Breaking the horrid silence, thus began. "If thou beest he; but O, how fallen! how changed From him who in the happy realms of light, 85 Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine Myriads though bright! If he whom mutual league, Joined with me once, now misery hath joined 90 In equal ruin; into what pit thou seest, From what height fallen; so much the stronger proved He with his thunder: and till then who knew The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those, Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind, That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, 95 100 And shook his throne. What though the field be lost? 105 sary." Hence the noun denotes an adversary or opposer. He is known under many names, but Satan and Devil are the chief. We have the latter appellation in all the European tongues, probably coming from a Greek word signifying to traduce or calumniate, and thus the Devil is emphatically "the father of lies." The term Satan occurs in the Scriptures about forty times, and that of Devil fifty. 84-86. If thou beest he, &c.] There is considerable confusion in the construction of these lines. "Didst outshine," 1. 86., cannot, I conceive, be legitimately accounted for. The relative refers to "him," and consequently ought to have the verb in the third person, not the second. 87. If he whom, &c.] More confusion. He ought to be him, as being under the regimen of "hath joined," 1. 90. The natural order is, "If misery hath now joined in equal ruin him whom mutual league, &c. joined with me once." We might, to be sure, understand "If thou beest" he "whom mutual league;" but then the verb "hath joined" is without an object. 93. He with his thunder.] "There is great beauty in this expression. Satan disdains to utter the name of God, though he cannot but acknowledge his superiority."-NEWTON. This way of indicating a subject which you do not wish to name, is known by rhetoricians as a Euphemism. 101. Innumerable force.] "Force " in the sense of multitude, not as in l. 94., where it signifies might or power. 103- 104. His utmost power.] A remark of Campbell's in his Essay on English Poetry, may be worth transcribing here. "Although Satan speaks of having 'put to proof his (Maker's) high supremacy, in dubious battle, on the plains of Heaven,' the expression, though finely characteristic of his blasphemous pride, does not prevent us from feeling that the battle cannot for a moment be dubious." 105. What though the field be lost? All is not lost; th' unconquerable will, Who now triumphs, and in th' excess of joy, All is not lost.] Compare TASSO'S "I grant we fell on the Phlegrean green, Yet good our cause was, though our fortune nought; For chance assisteth oft the ignobler part, We lost the field, yet lost we not our heart." 109. And what is else not to be overcome.] i.e. and if there is anything else besides "unconquerable will, &c." which is not to be overcome. After enumerating four special things, he takes care to add a general clause that shall include any other quality. The Richardsons read the line with a mark of interrogation, "And what is else not to be overcome?" and add this explanation, "If this is not to be unsubdued, what is?" I think the former explanation preferable; but let the judicious reader choose for himself. 113. From the terror of this arm, fc.] i.e. terror inspired by it, not felt by it. The use of this is more vivid and emphatic than my. Vain boasting, of course; but not the less suitable to the character of Satan on that account. 117. This empyreal substance.] i.e. substance not gross like our bodies, but formed of the purest fire or light, and 110 115 120 so (as he thinks) indestructible. The reasoning seems to be much the same as Bishop Butler brings forward in his "Analogy" at considerable length: "All presumption of death's being the destruction of living beings must go upon supposition that they are compounded; and so discerptible. But since, &c." In fact, Satan relies, as so many have done since, on the immateriality of the soul, as we call the "empyreal substance," as proof positive that "it cannot fail;" but it is difficult to conceive that anything called into existence by the fiat of omnipotence could not be annihilated by the same fiat. Whether it will be so, is quite another question. 120. With more successful hope.] i.e. with hope of more success. 124. Tyranny of Heaven.] Some idea of the hatred and contempt meant to be embodied in this phrase may be formed by the following account of the character of ancient tyrannies: "The Greeks had no abhorrence of kings; the descendant of a hero-race, ruling over a people whom his fathers had ruled from time immemorial, was no subject of obloquy, either with the people or with the 66 Raised impious war in Heaven, and battle proud, Nine times the space that measures day and night Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes, : 44. Him the Almighty Power, &c.] The natural order would be "The Almighty Power hurled him headlong," &c. The transposition redeems the passage from being prosaic; and, in fact, gives it grandeur and sublimity. Nothing contributes more than inversion to the force and elevation of language the couplets of rhyme confine inversion within narrow limits; nor would the elevation of inversion, were there access for it in rhyme, be extremely concordant with the humbler tone of that sort of verse. It is universally agreed, that the loftiness of Milton's style supports admirably the sublimity of his subject; and it is not less certain, that the loftiness of his style arises chiefly from inversion.". HOME'S Elements of Criticism. 46. Hideous ruin and combustion.] Milton uses ruin in its etymological sense, including the idea of rushing with violence, noise, tumult and velocity; and then, as a body on fire glows the more the faster it passes through space, so the fallen angel feels and exhibits intenser heat the farther he falls. 48. In adamantine chains and penal fire.] "Adamantine," having the qualities of adamant; anything inflexible, or not to be broken, like the hardest iron or steel; "penal fire," i.e. fire kindled by vengeance, and inflicted as a punishment. 49. Who durst defy, &c.] i. e. inasmuch as he dared to defy. The relative is equivalent sometimes to "and he," and at other times to "because he," but without any difference in the verb, as is the case in Latin. 50. Nine times the space, &c.] There would have been an anachronism in saying " nine days and nights," even if the phrase had been otherwise equally good. Milton is referring to a period when day was not divided from night. 56. Torments him.] Why ought the verb to be in the singular? 57. That witnessed huge affliction.] "Witnessed" here means manifested or showed to others, not beheld in others. "As 59. As far as Angels' ken.] "Ken" is connected with the verb to know, and when used as a noun it always means "sight at a distance." far as Angel's ken," therefore, is as far as the sight of an angel, or with the apostrophe after the s, of angels can reach. I prefer calling ken a noun; but let it not be thought altogether absurd to consider it as a verb, for Dr. Johnson, whose merits as a verbal critic are allowed by all, so considers it, and As one great furnace, flamed; yet from those flames Served only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words quotes this very line as his authority. 62. Yet from those flames no light.] As we are accustomed to associate pleasure with light, Milton takes care to correct this notion, that we may not suppose there was any source of comfort left to the "horrid crew." The "no light, but rather darkness visible," is a grand picture. Indistinct, of course, it must be, but we can feel it. 66-67. Hope never comes that comes to all.] Hope that comes to all men, even the most miserable, never comes to them. Milton, no doubt, had in his mind one of the sentences that Dante tells us was written over the gates of hell," Put away hope all ye who enter here." The position of the relative that is objectionable; being too far off from its antecedent. 68. Urges.] i. e. pursues, so as to be hard upon; pursues with punishment. 70-74. Such place eternal Justice.] "To banish for ever into a local hell, whether in the air, or in the centre, or in that uttermost and bottomless gulf of chaos, deeper from holy bliss than the world's diameter multiplied."Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce. 75. O how unlike the place from whence they fell!] Observe the climax here. The poet had laboured to express the horrible nature of the tortures that had been reserved for the fallen angels, and had enumerated circumstance after circumstance of the "dungeon horrible" where they were confined, attempting to produce that effect by iteration and accumulation of particulars which no single statement or simile would produce. But then, to condense all that had been said into the space of a single line, to drive the nail home, as it were, and clench it on the other side, he adds, "O how unlike the place from which they fell!" Nothing could be more impressive or magnificent. The force of contrast can no further go. 82. And thence in Heaven called Satan.] Satan is a Hebrew word transferred to the English. It is derived from a verb signifying to lie in wait," "to oppose," "to be an adver So spake th' apostate Angel, though in pain, Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair: And him thus answered soon his bold compeer. 66 O, Prince, O Chief of many thronéd powers: That led th' embattled Seraphim to war Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds Fearless, endangered Heaven's perpetual King, And put to proof his high supremacy, 125 130 Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate; 135 Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host philosophers. But a tyrant, a man of low or ordinary birth, who by force or fraud had seated himself on the necks of his countrymen, to gorge each prevailing passion of his nature at their cost, with no principle but the interest of his own power such a man was regarded as a wild beast that had broken into the fold of civilised society, and whom it was every one's right and duty by any means, or with any weapon, presently to destroy."-ARNOLD'S History of Rome. 125. So spake th' apostate Angel, though in pain, vaunting aloud.] Talking boastfully and loudly so as to drown thought. He is not unlike the schoolboy in Blair's poem of The Grave, "who went whistling along to bear his courage up." Apostate, from two Greek words signifying "to stand away from," means a deserter. -one who departs from a cause that he had once professed. 129. That led th' embattled Seraphim to war, &c.] Observe the structure led, not ledst. Beelzebub is actuated by the same spirit of ambition and selfexaggeration as animates his leader, and he quietly puts in a claim for the 140 against the Highest. He adds "under thy conduct," but that is to avoid giving offence. This side play is exquisite, and almost worthy of Shakspeare. Seraphim seem to be the highest order of angels. Cherubim are next in rank. 131. Heaven's perpetual King.] Not "eternal," because that would seem to admit that he reigned in his own right; but "perpetual," that he had ruled uninterruptedly, for want of one to challenge his authority. Ovid, Milton's favourite among Latin poets, uses the phrase perpetuum carmen" in the sense of a connected or uninterrupted poem." 66 139. For the mind and spirit remains invincible.] We have here a slight violation of the first rule of syntax, that "two singular nouns joined by the conjunction and require a verb in the plural." The justification is, that the two nouns are nearly synonymous. Still it is a construction not to be imitated. Dr. Crombie has the following observations on this subject that are well worth attending to. "It was customary with the writers of antiquity, when the substantives were nearly synonymous, to employ a verb singular, as mens, ratio et consilium in senibus est,understanding, reason, and prudence is in old men. In imitation of these, some |