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Of coral stray, or sporting with quick glance
Show to the sun their wav'd coats dropt with gold,
Or in their pearly shells at ease, attend
Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food
In jointed armour watch: on smooth the seal,
And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk
Wallowing unwieldy', enormous in their gait
Tempest the ocean: there leviathan,
Hugest of living creatures, on the deep

duced by marine insects, and is equally hard, in the water, and when taken out of it. See particularly the curious account of coral-reefs, in Captain Flinders's Voyage to Terra Australis, or the Quarterly Review, vol. xii. art. 1. E.

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409. In jointed armour] The reader cannot but be pleased with the beauty of this metaphor. The shells of lobsters, &c. and armour very much resemble one another; and in the civil wars there was a regiment of horse so completely armed, that they were called Sir Arthur Haslerig's lobsters. Possibly Milton might be thinking of them at this very time.

409. -on smooth the seal, And bended dolphins play :] The seal or sea-calf and the dolphin are observed to sport on smooth seas in calm weather. The dolphin is called bended, not that he really is so more than any other fish, but only appears crooked, as he forms an arch by leaping out of the water and instantly dropping into it again with his head foremost. Ovid therefore describes him

405

410

tergo delphina recurvo. Fast. ii. 113. and his sportive nature is alluded to by Virgil, Æn. v. 594.

Delphinum similes; qui per maria
humida nando
Carpathium Libycumque secant, lu-
duntque per undus.

And how smooth is the verse
that describes the seal and dol-
phin sporting upon the smooth
water!

-on smooth the seal
And bended dolphins play:

as in the rough measures follow-
ing one almost sees porpoises
and other unwieldy creatures
tumbling about in the ocean.

412. Tempest the ocean:] Milton has here with very great art and propriety adopted the Italian verb tempestare. Thyer.

412. there leviathan,] The best critics and commentators upon Job by the leviathan understand the crocodile, and Milton in several particulars describes the leviathan like the author of the book of Job, and yet by others it seems as if he meant the whale. See the note upon book i. 200.

Stretch'd like a promontory sleeps or swims
And seems a moving land, and at his gills
Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out a sea.

415

Mean while the tepid caves, and fens and shores
Their brood as numerous hatch, from th' egg that soon
Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd

Their callow young, but feather'd soon and fledge 420
They summ'd their pens, and soaring th' air sublime
With clang despis'd the ground, under a cloud
In prospect; there the eagle and the stork
On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build:
Part loosely wing the region, part more wise
In common, rang'd in figure wedge their way,

!

425

416. —and at his trunk spouts of birds seemed as when a cloud

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With prosp'rous wing full summ'd.
Richardson.

422. With clang despis'd the
ground, under a cloud.

SO

In prospect;] That is, the birds were many, that the ground, from whence they rose, would have appeared to be under a cloud, if one had seen it at a distance: in this sense we have ver. 555. how it (the world) showed in prospect from his throne. Pearce.

Under a cloud, the ground being shaded by the multitude

passes over it. Richardson.

423. there the eagle and the

stork

On cliffs and cedar tops their

eyries build:]

These birds build their eyries, that is, their nests, in such high places. In Job xxxix. 27, 28. it is said particularly of the eagle, Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. And Pliny says of them, Nidificant in petris et arboribus. L. x. sect. 4.

426. rang'd in figure wedge their way,] Pliny has described certain birds of passage, flying in the form of a wedge, and spreading wider and wider. Those behind rest upon those before, till the leaders being tired are in their turn received into the rear. A tergo sensim

Intelligent of seasons, and set forth

Their airy caravan high over seas

Flying, and over lands with mutual wing

430

Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane
Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air
Floats, as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes:
From branch to branch the smaller birds with song
Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings
Till ev'n, nor then the solemn nightingale

dilatante se cuneo porrigitur agmen, largèque impellenti præbetur auræ. Colla imponunt præcedentibus: fessos duces ad terga recipiunt. Nat. Hist. 1. x. sect. 32. But as this migration of birds is one of the most wonderful instincts of nature, it may be proper to add some better authorities to explain and justify our author than Pliny. Jer. viii. 7. takes notice of this remarkable instinct; Yea the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming, &c. So very intelligent are they of seasons. And as Milton instances in the crane particularly, we will quote what the ingenious author of Spectacle de la Nature says upon this occasion. Dial. xi. As to wild ducks "and cranes, both the one and "the other at the approach of "winter fly in quest of more "favourable climates They all "assemble at a certain day like "swallows and quails. They "decamp at the same time, and "it is very agreeable to observe "their flight. They generally "range themselves in a long

435

"column like an I, or in two "lines united in a point like a "V reversed." And so as Mil❝ton says,

"—rang'd in figure wedge their way. "The duck or quail, who forms "the point, cuts the air, and "facilitates a passage to those "who follow; but he is charged "with this commission only for a certain time, at the conclu"sion of which he wheels into "the rear, and another takes "his post." And thus as Milton says,

-with mutual wing Easing their flights.

435.-nor then the solemn nightingale &c.] If the reader has not taken particular notice of it, he will be surprised as well as pleased to see in how many passages and with what admiration Milton speaks of this charming songster. He compares his own making verses in his blindness to the nightingale's singing in the dark. iii. 37.

Then feed on thoughts, that volun-
tary move
Harmonious numbers; as the wake-
ful bird

Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays: Others on silver lakes and rivers bath'd

Their downy breast; the swan with arched neck

Sings darkling, and in shadiest co

vert hid

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time, &c.

Amongst other pleasing images

he mentions twice

the silent night

With this her solemn bird.

And Adam and Eve are made to sleep lulled by nightingales, iv. 771.

And when the evil Spirit tempts Eve in her dream, he mentions this as one of the strongest temptations to induce her to walk out in the cool evening, v. 38.

Why sleep'st thou, Eve? now is the pleasant time,

The cool, the silent, save where silence yields

To the night warbling bird, that now awake

Tunes sweetest his love-labour'd song. And here when the poet is describing the creation of all the sorts and species of fowl, of singing birds he particularizes the nightingale alone.

From branch to branch the smaller birds with song

Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings

Till ev'n, nor then the solemn nightingale

Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays.

And upon Adam's and Eve's first coming together the nightingale sung the epithalamium or wedding song, viii. 518.

-The amorous bird of night Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening star

On his hill top to light the bridal lamp.

Other poets mention the nightingale perhaps by way of simile, but none of them dwells, or de

lights to dwell, so much upon it
as our author. And he ex-
presses the same fondness and
admiration in other parts of his
works.
stance out of the Il Penseroso, as
We will give an in-
it is rather more particular than
the rest.

And the mute silence hist along,
'Less Philomel will deign a song,
In her sweetest, saddest plight,
Smoothing the rugged brow of night.
Sweet bird that shunn'st the noise of
folly,

Most musical, most melancholy!
Thee chauntress oft the woods among
I woo to hear thy even song;
And missing thee, I walk unseen
On the dry smooth-shaven green,
To behold the wand'ring moon

Riding near her highest noon. And in his sonnets, the first is address'd To the nightingale.

438. the swan with arched neck] The ancient poets have not hit upon this beauty, so lavish as they have been in

Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows
Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit
The dank, and rising on stiff pennons, tower

The mid aereal sky: Others on ground

Walk'd firm; the crested cock whose clarion sounds
The silent hours, and th' other whose gay train
Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue

Of rainbows and starry' eyes. The waters thus
With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl,
Evening and morn solemniz'd the fifth day.

The sixth, and of creation last arose

With evening harps and matin, when God said,

their descriptions of the swan. Homer calls the swan longnecked dovodugo, but how much more picturesque if he had arched this length of neck! her wings mantling proudly, her wings are then a little detached from her sides, raised and spread as a mantle, which she does with an apparent pride, as is also seen in her whole figure, attitude, and motion. Richardson.

Dr. Bentley wonders that he should make the swan of the feminine gender, contrary to both Greek and Latin. I suppose he did it because he thought it would be more agreeable to the ear. Rows his state sounds rather too rough.

439. Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows Her state with oary feet;] A state signified a canopy over a throne or chair of state. In this peculiar sense, and not under the general and popular idea of pomp or dignity, state is to be understood in this pas

440

445

450

Here is an affected and unnatural conceit, like too many others, even in Milton. He means that the swan in swimming forms a superb canopy with her neck and head, under which she floats, or which she rows forward with her feet. [See the note, Par. Lost, x. 445.] T. Warton.

443. the crested cock-] So Ovid calls him cristatus ales. Fast. i. 455.

Nocte De Nocti cristatus cæditur ales,

Quod tepidum vigili provocat ore diem.

450. when God said, &c.] So Gen. i. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind. We observed before, that when Milton makes the divine Person speak, he keeps closely to Scripture. Now what we render living creature is living soul in the Hebrew, which Milton usually fol

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