30

His witness unconfirm'd: On him baptiz'd
Heaven open'd, and in likeness of a dove
The Spirit defcended, while the Father's voice
From Heaven pronounc'd him his beloved Son.
That heard the Adverfary, who, roving still
About the world, at that affembly fam'd
Would not be laft, and, with the voice divine 35
Nigh thunder-ftruck, the exalted Man, to whom
Such high atteft was given, a while furvey'd
With wonder; then, with envy fraught and rage,
Flies to his place, nor refts, but in mid air
To counsel fummons all his mighty peers,
Within thick clouds and dark ten-fold involv'd,
A gloomy confiftory; and them amidst,

Ver. 33.

who, roving ftill

40

About the world,]" And the Lord faid unto Satan, whence comeft thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." Job i. 7. See alfo 1 Pet. v. 8. DUNSTER.

Ver. 36.

the exalted Man, to whom

Such high atteft was given, &c.] The defcription how Satan is affected by this divine atteftation of Jefus, is admirable. His involuntary admiration is confiftent with his knowledge of what is good and amiable; (fee ver. 379.) his envy and rage are truly Satanick, and becoming his character of the enemy of all good. DUNSTER.

Ver. 41. Within thick clouds and dark ten-fold involv'd,} Milton, in making Satan's refidence to be in mid air, within thick clouds and dark, feems to have St. Austin in his eye, who, speaking of the region of clouds, ftorms, thunder, &c. fays—“ ad ifta caliginofa, id eft, ad hunc aërem, tanquam ad carcerem, damnatus eft diabolus, &c." Enarr. in Pf. 148. S. 9. Tom: 5. p. 1677, Edit. Bened. THYER.

Ver. 42. A gloomy confiftory;] This is an imitation of Virgil, Æn. iii. 677 ;

With looks aghaft and fad, he thus befpake.

"Cernimus aftantes nequicquam lumine torvo

"Ætnæos fratres, cœlo capita alta ferentes,
"Concilium horrendum."

By the word confiftory, I fuppofe Milton intends to glance at the meeting of the Pope and Cardinals fo named, or perhaps at the epifcopal tribunal, to all which forts of courts or affemblies he was an avowed enemy. The phrafe concilium horrendum Vida makes ufe of upon a like occafion of affembling the infernal Powers, Chrift. lib. 1.:

"Protinus acciri diros ad regia fratres

And Taffo alfo, in the very fame manner; Gier. Lib. c. iv.

ft. 2.

"Che fia commanda il popol fuo raccolto

"(Concilio horrendo) entro la regia foglia." THYER.Gloomy confiftory is fimilar to the defcription of the fame infernal council in the Paradife Loft, where Milton terms them a dark divan;

“Forth rush'd in hafte the great confulting peers,
"Rais'd from their dark divan." DUNSTER.

Confiftory was the ufual word in our elder poetry for an affembly; as in Hawes's Paftime of Pleasure, bl. I. 1554, speaking of Venus's court and temple, cap. xxix.

"The temple of her royall confiftory
"Was walled all about with yvorye."

And in Browne's Brit. Paft. 1616, B. i. S. i.

"In Heauen's confiftory 'twas decreed."

However, fee Quodlibets of Religion and State, 1602, written by W. Watson, a fecular priest; who, expofing the designs of the Jefuits in regard to the fubjugation of England, fays, that "their deepe Jefuiticall court of Parliament began at Styx in Phlegeton," and that "the fecond act enacted, or ftatute made, in that high infernall CONSISTORIE, was concerning the Church and Abbey lands, &c." pp. 92, 93. It is not improbable, that Phineas Fletcher might hence have taken the idea with which he

O ancient Powers of air, and this wide world,

opens his animated poem, entitled Loeuftæ vel Pietas Jefuitica, 4to. Cantab. 1627..

"Panditur Inferui limen, patet intima Ditis "Janua, concilium magnum, Stygiófque Qanites "Accitos, Rex ipfe nigra in penetralia cogit. "Olli conveniunt, volitant umbrofa per auras "Numina, Tartareóque tumet domus alta Senatu. Confidunt, numeróque omnes fubfellia jufto "(Concilium horrendum) infternunt, caufamque fluendi / "Intenti expectant: folio tum Lucifer alto

66

Infurgens, dictis umbras accendit amaris, &c."

Poffibly Milton might now be thinking of this paffage. That he had read the poem with attention, is evident. See this point further confidered in the first note on Milton's verses In Quintum Novembris.

TODD.

Ver. 44. O ancient Powers of air, and this wide world,] So the devil is called in icripture the prince of the power of the air, Eph. ii. 2; and evil fpirits are termed the rulers of the darkness of this world, Eph. vi. 12.

Satan here fuinmons a council, and opens it as he did in the Paradife Loft: but here is not that copioufhefs and variety which is in the other; here are not different fpeeches and fentiments adapted to the different characters; it is a council without a debate; Satan is the only fpeaker. And the author, as if confcious of this defect, has artfully endeavoured to obviate the objection, by faying that their danger

"admits no long debate, "But muft with fomething fudden be oppos'd." And afterwards,

""no time was then..

"For long indulgence to their fears or grief."

The true reason is, he found it impoffible to exceed or equal the fpeeches in his former council, and therefore has affigned the best reafon he could for not making auy in this. NEWTON.

The object of this council, it fhould be recollected, is not to debate, but merely for Satan to communicate to his' compeers

(For much more willingly. I mention air, This our old conqueft, than remember Hell, Our hated habitation,) well ye know

45

How many ages, as the years of men,
This universe we have poffefs'd, and rul'd,
In manner at our will, the affairs of earth, 50
Since Adam and his facile confort Eve
Loft Paradife, deceiv'd by me; though fince
With dread attending when that fatal wound
Shall be inflicted by the feed of Eve

his apprehenfions of their approaching danger, and to receive from them a fort of commiffion to act, in prevention of it, as circumstances might require, and as he should judge best. This gives the poet an opportunity of laying open the motives and general defigns of the great antagonist of his hero. A council, with a debate of equal length to that in the fecond Book of the Paradife Loft, would have been totally difproportionate to this brief epick; which, from the nature of its fubject, already perhaps abounds too much in speeches. DUNSTER.

They who have been taught to think, by the cant of common criticks, that this poem is unworthy of the great genius of Milton, may read the two firft fpeeches in it; THIS of Satan, with which the poem judiciously opens; and THAT of God at ver. 130 of this Book. Jos. WARTON.

This our old conqueft,] Par. Loft, B. x. 188.

"through the air,

"The realm itself of Satun long ufurp'd." DUNSTER.

Ver. 53.

attending] That is, waiting, expecting;

from the French attendre. So, in Par. Loft, B. vii. 407.

"Or in their pearly fhells at eafe attend

Upon my head. Long the decrees of Heaven 55 Delay, for longest time to him is fhort;

And now, too foon for us, the circling hours This dreaded time have compafs'd, wherein we Muft bide the ftroke of that long-threaten'd

wound,

(At leaft if fo we can, and by the head
Broken be not intended all our power
To be infring'd, our freedom and our being,
In this fair empire won of earth and air,)
For this ill news I bring, the Woman's Seed,

Ver. 55.

Long the decrees of Heaven

60

Delay, for longest time to him is fhort;] This obfervation, that the decrees of Heaven are long delayed," must be understood as being limited to this particular inftance; or to its being fometimes, not always fo. Why any interval fhould ever occur between the decrees of the Almighty and his execution of them, a reafon is immediately fubjoined, which forms a peculiarly fine tranfition to the fucceeding fentence. Time is as nothing to the Deity; long and fhort having in fact no existence to a Being with whom all duration is prefent. Time to human beings has its ftated measurement, and by this Satan had juft before eftimated it;

"How many ages, as the years of men,

"This universe we have poffeffed."

Time to guilty beings, human or fpiritual, paffes fo quick, that the hour of punishment, however protracted, always comes too foon;

"And now, too foon for us the circling hours

"This dreaded time have compass'd, wherein we
"Muft bide the ftroke of that long-threaten'd wound."

DUNSTER.

Ver. 64. For this ill news I bring, &c.] In the fourth A& of the Adamo of Andreini, Lucifer fimilarly announces the Incarnation to the demons. DUNSTEN.