O ancient Powers of air, and this wide world,

"Panditur Inferni limen, patet intima Ditis "Janua, concilium magnum, Stygiósque Quirites "Accitos, Rex ipse nigra in penetralia cogit. "Olli conveniunt, volitant umbrosa per auras "Numina, Tartareóque tumet domus alta Senatu. Considunt, numeróque omnes subsellia justo "(Concilium horrendum) insternunt, causámque fluendi "Intenti expectant: solio tum Lucifer alto

66

Insurgens, dictis umbras accendit amaris, &c."

Possibly Milton might now be thinking of this passage. That he had read the poem with attention, is evident. See this point further considered in the first note on Milton's verses In Quintum Novembris. TODD.

Ver. 44. O ancient Powers of air, and this wide world,] So the devil is called in Scripture the prince of the power of the air, Eph. ii. 2; and evil spirits are termed the rulers of the darkness of this world, Eph. vi. 12. Satan here summons a council, and opens it as he did in the Paradise Lost: but here is not that copiousness and variety which is in the other; here are not different speeches and sentiments adapted to the different characters; it is a council without a debate; Satan is the only speaker. And the author, as if conscious of this defect, has artfully endeavoured to obviate the objection, by saying that their danger

"admits no long debate,
"But must with something sudden be oppos'd.

And afterwards,

66 no time was then

"For long indulgence to their fears or grief."

The true reason is, he found it impossible to exceed or equal the speeches in his former council, and therefore has assigned the best reason he could for not making any in this. NEWTON.

The object of this council, it should be recollected, is not to debate, but merely for Satan to communicate to his compeers his apprehensions of their approaching danger, and to receive from them a sort of commission to act, in prevention of it, as circum

(For much more willingly I mention air,
This our old conquest, than remember Hell,
Our hated habitation,) well ye know
How many ages, as the years of men,
This universe we have possess'd, and rul❜d,
In manner at our will, the affairs of earth,
Since Adam and his facile consort Eve
Lost Paradise, deceiv'd by me; though since
With dread attending when that fatal wound
Shall be inflicted by the seed of Eve
Upon my head. Long the decrees of Heaven
Delay, for longest time to Him is short;

45

50

55

stances might require, and as he should judge best. This gives the poet an opportunity of laying open the motives and general designs of the great antagonist of his hero. A council, with a debate of equal length to that in the second Book of the Paradise Lost, would have been totally disproportionate to this brief epick; which, from the nature of its subject, already perhaps abounds too much in speeches. DUNSTER.

They who have been taught to think, by the cant of common criticks, that this poem is unworthy of the great genius of Milton, may read the two first speeches in it; THIS of Satan, with which the poem judiciously opens; and THAT of God at ver. 130 of this Book. Jos. WARTON.

This our old conquest,] Par. Lost. B. x. 188.

"through the air,

"The realm itself of Satan long usurp'd." DUNSter.

Ver. 53.

attending] That is, waiting, expecting ;

from the French attendre. So, in Par. Lost, B. vii. 407.

"Or in their pearly shells at ease attend

"Moist nutriment

See also B. xi. 551.

Ver. 55.

DUNSTER.

Long the decrees of Heaven

Delay, for longest time to Him is short ;] This obser

And now, too soon for us, the circling hours
This dreaded time have compass'd, wherein we
Must bide the stroke of that long-threaten'd wound,
(At least if so we can, and by the head
Broken be not intended all our power

To be infring'd, our freedom and our being,
In this fair empire won of earth and air,)

For this ill news I bring, the Woman's Seed,
Destin'd to this, is late of Woman born.

60

65

His birth to our just fear gave no small cause:
But his growth now to youth's full flower, displaying
All virtue, grace, and wisdom to achieve
Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear.

vation, that "the decrees of Heaven are long delayed," must be understood as being limited to this particular instance; or to its being sometimes, not always so. Why any interval should ever occur between the decrees of the Almighty and his execution of them, a reason is immediately subjoined, which forms a peculiarly fine transition to the succeeding sentence. Time is as nothing to the Deity; long and short having, in fact, no existence to a Being with whom all duration is present. Time to human beings has its stated measurement, and by this Satan had just before estimated it;

"How many ages, as the years of men,

"This universe we have possessed.'

Time to guilty beings, human or spiritual, passes so quick, that the hour of punishment, however protracted, always come too soon;

"And now, too soon for us the circling hours
"This dreaded time have compass'd, wherein we
"Must bide the stroke of that long-threaten'd wound."

DUNSTER.

Ver. 64. For this ill news I bring, &c.] In the fourth Act of the Adamo of Andreini, Lucifer similarly announces the Incarnation to the demons.

DUNSTER.

Before him a great Prophet, to proclaim
His coming, is sent harbinger, who all
Invites, and in the consecrated stream
Pretends to wash off sin, and fit them, so
Purified, to receive him pure, or rather
To do him honour as their king: All come,
And he himself among them was baptiz'd;
Not thence to be more pure, but to receive
The testimony of Heaven, that who he is
Thenceforth the nations may not doubt; I saw
The Prophet do him reverence; on him, rising
Out of the water, Heaven above the clouds
Unfold her crystal doors; thence on his head

"And

Ver. 74. Purified, to receive him pure,] 1 John iii. 3. every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure." NEWTON.

Ver. 81.

Heaven above the clouds

Unfold her crystal doors;] It is the same idea in the Ode on the Nativ. st. 13. "Ring out, ye crystal spheres." And in the Latin Ode, Præsul. Elien. ver. 63.

"Donec nitentes ad fores

"Ventum est Olympi, et regiam crystallinam, &c.”

Compare also Par. L. vi. 771.

"He on the wings of Seraphs rode sublime

"On the crystalline sky."

Again, B. i. 741.

"Thrown by angry Jove

"Sheer o'er the crystal battlements."

See also B. vi. 756, 860. Milton's “ crystal battlements” are in the imagery of romance. The "crystalline sphere" is from the Ptolemaick or Gothick system of Astronomy, Par. L. iii. 482. And so perhaps Spenser, Tears of the Muses:

"For hence we mount aloft into the skie,

"And look into the crystall firmament." T. WARTon.

A perfect dove descend, (whate'er it meant,)
And out of Heaven the sovran voice I heard,
"This is my Son belov'd, in him am pleas'd."
His mother then is mortal, but his Sire
He who obtains the monarchy of Heaven:
And what will He not do to advance his Son?
His first-begot we know, and sore have felt,
When his fierce thunder drove us to the deep:

85

90

Ver. 83. A perfect dove descend,] He had expressed it before, ver. 30. in likeness of a dove, agreeably to St. Matthew, "the Spirit of God descending like a dove," iii. 16. and to St. Mark, "the Spirit like a dove descending upon him," i. 10. But as Luke says, that the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, iii. 22. the poet supposes with Tertullian, Austin, and others of the fathers, that it was a real dove, as the painters always represent it.

NEWTON. Vida, like Milton, describes the Holy Ghost descending as a "perfect dove;" Christ. iv. 214.

"Protinus aurifluo Jordanes gurgite fulsit,

"Et superum vasto intonuit domus alta fragore:
"Insuper et cœli claro delapsa columba est
" Vertice per purum, candenti argentea pluma

Terga, sed auratis circum et rutilantibus alis : "Jámque viam late signans super astitit ambos,

Cœlestíque aurâ pendens afflavit utrumque.

"Vox simul et magni rubrâ genitoris ab æthrâ

"Audita est, nati dulcem testantis amorem." DUNSTER.

Ver. 87. He who obtains the monarchy of Heaven :] Obtains is in the sense of obtineo in Latin; to hold, retain, or govern. But obtains rather means here obtains by conquest: Satan being the speaker, it is a word of much force. It implies usurpation. It should be noted that the He is, in this place, sneeringly emphatical. DUNSter.

Ver. 89.

VOL. IV.

and sore have felt, When his fierce thunder drove us to the deep:] In

C