Their noxious vapour, or inur'd not feel, Or chang'd at length, and to the place conform'd Familiar the fierce heat, and void of pain; This horror will grow mild, this darkness light, 220 Of future days may bring, what chance, what change For happy though but ill, for ill not worst, Thus Belial with words cloth'd in reason's garb : 220. This horror will grow mild, this darkness light,] It is quite too much, as Dr. Bentley says, that the darkness should turn into light but light, I conceive, is an adjective here as well as mild; and the meaning is, This darkness will in time become easy, as this horror will grow mild; or, as Mr. Thyer thinks, it is an adjective used in the same sense as when we say It is a light night. It is not well expressed, and the worse as it rimes with the following line. 227. Counsell'd ignoble ease,] Virgil. Studiis ignobilis ott. Georg. iv. 564. 228. Mammon spake.] Mammon's character is so fully drawn in the first book, that the poet adds nothing to it in the second. We were before told, that he was the first who taught mankind to ransack the earth for 225 gold and silver, and that he was the architect of Pandemonium, or the infernal palace, where the evil spirits were to meet in council. His speech in this book is every way suitable to so depraved a character. How proper is that reflection, of their being unable to taste the happiness of heaven were they actually there, in the mouth of one, who while he was in heaven, is said to have had his mind dazzled with the outward pomps and glories of the place, and to have been more intent on the riches of the pavement, than on the beatific vision! I shall also leave the reader to judge how agreeable the following sentiments are to the same character. We war, if war be best, or to regain The latter for what place can be for us 280 235 240 Within heav'n's bound, unless heav'n's Lord supreme 233. and Chaos judge the strife:] Between the King of heaven and us, not between Fate and Chance, as Dr. Bentley supposes. Pearce. 234. The former vain to hope] That is to unthrone the King of heaven, argues as vain the latter, that is to regain our own lost right. 242. With warbled hymns,] "Warbled song,". Comus, 854. "Warbled string," Arcades, 87. T. Warton. 244. and his altar breathes Ambrosial odours and ambrosial flowers,] Dr. Bentley would read from for and, Ambrosial odours from ambrosial flowers, 245 and asks how an altar can Flowers and odours sweetly smell'd. In heav'n, this our delight; how wearisome To whom we hate! Let us not then pursue Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear Then most conspicuous, when great things of small, We can create, and in what place so e'er Through labour and indurance. This deep world And with the majesty of darkness round 250 255 260 265 270 254. Live to ourselves,] Hor. Imitated from Psalm xviii. 11, Epist. i. xviii. 107. -Ut mihi vivam and Persius, Sat. iv. 52. Tecum habita. 263. -How oft amidst Thick clouds and dark &c.] 13. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.-The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And from Ps. xcvii. 2. Clouds and darkness are round about him, &c. Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold; 275 280 274. Our torments also may in firmed by the whole host of length of time Become our elements, &c.] Enforcing the same argument that Belial had urged before, ver. 217; and indeed Mammon's whole speech is to the same purpose as Belial's; the argument is improved and carried farther, only with such difference as is suitable to their different characters. 278. The sensible of pain.] The sense of pain. Tò sensibile, the adjective used for a substantive. Hume. 279. To peaceful counsels,] There are some things wonderfully fine in these speeches of the infernal spirits, and in the different arguments so suited to their different characters: but they have wandered from the point in debate, as is too common in other assemblies. Satan had declared in i. 660. -Peace is despair'd, For who can think submission? War then, war, Open or understood, must be resolv'd. Which was approved and con VOL. I. angels. And accordingly at the Whether of open war or covert guile, Moloch speaks to the purpose, ver. 51. My sentence is for open war: of wiles More unexpert, I boast not, &c. But Belial argues alike against war open or concealed, ver. 187. War therefore, open or conceal'd, alike So My voice dissuades; for what can 281. —with regard H Of what we are and where, dismissing quite He scarce had finish'd, when such murmur fill'd After the tempest: Such applause was heard : It is thus in the first edition in the second edition it is, with regard of what we are and were: and it is varied sometimes the one and sometimes the other in the subsequent editions. If we read with regard of what we are and were, the sense is, with regard to our present and our past condition; if we read with regard of what we are and where, the sense is, with regard to our present condition and the place where we are; which latter seems much better. 285. as when hollow rocks retain &c.] Virgil compares the assent given by the assembly of the gods to Juno's speech, An. x. 96. to the rising wind, which our author assimilates to its decreasing murmurs, -cunctique fremebant Cælicolæ assensu vario: ceu flamina prima, Cum deprensa fremunt sylvis, et cæca volutant Murmura, venturos nautis proden. tia ventos. Hume. The conduct of both poets is 285 290 equally just and proper. The -ceu murmurat alti Impacata quies pelagi, cum flamine fracto Durat adhuc sævitque tumor, dubiumque per æstum Lassa recedentis fluitant vestigia venti. And in other particulars our author seems to have drawn his council of devils with an eye to Claudian's council of furies; and the reader may compare Alecto's speech with Moloch's, and Megara's with Belial's or rather with Beelzebub's. |