Within their stony caves *, but rush'd abroad
From the four hinges of the world y, and fell
On the vex'd wilderness, whose tallest pines,
Though rooted deep as high; and sturdiest oaks,
Bow'd their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts a,
Or torn up sheer b. Ill wast thou shrouded then,
O patient Son of God, yet only stood'st
Unshaken! Nor yet stay'd the terrour there;
Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round

Environ'd thee; some howl'd, some yell'd, some shriek'd,
Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou

415

420

425

a bold figure borrowed from Eschylus's description of the storm that scattered the Grecian fleet, "Agamem." v. 559.

But I apprehend Dr. Newton sees the passage in its true light, when he says, it only means "the fire and water fell (i. e. rushed down) together," according to Milton's usage of the word “ruin," "Paradise Lost," b. i. 46, and “ruining," b. vi. 868: thus also ver. 436 of this book: "After a night of storm so ruinous."-DUNSter.

Nor slept the winds

Within their stony caves.

Virgil describes the winds as placed by Jupiter in certain deep dark caves of the earth, under the control of their god Æolus, Æn." i. 521.

66

Lucan also speaks of the "stony prison" of the winds, lib. v. 609 and see Lucretius, lib. vi.-DUNSTER.

That is, from the four "cardinal point," Virgil,

Virgil, "En." iv. 445.

y But rush'd abroad

From the four hinges of the world.

cardinal points; cardo signifying both a "hinge" and a "Æn." i. 85.

Though rooted deep as high, &c.

Quantum vertice ad auras

Ethereas, tantum radice ad Tartara tendit.-RICHARDSON.

a Loaden with stormy blasts.

This has some resemblance to Horace's "aquilonibus querceta Gargani laborant," Od. II. ix.-DUNSTER.

bOr torn up sheer.

This magnificent description of the storm thus raised by Satan in the wilderness, is so admirable and striking that it need not be enlarged upon.

Unshaken.

Yet only stood'st

Milton seems to have raised this scene out of what he found in Eusebius, "De Dem. Evan." (lib. ix. vol. ii. p. 434. ed. Col.) The fiends surround our Redeemer with their threats and terrors; but they have no effect.-CALTON.

d Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round
Environ'd thee; some howl'd, some yell'd, &c.

This too is from Eusebius, ibid. p. 435.-CALTON.

e Till morning fair

Came forth, with pilgrim steps, in amice gray.

"Amice," Dr. Newton observes, a significant word, is derived from the Latin amicio, "to clothe." But this does not hit the full meaning of Milton's imagery. The combination, "amice gray," is from what is called graius amictus, an officiating garment in the Roman ritual. 66 Amice occurs simply for a priest's service-habit in Spenser's "Faer. Qu." 1. iv. 18.-T. Warton.

Who with her radiant finger still'd the roar
Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds f,
And grisly spectres %, which the fiend had raised
To tempt the Son of God with terrours dire.
And now the sun i with more effectual beams
Had cheer'd the face of earth, and dried the wet
From drooping plant or dropping tree; the birds,
Who all things now behold more fresh and green,
After a night of storm so ruinous,

Clear'd up their choicest notes in bush and spray,
To gratulate the sweet return of morn.
Nor yet, amidst this joy and brightest morn,
Was absent, after all his mischief done,
The prince of darkness; glad would also seem
Of this fair change, and to our Saviour came;
Yet with no new device; (they all were spent).
Rather by this his last affront resolved,
Desperate of better course, to vent his rage
And mad despite to be so oft repell'd.
Him walking on a sunny hill he found,

Back'd on the north and west by a thick wood.
Out of the wood he starts in wonted shapej,
And in a careless mood thus to him said:

Who with her radiant finger still'd the roar

Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds, &c.

430

435

440

445

450

This is an imitation of a passage in the first Æneid of Virgil, where Neptune is represented with his trident laying the storm which Æolus had raised, ver. 142. There is the greater beauty in the English poet, as the scene he is describing under this charming figure is perfectly consistent with the course of nature, nothing being more common than to see a stormy night succeeded by a pleasant serene morning.-THYER.

8 And grisly spectres, &c.

See our author's "Ode on the Nativity," st. xxvi. where he beautifully applies the vulgar superstition of spirits disappearing at the break of day as the ground-work of a comparison. He supposes that all the false deities of every species of the heathen theology departed at the birth of Christ, as spectres and demons vanish when the morning dawns. Under the same superstitious belief, Milton here makes the fiends retire, who had been assembled in the night to terrify our Saviour, when the morn arose.-T. WARTON. h To tempt the Son of God, &c.

An eminent and excellent divine is of the same opinion as the poet with respect to "the evil spirits which the fiend raised," when he tempted our Lord:"This, as we may probably suppose, was the devil's way of tempting or trying our Lord, during the forty days and nights of his fast; and many opportunities, no doubt, he had in so long a time by frightful dreams when he slept, frequent apparitions and illusions of evil spirits in the night," &c. Bragge on the Miracles, vol. ii. p. 12.—TODD.

i And now the sun, &c.

There is in this description all the bloom of Milton's youthful fancy. We may compare an evening scene of the same kind, "Paradise Lost," b. ii. 488-495.-THYER. It is impossible to forbear remarking that the preceding description exhibits some of the finest lines which Milton has written in all his poems.-Jos. Warton.

In wonted shape.

That is, in his own proper shape, and not under any disguise, as at each of the former times when he appeared to our blessed Lord.-DUNSTER.

Compare "Par. Lost," b. iv. 819.

So started up in his own shape the fiend.-TODD.

Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them
As dangerous to the pillar'd frame of heaven',
Or to the earth's dark basis underneath,
Are to the main as inconsiderable

And harmless, if not wholesome, as a sneeze
To man's less universe, and soon are gone :
Yet, as being ofttimes noxious where they light
On man, beast, plant, wasteful and turbulent,
Like turbulencies in the affairs of men,
Over whose heads they roar, and seem to point,
They oft fore-signify and threaten ill:
This tempest at this desert most was bent;
Of men at thee, for only thou here dwell'st.
Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject
The perfect season offer'd with my aid m
To win thy destined seat, but wilt prolong
All to the push of fate, pursue thy way

Of gaining David's throne, no man knows when,
For both the when and how is nowhere told?
Thou shalt be what thou art ordain'd, no doubt;
For angels have proclaim'd it, but concealing
The time and means. Each act is rightliest done,
Not when it must, but when it may be best:
If thou observe not this, be sure to find,
What I foretold thee", many a hard assay
Of dangers, and adversities, and pains,
Ere thou of Israel's sceptre get fast hold

;

Whereof this ominous night, that closed thee round,
So many terrours, voices, prodigies,

May warn thee, as a sure foregoing sign.

These flaws.

"Flaw" is a sea-term, as Mr. Dunster observes, for a sudden storm or gust of wind. See "Par. Lost," b. x. 697.-TODD.

1 As dangerous to the pillar'd frame of heaven.

See also "Comus," v. 597.

If this fail,

The pillar'd firmament is rottenness.

In both no doubt alluding to Job. xxvi. 11. "The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof."-THYER.

m Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject

The perfect season offer'd with my aid, &c.

Here is something to be understood after "Did I not tell thee?" The thing told we may suppose to be what Satan had before said, b. iii. 351.

Thy kingdom, though foretold

By prophet or by angel, unless thou
Endeavour, as thy father David did,
Thou never shalt obtain, &c.-DUNSTER.

n What I foretold thee, &c.

See ver. 374, and ver. 381 to ver. 389 of this book.--DUNSTER.

So talk'd he, while the Son of God went on
And stay'd not, but in brief him answer'd thus:

Me worse than wet thou find'st not; other harm,
Those terrours, which thou speak'st of, did me none :
I never fear'd they could, though noising loud
And threatening nigh: what they can do, as signs
Betokening, or ill boding, I contemn

As false portents, not sent from God, but thee:
Who, knowing I shall reign past thy preventing,
Obtrudest thy offer'd aid, that I, accepting,
At least might seem to hold all power of thee,
Ambitious spirit! and wouldst be thought my God;
And storm'st refused, thinking to terrify
Me to thy will! desist, (thou art discern'd,
And toil'st in vain) nor me in vain molest.

To whom the fiend, now swoln with rage, replied:

:

Then hear, O Son of David, virgin-born,
For Son of God to me is yet in doubt°;
Of the Messiah I have heard foretold
By all the prophets of thy birth at length,
Announced by Gabriel, with the first I knew ;
And of the angelick song in Bethlehem field,
On thy birth-night that sung thee Saviour born.
From that time seldom have I ceased to eye
Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth;
Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred;
Till at the ford of Jordan, whither all

Flock'd to the Baptist, I among the rest,

(Though not to be baptized) by voice from heaven
Heard thee pronounced the Son of God beloved.

Then hear, O Son of David, virgin-born,

For Son of God to me is yet in doubt.

485

490

495

500

505

510

That Satan should seriously address our Lord as "virgin-born," because he entertained doubts whether he was in any respect the Son of God, is palpably inconsequent. "To be born of a virgin," Mr. Calton observes, from Bishop Pearson in a subsequent note, "is not so far above the production of all mankind, as to place our Lord in that singular eminence which must be attributed to the only begotten Son of God." But it must be recollected that the subject of this poem is a trial ad probandum whether the person declared to be the Son of God was really the Messiah: to acknowledge therefore that he was beyond all dispute born of a virgin, and had thereby fulfilled so material a prophecy respecting the Messiah, would be to admit in some degree the point in question : and however "virgin-born" might not be supposed to ascertain in any degree the claim to the Messiahship, still it could never be used in an address to our Lord meant to lower him to mere man. "Son of David," single and by itself, was an expression that Satan might be expected to use, when, characterising our Lord as a mere human being, he professed to disbelieve that he was the Son of God, born in a miraculous manner of a pure virgin, as it was foretold the Messiah should be. "Virgin-born" then must be considered as intended to be highly sarcastic: it is an epithet of the most pointed derision; resembling the "Hail, king of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands." It is that species of blasphemous insult, which might be expected from the arch-fiend, who at the opening of the speech is described "swoln with rage."-DUNSTER.

Dr. Joseph Warton is also of opinion, that "virgin-born" is here a highly sarcastical expression.-TODD.

Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view
And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn
In what degree or meaning thou art call'd
The Son of God; which bears no single sense.
The son of God I also am, or was;
And if I was, I am; relation stands :

All men are sons of God; yet thee I thought
In some respect far higher so declared:
Therefore I watch'd thy footsteps from that hour,
And follow'd thee still on to this waste wild;
Where, by all best conjectures, I collect

Thou art to be

my

fatal enemy:

Good reason then, if I before-hand seek
To understand my adversary, who

And what he is: his wisdom, power, intent;

By parl or composition, truce or league,

To win him, or win from him what I can :

And opportunity I here have had

To try thee, sift thee, and confess have found thee
Proof against all temptation P, as a rock
Of adamant, and, as a centre, firm;

To the utmost of mere man both wise and good,
Not more; for honours, riches, kingdoms, glory,
Have been before contemn'd, and may again.
Therefore to know what more thou art than man,
Worth naming Son of God by voice from heaven,
Another method I must now begin.

So saying, he caught him up, and, without wing
Of hippogrif1, bore through the air sublime,
Over the wilderness and o'er the plain;

Till underneath them fair Jerusalem,

The holy city, lifted high her towers t,

P Proof against all temptation.

Compare Spenser, "Faer. Qu." 1. vi. 4.

But words, and lookes, and sighs, she did abhore,

As rock of diamond stedfast evermore.

515

520

525

530

535

640

545

"Rock of adamant" is a phrase in Sandys's "Job." p. 29, ed. 1641, and in Shirley's "Imposture," p. 67, ed. 1652.-TODD.

What more thou art than man,

Worth naming Son of God by voice from heaven.

See Bishop Pearson " on the Creed," p. 106.-CALTON.

Of hippogrif.

Without wing

Here Milton designed a reflection upon the Italian poets, and particularly upon Ariosto. Ariosto frequently makes use of the hippogrif to convey his heroes from place to place.-NEWTON.

Not intended, as Dr. Newton supposes, as a reflection upon the Italian poets; but as an allusion merely to his favourite Ariosto, whose charming fancies he could not forget even in his old age.-Jos. Warton.

The holy city.

Jerusalem is frequently so called in the Old Testament: it is also called the "holy