Stood flx'd her stately height : ' and straight the doors,
Op'ning their brazen folds, discover, wide

2

Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth
And level pavement: from the arched roof,
Pendent by subtle magic, many a row

3

Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed
With naphtha and asphaltus,4 yielded light
As from a sky. The hasty multitude
Admiring enter'd; and the work some praise,
And some the architect: his hand was known
In heav'n by many a tower'd structure high,
Where sceptred angels held their residence,
And sat as princes; whom the supreme King
Exalted to such pow'r, and gave to rule,5
Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright.
Nor was his name unheard, or unador'd,
In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land
Men call'd him Mulciber; 7 and how he fell s
From heav'n they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o'er the crystal battlements: from morn
To noon he fell—from noon to dewy eve—
A summer's day; and with the setting sun
745 Dropt from the zenith like a falling star,

6

8

1 See Note on i. 282.

« £n. ii. 483:

En. i. 726

"Apparet Uomus iDlus et atria longa palescunt."

"dependent lyohul laqucarlbus aureis Incensi, et noctem (ldmmls funalla vlncunt."

> "Cressets," any great light set on high, from the French croittelle, because beacons had anciently crosses on their tops.-Johnson.)

Two pitchy, inflammable substances, issuing, the one from the ground in Babylonia and Persia, the other from the bottom of the Dead Sea, and found floating on the surface. (See xii. 41, etc., and note on i. 411.)

• Latinism, "quibus dedit regere."

• It is said that Milton has followed the arrangement of the book περι ουραν. ιεραρχ c. vi. 7, ascribed to Dionysius the Arcopagile, of dividing the angelic world into three orders: first, seraphim, cherubim, and thrones; secondly, dominations (vjxμels), princedoms (xw^iothtes), powers (εžovocat ;) third, principalities (1⁄2μxït). virtues, archangels, angels.--(Cat.)

1 Milton selects out of Vulcan's many titles, the epithet "Mulciber," from mutcere, to soften, as that which expresses the founder's or smeller's art.—(N.)

s This follows closely Homer's description of his fall, as told by Vulcan himself. Il.i.590:

Ριψε ποιος τεταγών απω βηλου θεσπεσίοιο,

Παν δ' ημαρ φερομην, αμα δ' ηελίῳ καταδυντι
Καππεσον εν Λημνώ-ολιγος δ' ετι θυμός ενηεν.

Milton beautifully represents the protracted duration of his fall, by dividing the day Into three periods, and emphatically calling it a summer's day. There is a similar division, and as it were prolongation of lime, in the seventh book of the Odyssey, 288, where Ulysses sleeps all night long, and till the morning, and till the middle of the day, and till the selling of the sun :

Ενδον παννύχιος, και επ' ηω, και μέσον ημαρ,

Δύσετο το κελιος, και με γλυκύς ύπνος ανηκεν. See N., P.)

On Lcmnos, the Egean1isle: thus they relate,
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout

Fell long before; nor aught availed him now

To have built in heaven high towers; nor did he 'scape
By all his engines, 2 but was headlong sent
With his industrious crew to build in hell.

3

Meanwhile, the winged heralds, by command

Of sov'reign power, with awful ceremony

And trumpets' sound, throughout the host proclaim
A solemn council, forthwith to be held.

4

At Pandemonium, the high capital

Of Satan and his peers: their summons call'd,
From every band and squared regiment,

5

By place or choice the worthiest; they anon,
With hundreds and with thousands, trooping came,
Attended: all access was throng'd: the gates
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall,
(Though like a cover'd field, where champions bold
Wont ride in arm'd, and at the Soldan's chair
Defied the best of Panim chivalry

6

To mortal combat, or career with lance,)

9

Thick swarm'd, both on the ground, and in the air, Brush'd with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees 769 In spring-time, 10 when the sun with Taurus rides,

i "Egean" is here a dissyllable, and Ihe emphasis is on the first syllable in place of the second. So x. 688, he uses Thjes'lian for Thyesle'an. 11. v. 53.

2 "Engines" here means devices.

(N.)

3 He has given them wings not only as angels, but to express their speed.—(H.1 See ii. 518. I. ix. 10.

From

and Satovcov, the dwelling of all the devils. "Trooping," ESTIXOTO. (See nole on 769-)

« Covered here means enclosed, i. e. Tor martial exercises or single combat.—See Tassu, Gier. Liber, iv. 3.—OR.)

n "Soldan," the old English word for Sultan, as Paynim was for Pagan. See Nole on 318. He rlludcs to the single combats between the Christians and Saracens, of which (here were so many descriptions in the books of romance. He uses Paynim for infidel, lor the Mahometans were considered not better than pagans and were in fact morc formidable enemies to the christian cause. Lord Byron, in his "Childe Harold," and other poems, applies Paynim to the Mahometans.

8" Career with lance," alludes to those combats which were only for amusement and to display address, in which the points of the weapons were blunted beforehand—(Cai.l "Career," to run rapidly, to charge, or make an onset.

» The hissing sound of this line, it is said, beautifully expresses the sense.
10 The following similes from Homer and Virgil resemble this. II. ii. 87.-

Ηντε έθνεα εισι μελισσάων αδινάων
Πετρής εκ γλαφυρης αιει νέον ερχομέννων,
Βοτρυδον δε πετονται επ' ανθεσιν ευκρινείσιν.
Αι μεν τ' ενθα αλις πεποτήκται, αι δε τε ενθα
Ως των εθνεα πολλα νεων από και κλισικών

1

Pour forth their populous youth about the hive,
In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers,
Fly to and fro; or on the smoothed plank,

The suburb of their straw-built citadel,

New rubb'd with balm, expatiate, 2 and confer
Their state affairs: so thick the aery crowd

3

Swarm'd, and were straiten'd; till, the signal giv'n,
Behold a wonder! They but now who seem'd
In bigness to surpass earth's giant sons,

Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room
Throng numberless, like that pygmean race
Beyond the Indian mount; or faery elves
Whose midnight revels, by a forest-side
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,

Or dreams he sees; while over head the moon

Wheels her pale course; they, on their mirth and dance
Intent, with jocund music charm his ear:

At once with joy, and fear, his heart rebounds.
Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms
Reduc'd their shapes immense, and were at large,
rat Though without number still, amidst the hall

En. i. 430:

Ηίονος προπαροιθε βαθείης εστιχνωντα
Ιλαδον εις αγορήν.

"Quails apes estate nova per florea rura

Exercet sub sole labor, cum gentis adultos
Educunt fœtus."

B

But Milton carries the similitude farther than either, by mentioning the bees as conferring on their state affairs, as he is going to give an account of the consultations of the devils. -(N.)

Ovid, throughout the Fasti, describes the rising and setting of the signs of the zodiac, and expressly mentions the rising of Taurus, v. 603. So Milton (x. 663) speaks of the rising and setting of the fixed stars.—(P.)

! From the verb exspatior, which means, to range at large. So Ov. Met. "equi exspatianlur;" and "flumina exspatiantur." Spatior is used in the same sense.

3 Milton, in order as it were to obviate any objection that may be made to the various metamorphoses of his spirits in the progress of the poem, prepared the reader for a justification (433, etc.) When Satan harangued his spirits to sound (heir disposition, it was in an ample field, where they appeared very properly in their natural dimensions; but now, when a deliberative council was to be held, the proper place was his own palace; and, from its necessarily limited space, they very properly exercised their power of selfcontraction; but though the main body so contracted themselves, the chiefs are represented as still retaining all their gigantic proportions.—(Add. N.) So Milton represents the bees conferring about their state affairs, not in the open fields, but at their hive. Hor. Ep. v. 49 :—"O rebus meis non infideles arbilræ, nox, et Diana." "Nearer to the earth," is in allusion to the superstitious notion of witches and fairies having great power over the moon in bringing it nearer the earth. Virg. Eel. viii. 69:—

"Carmina vel colo possunt deducere luoam." (N.t H.)

s /. e. had still room enough. Au large, French.—(Rich.)

Of that infernal court. But far within,
And in their own dimensions like themselves,
The great Seraphic lords, and Cherubim,

In close recess, and secret conclave sat ;

A thousand demigods on golden seats,

1

Frequent and full. After short silence then, 798 And summons read, the great consult began.

• Thus Homer, describing the meeting of the gods in council. II. xx. 10:

Έλθοντες δ' ες δώμα Διος νεφεληγερέταο

Ξεστης αιθούσησιν εφίζανον.

"Frequent," like frequent sometimes, as Cic. Fam. Ep. 12, "Senatus frequent convenit," means "in great numbers."—"Full," means that these numbers filled that part of the hall—as we say, there was "a numerous and full house :" so there is no tautology.

BOOK II.1

The consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of heaven; some advise it, others dissuade a third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Salan, to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in heaven concerning another world, and another kind or creature, equal, or not much inferior, to themselves, about this time to be created. Their doubt, who shall be sent on this difficult search: Satan their chief undertakes alone the voyage; is honoured and applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several ways, and to several employments, as their inclinations lead them, to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his journey to bell-gates finds Ihem shut, and who sat there to guard Ihem; by whom at length they are opened, and discover to him the great gulf between hell and heaven; with what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, the Power of that place, to the sight of this new world which he sought.

High on a throne of royal state,8 which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus,3 and of Ind;
Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand,
Show'rs on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,*

5 Satan exalted sat, by merit rais'd

l The persons whom Milton introduces always discover such sentiments as are in a peculiar manner conformable to their respective characters. Every circumstance in their speeches and actions is adapted with great delicacy and judgment to the persons who speak and act. Thus the mock majesty and superior greatness of Satan, his opening and closing the debate, his taking on himself the great enterprise at which the whole assembly trembled, and his boldness and address in the several perilous adventures, are quite in unison with his character.—(Ad.)

2 Spenser, Fairy Queen, I. iv. 8 :

----"It did passe

The wealth of to' east and pomp of Persian kings." (T.J

> Ormus is a barren island in the Persian gulf, about 9 miles in circumference, which, while the Portuguese held it, was exceedingly rich, as it was the place where all the trade of India, the principal part or whose wealth was diamonds and precious stones, was then transacted.—(P.)

"Showers" may be taken either as a metaphor to express great abundance of them, because the eastern kings had the greatest share of property; or is in allusion to tbc custom at the coronation of many Eastern kings, especially Persian, of throwing golddust and seed pearl on their heads. There is a similar allusion to the custom in Shakspeare, Ant. and Cleop. act ii.—

"I'll set thee in a show'r of gold, and hail

Rich pearls upon thee."

The pearl and gold are called barbaric, after the manner of the Greeks and Romans, who called all other nations barbarous. Mn. ii. 504:

"Barbarico posies auro spoliisque superbi."—(N.. P., Warb.)