Man lives not by bread only, but each word
Proceeding from the mouth of God, who fed 350
Our fathers here with manna? In the mount
Mofes was forty days, nor eat, nor drank ;
And forty days Elijah, without food,

Wander'd this barren wafte; the fame I now:
Why doft thou then fuggeft to me diftraft, 355
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?
Whom thus anfwer'd the Arch-Fiend, now

undifguis'd.

"Tis true I am that Spirit unfortunate,

Ver. 349. Man lives not by bread only, but each word
Proceeding from the mouth of God, who fed

Our fathers here with manna?] The words of St. Matthew, iv. 14, which refer to the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, ver. 3, where the humiliation of the Ifraelites in the wildernefs, and their being there miraculously fed with manna, are recited as arguments for their obedience," and he humbled thee, and fuffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with munna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.”

The Poet, who was, beyond a doubt, "mighty in the fcripture," has, with much art, availed himself of the original paffage in the Old Teftament, as it affords him fuch an immediate and appofite tranfition to the miraculous feeding the Children of Ifrael, their great lawgiver, and afterwards Elijah, in the wildernefs. DUNSTER.

Ver. 356. Knowing who I am,] This is not to be underftood of Chrift's divine nature. The Tempter knew him to be the perfon declared the Son of God by a voice from Heaven, v. 385, and that was all that he knew of him. CALTON.

Ver. 358. 'Tis true I am that Spirit unfortunate,] Satan's inftantaneous avowal of himself here has a great and fine effect. It is confiftent with a certain dignity of character which is given

Who, leagu'd with millions more in rash revolt,
Kept not my happy ftation, but was driven 360-
With them from blifs to the bottomlefs deep,
Yet to that hideous place not fo confin'd
By rigour unconniving, but that oft,
Leaving my dolorous prifon, I enjoy

Large liberty to round this globe of earth, 365 range in the air; nor from the Heaven of Heavens

Or

Hath he excluded my refort fometimes.

him in general, through the whole of the Paradife Loft.-The reft of his fpeech is artfully fubmiflive. DUNSTER.

Ver. 360. Kept not my happy station,] See Par. Loft, B. vii. 145, and the note there. TODD.

Ver. 364.

46

66

my dolorous prifon,] Par. Loft. B. ii. 618.

through many a dark and dreary vale

They pafs'd, and many a region dolorous,

"O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp." DUNSTER

Again, in his Hymn on the Nativity, ft. xiv.

"And Hell itself will pafs away,

"And leave her dolorous manfions to the peering day." Although the adjective dolorous be common in our old poetry, Milton, I am inclined to think, did not forget Dante's ufage of it, in the Inferno, where Satan is called, c. xxxiv.

"Lo 'mperador del dolorofo regno." TODD.

Ver. 365.

to round this globe of earth,] Milton ufes the fame phrafe in his Paradife Loft, B. x. 684. fpeaking of

the fun:

"Had rounded ftill the horizon."

THYER.

In Quarles's Job Militant, the Devil thus concludes his reply to God's queftion, Whence comeft thou?

"The earth is my dominion, hell's my home;
"I round the world, and fo from thence I come."

DUNSTER.

I came among
the fons of God, when he
Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job

To prove him and illustrate his high worth; 370
And, when to all his Angels he propos'd

To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud
That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring,
I undertook that office, and the tongues
Of all his flattering prophets glibb'd with lies 375
To his deftruction, as I had in charge;

For what he bids I do. Though I have loft 'Much luftre of my native brightnefs, loft

And

Ver. 372. To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud] This ftory of Ahab is related, I Kings, xxii. 19, &c. "I Saw the Lord fitting on his throne, and all the host of Heaven flanding by him, on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord faid, Who fhall perfuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Rumoth-gilead? Aud one faid on this manner, and another on that manner. there came forth a Spirit, and food before the Lord, and faid, I will perfuade him. And the Lord faid unto him, Wherewith? And he faid, I will go forth, and I will be a lying Spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he jaid, Thou shalt perfuade him, and prevail alfo: go forth, and do jo." This fymbolical vifion. of Micaiah, in which heavenly things are fpoken of after the manner of men in condefcention to the weaknefs of their capacities, our author was too good a critick to understand literally, though as a poet he reprefents it fo. NEWTON.

Ver. 377.

Though I have lost

Much luftre of my native brightness,] It is faid of Satan, in the first Book of the Paradife Loft, v. 591.

"his form had yet not lojt

"All her original brightness."

And when Ithuriel and Zephon, in the end of the fourth Book, find him in Paradife, and charge him with being one of the rebel Spirits adjudged to Hell, Satan afks, if they do not know him? To which Zephon replies,

To be belov'd of God, I have not loft

To love, at least contemplate and admire, 380
What I fee excellent in good, or fair,

Or virtuous; I fhould fo have loft all fenfe:
What can be then lefs in me than defire
To fee thee and approach thee, whom I know
Declar'd the Son of God, to hear attent
Thy wisdom, and behold thy God-like deeds?

"Think not, revolted Spirit, thy shape the fame,
"Or undiminish'd brightness to be known,

385

"As when thou ftood'ft in Heaven upright and pure;
"That glory then, when thou no more waft good,
"Departed from thee;"

And in Par. Loft, B. i. 97. Satan defcribes himself "chang'd in outward lustre." DUNSTER.

To love, at least contemplate and admire,
What I fee excellent in good, or fair,

Or virtuous;] In the fecond Book of the Paradife Loft, where the fallen Angels are described doing homage to the Public Spirit of their Chief, it is faid,

"for neither do the Spirits damn'd

"Lofe all their virtue."

And, where Satan firft fees Adam and Eve in Paradife, he " contemplates them with admiration." The turn of the words here very much resembles the following paffage in Beaumont and Fletcher's Fair Maid of the Inn, A. v. S. 1.

66

Though I have loft my fortune, and loft you "For a worthy father; yet I will not lofe

66

My former virtue; my integrity

"Shall not forfake me." DUNSTER.

Ver. 385.

to hear attent

Thy wifdom,] Milton feems to have borrowed

this word attent, and this emphatical manner of applying it, from Spenfer, Faery Queen, vi. ix. 26.

Men generally think me much a foe

To all mankind: why fhould I? they to me Never did wrong or violence; by them

I loft not what I loft, rather by them

390

I gain'd what I have gain'd, and with them dwell,

Copartner in thefe regions of the world,

If not difpofer; lend them oft my aid,
Oft my advice by prefages and figns,
And anfwers, oracles, portents and dreams, 395
Whereby they may direct their future life.
Envy they fay excites me, thus to gain
Companions of my mifery and woe.

"Whilft thus he talk'd, the knight with greedy ear

Hung ftill upon his melting mouth attent." THYER.

Milton's entire expreffion, to hear attent, occurs in the ancient verfion of the Pfalms, attributed to Archbishop Parker, bl. 1. 4to. p. 382.

"O Lord, affent; O heare attent

"My wofull voyce." TODD.

Ver. 393.

lend them oft my aid,

Oft my advice by prefages and figns,

And anfæers, oracles, portents and dreams,

Whereby they may direct their future life.] The following paffage of Cicero reflects fo much light on thefe lines, as would incline one to believe that Milton had it in his mind. "Multa cernunt harufpices; multa augures provident; multa oraculis declarantur, multa vaticinationibus, multa fomniis, multa portentis: quibus cognitis, multæ fæpe res hominum fententia atque utilitate partæ," (or, as Lambinus reads, ex animi fententia atque utilitate partæ,) " multa etiam pericula depulia funt.” De Nat. Deor. ii. 65. NEWTON.

Ver. 397. Envy they say excites me, thus to gain

Companions of my mifery and woe.] "They fay" is not here merely expletory, or only of general reference. It