passage, wherein Satan is described as wounded by the sword of Michael, is in imitation of Homer: 1 The griding sword with discontinuous wound Passed through him. But the ethereal substance closed, A stream of nectarous humor issuing flowed Homer tells us in the same manner that, upon Diomedes wounding the gods, there flowed from the wound an ichor, or pure kind of blood, which was not bred from mortal viands; and that, though the pain was exquisitely great, the wound soon closed up and healed in those beings who are vested with immortality. 5 ΙΟ 20 I question not but Milton, in his description of his 15 furious Moloch flying from the battle and bellowing with the wound he had received, had his eye on Mars in the Iliad who, upon his being wounded, is represented as retiring out of the fight, and making an outcry louder than that of a whole army when it begins the charge. Homer adds that the Greeks and Trojans, who were engaged in a general battle, were terrified on each side. with the bellowing of this wounded deity. The reader will easily observe how Milton has kept all the horror of this image, without running into the ridicule 25 of i it: : 2 Where the might of Gabriel fought, 16. 329-334. 26. 355-362. 30 ΤΟ Milton has likewise raised his description in this book with many images taken out of the poetical parts of Scripture. The Messiah's chariot, as I have before taken notice, is formed upon a vision of Ezekiel, who, as Gro5 tius observes, has very much in him of Homer's spirit in the poetical parts of his prophecy. 15 20 The following lines, in that glorious commission which is given the Messiah to extirpate the host of rebel angels, is drawn from a sublime passage in the Psalms : 1 Go, then, thou Mightiest, in thy Father's might; That shake Heaven's basis; bring forth all my war; My bow and 2 thunder, my almighty arms, Gird on, and sword upon thy puissant thigh. The reader will easily discover many other strokes of the same nature. There is no question but Milton had heated his imagination with the fight of the gods in Homer before he entered upon this engagement of the angels. Homer there gives us a scene of men, heroes, and gods mixed together in battle. Mars animates the contending armies, and lifts up his voice in such a manner that it is heard distinctly amidst all the shouts and confusion of the fight. Jupiter at the same time thunders over their heads; 25 while Neptune raises such a tempest that the whole field of battle and all the tops of the mountains shake about them. The poet tells us that Pluto himself, whose habitation was in the very centre of the earth, was so affrighted at the shock that he leapt from his throne. Homer afterwards describes Vulcan as pouring down a storm of fire upon the river Xanthus, and Minerva as throwing a rock at Mars; who, he tells us, covered seven acres in his fall. As Homer has introduced into his battle of the gods 30 16. 710-714. 2 The editions have 'my.' everything that is great and terrible in nature, Milton has filled his fight of good and bad angels with all the like circumstances of horror. The shout of armies, the rattling of brazen chariots, the hurling of rocks and mountains, the earthquake, the fire, the thunder, are all of them 5 employed to lift up the reader's imagination and give him a suitable idea of so great an action. With what art has the poet represented the whole body of the earth trembling, even before it was created! 1 All Heaven Resounded; and, had Earth been then, all Earth ΙΟ In how sublime and just a manner does he afterwards describe the whole heaven shaking under the wheels of the Messiah's chariot, with that exception to the throne 15 of God! 2 Under his burning wheels The stedfast Empyrean shook throughout, Notwithstanding the Messiah appears clothed with so 20 much terror and majesty, the poet has still found means to make his readers conceive an idea of him beyond what he himself is able to describe : : 3 Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven. 25 In a word, Milton's genius, which was so great in itself, and so strengthened by all the helps of learning, appears in this book every way equal to his subject, which was the most sublime that could enter into the thoughts 30 of a poet. As he knew all the arts of affecting the mind, 16. 217-219. 26.832-834. 86.853-855. 4 Second edition, 'subjects' (Arber; not so Morley). he knew it was necessary to give1 it certain resting-places and opportunities of recovering itself from time to time; he has therefore 2 with great address interspersed several speeches, reflections, similitudes, and the like reliefs to 5 diversify his narration and ease the attention of the3 reader, that he might come fresh to his great action, and by such a contrast of ideas have a more lively taste of the nobler parts of his description. 1 For 'he knew . . . give,' the first edition has 'had he not given.' 2 Added in second edition. 3 First edition, 'his.' 13.1 BOOK VII. Ut his exordia primis Omnia, et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis. He sung the secret seeds of Nature's frame: And a new sun to the new world arose. DRYDEN. LONGINUS has observed that there may be a loftiness in sentiments where there is no passion, and brings instances out of ancient authors to support this his opinion. The pathetic, as that great critic observes, may animate and inflame the sublime, but is not essential to it. Ac- 5 cordingly, as he further remarks, we very often find that those who excel most in stirring up the passions very often want the talent of writing in the great and sublime manner, and so on the contrary. Milton has shown himself a master in both these ways of writing. The Seventh 10 Book, which we are now entering upon, is an instance of that sublime which is not mixed and worked up with 1 Spectator, No. 339, March 29, 1712. 2 First edition, 'Ovid.' |