Fluttering his pennons vain plumb down he drops
Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour
Down had been falling, had not by ill chance
The ftrong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud,
Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
miles aloft: that fury stay'd,

As many
Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither fea,

Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on he fares,

935

939

Treading the crude confiftence, half on foot,
Half fly'ing; behoves him now both oar and fail.
As when a gryphon through the wilderness
With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale,
Pursues the Arimafpian, who by stealth
Had from his wakeful cuftody purloin'd
The guarded gold: So eagerly the Fiend
O'er bog, or steep, through ftrait, rough, denfe, or rare,

Hinc et Sithoniæ gentes, auroque ligatas

Subftringens Arimafpe comas.

Herodotus and other authors relate, that there were continual wars between the gryphons and Arimafpians about gold, the gryphons guarding it and Arimafpians taking it whenever they had opportunity. See Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib. 7. cap. 2. Arimafpi, quos diximus, uno oculo in fronte media infignes: quibus affidue bellum effe circa metalla cum gryphis, ferarum volucri genere, quale vulgo traditur, eruente ex cuniculis aurum, mira cupiditate et feris cuftodientibus, et Arimafpis rapientibus. multi, fed maximè illuftres Herodotus et Arifteas Proconnefius fcribunt.

948. O'er bog, or fleep, &c.] Dr. Bentley's reading is not amifs C'er bog, o'er fteep, &c. The difficulty of Satan's voyage is very well exprefs'd by fo many mono. fyllables as follow, which cannot be pronounced but flowly, and

945

way,

With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his
And swims, or finks, or wades, or creeps, or flies:
At length a univerfal hubbub wild

Of stunning founds and voices all confus'd,
Borne through the hollow dark, affaults his ear
With loudeft vehemence: thither he plies,
Undaunted to meet there whatever Power
Or Spirit of the nethermoft abyfs

951

955

Might

Faint, weary, fore, embroiled,
grieved, brent,
With heat, toil, wounds, arms,
fmart, and inward fire.

956. the nethermoft abys] Dr. Bentley rejects nethermoft here, and again in ver. 969, and charges Milton's blindncts as the caufe of his forgetting himfelf here and being inconfiftent. But it is the Doctor that mistakes, and not the Poet: for tho' the throne of Chaos was above Hell, and confequently a part of the alyfs was fo, yet a part of that abys was at the fame time far below Hell; fo far below, as that, when Satan went from Hell on his voyage, he fell in that abyss 10000 fathom deep, ver. 934. and the poet there adds, that if it had not been for an accident, he had been falling down there to this hour: nay it was fo deep as to be illimitable, and where highth is left. Surely then the abyss, confider'd all together, was nethermoft in respect of Hell, below which it was fo endlefly extended; and therefore

there was no occafion for Dr. Bentley to read here this vaft unknown abyfs, instead of the nethermoft abyss, nor in ver. 969. regnant o'er this vaft abyfs inftead of of this nethermost abyfs. Pearce.

962. Sat fable-vefted Night, ] Clothed in her fable furs; a fable is a creature whofe fkin is of the greater price, the blacker it is. Μελαμπιπλών δε Νυξ, Euripides.

Hume. Milton here and in what follows feems to have had in his view

Spenfer's fine description of Night, which is very much in the taste of this allegory of Milton's. See Faery Queen, B. 1. Cant. 5. St. 20. Where grifly Night, &c.

64. Orcus and Ades,] Orcus is generally by the poets taken for Pluto, as Ades for any dark place, Thefe terms are of a very vague fignification, and employ'd by the ancient poets accordingly. Milton has perfoniz'd them, and put them in the court of Chaos.

Richardfon.

964.-and

Might in that noise refide, of whom to afk

the nearest coast of darkness lies

960

Which way
Bord'ring on light; when strait behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread
Wide on the wafteful deep; with him enthron'd
Sat fable-vested Night, eldest of things,
The confort of his reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name

Of Demogorgon; Rumor next and Chance, And Tumult and Confufion all embroil'd, And Difcord with a thousand various mouths.