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Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate;

Sad Acheron of forrow, black and deep;
Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation loud

Heard on the rueful ftream; fierce Phlegethon, 580
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.

Far off from thefe a flow and filent ftream,
Lethe the river of oblivion rolls

.

Her watry labyrinth, whereof who drinks,

577. Abhorred Styx, &c.] The Greeks reckon up five rivers in Hell, and call them after the names of the noxious fprings and rivers in their own country. Our poet follows their example both as to the number and the names of thefe infernal rivers, and excellently defcribes their nature and properties, with the explanation of their names, Styx, fo named of a Greek word OTVYw that fignifies to bate and abbor, and therefore cailed here Abbarred Styx, the flood of deadly hate, and by Virgil palus inamabilis, Æn. VI. 438. Acheron has its name from axos dolor and pew fluo, floring with grief; and is reprefented according y Sad Acheron, the river of Jorrow as Styx was of hate, black and deep, agreeable to Virgil's character of it.

tenebrofa palus Acheronte refufo. En. VI. 107. Corytus, nam'd of lamentation, becaule derived from a Greek word

Forthwith

xwxvw fignifying to weep and la. ment: as Phlegethon is from another Greek word yw fignifying to burn; and therefore rightly defcribed here fierce Phlegethon, whofe waves of torrent fire inflame with rage, as it is by Virgil, Æn. VI.

550.

-rapidus flammis - torrentibus

amnis

Tartareus Phlegethon.

We know not what to fay as to the fituation of these rivers. Homer, the most ancient poet, reprefents Cocytus as branching out of Styx, and both Cocytus and Phlegethon (or Pyriphlegethon) as flowing into Acheron, Odyff. X. 513.

Ενθα μεν εις Αχέροντα Πυριφλεγέθων TE GEBOT

Κωκυτα θ ̓ ὁς δη Στυγός ύδατος εσιν aπeffat.

and perhaps he defcribes their fituation as it really was in Greece: but Virgil and the other poets fre

quently

Forthwith his former state and be'ing forgets, 585
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
Beyond this flood a frozen continent
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms

Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin feems 590
Of ancient pile; all elfe deep fnow and ice,
A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog

quently confound them, and mention their names and places without fufficient difference or diftinction. Our poet therefore was at liberty to draw (as I may fay) a new map of these rivers; and he fuppofes a burning lake agreeably to Scripture that often mentions the lake of fire; and he makes thefe four rivers to flow from four different quarters and empty themfelves into this burning lake, which gives us a much greater idea than any of the Heathen poets have done. Befides these there is a fifth river called Lethe, which name in Greek fignifies forgetfulness, and its waters are faid to have occafion'd that quality, Æn. VI. 714.

Lethæi ad fluminis undam Securos latices, et longa oblivia

potant:

and Milton attributes the fame effect to it, and defcribes it as a flow and filent ftream, as Lucan had done before him, IX. 355.

Betwixt

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Betwixt Damiata and mount Cafius old,

Where armies whole have funk: the parching air Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire. 595 Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd

At certain revolutions all the damn'd

Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their foft ethereal warmth, and there to pine

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609

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and we meet with it feveral times in Shakespear.

603-thence burried back to fire.] This circumftance of the damned's fuffering the extremes of heat and cold by turns is finely invented to aggravate the horror of the defcription, and feems to be founded upon Job XXIV. 19. but not as it is in the English tranflation, but in the vulgar Latin verfion, which Milton frequently used. Ad nimium calorem tranfeat ab aquis nivium; Let him pafs to excelfive heat from waters of now. And fo Jerom and other commentators understand it.

There

Immoveable, infix'd, and frozen round,

Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire,
They ferry over this Lethean found

Both to and fro, their forrow to augment,

605

And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach
The tempting stream, with one small drop to lofe
In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,

All in one moment, and so near the brink;

But fate withstands, and to oppofe th' attempt 610

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Medufa

vation of their mifery, that tho they were fo near the brink, fo near the brim and furface of the water, yet they could not tafte one drop of it. But the reafons follow, fate withstands, fata obftant, as it is in Virgil Æn. IV. 440. and Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards the ford. Medufa was one of the Gorgon monsters, whofe locks were ferpents fo terrible that they turned the beholders into ftone. Ulyffes in Homer was defirous of seeing more of the departed heroes, but I was afraid, fays he, Odyf XI. 633.

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Medufa with Gorgonian terror guards

The ford, and of itself the water flies

All taste of living wight, as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on

In confus'd march forlorn, th' adventrous bands 615
With fhudd'ring horror pale, and eyes aghast,
View'd first their lamentable lot, and found
No reft: through many a dark and dreary vale
They pafs'd, and many a region dolorous,

O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,

620

Rocks,caves,lakes,fens, bogs,dens, and shades of death,
A universe of death, which God by curfe
Created ev'il, for evil only good,

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Where

fage; and particularly in this rough
verfe, which neceffarily takes up fo
much time and labor in pronoun-
cing!
Green-wood.
628. Gorgon's and Hydra's, and

Chimera's dire.] Our author
fixes all thefe monsters in Hell in
imitation of Virgil En. VI. 287.
bellua Lernæ
Horrendum ftridens, flammifque
armata Chimæra,
Gorgones &c.

Quinquaginta atris immanis hiatibus Hydra. ver. 576. Taffo has likewife given them a place in his description of Hell, or rather he copies 'Virgil's defcription, Cant. 4. St. 5.

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