

"on the perilous edge

"Of battle, when it rag'd,"-

B. i. 276.

"On the rough edge of battle, ere it join'd,"

B. vi. 108.

where I am not a little furprised to find Dr. Newton and Dr. Jortin both endeavouring to trace out the phrafe, without being at all aware that it was fo common an expreffion among the Greeks, as to be quite proverbial. See Lucian, Jupit. Tragad. tom. ii. p. 605. Ed. Reitz. DUNSTER.

Milton, I obferve, ufes this proverbial expreffion literally in English: "We never leave fubtilizing and cafuifting, till we have ftraitned and pared that liberal path into a razor's edge to walk on, between a precipice of unnecefiary mifchief on either fide." Profe-W. vol. i. p. 321. ed. 1698. See alfo Sir Henry Wotton's Remains, 3d. edit. 1672, p. 355. " Methinks I fee him walking not like a Funambulus upon a cord, but upon the edge of a razor." TODD.

Ver. 97. Not force, but well-couch'd fraud,] Marino, Strage de gli Innocenti, 1633. p. 11. where the devil alfo is the fpeaker: "Se la forza non val, vaglia la froda." TODD.

Ibid.

well-couch'd fraud,] So it is faid of the Devil, as Mr. Dunfter also has obferved, that he " was the first

"That practis'd falfhood under faintly fhow,

"Deep malice to conceal, couch'd with revenge.”
Par. Loft, B. iv. 121.

And, in Milton's Profe-Works, flattery is called "that deceitful and clofe-coucht evil." vol. i. p. 141. ed. 1698. TODD.

Ere in the head of nations he appear,

100

Their king, their leader, and fupreme on earth.
I, when no other durft, fole undertook
The difmal expedition to find out

And ruin Adam; and the exploit perform'd
Successfully: a calmer voyage now

Will waft me; and the way,

once,

found profperous

Induces beft to hope of like fuccefs.

105

He ended, and his words impreffion left Of much amazement to the infernal crew, Distracted and furpris'd with deep difmay At thefe fad tidings; but no time was then For long indulgence to their fears or grief: 110 Unanimous they all commit the care

And management of this main enterprise

Ver. 97.

well-woven fnares,] Thus

Spenter, Aftrophel, it. 17.

"There his well-woven toils, and fubtle traines
"He laid, &c." DUNSTER.

Ver. 100. I, when no other durft, fole undertook

The difmal expedition &c.] The fear and unwil

lingnefs of the other fallen Angels to undertake this dismal expedition, is particularly defcribed in the Paradife Loft, B. ir. 420, &c. DUNSTER.

Ver. 103.

a calmer voyage now

Will waft me;] Thus, in Paradife Loft, B. it. 1041, where Satan begins to emerge out of chaos, it is faid the remainder of the journey became fo much easier,

"That Satan with lefs toil, and now with cafe,