By Astracan over the snowy plains

Retires, or Bactrian Sophi from the horns
Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond
The realm of Aladule, in his retreat

To Tauris or Casbeen: So these the late
Heav'n-banish'd host, left desert utmost hell
Many a dark league, reduc'd in careful watch
Round their metropolis, and now expecting
Each hour their great adventurer from the search
Of foreign worlds: he through the midst unmark'd,
In show plebeian angel militant

great city in the kingdom of Persia, now called Ecbatana, sometime in the hands of the Turks, but in 1603 retaken by Abas, king of Persia; or Casbeen, one of the greatest cities of Persia, in the province of Ayrach, formerly Parthia, towards the Caspian Sea, where the Persian monarchs made their residence after the loss of Tauris, from which it is distant sixty-five German miles to the south-east. Hume.

433. or Bactrian Sophi from the horns

Of Turkish crescent,] From is often used by Milton without expressing the participle, which yet is to be supplied in the sense. See ii. 542. viii. 213. and ix. 396. Pearce.

441.-he through the midst unmark'd, &c.] This account of Satan's passing unmarked through the midst of the angels, and ascending his throne invisible, and seeing there about him himself unseen, and then bursting forth, as from a cloud, in

435

440

Of lowest order, pass'd; and from the door
Of that Plutonian hall, invisible

Ascended his high throne, which under state
Of richest texture spread, at th' upper end
Was plac'd in regal lustre. Down a while
He sat, and round about him saw unseen:
At last as from a cloud his fulgent head
And shape star-bright appear'd, or brighter, clad
With what permissive glory since his fall
Was left him, or false glitter: all amaz'd
At that so sudden blaze the Stygian throng

445

450

Bent their aspect, and whom they wish'd beheld, Their mighty chief return'd: loud was th' acclaim: 455

and again, Polyolb. s. xxvi. vol. iii. p. 1168. Compare Par. Lost, vii. 440. Arcades, 81. T. Warton.

455. Their mighty chief return'd:] We are in the next place to consider the infernal agents under the view which Milton has given us of them in this book. It is observed by those who would set forth the greatness of Virgil's plan, that he conducts his reader through all the parts of the earth which were discovered in his time. Asia, Afric, and Europe are the several scenes of his fable. The plan of Milton's poem is of an infinitely greater extent, and fills the mind with many more astonishing circumstances. Satan, having surrounded the earth seven times, departs at length

see

from Paradise. We then
him steering his course among
the constellations, and after hav-
ing traversed the whole creation,
pursuing his voyage through the
Chaos, and entering into his
own infernal dominions. His
first appearance in the assembly
of fallen angels, is worked up
with circumstances which give a
delightful surprise to the reader ;
but there is no incident in
the whole poem which does this
more than the transformation of
the whole audience, that fol-
lows the account their leader
gives them of his expedition.
The gradual change of Satan
himself is described after Ovid's
manner, and may vie with any
of those celebrated transform-
ations which are looked upon as
the most beautiful parts in that
poet's works. Milton never
fails of improving his own hints,
and bestowing the last finishing
touches to every incident which

Forth rush'd in haste the great consulting peers,
Rais'd from their dark Divan, and with like joy
Congratulant approach'd him, who with hand
Silence, and with these words attention won.
Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,

For in possession such, not only" of right,
I call ye and declare ye now, return'd
Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth
Triumphant out of this infernal pit
Abominable, accurs'd, the house of woe,
And dungeon of our tyrant: now possess,

As lords, a spacious world, to' our native heaven

Little inferior, by my adventure hard

With peril great achiev'd. Long were to tell

461

465

What I have done, what suffer'd, with what pain 470 Voyag'd th' unreal, vast, unbounded deep

Of horrible confusion, over which

By Sin and Death a broad way now is pav'd
To expedite your glorious march; but I
Toil'd out my uncouth passage, forc'd to ride
Th' untractable abyss, plung'd in the womb
Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild,
That jealous of their secrets fiercely' oppos'd
My journey strange, with clamorous uproar
Protesting Fate supreme; thence how I found

force and beauty to it, which it would not have without the repetition.

475. Toil'd out my uncouth passage,] My strange unusual passage, of the Saxon uncud unknown, forc'd to ride th' untractable abyss, as in ii. 540. and ride the air. ix. 63. he rode with darkness. Hor. Od. iv. iv. 44. Per Siculas equitavit undas. We have also in Scripture to ride upon the winds, and the like expressions.

475

480

against my proceedings. But this seems not perfectly to agree with the account in book the second. It was indeed with labour and difficulty that Satan journeyed through Chaos, but we do not read of Chaos and the other powers fiercely opposing him, or protesting Fate with clamorous uproar. On the contrary Chaos bids him

-go and speed;

Havoc, and spoil, and ruin are my gain.

480. Protesting Fate supreme] Calling upon Fate as a witness But Satan is here extolling his

The new created world, which fame in heaven
Long had foretold, a fabric wonderful

Of absolute perfection, therein Man
Plac'd in a Paradise, by our exile

Made happy him by fraud I have seduc'd
From his Creator, and the more to' increase
Your wonder, with an apple; he thereat
Offended, worth your laughter, hath giv'n up
Both his beloved Man and all his world,
To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us,
Without our hazard, labour, or alarm,
To range in, and to dwell, and over Man
To rule, as over all he should have rul'd.
True is, me also he hath judg'd, or rather
Me not, but the brute serpent in whose shape
Man I deceiv'd: that which to me belongs,
Is enmity, which he will put between
Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;
His seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head:

485

490

495

the first syllable, as in Pope's Epistle to Arbuthnot, ver. 355. A friend in exile, or a father dead. And there are several words whereof we have altered the pronunciation from that of our old writers, but whether we have altered it for the better, is a great question.

496. that which to me belongs,] Our author understands the sentence (as the most learned and orthodox divines do) as referring partly to Satan the author of malice, and partly to the Serpent the instrument of it.