415

Within their stony caves, but rush'd abroad
From the four hinges of the world, and fell
On the vex'd wilderness, whose tallest pines,
Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks
Bow'd their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts,
Or torn up sheer : ill wast thou shrouded then,
O patient Son of God, yet only stood'st
Unshaken; nor yet stay'd the terror there,

420

Complerunt, magno indignantur learned father observes, that murmure clausi

Christ was tempted forty days Nubibus.

and the same number of nights Dunster.

Και επειδησις ήμερεις τεσσαρα415. From the four hinges of κοντα, και ταις τοσαυταις νυξιν επειράthe world,] That is, from the four (eto. And to these night temptcardinal points, the word cardines ations he applies what is said in signifying both the one and the the ninety-first Psalm, v. 5. and other. This, as was observed be- 6. Ou pornonon ato Pobov vuxTEQIYOV, fore, is a poetical tempest like Thou shalt not be afraid for any that in Virgil, Æn. i. 85. terror by night, - απο πραγματος Unà Eurusque Notusque ruunt, cre- εν σκοτει διαπορευομενου, nor for the berque procellis

danger that walketh in darkness. Africus,

The first is thus paraphrased in And as Mr. Thyer adds, though the Targum, (though with a such storms are unknown to us meaning very different from Euin these parts of the world, yet sebius's,) Non timebis à timore the accounts we have of hurri- Dæmonum qui ambulant in nocanes in the Indies agree pretty cte,

The fiends surround our much with them.

Redeemer with their threats and 417. Though rooted deep as terrors; but they have no effect. high,] Virgil, Georg. ii. 291. Æn.

Infernal ghosts, and hellish furies, iv. 445.

round

Environ'd thee. -quantum vertice ad auras Æthereas, tantum radice in Tartara This too is from Eusebius, (ibid. tendit.

Richardson. p. 435.] Eruntg ev opu tupatev dv

ναμεις ποιηραι εκυκλουν αυτον. 419. -shrouded] See note on quoniam dum tentabatur, maPar. Lost, x. 1068. E.

lignæ potestates illum circumsta-. 420. yet only stood'st

bant. And their repulse, it seems, Unshaken ; &c.]

is predicted in the seventh verse Milton seems to have raised this of this Psalm: A thousand shall scene out of what he found in fall beside thee, and ten thousand Eusebius de Dem. Evan. lib. ix. at thy right hand, but it shall not [vol. ii. p. 434. ed. Col.] The come nigh thee. Calton.

EV

Infernal ghosts, and hellish furies, round
Environ’d thee, some howl'd, some yell’d, some shriek’d,
Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou
Sat'st unappall'd in calm and sinless peace. 425
Thus pass’d the night so foul, till morning fair

422. Infernal ghosts, &c.] This As there is a storm 'raised by is taken from the legend or the evil spirits in Tasso as well as pictures of St. Anthony's tempt- in Milton, so a fine morning ation. Warburton.

succeeds after the one as well as From a print which I have after the other. See Tasso, cant. seen of the temptation of St. viii. st. 1. But there the mornAnthony. Jortin. .

ing comes with a forehead of rose, In these lines our author copies and with a foot of gold; con la Fairfax's Tasso, c. xv. 67. fronte di rose, e co' piè d'oro; here You might have heard, how through with pilgrim steps in amice gray, the palace wide,

as Milton describes her progress Some spirits howld, some bark’d, more leisurely, first the gray some hist, some cride.

morning, and afterwards the sun It is where Armida, returning rising: with pilgrim steps, with to destroy her palace, assembles the slow solemn pace of a pilher attendant spirits in a storm. grim on a journey of devotion; Indeed, the circumstances and in amice gray, in gray clothing; behaviour of Christ in this haunt- amice, a proper and significant ed wilderness, are exactly like word, derived from the Latin those of the Christian champions amicio to clothe, and used by in Tasso's inchanted forest, who Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. calmly view, and without resist. iv. st. 18. ance, the threats and attacks of

Array'd in babit black, and amice a surrounding group of the

thin, most horrid demons. See c. xiii. Like to an holy monk, the service to 28, 35. Milton adds,

begin. Some bent at thee their fiery darts, 426. Amice gray is the graius while thou

amictus in the Roman ritual. MilSat'st unappall’d in calm and sinless

ton, notwithstanding his abhorpeace.

T. Warton.

rence of every thing that related

to superstition, often dresses his 424. —their fiery darts,] Eph. imaginary beings in the habits vi. 16. the fiery darts of the wicked. of popery. But poetry is of all The contrast which the next line,

religions; and

popery Satst unappalld &c. gives to the

poetical one. So Comus, 188. preceding description of the horrors of the storm, has a singularly

-when the gray-hooded even fine effect. Dunster.

Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed. 426. -till morning fair His Melancholy also is a pensive Came forth &c.]

T. Warton.

is a very

Came forth with pilgrim steps in amice gray,
Who with her radiant finger still’d the roar
Of thunder, chas'd the clouds, and laid the winds,
And grisly spectres, which the Fiend had rais'd
To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.
And now the sun with more effectual beams

430

Not dissimilar is the justly 428. Who with her radiant finger admired description of evening

stilld the roar coming on, Par. Lost, iv. 598. Of thunder, chas'd the clouds, Now came still Evening on, and

&c.] twilight gray

This is a very pretty imitation Had in her sober livery all things of a passage in the first Æneid clad.

of Virgil, where Neptune is reWhere see the notes on Milton's

presented with his trident layfrequent notice of the twilighting the storm which Æolus had gray. The Roman poets give raised, ver. 142. night a sable or dusky amice.

Sic ait, et dicto citius tumida æquora Thus Silius Italicus, xv. 285.

placat, - nox atro circumdata corpus amictu.

Collectasque fugat nubes, solemque

reducit. And ibid. xii. 6i2. And Statius, Thebaid. iii. 415. Virgil alsó There is the greater beauty in gives the Naiad Juturna a sort

the English poet, as the scene of gray amice, whether from the he is describing under this charmgray mists that exhaled from the ing figure is perfectly consistent

with the course of nature, nostream, or the willows that

gray shaded its banks.

thing being more common than

to see a stormy night succeeded Jam tum effata caput glauco contexit by a pleasant serene morning. amictu.

Thyer. Glaucus was nearly gray,

since

We have here the ροδοδακτυλος it was the epithet given to the olive tree. Compare the descrip- Homer and Hesiod; but the

Has, the rosy-fingered Aurora of tion of morning in Homer, Il. viii

. 1. Hws rgoxowet 105 ; in Ham- image, which in them is only let, a. i. s. 1.

pleasing, is here almost sublime.

Dunster. the morn, in russet mantle clad

430. And grisly spectres,] Very Walks oer the dero of yon high injudicious to retail this popular This is the civil-suited morn, II. superstition in this place. War. Penseroso, 122. See also Browne's

440

Had cheer'd the face of earth, and dried the wet
From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,
Who all things now behold more fresh and

green, 435
After a night of storm so ruinous,
Clear'd up their choicest notes in bush and spray
To gratulate the sweet return of morn;
Nor yet amidst this joy and brightest morn
Was absent, after all his mischief done,
The prince of darkness, glad would also seem
Of this fair. change, and to our Saviour came,
Yet with no new device, they all were spent,
Rather by this his last affront resolv'd,
Desp’rate of better course, to vent his rage,
And mad despite to be so oft repell’d.
Him walking on a sunny hill he found,
Back'd on the north and west by a thick wood;
Out of the wood he starts in wonted shape,

445

As when from mountain tops &c.

Thy choir of birds about thee play, Thyer. And all the joyful world salutes the

rising day. Compare also part of Spenser's

Dunster. Sonnet xl.

435. Who all things now behold) - the fair sunshine in summer's day, Doth not the syntax require, that That when a dreadful storm away is

we should rather read flit, Through the broad world doth spread

Who all things now beheld ? his goodly ray; At sight whereof each bird that sits

449. -in wonted shape,] That on spray,

is, in his own proper shape, and And every beast that to his den was fled,

not under any

disguise, as at each Came forth afresh out of their late of the former times when he

apdismay,

peared to our Lord. He comes And to the light lift up their droop- now bopeless of success, without ing head.

device or disguise, and, as the And the following stanza in poet expressly says, Cowley's Hymn to Light;

Desperate of better course, to vent When, goddess, thou lift'st up thy waken'd head,

And mad despite to be so oft repelld. Out of the morning's purple bed,

Dunster. VOL. III.

P

his rage

a

And in a careless mood thus to him said.

450 Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God, After a dismal night; I heard the wrack As earth and sky would mingle; but myself Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them As dang’rous to the pillar'd frame of heaven,

455

a

Mr. Dunster may be right in stow the kingdoms of the world, this; but there is perhaps an ob- 155—194. His wonted shape may scurity as to the degree of con- very well therefore be undercealment assumed by Satan at stood of that in which he had different periods in the course of now for so long a time conversed these temptations, which we shall with Jesus. But it may be betin vain endeavour to clear up. ter to leave such matters undeAt first indeed he appears dis- termined. Milton did not disguised as an aged man in rural play any want of judgment, conweeds, b. i. 314; and it would sidering the peculiar difficulties seem from v. 498. that he re- of his subject, if he designedly tained that disguise till his dis- left these things unexplained. appearance, at the end of the first E. book. But in the interval he had 453. As earth and sky would answered undisguised,

mingle ;] Virgil, Æn. i. 137. 'Tis true I am that spirit unfor

Jam cælum terramque, meo sine nutunate, &c. b. i. 358.

mine, venti, So again, at his next appearance

Miscere, et tantas audetis tollere

moles ? he stood before Christ as a man,

Richardson. not rustic as before, but seemlier clad, &c. b. ii. 298. yet he ac

454. —these flaws,] See the costs Jesus under his former notes, Par. Lost, x. 698. E. character,

455. As dang'rous to the pillar'd

frame of heaven,] So also in the With granted leave officious I re

Mask, turn, &c. ii. 301.

if this fail, As indeed his super-human The pillar'd firmament is rottenness. power was displayed in the sudden appearance and disap

In both, no doubt, alluding to pearance of the regal banquet, Job xxvi. 11. The pillars of hea337, 401. as well as by his con

ven tremble, and are astonished at veying our Lord to the specular

his feproof. Thyer. mount, and back again through ,

Ætna is termed by Pindar, the air to the wilderness, b. iii. first Pyth. Ode, 251, 394. And he had a second

-*WW augayel! time openly declared his proper which Mr. West translates, character, when he proposed the The pillar'd prop of heaven. conditions on which he would be

Dunster.