Recover'd Paradise to all mankind, choice, without the expected applause." To the same purpose are the observations of Bp. Newton, in his Life of Milton, (see the Life, pp. lxi. lxii. for the origin and character of Paradise Regained ;) of Mr. Thyer, (see his note on Par. Reg. ii. 1.) and of Bp. Warburton, (see his note on ver. 3.) But we may collect from the author himself, that he designed this poem for, what he terms, the brief epic, which he particularly distinguishes from the great and diffuse epic, of which kind are the great poems of Homer and Virgil, and his own Paradise Lost. [See a passage in the introduction to the second book of his Reason of Church Government, cited by Bp. Newton in his concluding note, b. iv. 639. E.] His model then we may suppose to have been in a great measure the book of Job; and however the subject which he selected may have been considered as narrow ground, and one that cramped his genius, there is no reason to imagine that it was chosen hastily or inconsiderately. It was peculiarly adapted to the species of poem he meant to produce, namely, the brief or didactic epic. The basis he thought perfectly adequate to the superstructure which he meant to raise; to the merit of which the lapse of time bears the material testimony of a gradually increasing admiration. Dunster. 1. I who ere while &c.] Milton begins his Paradise Regained in the same manner as the Paradise Lost; first proposes his subject, and then invokes the assistance of the Holy Spirit. The beginning I who ere while &c. is plainly an allusion to the Ille ego qui quondam &c. attributed to Virgil: but it doth not therefore follow, that Milton had no better taste than to conceive these lines to be genuine. Their being so well known to all the learned was reason sufficient for his imitation of them, as it was for Spenser's before him: Lo, I the man, whose Muse whileom did mask, As time her taught, in lowly shepherd's weeds, Am now enforc'd a far unfitter task, For trumpets stern to change mine oaten reeds &c. 2. By one man's disobedience] Somewhat in the style and manner of St. Paul, Rom. v. 19. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. 2. The argument of Paradise Lost was Man's first disobedience Giles Fletcher has expressed the same contrast in Christ's Triumph over Death, stanz. xv. Dunster. 3. Recover'd Paradise] It may seem a little odd at first, that Milton should impute the recovery of Paradise to this short scene of our Saviour's life upon earth, and not rather extend it to his agony, crucifixion, &c.; but the reason no doubt was, that Paradise regained by our Saviour's resisting the temptations of Satan might be a better contrast to Paradise lost by our first pa Through all temptation, and the Tempter foil'd rents too easily yielding to the same seducing spirit. Besides he might very probably, and indeed very reasonably, be apprehensive, that a subject so extensive as well as sublime might be too great a burden for his declining constitution, and a task too long for the short term of years he could then hope for. Even in his Paradise Lost he expresses his fears, lest he had begun too late, and lest an age too late, or cold climate, or years should have damped his intended wing; and surely he had much greater cause to dread the same now, and be very cautious of launching out too far. Thyer. It is hard to say whether Milton's wrong notions in divinity led him to this defective plan; or his fondness for the plan influenced those notions. That is, whether he indeed supposed the redemption of mankind (as he here represents it) was procured by Christ's triumph over the Devil in the wilderness; or whether he thought that the scene of the desert opposed to that of Paradise, and the action of a temptation withstood to a temptation fallen under, made Paradise Regained a more regular sequel to Paradise Lost. Or if neither this nor that, whether it was his being tired out with the labour of composing Paradise Lost made him averse to another work of length, (and then he would never be at a loss for fanciful reasons to determine him in the choice 5 of his plan,) is very uncertain. All that we can be sure of is, that the plan is a very unhappy one, and defective even in that narrow view of a sequel, for it affords the poet no opportunity of driving the Devil back again to hell from his new conquests in the air. In the mean time nothing was easier than to have invented a good one, which should end with the resurrection, and comprise these four books, somewhat contracted, in an episode, for which only the subject of thein is fit. Warburton. If Milton thought the tempter foiled in all his wiles, defeated, and repulsed, he did not however conceive the redemption of mankind (as I before remarked, Par. Lost, x. 182,) so soon effected. See the address of the Angels to our Lord, at the conclusion of this poem, b. iv. 634. -on thy glorious.work Now enter, and begin to save mankind. Compare b. i. 155-167, and b. iv. 608. See also Mr. Dunster's note on ver. 174 of this book. E. 7. And Eden rais'd in the waste wilderness.] There is, I think, a particular beauty in this line, when one considers the fine allusion in it to the curse brought upon the Paradisiacal earth by the fall of Adain,-Cursed is the ground for thy sake-Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth. Thyer. So in his translation of the 135th Psalm, written when he Thou Spirit who ledd'st this glorious eremite Into the desert, his victorious field, Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st him thence 10 As thou art wont, my prompted song else mute, was only fifteen, Milton has His chosen people he did bless In the wasteful wilderness. Perhaps he borrowed the expression from his favourite Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. c. i. 32. is eremita, which the French, and we after them, contract into hermite, hermit. 11. inspire, As thou art wont, my prompted song else mute.] See the very fine opening of the Far hence (quoth he) in wasteful wil- ninth book of the Paradise Lost, derness His dwelling is But in this place he had evidently Isaich li. 3. in his recollection. "The Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Dunster. 8. Thou Spirit who ledd'st this glorious eremite] The invocation is properly addressed to the Holy Spirit, not only as the inspirer of every good work, but as the leader of our Saviour upon this occasion into the wilderness. For it is said, Matt. iv. 1. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. And from the Greek original gnus the desert, and senuTs an inhabitant of the desert, is rightly formed the word eremite, which was used before by Milton in his Paradise Lost, iii. 474. and by Fairfax in his translation of Tasso, cant. xi. st. 4. and in Italian as well as in Latin there ερημι his invocation of Urania at the beginning of the seventh book, and the notes on Par. Lost, i. 17. ix. 21. Milton's invocations of the Divine Spirit were not merely exordia pro formd. Indeed his prose works are not without their invocations. Dunster. 14. With prosp'rous wing full summ'd,] We had the like expression in Paradise Lost, vii. 421. They summ'd their pensand it was noted there that it is a term in falconry. A hawk is said to be full summed, when all his feathers are grown, when he wants nothing of the sum of his feathers, cui nihil de summa pennarum deest, as Skinner says. 14. to tell of deeds Above heroic,] Alluding perhaps in the turn of expression to the first verse of Lucan, Bella per Emathios plusquam civilia Thyer. Above heroic, though in secret done, Now had the great Proclaimer, with a voice long unsung.] Milton had before noticed Vida's Christiad, and had specified the temptations of Christ as making a material part of the subject. Vida was a native of Cremona; of which he was also elected bishop. His godlike acts, and his temptations fierce, And former sufferings otherwhere are found; Loud o'er the rest Cremona's trump doth sound. Ode on the Passion, st. 4. Temptations indeed here only mean trials; but of these the temptation in the wilderness made a part. Vida's description of this however is very short. Dunster. 15 20 Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, To all baptiz'd:] I conceive the construction to be not that he cried to all baptized repentance, &c. but heaven's kingdom nigh at hand to all baptized. Heaven's kingdom was nigh at hand to all such as were baptized with John's baptism; they were thereby disposed and prepared for the reception of the Gospel. 19. In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is nigh at hand. Matt. iii. 1, 2. Dunster. 21.-to his great baptism flock'd With awe the regions round,] Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan. Matt. iii. 5. Dunster. To the flood Jordan, came as then obscure, 24. To the flood Jordan, came as then obscure,] In Mr. Fenton's and most other editions it is pointed thus, To the flood Jordan came, as then obscure, but we have followed the punc tuation of Milton's own edition; for there is very little force in the repetition, and with them came, to the flood Jordan came; but to say that he came with them to the flood Jordan, and came as then obscure, is very good sense, and worthy of the repetition. 25. —but him the Baptist soon Descried, divinely warn'd,] John the Baptist had notice given him before, that he might certainly know the Messiah by the Holy Ghost descending and abiding upon him. And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. John i. 33. But it appears from St. Matthew, that the Baptist knew him and acknowledged him, before he was baptized, and before 25 30 the Holy Ghost descended upon him. Matt. iii. 14. I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? To account for which we must admit with Milton, that another divine revelation was made to him at this very time, signifying that this was the person, of whom he had had such notice before. 26. —divinely warn'd] To comprehend the propriety of this word divinely the reader must have his eye upon the Latin divinitus, from heaven, since the word divinely in our language scarce ever comes up to this meaning. Milton uses it in much the same sense in Paradise Lost, viii. 500. She heard me thus, and though divinely brought. |