Then both from out hell gates into the waste
Wide anarchy of Chaos damp and dark

Flew diverse, and with pow'r (their pow'r was great)
Hovering upon the waters, what they met
Solid or slimy, as in raging sea

Tost up and down, together crowded drove

285

From each side shoaling tow'ards the mouth of hell:
As when two polar winds, blowing adverse
Upon the Cronian sea, together drive
Mountains of ice, that stop th' imagin'd way
Beyond Petsora eastward, to the rich
Cathaian coast. The aggregated soil
Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry,
As with a trident smote, and fix'd as firm
As Delos floating once; the rest his look

ex quo sagaces dicti canes. Cic. de Divinat. A fit comparison for the chief hell-hound. Hume. 289. As when two polar winds, &c.] Sin and Death, flying into different parts of Chaos, and driving all the matter they meet with there in shoals towards the mouth of hell, are compared to two polar winds, north and south, blowing adverse upon the Cronian sea, the northern frozen sea, (A Thule unius diei navigatione mare concretum, a nonnullis Cronium appellatur. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. iv. cap. 16.) and driving together mountains of ice, that stop th' imagin'd way, the north-east passage as it is called, which so many have attempted to discover, Beyond Petsora eastward, the most north-eastern province of Muscovy, to the rich Cathaian

290

295

coast, Cathay or Catay, a country of Asia and the northern part of China.

296. As Delos floating once:] An island in the Archipelago said to have floated about in the sea, till it became the birth place of Apollo. Callimachus, in his hymn called Delos, has given a most enchanting description of this matter. Richardson.

296. —the rest his look &c.] In Milton's own editions the passage was thus,

-the rest his look Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move, And with Asphaltic slime; broad as the gate,

Deep to the roots of hell the ga ther'd beach

They fasten'd.

A difficult passage, which Dr.

Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move;
And with Asphaltic slime, broad as the gate,
Deep to the roots of hell the gather'd beach
They fasten'd, and the mole immense wrought on
Over the foaming deep high arch'd, a bridge
Of length prodigious, joining to the wall
Immoveable of this now fenceless world

Bentley perceived and tried to mend. To Gorgonian rigour he objects, that the rigour or hardness was not in the Gorgon's look, but in the object turned into stone. And so it may be understood here-a rigour such as was caused by the Gorgon's look. Milton has the authority of Claudian for expressing himself thus,

-rigidâ cum Gorgone Perseus.

In Ruffin. i. 279.

Again, the Doctor objects to, And with Asphaltic slime, because then the construction would be, his look bound it with slime. I agree with him that this could not come from Milton. There is only one way (I think) in which all these difficulties are to be got over, and that is by changing two of the points in the passage, and reading thus;

-the rest his look

Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to

move.

And with Asphaltic slime, broad as the gate,

300

And with Asphaltic slime, broad as the gate,

Deep to the roots of hell &c. The sense is then the very same as in the foregoing most excellent remark of Dr. Pearce's, and we venture to print it accord

Deep to the roots of hell, the ga- ingly. We generally follow

ther'd beach

They fasten'd,

The first part of the passage, ending at move, I understand as

carefully Milton's own punctuation; but though he was extremely accurate, yet he was not always infallible.

Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad,
Smooth, easy, inoffensive down to hell.
So, if great things to small may be compar'd,
Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke,
From Susa his Memnonian palace high
Came to the sea, and over Hellespont
Bridging his way, Europe with Asia join'd,

And scourg'd with many a stroke th' indignant waves.

Now had they brought the work by wondrous art
Pontifical, a ridge of pendent rock,

Over the vex'd abyss, following the track
Of Satan to the self same place where he
First lighted from his wing, and landed safe
From out of Chaos, to the outside bare

Of this round world: with pins of adamant

And chains they made all fast, too fast they made
And durable; and now in little space

The confines met of empyréan heaven

And of this world, and on the left hand hell
With long reach interpos'd; three several ways

Pontifical,] By the strange art of raising bridges. Pontifex, the high priest of the Romans, had that name from pons a bridge and facere to make: Quia sublicius pons a Pontificibus factus est primum, et restitutus sæpe, according to Varro. Hume.

Art pontifical, this is a very bad expression to signify the art of building bridges, and yet to suppose a pun would be worse, as if the Roman priesthood were as ready to make the way easy to hell, as Sin and Death did. Warburton.

317. From out of Chaos, to the outside bare] In Milton's own editions the verses are thus,

Of Satan, to the self same place where he

First lighted from his wing, and

315

320

false pointing? and should not the comma after Satan be omitted, and be inserted after Chaos ? and is not this the construction of the whole passage? Now had they brought the work-over the vexed abyss-to the outside bare of this round world, following the track of Satan to the self same place where he first lighted from his wing, and landed safe from out of Chaos. We venture to print it accordingly, not knowing well how to make sense and grammar of it otherwise.

322. -on the left hand hell] He places hell on the left hand, according to our Saviour's description of the day of judgment, Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Matt. xxv. 41. or rather according to Virgil, who makes hell to lie on the left hand, as Elysium lay on the right, Æn. vi. 542.

-At læva malorum

Exercet pœnas, et ad impia tartara mittit,

In sight, to each of these three places led.
And now their way to earth they had descried,
To Paradise first tending, when behold
Satan in likeness of an angel bright

Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering
His zenith, while the sun in Aries rose:
Disguis'd he came, but those his children dear
Their parent soon discern'd, though in disguise.
He after Eve seduc'd, unminded slunk
Into the wood fast by, and changing shape
To' observe the sequel, saw his guileful act
By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded
Upon her husband, saw their shame that sought
Vain covertures; but when he saw descend
The Son of God to judge them, terrified
He fled, not hoping to escape, but shun
The present, fearing guilty what his wrath

328. Betwixt the Centaur and

the Scorpion steering His zenith, while the sun in Aries rose:]

Alluding to a ship steering her course betwixt two islands: so Satan directed his way between these two signs of the zodiac, upwards: the zenith is overhead. Richardson.

Dr. Bentley puts a comma after steering; but there should be none; for the sense is, steering to his zenith, or upwards, towards the outside of this round world, from whence he had come down, ver. 317. Besides the Doctor instead of rose reads rode but it was evening, when Messiah came and passed the

325

330

335

340

sentence on the transgressors, ver. 92. and after that Sin and Death made the bridge; so that the sun might be rising in Aries, when they met Satan steering his zenith. And this is confirmed by what follows here in ver. 341, &c. Pearce.

Satan to avoid being discovered (as he had been before, iv. 569, &c.) by Uriel regent of the sun, takes care to keep at as great a distance as possible, and therefore while the sun rose in Aries, he steers his course directly upwards betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion, two constellations which lay in a quite different part of the heavens from Aries.