His burning idol all of blackest hue; In vain with cymbals ring They call the grisly king, In dismal dance about the furnace blue; The brutish Gods of Nile as fast, Isis and Orus, and the dog Anubis haste. Nor is Osiris seen XXIV. In Memphian grove or green, 210 Trampling the unshow'r'd grass with lowings loud; 215 Nor can he be at rest Within his sacred chest, Nought but profoundest hell can be his shroud; ed. 1615. fol. a popular book in Milton's time, is a description of the sacrifices and image of Moloch, exactly corresponding with this passage, and with Par. Lost, i. 392. where see the note. But the imagery is introduced into the Paradise Lost with less effect. There the dreadful circumstances of this idolatrous worship are only related; in our Ode they are endued with life and action, they are put in mo tion before our eyes, and made subservient to a new purpose of the poet by the superinduction of a poetical fiction, to which they give occasion. "The sul "len spirit is fled, and has left "in solitude and darkness his "burning image; the priests "dancing with horrid gesticu"lations about the blue furnace "from which his idol was fed "with fire, in vain attempt to "call back their grisly king "with the din of those cymbals "with which they were wont to "overwhelm the shrieks of the "sacrificed infants." In Burnet's treatise De statu mortuorum et resurgentium, there is a fine picture of the rites of Moloch. Milton like a true poet, in describing the Syrian superstitions, selects such as were most interesting to the fancy, and most susceptible of poetical enlargement. T. Warton. 212. the dog Anubis] Virg. Æn. viii. 698. latrator Anubis. 215. -the unshow'r'd_grass] There being no rain in Egypt, but the country made fruitful with the overflowings of the Nile. Richardson. Tibullus of the Nile, Te propter nullos tellus tua supplicat imbres, Arida nec pluviosupplicat herba Jovi. T. Warton. 218. shroud;] Shelter, hiding-place. See note on Par. Lost, x. 1068. E. In vain with timbrell'd anthems dark The sable-stoled sorcerers bear his worshipp'd ark. 220 XXV. He feels from Juda's land The dreaded Infant's hand, The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn; Nor all the Gods beside, Longer dare abide, Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine : Our Babe to show his Godhead true, 225 Can in his swaddling bands control the damned crew. XXVI. So when the sun in bed, Curtain'd with cloudy red, 230 227. Our Babe to show &c.] In to be of much higher antiquity. the printed copies it is Our Babe to shew his Godhead true: but this pitiful jingle could not be Milton's. He undoubtedly wrote it show. Calton. 229. So when the sun, &c.] Our author has here beautifully applied the vulgar superstition of spirits disappearing at the break of day, as the groundwork of a comparison. The false gods of every heathen religion depart at the birth of Christ, as spectres and demons vanish when the morning dawns. See L'Allegro, 114. and Par. Reg. iv. 426-431. The moment of the evanescence of spirits was supposed to be limited to the crowing of the cock. This belief is mentioned by Prudentius, Cathem. Hymn. i. 38. But some of his commentators, and those not easily to be found, prove it Shakespeare has made an admirable use of this popular idea. Haml. a. i. s. 1. where a vulgar poet would have made the ghost tamely vanish without a cause, and without that preparation to speak, which so greatly heightens the interest. T. Warton. We will cite the passage Prudentius above referred to; in Ferunt vagantes dæmonas, Lætos tenebris noctium Gallo canente exterritos Sparsim timere, et cedere: Invisa nam vicinitas Lucis, salutis, numinis, Rupto tenebrarum situ, Noctis fugat satellites. We find the superstition two hundred years before Prudentius, in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius Tyanæus. There the ghost of Achilles, that had appeared to Apollonius, vanishes at once in the midst of a con Pillows his chin upon an orient wave, The flocking shadows pale Troop to th' infernal jail, r Each fetter'd ghost slips to his several grave, And the yellow-skirted Fayes 235 Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-lov'd maze, XXVII. But see the Virgin blest Hath laid her Babe to rest, Time is our tedious song should here have ending; Heav'n's youngest teemed star Hath fix'd her polish'd car, 240 Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending: versation, with a slight flash of lightning, συν αστραπη μετρια, as soon as the cocks began to crow, nai yag on xai aλextguoves non wons TOTO. Philostr. Vit. Apollon. iv. 16. The circumstance of ghosts disappearing at day-break is referred to by several of the Latin poets. Thus Claudian, Dixit, et afflatus vicino sole refugit. And in Propertius, 1. iv. el. 7. the ghosts say of themselves, Nocte vagæ ferimur; nox clausas liberat umbras, Errat et abjecta Cerberus ipse fera. Luce jubent leges Lethæa ad stagna reverti, &c. Shakespeare has very poetically described this supposed effect of day-break, Mids. Night's Dream, a. iii. sc. the last. See also Cowley's Hymn to Light, st. 10. and 17. But perhaps no poet has more happily availed himself of this old superstition than Gray, in his Progress of Poesy, st. ii. 1. Dunster. 239. Pillows his chin upon an orient wave] The words pillows and chin throw an air of burlesque and familiarity over a comparison most exquisitely conceived and adapted. With the next three lines, The flocking shadows pale, &c. Mr. Bowle compares the passage, above mentioned, in the Mids. Night's Dream. And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger; At whose approach ghosts, wandering here and there, Troop home to church-yards; damned spirits all That in cross-ways and floods have burial, Already to their wormy beds are gone. Fly after the night-steeds, &c. a very poetical mode of expressing the departure of the fairies at the approach of morning. T. Warton. And all about the courtly stable Bright-harness'd angels sit in order serviceable. IV. The Passion*. I. EREWHILE of music, and ethereal mirth, 244. Bright-harness'd] Dressed, armed, accoutred. Arnese in Italian is a general name for all kinds of habits and ornaments. Richardson. Harness is used for armour in our translation of the Bible. 1 Kings xx. 11. Let not him that girdeth on his harness, boast himself, as he that putteth it off. Exod. xiii. 18. The children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. 244. Paradise Regained was translated into French, into French, and printed at Paris in 1730. To which the translator added Lycidas, L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, and this Ode on the Nativity. But the French have no conception of the nature and complexion of Milton's imagery. A great critic, in speaking of Milton's smaller poems, passes over this Ode in silence, and ob they can often attain sublimity, * It appears from the beginning of this poem, that it was composed after, and probably soon after, the ode on the Nativity. * It was perhaps a College exercise at Easter, as the last at Christmas. T. Warton. 4. My muse with angels did divide to sing.] See Spenser, F. Q. iii. i. 40. And all the while sweet music did divide Her looser notes with Lydian harmony. serves, "all that short composi- As Horace, Ode i. xv. 15. "tions can commonly attain is "neatness and elegance." But Imbelli cithara carmina divides. Odes are short compositions, and Which Vossius, with his usual In wint❜ry solstice like the shorten'd light Soon swallow'd up in dark and long out-living night. II. For now to sorrow must I tune my song, And set my harp to notes of saddest woe, Which on our dearest Lord did seize ere long, Dangers, and snares, and wrongs, and worse than so, Which he for us did freely undergo: Most perfect Hero, tried in heaviest plight Of labours huge and hard, too hard for human wight! III. He sovereign Priest stooping his regal head, That dropp'd with odorous oil down his fair eyes, His starry front low-roof'd beneath the skies; Yet more; the stroke of death he must abide, 10 15 20 Then lies him meekly down fast by his brethren's side. IV. These latest scenes confine my roving verse, refinement, explains by alternate 25 The next line, headlong joy is ever on the wing, is elegant and expressive. But Drayton more poetically calls joy, —the swallow-winged joy. T. Warton. 22. These latest scenes] So it is in the second edition of 1673; in the former of 1645 it is These latter scenes. |