A world who would not purchase with a bruise, So having said, a while he stood, expecting Of public scorn; he wonder'd, but not long 513. till supplanted down he fell] We may observe here a singular beauty and elegance in Milton's language, and that is his using words in their strict and literal sense, which are commonly applied to a metaphorical meaning, whereby he gives peculiar force to his expressions, and the literal meaning appears more new and striking than the metaphor itself. We have an instance of this in the word supplanted, which is derived from the Latin supplanto, to trip up one's heels or overthrow, a planta pedis subtus emota: and there are abundance of other examples in several parts of this work, but let it suffice to have taken notice of it here once for all. 514. A monstrous serpent on his belly prone,] Our author, in VOL. II. 500 505 510 Reluctant, but in vain, a greater power To his bold riot: dreadful was the din Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now 524. -Amphisbæna dire, These and several verses which follow Dr. Bentley throws quite away. He dislikes Milton's reckoning Scorpion, and Asp, among the serpents, and thinks them rather insects: but Pliny viii. 23. numbers the Asp among the serpents; (and Nicander in his Theriac, gives both the Scorpion and Asp that title:) so does Lucan, from whom our poet seems to have taken his catalogue of serpents; for in book ix. of his Pharsalia, he gives us the names of all these serpents 515 520 525 mentioned by Milton except the Elops. But what is the Elops? Dr. Bentley says that the editor has here discovered himself to be an ignorant fellow, the Elops being no serpent but a fish, and one of the most admired too, the Acipenser. But Pliny (from whom the Doctor learned this) only says of the Acipenser, that some people call it Elops; quidam eum Elopem vocant, ix. 17. But might there not have been a serpent of that name too? That there was, we have Pliny's own testimony in xxxii. 5. where he tells us of the remedies to be used by those who were bit by the Elops and other serpents, a Chalcide, Ceraste, aut quas Sepas vocant, aut Elope, Dipsadéve percussis. Nicander too, in his Theriac. mentions the Elops, T85 Exoras, Abuαors &c. Pearce. 526. -the soil Bedropt with blood of Gorgon,] Lybia, which therefore abounded so with serpents, as Ovid says, Met. iv. 616. Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the isle Where'er sublime in air the victor flew, The monster's head distilled a deadly dew; The earth receiv'd the seed, and pregnant grew. Still as the putrid gore dropt on the sand, 'Twas temper'd up by Nature's forming hand; The glowing climate makes the work complete And broods upon the mass, and lends it genial heat. First of those plagues the drowsy Asp appear'd, Then first her crest, and swelling neck she rear'd The Swimmer there the crystal stream pollutes; -and there the Dipsas burns ; The Amphisbæna doubly arm'd appears, At either end a threat'ning head she Rowe. rears. 528. Ophiusa] A small island Illa tamen sterilis tellus, fecundaque in the Mediterranean, so called nulli by the Greeks, and by the Latins Colubraria; the inhabitants quitted it for fear of being devoured by serpents. Hume and Richardson. 529. Now Dragon grown,] In the same place, where Lucan gives an account of the various serpents of Libya, he describes the Dragon as the greatest and most terrible of them all: and our author, who copies him in the rest, very rightly attributes this form to Satan, and especially since he is called in Scripture the great Dragon, Rev. xii. 9. He may well be said to be larger than the fabulous Python, Ingender'd in the Pythian vale on slime, In triumph issuing forth their glorious chief; 530 535 540 They felt themselves now changing; down their arms, As in their crime. Thus was th' applause they meant, Turn'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame 546 Cast on themselves from their own mouths. There stood A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change, His will who reigns above, to aggravate Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that that was ingendered of the slime -Te quoque, maxime Python, Terror eras: tantum sptaii de monte -And then she brought to lightThee Python too, the wond'ring world to fright, And the new nations with so dire a sight. 550 So monstrous was his bulk, so large a space Did his vast body and long train embrace. 550. Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that] This is the verse in the first edition; in the second fair was by mistake omitted, which left the verse imperfect. Mr. Fenton has patience in his edition instead of penance. We have continued Milton's own reading. Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve Us'd by the Tempter; on that prospect strange For one forbidden tree a multitude Now ris'n, to work them further woe or shame ; 555 560 565 Chew'd bitter ashes, which th' offended taste With spattering noise rejected: oft they' assay'd, 560. That curl'd Megara :] She was one of the Furies, whose hair was serpents, as Medusa's; -crinita draconibus ora. Ov. Met. iv. 771. Richardson. 562. Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam'd;] The lake Asphaltites, near which Sodom and Gomorrah were situated. Josephus affirms, the shapes and fashions of them and three other cities, called the cities of the plain, were to be seen in his days, and trees laden with fair fruit (styled the apples of Sodom) rising out of the ashes, which at the first touch dissolved into ashes and smoke. B. iv. of the Wars of the Jews, c. 8. But this fair fruitage was more deceitful than Sodom's cheating apples, which only deceived the touch, by dissolving into ashes; but this endured the handling, the more to vex and disappiont their taste. Hume. 568. drug'd] Tormented with the hateful taste usually found in drugs. Richardson. 569. With hatefullest disrelish writh'd their jaws] Virg. Georg. ii. 246. |