With soot and cinders fill'd; so oft they fell

Into the same illusion, not as Man

Whom they triumph'd once laps'd. Thus were they

And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss,
Till their lost shape, permitted, they resum'd,
Yearly injoin'd, some say, to undergo

This annual humbling certain number'd days,
To dash their pride, and joy for Man seduc'd.
However some tradition they dispers'd
Among the heathen of their purchase got,
And fabled how the Serpent, whom they call'd

Some say no evil thing that walks by
night

Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.

And L'Allegro, 17.

Or whether, as some sager sing,
The frolick wind that breathes the
spring, &c,

Where see Mr. Thyer's note.
See also Mr. Warton's note,
Comus, 432. E.

580. And fabled how the Serpent, &c.] Dr. Bentley is for rejecting this whole passage: but our author is endeavouring to shew, that there was some tradition, among the heathen, of the great power that Satan had obtained over mankind.

And this he proves by what is related of Ophion with Eurynome. Ophion with Eurynome, he says, had first the rule of high Olympus, and were driven thence by Satan and Ops or Rhea, ere yet their son Dictaan Jove was born, so called from Dicte a mountain of Crete where he was educated. And Milton seems to have taken this story from Apollonius Rhodius, Argonaut. i. 503.

Ηείδεν δ ̓ ὡς πρωτον Οφίων Ευρυνόμητε
Ωκεανις νιφόεντος έχον κρατος Ουλυμα

580

Now Ophion according to the Greek etymology signifies a Serpent; and therefore Milton conceives that by Ophion the old Serpent might be intended, the Serpent whom they called Ophion: and Eurynome signifying wideruling, he says, but says doubtfully, that she might be the wide-encroaching Eve perhaps. For I understand the wide-encroaching not as an epithet to Eurynome, explaining her name, but as an epithet to Eve, Milton having placed the comma after Eurynome, and not after the wide-encroaching. And besides some epithet should be added to Ere to shew the similitude between her and Eurynome, and why he takes the one for the other; and therefore in allusion to the name of Eurynome he styles Eve the wide-encroaching, as extending her rule and dominion farther than she should over her husband, and affecting Godhead. This explanation may be farther confirmed and illustrated by the following note of the learned Mr. Jortin. "Milton "took this story from Apollo"nius i. who is quoted by Lloyd's

Dictionary, under the word "Ophion. Prometheus in Æs

chylus, ver. 956. says, that two "Gods had borne rule before Jupiter: where the Scholiast; « εβασίλευσε πρωτον μεν ὁ Οφίων και

Ευρυνόμη έπειτα Κρονος και Για·

Ophion, with Eurynome, the wide
Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule.
Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven
And Ops, ere yet Dictæan Jove was born.
Mean while in Paradise the hellish pair
Too soon arriv'd, Sin there in pow'r before,
Once actual, now in body, and to dwell
Habitual habitant; behind her Death
Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale horse: to whom Sin thus began.

μετα ταυτα δε ὁ Ζευς και Ήρα. "Others will have it that Ouga" νος and In reigned first. I "think the epithet wide-encroach "ing belongs to Eve, not to Eurynome. He calls Eve wide"encroaching, because, as he tells "us, she wanted to be supe"rior to her husband, to be a "Goddess, &c."

586. -Sin there in pow'r before, Once actual, now in body, and to dwell Habitual habitant;] The sense is, That before the fall Sin was in power, or potentially, in Paradise; that once, viz. upon the fall, it was actually there, though not bodily; but that now, upon its arrival in Paradise, it was there in body, and dwelt as a constant inhabitant. The words in body allude to what St. Paul says Rom. vi. 6. that the body of sin might be destroyed. Pearce.

590. On his pale horse:] Though the author in the whole course of his poem, and particularly in the book we are now examining,

585

590

Of

has infinite allusions to places of
Scripture, I have only taken no-
tice in my remarks of such as are
of a poetical nature, and which
are woven with great beauty
into the body of his fable.
this kind is that passage in the
present book, where describing
Sin and Death, as marching
through the works of Nature,
he adds,

-behind her Death
Close following pace for pace, not
mounted yet

On his pale horse :

Second of Satan sprung, all conqu❜ring Death, What think'st thou of our empire now, though earn'd With travel difficult, not better far

Then still at hell's dark threshold to' have sat watch,
Unnam'd, undreaded, and thyself half starv'd?

Whom thus the Sin-born monster answer'd soon.
To me, who with eternal famine pine,
Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven.
There best, where most with ravin I may meet;
Which here, though plenteous, all too little seems
To stuff this maw, this vast unhide-bound corpse.

595

600

To whom th' incestuous mother thus replied. Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flowers Feed first, on each beast next, and fish, and fowl, No homely morsels; and whatever thing

605

The scythe of Time mows down, devour unspar'd;
Till I in Man residing through the race,

His thoughts, his looks, words, actions all infect,
And season him thy last and sweetest prey.

This said, they both betook them several ways, 610 Both to destroy, or unimmortal make

All kinds, and for destruction to mature

Sooner or later; which th' Almighty seeing,

ing that Death had not mounted yet on his pale horse: for though he was to have a long and allconquering power, he had not yet begun, neither was he for some time to put it in execution. Greenwood.

601. this vast unhide-bound corpse.] It is strange how Dr. Bentley and others have puzzled this passage. The meaning is

plain enough. For Death though lean is yet described as a vast monster in book ii. And his skin was not tight-braced, and did not look sleek and smooth, as when creatures are swoln and full; but hung loose about him, and was capable of containing a great deal without being distended.

From his transcendent seat the saints among,
To those bright orders utter'd thus his voice.

See with what heat these dogs of hell advance
To waste and havoc yonder world, which I
So fair and good created, and had still
Kept in that state, had not the folly' of Man
Let in these wasteful furies, who impute
Folly to me, so doth the prince of hell

615

620

Phil. iii. 2. Without are dogs. Rev. xxii. 15. Thus far perhaps our author may be justified, but in some other parts of this speech the metaphors are wonderfully coarse indeed, and seem to be beneath the dignity of an epic poem, and much more unbecoming the majesty of the divine Speaker; unless they may be vindicated by the following passage in Scripture, which is expressed by the Son of God himself. Rev. iii. 16. I will spue thee out of my mouth. The foregoing quotation from Shakespeare,

Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war,

Mr. Warburton thinks much happier (as indeed it is) than this passage in our author, because havoc was formerly the cry made use of when the irregulars in an army destroyed all before them with fire and sword. When Henry V. made his expedition into France, he had rules and orders of war drawn up, (a copy of which is in Lincoln's Inn library,) where there is one chapter denouncing the punishment on those who cry Havoc.