Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

The city of palms, Enon, and Salem old,

the western bank. This opinion he grounds on what is faid, Judges, vii. 24. about the inhabitants of Mount Ephraim taking the waters, (i. e. taking poffeffion of all the springs,) from them unto Bethabarah and Jordan. Bethabara indeed (John, i. 28,) is defcribed beyond Jordan, wégav rỡ lop♪áve; but this Bishop Pearce reconciles by fhewing that wipav often fignifies in Scripture, on the fide of, or on this file of. For this conftruction of mipar, he cites many authorities in his note on Matt. iv. 15, and likewife refers to Cafaubon's note on John, i. 28. But it should be obferved that Beza has the fame remark, and that he renders wigav T 'Iopdave not trans Jordanum, but fecus Jordanum, "nigh to Jordan," both in Matt. iv. 15, and John, i. 28. St. Jerom, De Nominibus Hebræis, fpeaks of Bethabara as standing partly on the western, and partly on the caftern, bank of the river Jordan.

DUNSTER.

Ver. 21. The city of palms, &c.] Jericho is called the city of palms, Deut. xxxiv. 3. And Jofephus, Strabo, Pliny, and all writers defcribe it as abounding with thofe trees. Enon is mentioned, John, iii. 23, as is likewife Salim or Salem. But there appears to be no particular reafon for our author's calling it Salem old, unless he takes it to be the fame with the Shalem mentioned, Gen. xxxiii. 18. or confounds it. with the Salem where Melchizedek was king. Macherus was a castle in the mountainous part of Perea or the country beyond Jordan, which river is well known to run through the lake of Genezareth, or the fea of Tiberias, or the fea of Galilee, as it is otherwife called. So that they fearched in each place on this fide Jordan, or in Perea, aifay Iopdars, beyond it. NEWTON.

By the expreffion on this fide the broad lake Genezareth, I would understand not on the oppofite fide of the river to Peraa, but below the lake of Genezareth, or to the fouth of it, between that and the Afphaltick Lake, or the Dead Sea; which is exactly the fituation of the places here mentioned, none of which could be properly faid to have stood on this fide, that is on the western fide of the lake of Genezareth, though three of them stood on the western fide of the river Jordan. Or in Peræa, may be only understood to mean and in Perra, or even in Peræa. Such is

Machærus, and each town or city wall'd
On this fide the broad lake Genezaret,
Or in Peræa; but return'd in vain.
Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek,

25

often the conjunctive sense of vel, and fometimes of aut in Latin, and of in Greek. It is probable that Milton had the fame idea of the situation of Bethabara, with that noticed in the preceding note, as admitted by bishop Pearce, and before fuggested by Beza and Cafaubon. This he may be fuppofed to have acquired from Beza, whofe tranflation of the Greek Teftament with notes, we may imagine, was in no fmall degree of repute, at the time when our author vifited Geneva. Accordingly the first place where he makes the difciples feek Jefus is Jericho, on the fame fide of the river as Bethabara, and the nearest place of any confequence to it; then non and Salem, both likewife on the fame fide, but higher up towards the lake of Genezareth; then he feems to make them cross the river and feek him in all the places in the oppofite country of Peræa, down to the town and strong fortrefs of Macharus, which is mentioned by Jofephus, De bello Jud. L. 7. C. 6. Milton had good authority for terming Salem, Salem old. St. Jerom fhews, that the Salem, Gen, xxxiii. 18. was not Jerufalem, "fed oppidum juxta Scythopolim, quod ufque hodie appellatur Salem; ubi oftenditur palatium Melchizedec, ex magnitudine ruinarum veteris operis oftendens magnificentiam." See Hieronym. Epift. cxxvi. ad Evag. DUNSTER.

Ver. 25.

on the bank of Jordan, by a creek,

Where winds with reeds and ofiers whifpering play,] Mr. Dunfter obferves, that Maundrell, in his Journey to Jerufalem, &c. defcribes the river Jordan as having its banks in fome parts covered fo thick with bushes and trees, such as tamarifks, oleanders, and willows, that they prevented the water from being feen till any one had made his way through them, In this thicket, he fays, feveral forts of wild beafts harbour, which are frequently washed out of their covert by the fudden over-flowings of the river. Hence that allufion in Jeremiah, xlix. 19. "Behold, he fhall come up like a lion from the fwelling of Jordan." The fame critick alfo notices the refer

Where winds with reeds and ofiers whispering play,

ence made to the reedy banks of Jordan, in Giles Fletcher's Chrift's Triumph over Death, ft. 2.

"Or whistling reeds that rutty Jordan laves."

Milton, by the diftinction which he here makes, had perhaps noticed Sandys's account of Jordan, in his Travels; who fays, "Paffing along, it maketh two lakes; the one in the Vpper Galilee, named Samachonitis (now Houle), in the fummer for the most part dry, ouergrowne with fhrubs and reeds, which afford a fhelter for bores and leopards. The other in the Inferior, called the Sea of Galilee, the lake of Genezareth, and of Tyberias, &c." p. 141. edit. 1615. TODD.

Ver. 26. whifpering play,] The whispering of the wind is an image that Milton is particularly fond of, and has introduced in many beautiful paffages of his Paradife Loft. Thus, in the opening of the fifth Book, where Adam wakens Eve;

"then with voice

"Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,

"Her hand foft touching, whisper'd thus."

He also applies whispering to the flowing of a stream; to the air that plays upon the water, or by the fide of it; and to the combined founds of the breeze and the current. In the fourth Book of this Poem, he terms the river Ilyffus, a "whispering Atream." And in Par. Loft, B. iv. 325, he defcribes

[ocr errors]

a tuft of fhade that on a green "Stood whispering foft, by a fresh fountain fide."

In his Lycidas, ver. 136. likewife, he addreffes the

[ocr errors]

"

valleys low, where the mild whispers use Of fhades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks."

See alfo Par. Loft, B. iv. 158, viii. 516. "The mild whisper of the refreshing breeze" he had before introduced in his Latin poem, In Adventum Veris, ver. 27. which might have been origi nally fuggefted to him by Virgil's Culex, v. 152.

Plain fishermen, (no greater men them call,)
Clofe in a cottage low together got,

Their unexpected lofs and plaints out breath'd.

Alas, from what high hope to what relapfe 30 Unlook'd for are wc fallen! our eyes beheld Meffiah certainly now come, fo long

"At circa paffim feffæ cubuere capellæ,

[ocr errors]

Excelsífque fuper dumis; quos leniter adflans

"Aura fufurrantis pofit confundere venti." Dunster. A very pleasing paffage may be here adduced from our ancient poetry, with which also we may compare the opening of the fifth Book of Paradife Loft, The Whipping of the Satyre by W. J. 12mo. 1601.

"There breath'd the spirit of sweete Zephyrus

46

Among the leaues whispring with stillcft voyce,

"And criftall fprings through filuer pipes did gush,
"Inuiting feepe with gentle muttering noyse :

"There fweetly warbled Nature's feather'd quires,
"Embow'd with fhady bough-combynding briers."

Compare Milton's L'Allegro alfo, ver. 116. where fee the note. But, after all, we may rather apply, to the paffage before us, the more ancient strains which were familiar to Milton. See Orph. Argonaut. ver. 1131.

παταγεῖ δὲ παρ ̓ ὄχθαισιν ποταμοῖο

Δένδρεα τηλεθάοντα ποτὶ σχεδόν. TODD.

Ver. 27. Plain fishermen, (no greater men them call,)] Thus Spenfer, in the beginning of his Shepherd's Calendar,

"A fhepherd's boy, (no better do him call)."

NEWTON.

Ver. 30. Alas, from what high hope &c.] So we read in the first edition: In most of the others it is abfurdly printed "Alas, from that high hope." The fentiment is from Ter. Heaut. A. ii. S. ii.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

Expected of our fathers; we have heard
His words, his wifdom full of grace and truth;
Now, now, for fure, deliverance is at hand, 35
The kingdom fhall to Ifrael be restor'd;
Thus we rejoic'd, but foon our joy is turn'd
Into perplexity and new amaze:

[ocr errors]

For whither is he gone, what accident

Hath rapt him from us? will he now retire 40 and again prolong

After appearance, and again

Our expectation? God of Ifraël,

Send thy Meffiah forth, the time is come! Behold the kings of the earth, how they opprefs Thy chofen; to what highth their power unjust 45

"And

Ver. 34. full of grace and truth ;] the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth." John, i. 14. NEWTON.

Ver. 40. Hath rapt him from us?] Hath Snatch'd him away from us. See the note on ver. 16, and alfo Mr. Warton's note on Il Penf. ver. 40. Milton is here pronounced, by Mr. Gilb. Wakefield, guilty of an errour, in having written, as he fays, wrapt. See Wakefield's Pope, Svo. 1794, vol. i. p. 53. But Mr. Wakefield unjustly accufes the great poet. For Milton's own edition reads rapt. TODD.

[blocks in formation]

Send thy Meffiah forth, &c.] This fudden turn and breaking forth into prayer to God is beautiful. The prayer itself is conceived very much in the fpirit of the Pfalms, and almoft in the words of fome of them. NEWTON.

Ver. 44. Behold the kings of the earth, how they opprefs

Thy chofen ;] felves, and the rulers take and against his Anointed."

"The kings of the earth fet themcounfel together, against the Lord,

Pfalm ii. 2. It is probable, that an

allufion is here intended to the fituation of Milton's Party at the Restoration. DUNSTER.

« ПредишнаНапред »