Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays: Their downy breast; the swan with arched neck Sings darkling, and in shadiest co vert hid Amongst other pleasing images he mentions twice -the silent night With this her solemn bird. And Adam and Eve are made to sleep lulled by nightingales, iv. 771. And when the evil Spirit tempts Eve in her dream, he mentions this as one of the strongest temptations to induce her to walk out in the cool evening, v. 38. Why sleep'st thou, Eve? now is the The cool, the silent, save where si- To the night warbling bird, that now Tunes sweetest his love-labour'd song. And here when the poet is describing the creation of all the sorts and species of fowl, of singing birds he particularizes the nightingale alone. From branch to branch the smaller birds with song Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings Till ev'n, nor then the solemn nightingale Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays. And upon Adam's and Eve's first coming together the nightingale sung the epithalamium or wedding song, viii. 518. -The amorous bird of night Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening star On his hill top to light the bridal lamp. Other poets mention the nightingale perhaps by way of simile, but none of them dwells, or delights to dwell, so much upon it as our author. And he expresses the same fondness and admiration in other parts of his works. We will give an instance out of the Il Penseroso, as it is rather more particular than the rest. And the mute silence hist along, Most musical, most melancholy! Riding near her highest noon. 438. the swan with arched neck] The ancient poets have not hit upon this beauty, so lavish as they have been in Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows The mid aereal sky: Others on ground Walk'd firm; the crested cock whose clarion sounds The silent hours, and th' other whose gay train Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue Of rainbows and starry' eyes. The waters thus The sixth, and of creation last arose their descriptions of the swan. Homer calls the swan longnecked dovλrodger, but how much more picturesque if he had arched this length of neck! her wings mantling proudly, her wings are then a little detached from her sides, raised and spread as a mantle, which she does with an apparent pride, as is also seen in her whole figure, attitude, and motion. Richardson. Dr. Bentley wonders that he should make the swan of the feminine gender, contrary to both Greek and Latin. I suppose he did it because he thought it would be more agreeable to the ear. Rows his state sounds rather too rough. 439. Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows Her state with oary feet;] A state signified a canopy over a throne or chair of state. In this peculiar sense, and not under the general and popular idea of pomp or dignity, state is to be understood in this passage. 440 445 450 Here is an affected and unnatural conceit, like too many others, even in Milton. He means that the swan in swimming forms a superb canopy with her neck and head, under which she floats, or which she rows forward with her feet. [See the note, Par. Lost, x. 445.] T. Warton. 443. the crested cock-] So Ovid calls him cristatus ales. Fast. i. 455. Nocte Deæ Nocti cristatus cæditur ales, Quod tepidum vigili provocat ore diem. 450. when God said, &c.] So Gen. i. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind. We observed before, that when Milton makes the divine Person speak, he keeps closely to Scripture. Now what we render living creature is living soul in the Hebrew, which Milton usually follows rather than our translation; Let th' earth bring forth soul living in her kind, and soul it should be here as in Let th' earth bring forth fowl living in her kind: 455 460 than things, because it is more conformable to the text of Scrip ture. Cattle and creeping thing, and beast of th' earth. 455. Innumerous living creamon. He has the expression tures-] Innumerous is uncomwhich Pope has adopted into innumerous boughs, Comus, 349. his Odyssey. T. Warton. 456.-out of the ground up rose As from his lair the wild beast where he wons In forest wild,] Lair, or layer, an old Saxon word signifying a bed. The use of this word is still kept up among us, as when we call the different strata or beds of earth, some of clay, some of chalk, some of stone, &c. lairs. Wons is an old Saxon word signifying to dwell or inhabit. Dr. Bentley reads In forest wide, instead of wild, wild beast going before; but Milton does not dislike such a repetition of the same word. 461. Those rare and solitary, these in flocks] Those, that is, the wild beasts mentioned in Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung, His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds, 465 And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce, The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw In hillocs: the swift stag from under ground Bore up his branching head: scarce from his mould 470 ver. 457. these the tame, the cattle; and it is a very signal act of Providence that there are so few of the former sort, and so many of the latter, for the use and service of man. 462. broad herds] This will sound a little strange to the ear of an English reader, who must therefore be told that he follows Homer literally. Iliad. xi. 678. παιπόλια πλατι' αίγων. of the beasts rising out of the earth, though Dr. Bentley condemns it as an insertion of the editor's, is certainly not only worthy of the genius of Milton, but may be esteemed a shining part of the poem. He supposes the beasts to rise out of the earth, in perfect forms, limbed and full grown, as Raphael had painted this subject before in the Vatican; and he describes their manner of rising in figures Virgil hath a long herd, Æn. i. and attitudes, and in numbers 186. too, suited to their various na -et longum per valles pascitur tures. agmen. Richardson. 463. The grassy clods now calv'd,] Dr. Bentley quarrels with this expression, and says, that calved is a metaphor very heroical, especially for wild beasts. But, as Dr. Pearce justly observes, to calve (from the Belgic word Kalven) signifies to bring forth: it is a general word, and does not relate to cows only; for hinds are said to calve in Job xxxix. 1. and Psalm xxix. 9. Mr. Addison particularly commends this metaphor: and the whole description 467. The libbard,] The same as the leopard; a word used by Spenser and the old poets, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. vi. st. 25. 470. -scarce from his mould Behemoth biggest born of earth upheav'd His vastness:] The numbers are excellent, and admirably express the heaviness and unwieldiness of the elephant, for it is plainly the elephant that Milton means. Behemoth and leviathan are two creatures, described in the book of Job, and formerly the generality of interpreters understood by them Behemoth biggest born of earth upheav'd His vastness: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose, The river horse and scaly crocodile. At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, the elephant and the whale: but the learned Bochart and other later critics have endeavoured to shew, that behemoth is the river horse, and leviathan the crocodile. It seems as if Milton was of the former opinion, by mentioning leviathan among the fishes, and the river horse and scaly crocodile, ver. 474. as distinct from behemoth and leviathan; and there is surely authority sufficient to justify a poet in that opinion. Behemoth biggest born. The alliteration, as the critics call it, is very remarkable, all the words beginning with b. We had another instance a little before in the production of the mountains, ver. 286. 475 480 It is the same style of sound, and the verse labours as much with broad bare backs and behemoth biggest born as with metuens, molem, montes. And the labour of these lines appears greater in contrast with the ease of the following measures, which describe the lesser animals springing up as lightly and as thick as plants; -fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose, As plants. 478. deck'd] It is a verb here and not a participle—and decked their smallest lineaments exact in all the liveries &c. 482. Minims of nature;] This word minims is formed from the —and their broad bare backs up- adjective minima, and in allusion heave Into the clouds. It is the same kind of beauty Hoc metuens, molemque et montes in- to the Vulgar Latin of Prov. XXX. 24. Quatuor ista sunt minima terræ. The word was in use before for an order of friars, Minim, minimi, so called from affected humility. |