Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate ; .: Forthwith 577. Abhorred Styx, &c.] The xwwww fignifying to weep and le Greeks reckon up five rivers in ment: as Phlegethon is from another Hell, and call them after the names Greek wordoneyw fignifying oo of the noxious springs and rivers in burn; and therefore rightly describtheir own country. Our poet fol- ed here fierce Phlegethon, wbose lows their example both as to the waves of torrent fire inflame with number and the names of these in- rage, as it is by Virgil, Æn. VI. fernal rivers, and excellently de- 550. scribes their nature and properties with the explanation of their names. acces rapidus flammis torrentibus amnis . Styx so named of a Greek word OTOVO chat fignifies to bate and Tartareus Phlegethon. :13 abbór, and therefore called here Ab- We know not what to say as to the Horred Styx, the flood of deadly hate, situation of these rivers. Homer, and by Virgil palus inamabilis, n. the moft ancient poet, represents V 1.438. Acheron has its name from Cocytus as branching out of Styx, nyos dolor and pow fluo, flowing and both Cocytus and Phlegethon with grief; and is reprehented ac... (or Pyriphlegethon) as flowing ineordingly Sad Acheron, the river of oo Acheron, Odysl. X. 13. forrow as Styx was of hate, black and deep, agreeable to Vitgil's cha Eyba' per as Axredila lucioase racter of it ysowy to pe&o!. Karuto 3', ós Dn Etu ve ... tenebrosa palus Acheronte re. fuso. • Æn. VI. 107. dat ESIV kroppar. and perhaps he describes their fituCorptus, nam'd of lamentation, be. ation as it really was in Greece : cause derived from a Greek word bat Virgil and the other ppets fre quently Forthwith his former Nate and be’ing forgets, 585 Betwixt II.1. quently confound them, and men. Quam juxta Lethes tacitus prælabition their names and places with- tur amnis. out fufficient difference or distincsion Our poet therefore was at The river of oblivion is rightly liberty to draw as I may say) a plac'd far off from the rivers of new map of these rivers and he hatred, forrow, lamentation, and fuppofes a burning lake agreeably rage; and divides the frozen contito Scripture that often mentions the nent from the region of fire, and Lake of fire; and he makes these thereby completes the map of Hell four rivers to flow from four diffe. with its general divisions. rent quarters and empty themselves into this burning lake, which gives it? 589. dire-bail,] Hor, Od. I. us a much greater idea than any of the Heathen poets. Besides these Jam fatis terris nivis atque dira: there is a fifth river called Lethe, which name in Greek agnifies for. . getfulness, and its waters are faid to 592.help that Serbonian bog) Ser: have occafion'd that quality, Æn. Ver bonis was a lake 200 furlongs ir el. length and 1000 in compass bee VI. 714. "tween the ancient mountain Cafias Lethæi ad Aluminis undàm and Damiata a city of Egypt on Securos latices, et longa oblivia one of the more eattern mouths of potánt :. the Nile. It was surrounded on all fides by hills of loose sand, and Milton attributes the same ef- which carried into the water by feet to it, and describes it as a how high winds fo thicken'd'the lake, and filent Pream, 'as Lacan had done as 'not to be diftinguisha from part before him, IX. 355.."..-• of the continent, whero'whole are Betwixt Damiata and mount Cafius old, ,; Immoveable, mies have been swallow'd up. Read s this line is deriv'd from the Belgic Herodotus, L. 3. and Luc. Phar. halen or the French baler, and VIII. 539. &c. non m ine, therefore should be spelt as it is Perfida qua tellus Cafiis excurrit ne i here, and not baild as in Milton's " own editions. Spenser uses the . - Larenis, avion – word, Fairy Queen, B. 5. Cant. 2.'. Et vada teftantur junctas Ægyptia St. 26. sep t y , Syrtes, &c. Hume. 'Who rudely bald her forth with: 595. Burns frore,] Frore an old out remorse : ". . . ved word for frosty. The parching air burns with fróft. So we have in and we meet with it several times Virg. Georg. I. 93., * in Shakespear. indir -Boreæ penetrabile frigus adurat: n ricadurar: 603.-thence hurried back to fire.) *** This circumstance of the damned's and in Ecclus. XLIII. 20, 21. When suffering the extremes of heat and the cold north-wind bloweth-it de- cold by turns is finely invented to vourith the mountains, and burneth aggravate the horror of the dethe wilderness, and consumith - the scription, and seems to be foạnded grass as fire. And is not the ex- upon. Job XXIV. 19. but not as it presion used by the Psalmist of the is in the English translation, but in like nature ? The sun fall not burn the Vulgar Latin verfion, which thee by day, nor ihe moon by night, Milton frequently used. Ad nimium Psal. ČXXI. 6. in the old transla- calorem tranfeat ab aquis niciun, tion and the Septuagint ? . . Let him pass to excefive beat from 596. by barpy-footed furies waters of snow. And so Jerom and bala] The word bald in other commentators understand it. ? Thera Immoveable, infix'd, and frozen round, i Medusa There is a fine passage likewise in they were so near the brink, so near Shakespear, where the punishment the brim and surface of the water, i after death is fupposed to confiit in yet they could not taste one drop extreme heat or extreme cold; but of it. But the reasons follow, fate thefe extremes are not made alter- withstands, fata obstant as it is in náte, and to be suffer'd both in " Virgil, Æn. IV. 440. and Medusa their turns, as Milton has describ'd with Gorgonian terror guards the them, and thereby has greatly re- ford. Medusa was one of the Gorfin'd and improv'd the thought. gon monsters, whose locks were Measure for Measure, Act III. ferpents fo terrible that they turn-, ed the beholders into stone, Ulyfles Ay, but to die, and go we know ow in Homer was desirous of seeing not where: To lie in cold obstruction, and to more of the departed heroes, but and " I was afraid, says he, Odyil. XI: roti This sensible warm motion to be- 33. come A kneaded clod; and the delight. Ma por Topgesuv xe paany deyose. ed spirit πελουρα To bathe in fiery floods, or to EE Aida Toslenfeigr agoun Depo. refide DEDOVHA. In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice, &c. Left Gorgon rising from th'infer: 609. -- and se near the brink ; ] nal lakes, This is added as a farther aggra: With horrors armd, and curls of: hilling snakes, yation of their misery, that tho' ... Vol. I. **Should Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards Where Should fix me. ftiffen'd at the fixes all these monsters in Hell in monstrous sight, imitation of Virgil, Æn. VI. 287. A fony image, in eternal night! : bellua Lernæ - Broome. Horrendum ftridens, Aammisque So frightful a creature is very pro armata Chimæra, perly feign'd by our poet to guard Gorgones &c. This water. And besides of itself Quinquaginta atris immanis hiati, ihe water flies their taste, and serves bus Hydra. ver. 576. only to tantalize them. This is a Talso has likewise given them a fine allegory to show that there is place in his description of Hell, or no forgetfulness in Hell. Memory rather he copies Virgil's defcrip. makes a part of the punishment of tion. Cant. St. the damn'd, and reflection but in creases their misery. " Quì mille immonde Arpie vedre fti, e mille 628. Gorgons, and Hydra's, and Centauri, e Sfingi, e pallide Gore Chimera's dire.] Ouf author re's dire ] Our author goni, &c. . There |