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PARADISE LOST.

BOOK IX.

No more of talk where God or Angel guest With Man, as with his friend, familiar us'd,

Ver. 1. No more of talk &c.] Thefe prologues, or prefaces, of Milton to fome of his books, fpeaking of his own perfon, lamenting his blindness, and preferring his fubject to those of Homer and Virgil and the greateft poets before him, are condemned by fome criticks: and it must be allowed that we find no fuch digreffion in the Iliad or Æneid; it is a liberty that can be taken only by fuch a genius as Milton, and I question whether it would have fucceeded in any hands but his. As Voltaire fays upon the occafion, I cannot but own that an author is generally guilty of an unpardonable felf-love, when he lays afide his fubject to defcant upon his own perfon: But that human frailty is to be forgiven in Milton; nay, I am pleafed with it. He gratifies the curiofity he has raised in me about his perfon; when I admire the author, I defire to know fomething of the man; and he, whom all readers would be glad to know, is allowed to speak of himself. But this: however is a very dangerous example for a genius of an inferiour order, and is only to be juftified by fuccefs. See Voltaire's Essay on Epick Poetry, page 111.

But, as Mr. Thyer adds, however fome criticks may condemn a poet's fometimes digreffing from his fubject to speak of himself, it is very certain that Milton was of a very different opinion, long before he thought of writing this poem. For, in his difcourfe of the Reafon of Church-Government &c. apologizing for faying fo

To fit indulgent, and with him partake
Rural repaft; permitting him the while

much of himself as he there does, he adds, "For although a poet, foaring in the high region of his fancies, with his garland and finging robes about him, might, without apology, Speak more of himself than I mean to do; yet for me, fitting here below in the cool element of profe, a mortal thing among many readers of no empyreal conceit, to venture and divulge unusual things of myself, I shall petition to the gentler fort, it may not be envy to me," vol. i. p. 59, edit, 1738. NEWTON.

Ibid. where God or Angel guest] Dr. Bentley fays, that God did not partake rural repaft with Adam, and therefore he thinks that the author gave it where focial Angel gueft &c. But focial is ufelefs here, because familiar follows in the next verfe. The fenfe feems to be this; Where God, or rather the Angel fent by him and acting as his proxy, ufed to fit familiarly with Man as with his friend &c. Hence Raphael is called Adam's Godlike guest, B. v. 351. PEARCE.

Milton, who knew and ftudied the Scripture thoroughly, and continually profits himself of its vaft fublimity, as well as of the more noble treafures it contains, and to which his poem owes its greatest luftre, has done it here very remarkably. The epifode, which has employed almost a third part of the work, and is a dife courfe betwixt the Angel Raphael and Adam, is plainly copied from the xviiith chapter of Genefis, which (by the way) has a fublimity and air of antiquity to which Homer himself is flat and modern: Here God or Angel guest holds difcourfe with Abraham as friend with friend, fits indulgent, partakes rural repaft, per mitting kim the while difcourfe in his turn. No more must now be fung of fuch a heavenly converfation. God himself, indeed, is not properly a speaker in it, though Adam in his part of it relates his having been honoured with the Divine Prefence, and a celestial colloquy, B. viii. 455, as feveral others, B. xi. 318, &c. All hitherto is evident beyond contradiction. But why God or Angel guest? Read that chapter, and it will be seen that this remarkable expreffion is taken from the ambiguity there. The Lord and the young Men (always understood to be Angels) are used as words

Venial discourse unblam'd. I now must change s Those notes to tragick; foul distrust, and breach

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of the fame fignification, denoting that the Divine Prefence was fo effectually with his meffengers, that Himfelf was alfo there; Such privilege hath Omniprefence; He went, yet faid, as in B. vii. 589. The fame Milton intimates in the paffage before us; and it is a master stroke of fublimity. RICHARDSON.

Mr. Richardfon, in faying The Lord and the young Men (always understood to be Angels) are ufed as words of the fame figrification, does not feem to be apprifed, that it was an ancient opinion, and believed too by many of the more modern fcholars, that the Lord in this paffage was God the Son, and the two others only Angels. THYER.

Befides it may be queftioned, whether Milton refined in this manner; and it seems to me as if a difficulty was made where no difficulty is. The poet fays, that he must now treat no more of familiar discourse with either God or Angel. For Adam had held difcourfe with God, as we read in the preceding book; and the whole foregoing episode is a conversation with the Angel; and, as this takes up fo large a part of the poem, this is particularly defcribed and infifted upon here. The Lord God, and the Angel Michael, both indeed afterwards difcourfe with Adam in the following books; but thofe difcourfes are not familiar converfation as with a friend; they are of a different strain, the one coming to judge, and the other to expel him from Paradife. NEWTON. as with his friend, familiar &c.] Mr. Drayton's Mufes Eliz. 1630, p. 122, the

Ver. 2.
Bowle here cites from
defcription of Mofes :

"Him that of mortals onely had the grace,
"To talke with God face oppofite to face,

"Euen as a man with his familiar friend."

See alfo Faer. Qu. i. x. 56. But Milton was here inftructed, as Drayton had been, by the divine hiftorian himself, Exod. xxxiii. 11. "And the Lord spake unto Mofes face to face, as a man Speaketh to his friend." TODD.

Ver. 5.

I now muft change
Thofe notes to tragick;] As the author is now chang-

Difloyal on the part of Man, revolt,
And difobedience: on the part of Heaven
Now alienated, distance and diftafte,

Anger and just rebuke, and judgement given, 10
That brought into this world a world of woe,
Sin and her fhadow Death, and Mifery

ing his fubject, he profeffes likewife to change his style agreeably to it. The reader therefore must not expect such lofty images and defcriptions, as before. What follows, is more of the tragick strain, than of the epick: Which may serve as an answer to those criticks, who cenfure the latter books of the Paradife Loft as falling below the former. NEWTON.

Ver. 11. That brought into this world a world of woe,] The pun, or what fhall I call it, in this line, may be avoided, as a great man obferved to me, by diftinguishing thus:

"That brought into this world (a world of woe)

"Sin and her fhadow Death, &c."

But I fancy the other will be found more agreeable to Milton's style and manner. We have a fimilar inftance in B. xi. 627.

"The world erelong a world of tears must weep

But in these inftances Milton was corrupted by the bad taste of the times, and by reading the Italian poets, who abound with fuch verbal quaintneffes. NEWTON.

The great man, who propofed the parenthesis, was Atterbury; and Dr. Warton confiders it as a happy vindication of Milton from the degrading quaintness so often applied to the old reading. Dr. Lowth was alfo of the fame opinion. I would moreover obferve, that Atterbury's reading, which places a world of woe in oppofition to this world, derives fupport from Milton's having already employed the phrafe in this manner, B, viii. 332,

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expell'd from hence into a world

Of woe and forrow." TODD,

Ver. 12. Sin and her thadow Death,] So, in the speech of Sin to Death, B. x. 249. "Thou, my fhade infeparable, &c." Where fee the notes. TODD.

Death's harbinger: Sad task! yet argument
Not lefs but more heroick than the wrath
Of ftern Achilles on his foe pursued
Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage
Of Turnus for Lavinia difefpous'd;
Or Neptune's ire, or Juno's, that so long
Perplex'd the Greek, and Cytherea's fon;
If answerable ftyle I can obtain

Of

my celestial patroness, who deigns Her nightly visitation unimplor'd,

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20

Ver. 12.

and Mifery

Death's harbinger:] Dr. Bentley reads Malady; because, as there is Mifery after death, fo there is Mifery which does not usher in death, but invokes it in vain. But, by Mifery here, Milton means fickness, disease, and all forts of mortal pains. So, when Michael is going to name the feveral diseases in the lazarhoufe reprefented to Adam in a vifion, B. xi. 475, he fays,

"that thou may'st know

"What mifery the inabftinence of Eve

"Shall bring on men." PEARCE.

Ver. 20. If answerable style I can obtain] His theme was more fublime than the wrath of Achilles, celebrated by Homer in the Iliad; of Turnus, by Virgil in the Æneid; or of Neptune, by Homer in the Odyfey: It therefore demanded the invocation of anfwerable ftyle to defcribe it. And, as Mr. Richardfon obferves, though feveral other particulars are specified as parts of his prefent fubject, v. 6, &c.; that of the anger of God, v. 10, was the confequence of thofe, and is his only subject. It is this which he places in oppofition to the anger of men and gods: in which, as Dr. Newton remarks, he has the advantage of Homer and Virgil; the anger of the true God being an argument not lefs but more heroick." TODD.

Ver. 21. my celestial patronefs,] ton's Eleg. v. 6. "Ingeniumque mihi &c."

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See the note on Mil

T. WARTON.

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