Canaan he now attains; I see his tents Pitch'd about Sechem, and the neighb'ring plain Gift to his progeny of all that land, From Hamath northward to the desert south, 135 western border, you shall even have Pitch'd about Sechem, and the the great sea for a border: this neighb'ring plain Of Moreh ;-] Gen. xii. 6. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. Sichem or Sechem or Sychar (for it had all these names) was a town of the province of Samaria, there by promise he receives &c. as it follows immediately in Genesis xii. 7. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: so exactly does the poet copy the sacred historian. 139. From Hamath northward &c.] As so much is said of the promised land, the poet very properly gives us the bounds of it. Hamath was a city of Syria, and the entering into Hamah, so frequently mentioned in Scripture, is the narrow pass leading from the land of Canaan to Syria, through the valley which lies between Libanus and Antilibanus. This is set down as the northern boundary of the land: Numb. xxxiv. 7, 8. To the desert south, the desert of Arabia, or the wilderness of Zin, as it is called, Numb. xxxiv. 3. Your southquarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin. From Hermon east, a mountain beyond Jordan, on the north-east, to the great western sea, the Mediterranean. Numb. xxxiv. 6. And as for the shall be your west-border. On the shore mount Carmel, a mountain famous in Scripture upon the coast of the Mediterranean. Here the double founted streaM Jordan, as it is commonly said to arise from two sources at the foot of mount Libanus, the one called Jor, and the other Dan, as Thamesis from the Thame and Isis; true limit eastward according to Numb. xxxiv. 10, 12. And ye shall point out your east border from Hazarenan, a village at the fountain of Jordan,-and the border shall go down to Jordan &c. For the name of Canaan, though sometimes it includes the whole land possessed by the twelve tribes, yet peculiarly belongs to no more than the country westward of the river Jordan: and the Jews themselves make a distinction between the land promised to their fathers, and the lands of Sihon and Og which were to the eastward of the river. Moses plainly does the same in this expression, Deut. ii. 29. Until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which the Lord our God giveth us. And the land on this side Jordan was esteemed more holy than the land on the other. The one was barely called the land of your possession, the other the land of the possession of the 145 (Things by their names I call, though yet unnam'd,) 140 Lord, Joshua xxii. 19. See Universal History, vol. i. p. 566, 567. This river was the true limit eastward, but his sons were to extend themselves farther, shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills. This Senir or Shenir is the same as mount Hermon, mentioned as the eastern border before ver. 141. as appears from Deut. iii. 9. Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion, and the Amorites call it Shenir. And a more exact account of the boundaries of the promised land we shall hardly find in any proseauthor, than our poet has given us here in verse. 140. Things by their names I call, though yet unnam'd] As Virgil's vision in the sixth Eneid probably gave Milton the hint of this whole episode, this line is a translation of that verse, wherein Anchises mentions the names of places, which they were to bear hereafter, ver. 776. 150 Hæe tum nomina erunt, nunc sunt sine nomine terræ. Addison. 147. This ponder,] As if he had said, I mention other things for your information, but this you should particularly remember, and meditate upon. 152. Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call,] Dr. Bentley observes, that every where else Milton makes but two syllables of Abraham; and therefore to do the same here, he reads future instead of due. But I believe that Milton intended to make the name Abraham here consist of three syllables, in allusion to God's adding a syllable to it, as we find in Gen. xvii. 5. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham. Pearce. Abram signifies a great father, but Abraham is of larger extent, and signifies a father of many nations. A son, and of his son a grand-child leaves, Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown ; The grand-child with twelve sons increas'd departs 155 From Canaan, to a land hereafter call'd Egypt, divided by the river Nile; See where it flows, disgorging at sev'n mouths He comes invited by a younger son 160 In time of dearth, a son whose worthy deeds Of Pharaoh there he dies, and leaves his race Suspected to a sequent king, who seeks 165 Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them slaves Till by two brethren (those two brethren call. With glory' and spoil back to their promis'd land. To know their God, or message to regard, 170 Must be compell'd by signs and judgments dire; 175 155. with twelve sons increas'd] A Latinism; as Plaut. Trucul. ii. 6. 34. Cumque es aucta liberis. See also Tacit. Agric. c. 6. Richardson. 158. See where it flows, disgorging at sev'n mouths] This pointing to the river adds a liveliness to the narration, and the ancient poets seldom men tion the river Nile without tak- Et septem gemini turbant trepida. Ovid, Met. i. 422. -Ostia septem Pulverulenta vacant septem sine flumine valles. Met. ii. 256. To blood unshed the rivers must be turn'd; 176. To blood unshed &c.] The history of this part of the poem is so well known, as to need little comment or explanation. We shall only just observe the poet's exactness in copying of holy writ, and particularly in recounting the plagues of Egypt in the same method and order as the divine historian. Besides this, we will only note his spelling murren after the modern Latin word murrena. 181. thunder mixed with hail, &c.] The storm of hail and fire, with the darkness that overspread the land for three days, are described with great strength. The beautiful passage which follows, is raised upon noble hints in Scripture: -Thus with ten wounds The river-dragon tam'd at length submits &c. The river-dragon is an allusion to the crocodile, which inhabits VOL. II. 180 185 the Nile, from whence Egypt derives her plenty. This allusion is taken from that sublime passage in Ezekiel, (xxix. 3.) Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. Milton hath given us image in the same description, another very noble and poetical which is copied almost word for word out of the history of Moses. Last with one midnight stroke all the first-born Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds 190 The river-dragon tam'd at length submits To let his sojourners depart, and oft Humbles his stubborn heart, but still as ice Pursuing whom he late dismiss'd, the sea Aw'd by the rod of Moses so to stand 191. The river-dragon tam'd] The first edition has This riverdragon; but in the second it is altered to The, whether by the poet's direction, or by a mistake of the printer, we cannot tell. Pearce. 206. -but his approach Darkness defends between till morning watch;] To defend here has the signification of to forbid, to hinder, to keep off; as the Latin defendo is sometimes used, and the French defendre. There is hostem defendere in Ennius, solstitium pecori defendite in Virgil, defendere frigus in Horace. Darkness between defends, forbids and hin 195 200 205 ders, his approach till the morning watch, alluding to Exod. xiv. 19, 20. And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these, so that the one came not near the other all the night. And Milton himself has used defended in the same manner, xi. 86. that defended fruit. See the note there. And again in Par. Reg. ii. 369. |