Of angels on full sail of wing flew nigh, As on a floating couch through the blithe air, with a banquet ministered by spirits. Psycham autem paventem ac trepidam, et in ipso scopuli vertice deflentem, mitis aura molliter spirantis zephyri, vibratis hinc inde laciniis et reflato sinu sensim levatam, suo tranquillo spiritu vehens paulatim per devexa rupis excelsæ, vallis subditæ florentis cespitis gremio leniter delapsam reclinat. And at the beginning of the fifth book-Et illico vini nectarei eduliorumque variorum fercula copiosa, nullo şerviente, sed tantum spiritu quodam impulsa, subministrantur. Nec quemquam illa videre poterat, sed verba tantum audiebat excidentia, et solas voces famulas habebat. Post opimas dapes quidam intro cessit, et cantavit invisus; et alius citharam pulsavit, quæ non videbatur, nec ipse. Tunc modulata multitudinis conferta vox aures ejus affertur; ut quamvis hominum nemo pareret, chorum tamen esse pateret. Dunster. 585. As on a floating couch through the blithe air,] Mr. Sympson objects to the word blithe, but I conceive through the blithe air to be much the same as if he had said through the glad 585 590 air, and the propriety of such a metaphor wants no justification or explanation. 585. This description of the descent of our Lord on the angels' plumy vans reminds me of an Assumption of the Virgin, by Guido, in St. Ambrosio's church at Genoa; only the motion of the whole group there is ascending. If it is not from any famous painting, it is certainly a subject for one. It is to be lamented that we find any inaccuracy in a part of the poem so eminently beautiful: the word him in v. 583, is evidently incorrect, but the intended reference to our Saviour cannot be misunderstood. With the description of the banquet, &c. v. 587-595. compare G. Fletcher's Christ's Triumph upon earth, st. 61. But to their Lord now musing in his thought A heavenly volley of light angels flew, And from his father him a banquet brought Through the fine element, for well they knew After his lenten fast he hungry grew ; And, as he fed, the holy quires com bine To sing a hymn of the celestial trine. Dunster. That soon refresh'd him wearied, and repair'd All the poems that ever were written, must yield, even Paradise Lost must yield to Regained in the grandeur of its close. Christ stands triumphant on the pointed eminence. The Demon falls with amazement and terror, on this full proof of his being that very Son of God, whose thunder forced him out of heaven. The blessed angels receive new knowledge. They behold a sublime truth established, which was a secret to them at the beginning of the temptation; and the great discovery gives a proper opening to their hymn on the victory of Christ, and the defeat of the Tempter, Calton. 595 596. True image of the Father is from Heb. i. 8. Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, &c. Thus also, Par. Lost, iii. 884. Begotten Son! Divine similitude. throned in the bosom of bliss, is an expression often found in the Par. Lost, see iii. 238, 305. x. 225. —light of light conceiving, is from the Nicene creed. -inshrined in fleshly tabernacle and human form, so St. John, i. 14. Και ὁ Λόγος σαρξ εγένετο, και εσκήνωσεν v, literally, the Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us. St. Paul terms the body, our earthly house of this tabernacle, (2 Cor. v. 1.) Indeed ovos, tabernacle, is frequently used by profane writers also, to signify the mortal body. So Longinus, sect. xxxii. has avbewπivov oxnvous. And Plato, yo vos: and again, as cited by Æschines the Socratic, το δε σκηνος τούτο προς κακα περιηςἡ Φυσις. μοσεν Lexicon in voc. σuvos, onnow, See Parkhurst's σκηνωμα. Thus also Milton in the Passion, He sovran Priest Poor fleshly tabernacle entered. of Felton Bp. of Ely, he speaks of And in the poem, On the death Animasque mole carnea reconditas. Seneca has the expression, Deum in humano corpore hospitantem, epist. xxxi. But it is only a In the bosom of bliss, and light of light Thou didst debel, and down from heaven cast For Adam and his chosen sons, whom thou A Saviour art come down to re-install Where they shall dwell secure, when time shall be, strong way of expressing the sentiment in ep. lxxiii. and in other parts of his writings, Nulla sine Deo mens bona. Dunster. The expression is much the same, but far less dignified, in Il Penseroso, 91. Th'immortal mind, that hath forsook Her mansion in this fleshly nook. Spenser calls the body the soul's "fleshly form." F. Q. iii. v. 23. T. Warton. 600. whatever place, Habit, or state, or motion,] Probably not without allusion to Horace, ep. i. xvii. 23. 600 605 610 615 Of Tempter and temptation without fear, Or lightning thou shalt fall from heav'n, trod down 620 619. like an autumnal star Or lightning] The poet does here, as in other places, imitate profane authors and Scripture both together. Like an autumnal star, Aσrg og Evaλynov. Iliad. v. 5. Or like lightning fall from heaven, Luke x. 18. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. 619. Par. Lost, iv. 556. -swift as a shooting star In Autumn thwarts the nighttrod down under his feet; so Romans xvi. 20. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet. The marginal reading for bruise is tread. In all her gates- Matt. xvi. 18. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Dunster. 624. Abaddon] The name of the angel of the bottomless pit. Rev. ix. 11. Here applied to the bottomless pit itself. 626. —all unarm'd.] So in Vida's Christiad, i. 192. Satan says of our Saviour, 625 -semper me reppulit ipse, Non armis ullis fretus, non viribus usus. But all unarmed seems here to He in celestial panoply all arm'd Dunster. 628. From thy demoniac holds, possession foul,] The dapovoEvo, or demoniacs of the Gospel, are constantly rendered in our version possessed with a devil. And Rev. xviii. 2. Babylon is called, the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit. —yelling they shall fly, and beg to hide them in a herd of swine, &c. from Matt. viii. 28-32. and Rev. xx. 1-3. -our Saviour meek, Matt. xi. 29. Learn of me, for I am meek, and lowly of heart. Dunster. And beg to hide them in a herd of swine, Thus they the Son of God our Saviour meek 638. -he unobserv'd vate return'd.] A striking contrast in the deli- Messiah his triumphant chariot turn'd, &c. See Par. Lost, vi. 880-892. Dunster. 639. In the concluding hymn of the angels, the poet has taken VOL. III. 630 635 some pains, to shew the fitness and propriety of giving the name of Paradise Regained to so confined a subject, as our Saviour's temptation. Confined as the subject was, I make no question that he thought the Paradise Regained an epic poem as well as the Paradise Lost. For in his invocation he undertakes -to tell of deeds Above heroic: and he had no notion that an epic poem must of necessity be formed after the example of Homer, and according to the precepts of Aristotle. In the introduction to the second book of his Reason of Church- Government he thus delivers his sentiments. "Time serves not now, and per haps I might seem too profuse "to give any certain account of "what the mind at home, in "the spacious circuits of her "musing, hath liberty to pro"pose to herself, though of high"est hope, and hardest attempt"ing; whether that epic form "whereof the two poems of Homer, and those other two 66 Q |