About him exercis'd heroick games

551

The unarmed youth of Heaven, but nigh at hand Celestial armoury, fhields, helms, and spears, Hung high with diamond flaming, and with gold.

Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even On a fun-beam, fwift as a shooting star

556

Ver. 551. heroick games] They were not now upon the watch, they awaited night; but their arms were ready. The Angels would not be idle, but employed themfelves in these noble exercises. So the foldiers of Achilles during his quarrel with Agamemnon, and fo the infernal Spirits, when their Chief was gone in fearch of the new creation, B. ii. 528.

Ver. 554. Lib. C. vii. 82.

RICHARDSON.

with diamond flaming, &c.] Taffo, Gier.

"Si vedea fiameggiar fra le altre arnefi

"Scudo di lucidiffimo diamante." DUNSTER.

Ver. 555. gliding through the even] That is, as Dr. Pearce obferves, through that part of the hemifphere, where it was then evening. And, as Dr. Bentley had objected to evening as a place of space to glide through, Mr. Richardfon remarks that Uriel arrives from the fun's decline, v. 792, which is no more a place than the evening, but beautifully poetical; and is justified by Virgil, where a fwarm of bees fail through the glowing fummer, Georg. iv. 59.

"Nare per æftatem liquidam fufpexeris agmen." TODD. Ver. 556. On a fun-beam,] He also returns to his charge on that bright beam, v. 590. This thought has been fufpected of imitation, as a prettiness below the genius of Milton. Dr. Newton informs us, that this might poffibly be hinted by a Picture of Annibal Caracci in the king of France's cabinet: But I am apt to believe that Milton had been ftruck with a Portrait in Shirley. Fernando, in the comedy of the Brothers, 1652, describes Jacinta at vefpers:

In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fir'd
Impress the air, and fhows the mariner
From what point of his compass to beware
Impetuous winds: He thus began in haste.
Gabriel, to thee thy course by lot hath given

"Her eye did feem to labour with a tear,
"Which fuddenly took birth, but, overweigh'd
"With its own fwelling, drop'd upon her bofome;
"Which, by reflexion of her light, appear'd
"As nature meant her forrow for an ornament:
"After, her looks grew chearfull, and I faw
"A fmile fhoot graceful upward from her eyes,
"As if they had gain'd a victory o'er grief;
"And with it many beams twisted themselves,

Upon whofe golden threads the Angels walk
"To and again from Heaven." FARMER.

560

The fiction of Uriel's defcent and ascent by a fun-beam, is in Drayton's Legend of Rob. D. of Normandy, ft. 43.

"As on the fun-beams gloriously I ride,

"By them I mount, and down by them I fide."

Young has adapted this idea to his own peculiar caft of conception, and of compofition, N. Thought. ix.

"Perhaps a thousand demigods defcend
"On every beam we fee, to walk with men.'

." T. WARTON.

Or perhaps Milton had in mind what Sandys relates of the traditions of the Jews refpecting our Saviour, in his Travels, ed. 1615, p. 147. They fay that he got into the Sanctum Sanctorum, and, taking from thence the powerfull names of God, did few them in his thigh: By vertue whereof he went inuifible, rid on the Sunne beames, raifed the dead to life, and effected like wonders." But fee the note on Arcades, ver. 15, 16. And for the defcent, fwift as a fhooting ftar, fee the note on Comus, ver. 80. TODD.

Ver. 561. thy courfe by lot &c.] Milton took the idea of the angels performing their miniftry by lot, and in different courfes, from the priests among the Jews who attended

Charge and strict watch, that to this happy place No evil thing approach or enter in.

565

This day at highth of noon came to my sphere
A Spirit, zealous, as he feem'd, to know
More of the Almighty's works, and chiefly Man,
God's latest image: I defcrib'd his way
Bent all on speed, and mark'd his aery gait;
But in the mount that lies from Eden north,
Where he first lighted, foon difcern'd his looks 570
Alien from Heaven, with paffions foul obscur'd:
Mine eye pursued him ftill, but under shade
Loft fight of him: One of the banish'd crew,
I fear, hath ventur'd from the deep, to raise
New troubles; him thy care must be to find. 575

To whom the winged warriour thus return'd.
Uriel, no wonder if thy perfect fight,
Amid the fun's bright circle where thou fitft,
See far and wide: In at this gate none pass
The vigilance here plac'd, but such as come
Well known from Heaven; and fince meridian

hour

No creature thence: If Spirit of other fort,

580

So minded, have o'er-leap'd these earthly bounds

the altar in feveral courfes. See Luke, i. 8, 9. he feems to have taken the thought, B. v. 655.

Ver. 563. No evil thing approach or enter in.] any evil thing to approach, or at least to enter in.

From this too
CALLANDER.

Not to fuffer
PEARCE.

Ver. 567. God's latest image:] For the firft was Chrift; and before Man were the Angels. So, in B. iii. 151, Man is called God's youngest fon. NEWTON.

585

On purpose, hard thou know'ft it to exclude
Spiritual substance with corporeal bar.
But if within the circuit of these walks,
In whatsoever shape he lurk, of whom
Thou tell'ft, by morrow dawning I shall know.
So promis'd he; and Uriel to his charge
Return'd on that bright beam, whose point now

rais'd

590

Bore him flope downward to the fun now fallen
Beneath the Azores; whether the prime orb,.
Incredible how fwift, had thither roll'd
Diurnal, or this lefs volúbil earth,

By shorter flight to the east, had left him there
Arraying with reflected purple and gold

596

Ver. 592. the Azores;] Nine islands in the great Atlantick or Western ocean, commonly called the Terceras, from Tercera, the largest of them. Some confound the Canaries with them. HUME.

Ibid. whether &c.] Whether, not whither as in Milton's own editions, the fun had roll'd thither diurnal, that is, in a day's time, with an incredible fwift motion; or this lefs volúbil earth, by fhorter flight to the east, had left him there at the Azores, it being a lefs motion for the earth to move from weft to east upon its own axis according to the fyftem of Copernicus, than for the heavens and heavenly bodies to move from east to weft according to the fyftem of Ptolemy. Milton, in like manner, queftions whether the fun was in the center of the world or not, B. iii. 575: So fcrupulous was he in declaring for any system of philofophy. Newton.

Ver. 594. volúbil] Volubil, with the fecond fyllable long, as it is in the Latin volubilis. He writes it voluble, when he makes the fecond fyllable short, as in B. ix. 436. NEWTON.

The clouds that on his western throne attend. Now came ftill Evening on, and Twilight gray

Ver. 598. Now came ftill Epening on, &c.] This is the firft evening in the poem; for, the action of the preceding books lying out of the fphere of the fun, the time could not be computed. When Satan came first to the earth, and made that famous foliloquy at the beginning of this book, the fun was high in his meridian tower; and this is the evening of that day; and furely there never was a finer evening; words cannot furnish out a more lovely defcription. The greatest poets in all ages have as it were vied one with another, in their defcription of evening and night; but, for the variety of numbers and pleafing images, I know of nothing parallel or comparable to this to be found among all the treasures of ancient or modern Poetry. NEWTON.

Taffo fays fublimely of the night,

"Ufci la Notte, è fotto l'ali

"Menò il filentio."

Milton has here given a paraphrase of this passage, but very much below his original. The ftriking part of Taffo's picture is, " Night's bringing in Silence under her wings." So new and fingular an idea as this had detected an imitation. Milton contents himself then, with faying fimply, "Silence accompanied." However, to make amends, as he thought, for this defect, Night itself, which the Italian had merely perfonized, the English poet not only perfonizes, but employs in a very becoming office:

"Now came ftill Evening on, and Twilight gray

"Had in her fober livery all things clad:"

Every body will obferve a little blemish, in this fine couplet. He fhould not have used the epithet “still," when he intended to add,

"Silence accompanied;"

But there is a worse fault in this imitation. To hide it, he fpeaks of "Night's livery." When he had done that, to fpeak of her wings had been ungraceful. Therefore he is forced to say obfcurely, as well as fimply, "Silence accompanied:" And fo lofes a more noble image for a lefs noble one. The truth is, they would not stand together. Livery belongs to human grandeur; wings to divine or celestial. So that in Milton's very attempt to