Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere ; 665 He spake and to confirm his words outflew Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze Far round illumin'd hell: highly they rag'd Against the highest, and fierce with grasped arms Clash'd on their sounding shields the din of war, Hurling defiance toward the vault of heav'n. There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top 670 The work of sulphur. Thither, wing'd with speed, 669 vault of heav'n] Doctor Pearce approves Bentley's conjecture, walls of heaven,' and says the emendation is good. But I must differ from the opinions of both critics, and consider that this reading would much impair the beauty of the passage. 'Clash'd on their sounding shields the din of war, which collected and reverberated the clash of the shields. Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell From heav'n; for ev'n in heav'n his looks and thoughts Were always downward bent, admiring more The riches of heav'n's pavement, trodden gold, Than aught divine or holy else enjoy'd In vision beatific. By him first Men also and by his suggestion taught Ransack'd the center, and with impious hands. Rifled the bowels of their mother earth For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew Open'd into the hill a spacious wound, 680 625 And digg'd out ribs of gold. Let none admire 690 687 Rifled] v. Ovid Met. i. 138. 'Itum est in viscera terræ, Quasque recondiderat, Stygiisque admoverat umbris, 700 Severing each kind, and scumm'd the bullion dross. 710 To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes. 720 With golden architrave; nor did there want 715 706 A various mould]' capacious moulds.' Bentl. MS. 711 Rose] Did like a shooting exhalation glide.' See Marlowe's Hero and Leander, p. 81. 714 Doric pillars] 'There findest thou some stately Doric frame.' See Hall's Satires, ed. Singer, p. 133. 725 With Naphtha and Asphaltus, yielded light 730 Admiring enter'd, and the work some praise, scape By all his engines, but was headlong sent 740 745 750 742 crystal battlements] See Beaumont's Psyche, cxx. 110. 'Much higher than the proudest battlement of the old heavens.' See Don Quixote, vol. 3. p. 156, (trans. Shelton, 12mo. 1731.) 'I saw a princely and sumptuous palace, whose walls and battlements seemed to be made of transparent crystal;' and Miltoni Sylv. p. 323 (ed. Todd, ver. 63.) ⚫ ventum est Olympi, et regiam crystallinam.' Mean while the winged haralds by command Of sov'reign power, with awful ceremony And trumpets sound, throughout the host proclaim A solemn council forthwith to be held At Pandæmonium, the high capital Of Satan and his peers: their summons call'd From every band and squared regiment By place or choice the worthiest; they anon With hundreds and with thousands trooping came Attended: all access was throng'd, the gates And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall, Though like a cover'd field, where champions bold Wont ride in arm'd, and at the Soldan's chair Defi'd the best of Panim chivalry To mortal combat or carreer with lance, Thick swarm'd, both on the ground and in the air, 752 Haralds] Par. Lost, 1st ed. Steevens' Shakesp. (Pericles) ed. 1793, vol. xiii. p. 489. 769 Taurus] v. Virg. Georg. i. 217. 'Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum 774 expatiate] i. e. walk abroad. v. Virg. Æn. iv. 62. Cic. Oart. iii. Ut palæstrice spatiari.' Todd. |