Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore: rictus in Ovid. 665 670 But after all came Life, and lastly Death, Death with most grim and grisly visage seen. Yet is he nought but parting of the breath, Ne ought to see, but like a shade to ween, Unbodied, unsoul'd, unheard, unseen. 666. No person seems better to have understood the secret of heightening, or of setting terrible things, if I may use the expression, in their strongest light, by the force of a judicious obscurity, than Milton. His destudied; it is astonishing with scription of Death is admirably what a gloomy pomp, with what a significant and expressive uncertainty of strokes and colour 665. —the lab'ring moon] The ancients believed the moon greatly affected by magical practices, and the Latin poets call the eclipses of the moon labores lunæ. The three foregoing lines and the former part of this containing, he has finished the portrait of the King of terrors: a short account of what was once believed, and in Milton's time not so ridiculous as now. Richardson. 666. The other shape, &c.] This poetical description of Death our author has pretty evidently borrowed from Spenser. Faery Queen, b. vii. cant. vii. st. 46. The other shape &c. See v. 666-673. In this description all is dark, uncertain, confused, terrible, and sublime to the last degree. Burke on the Sublime and Beautiful, part ii. sect. 3. 670. black it stood as Night, Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as hell, And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head Satan was now at hand, and from his seat The monster moving onward came as fast With horrid strides, hell trembled as he strode. Whence and what art thou, execrable shape, &c.] Like the ghost described in Homer, Odyss. xi. 605. —ὁ δ' ερεμνη νυκτι εοικως, TURNOY TOLON EXOV, XXI, Th' aereal arrow from the twanging 678. God and his Son except, Created thing nought valued he nor shunn'd ;] This appears at first sight to reckon God and his Son among created things, but except is used here with the same liberty as but ver. 333, and 336, and Milton has a like passage in his Prose Works, p. 277. edit. Tol. No 675 680 685 place in heaven and earth, except hell Richardson. 683. —miscreated] We have been told that Milton first coined the word miscreated, but Spenser used it before him, as Faery Queen, book i. cant. ii. st. 3. Eftsoons he took that miscreated fair. and b. ii. cant. vii. st. 42. Nor mortal steel empierce his miscreated mould. Bentley. 684. through them I mean to pass, &c.] Spenser, Faery Queen, b. iii. c. iv. st. 15. I mean not thee intreat To pass; but maugre thee will pass, or die. Jortin. To whom the goblin full of wrath replied. Art thou that traitor Angel, art thou he, Who first broke peace in heav'n and faith, till then 690 Drew after him the third part of heav'n's sons 695 700 705 Et conjuratos cœlum rescindere fra- 697. Hell-doom'd,] As Satan had called Death hell-born, ver. 687. 700. False fugitive,] He is here called false because he had called himself a spirit of heaven. Compare ver. 687, with ver. 696. Pearce. 703. and like a comet burn'd, K That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge 710 715 &c.] The ancient poets frequently compare a hero in his shining armour to a comet; as Virg. Æn. x. 272. Non secus ac liquidâ si quando nocte cometæ Sanguinei lugubre rubent But this comet is so large as to fire the length of the constellation Ophiuchus or Arguitenens, or Serpentarius as it is commonly called, a length of about forty degrees, in th' arctic sky, or the northern hemisphere, and from his horrid hair shakes pestilence and war. Poetry delights in omens, prodigies, and such wonderful events as were supposed to follow upon the appearance of comets, eclipses, and the like. We have another instance of this nature in i. 598. and Tasso in the same manner compares Argantes to a comet, and mentions the like fatal effects, cant. vii. st. 52. Qual con le chiome sanguinose horrende Splender cometa suol per l'aria adusta, Che i regni muta, e i feri morbi ad duce, A i purpurei tiranni infausta luce. As when a comet far and wide descried, In scorn of Phoebus midst bright heav'n doth shine, And tidings sad of death and mischief brings To mighty lords, to monarchs, and to kings. Fairfax. 714.—as when two black clouds, &c.] It is highly probable, that Milton took the hint of this noble simile from one of the same sort in Boiardo's Orlando Inamorato, though it must be owned that he has excelled the Italian much, both in the variety of its circumstances, and the propriety of its application. Boiardo is describing an encounter betwixt Orlando his hero, and the Tartar king Agricane, and begins it thus, b. i. c. 16. Se vediste insieme mai scontrar due Da Levante a Ponente al ciel diverso, 715. —heav'n's artillery] Thunder. Juv. Sat. xiii. 83. Quicquid habent telorum armamentaria coli. Hume. 716. Over the Caspian,] That sea being particularly noted for Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow Grew darker at their frown, so match'd they stood; 720 For never but once more was either like To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds Had been achiev'd, whereof all hell had rung, 725 Against thy father's head? and know'st for whom ; 730 So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange 735 storms and tempests. So Horace, of death, that is the devil. Heb. Od. ii. ix. 2. ii. 14. -Non mare Caspium Vexant inæquales procellæ Usque 730. —and know'st for whom ;] These words are read with a semi-colon in Milton's own edi And so Fairfax, in Tasso, cant. tions, and not with a note of vi. st. 38. Or as when clouds together crush'd and bruis'd, Pour down a tempest by the Caspian shore. 722. —so great a foe:] Jesus Christ, who (as it follows ver. 734.) will one day destroy both death and him that has the power interrogation, as in some others : and the meaning is, at the same time that thou knowest for whom ; Cum nôris bene cui facias hoc; as Dr. Trapp translates it. If this is not the sense of the words, they must be read with a note of interrogation. 737. So strange thy outcry, and |