Let th' earth bring forth soul living in her kind, ; In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den ; and soul it should be here as in Let th' earth bring forth fowl living 455 460 than things, because it is more conformable to the text of Scripture. Cattle and creeping thing, and beast of th' earth. 455. Innumerous living creatures-] Innumerous is uncommon. He has the expression which Pope has adopted into innumerous boughs, Comus, 349. his Odyssey. T. Warton. 456. -out of the ground up rose As from his lair the wild beast where he wons In forest wild,] Lair, or layer, an old Saxon word signifying a bed. The use of this word is still kept up among us, as when we call the different strata or beds of earth, some of clay, some of chalk, some of stone, &c. lairs. Wons is an old Saxon word signifying to dwell or inhabit. Dr. Bentley reads In forest wide, instead of wild, wild beast going before; but Milton does not dislike such a repetition of the same word. 461. Those rare and solitary, these in flocks] Those, that is, the wild beasts mentioned in Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung, His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds, 465 And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce, The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw In hillocs: the swift stag from under ground Bore up his branching head: scarce from his mould 470 ver. 457. these the tame, the cattle; and it is a very signal act of Providence that there are so few of the former sort, and so many of the latter, for the use and service of man. 462. —broad herds] This will sound a little strange to the ear of an English reader, who must therefore be told that he follows Homer literally. Iliad. xi. 678. παιπόλια πλατί αίγων. of the beasts rising out of the earth, though Dr. Bentley condemns it as an insertion of the editor's, is certainly not only worthy of the genius of Milton, but may be esteemed a shining part of the poem. He supposes the beasts to rise out of the earth, in perfect forms, limbed and full grown, as Raphael had painted this subject before in the Vatican; and he describes their manner of rising in figures Virgil hath a long herd, Æn. i. and attitudes, and in numbers 186. -et longum per valles pascitur agmen. Richardson. 463. The grassy clods now calv'd,] Dr. Bentley quarrels with this expression, and says, that calved is a metaphor very heroical, especially for wild beasts. But, as Dr. Pearce justly observes, to calve (from the Belgic word Kalren) signifies to bring forth: it is a general word, and does not relate to cows only; for hinds are said to calve in Job xxxix. 1. and Psalm xxix. 9. Mr. Addison particularly commends this meta too, suited to their various natures. 467. The libbard,] The same as the leopard; a word used by Spenser and the old poets, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. vi. st. 25. 470. -scarce from his mould Behemoth biggest born of earth upheav'd His vastness:] The numbers are excellent, and admirably express the heaviness and unwieldiness of the elephant, for it is plainly the elephant that Milton means. Behemoth and leviathan are two creatures, described in the book of Job, and formerly the generality of Behemoth biggest born of earth upheav'd His vastness: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose, At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, the elephant and the whale: but the learned Bochart and other later critics have endeavoured to shew, that behemoth is the river horse, and leviathan the crocodile. It seems as if Milton was of the former opinion, by mentioning leviathan among the fishes, and the river horse and scaly crocodile, ver. 474. as distinct from behemoth and leviathan; and there is surely authority sufficient to justify a poet in that opinion. Behemoth biggest born. The alliteration, as the critics call it, 475 480 It is the same style of sound, and the verse labours as much with broad bare backs and behemoth biggest born as with metuens, molem, montes. And the labour of these lines appears greater in contrast with the ease of the following measures, which describe the lesser animals springing up as lightly and as thick as plants; -fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose, As plants. 478. -deck'd] It is a verb is very remarkable, all the words here and not a participle-and beginning with b. We had another instance a little before in the production of the mountains, ver. 286. decked their smallest lineaments exact in all the liveries &c. 482. Minims of nature;] This word minims is formed from the ——and their broad bare backs up- adjective minima, and in allusion heave Into the clouds. It is the same kind of beauty that is admired in Virgil, Æn. i. 61. Hoc metuens, molemque et montes insuper altos Imposuit. to the Vulgar Latin of Prov. XXX. 24. Quatuor ista sunt minima terræ. The word was in use before for an order of friars, Minim, minimi, so called from affected humility. Wondrous in length and corpulence, involv'd Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept The parsimonious emmet, provident Of future, in small room large heart inclos'd, Pattern of just equality perhaps Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes Of commonalty: swarming next appear'd 485 490 It is there said of the bee, and his Ready and easy way to estahere applied to the ant. prince, ruler, or lord, provides "her meat in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest: "which evidently shews us, "that they who think the na❝tion undone without a king, "though they look grave or "haughty, have not so much "true spirit and understanding "in them as a pismire: neither "are these diligent creatures "hence concluded to live in "lawless anarchy, or that com blish a free commonwealth, p. 591. Edit. 1738. He adds perhaps hereafter, as he had no hopes of it at that time. He commends the ants or emmets for living in a republic, as the bees are said to do under a monarchy; and therefore Mr. Pope says, Essay on Man, iii. 186. The ants' republic, and the realm of bees. 490. The female bee, that feeds her husband drone Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells] Dr. Bentley would throw out part of these verses. The drone (says he) is not the bee's husband; and that bees are all females, seems an idle and idiotical notion, against the course and rule of nature. But (however that be) both those opi Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells With honey stor'd: the rest are numberless, The serpent subtlest beast of all the field, Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes Now heav'n in all her glory shone, and roll'd 495 500 By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walk'd maintained by Mr. Charles Butler in the fourth chapter of his curious treatise upon bees, entitled The Feminine Monarchie, printed in 1634. and it seems to have been the prevailing doctrine in Milton's days. Pearce. There has been lately published in French a natural history of bees, Histoire naturelle des abeilles, &c. Paris 1744. wherein the curious author has collected all that Swammerdam and others have written upon the subject. He says that in a hive there is commonly one queen, and perhaps a thousand males called drones, and near twenty thousand working bees of no sex that can be distinguished. The queen or mother bee is longer than the rest, and will produce one year with an 505 other from thirty to forty thousand bees. The drones or husthey are paying their duty to bands of this queen, except when her, live idly and luxuriously upon the finest honey, whereas the common bees live in great measure upon wax; and the queen herself will condescend to wait upon the drones, and bring them honey; and so, as Milton expresses it, feeds her husband drone deliciously. 497. And hairy mane terrific,] Virgil in like manner attributes a mane to serpents, Æn. ii. 206. |