Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last,
Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch
At their great emperour's call; as next in worth
Came singly where he stood on the bare strand;
While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof.
The chief were those, who, from the pit of hell
Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix
Their seats long after next the seat of God,
Their altars by his altar, gods adored
Among the nations round; and durst abide
Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned
Between the cherubim: yea, often placed
Within his sanctuary itself, their shrines,
Abominations; and with cursed things
His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned,
And with their darkness durst affront his light.
First Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears;

d

Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud

e Say, Muse, their names then known.

For the enumeration of the Syrian and Arabian deities, it may be observed, that Milton has comprised in one hundred and thirty very beautiful lines, the two learned syntagmas, which Selden had composed on that abstruse subject.-Gibbon, Rom. Emp. vol. i. p. 539 note, 4to. edit. The exordium to this enumeration, "who first, who last," is from Homer, Il. v. 703:

Ενθα τίνα πρώτον, τίνα δ ̓ ὕστατον.

& First Moloch, horrid king.

TODD.

First, after Satan and Beelzebub. Moloch signifies king, and he is called “horrid king," because of the human sacrifices which were made to him: the expression, "passed through fire," is taken from Leviticus, xviii. 21; or 2 Kings, xxiii. 10. His idol was of brass, sitting on a throne, and wearing a crown; having the head of a calf, and his arms extended to receive the miserable victims which were to be sacrificed; and therefore it is here probably styled "his grim idol." He was the God of the Ammonites, 1 Kings, xi. 7, and was worshipped in Rabba, their capital city, called the "city of waters," 2 Sam. xi. 27; and in the neighbouring countries as far as to the river Arnon, the boundary of their country on the south.-NEWTON.

Dr. Newton also says that Moloch was supposed to be the same as Saturn: but Milton did not suppose it, or at least did not attend to the supposition; as Saturn himself is afterwards mentioned, verse 519. But Moloch has also been supposed to be Mars; with a view to which, Milton seems to have drawn his character in the second book. That the planet Mars was named Moloch by the Egyptians is mentioned by Beyer, in his "Additamenta to Selden's Syntagma de Diis Syr."-DUNSTER.

The part of Moloch is, in all its circumstances, full of that fire and fury which distinguish this spirit from the rest of the fallen angels. He is described in the first book as besmeared with the blood of human sacrifices, and delighted with the tears of parents and the cries of children: in the second book, he is marked out as the fiercest spirit that fought in heaven: and if we consider the figure which he makes in the sixth book, where the battle of the angels is described, we find it every way answerable to the same furious, enraged character.

It may be worth while to observe, that Milton has represented this violent impetuous spirit, who is hurried on by such precipitate passions, as the first that rises in that assembly to give his opinion on their present posture of affairs; accordingly, he declares himself abruptly for war; and appears incensed at his companions for losing so much time as even to deliberate upon it. All his sentiments are rash, audacious, and desperate such is that of arming themselves with their tortures, and turning their punishments upon him who inflicted them. His preferring annihilation to shame or misery is also highly suitable to his character; as the comfort he draws from disturbing the peace of heaven, that, if it be not victory, it is revenge, is a sentiment truly diabolical, and becoming the bitterness of this implacable spirit.-ADDISON.

Their children's cries unheard, that pass'd through fire

To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipp'd in Rabba and her watery plain,
In Argob, and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His temple right against the temple of God,
On that opprobrious hill; and made his grove
The pleasant valley of Hinnom,' Tophet thence
And black Gehenna call'd, the type of hell.
Next Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons,
From Aroer to Nebo, and the wild

Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon
And Horonáim, Seon's realm, beyond

And Eleale to the asphaltic pool:

805

400

405

The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines,

410

Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate;

Till good Josiah drove them theuce to hell.

With these came they, who, from the bordering flood
Of old Euphrates' to the brook that parts
Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names
Of Baalim and Ashtaroth, those male,

• The wisest heart

Of Solomon he led.

420

Solomon built a temple to Moloch on the Mount of Olives, 1 Kings, xi. 7, which is therefore called "that opprobrious hill."-NEWTON.

The pleasant valley of Hinnom.

See Jer. vii. 31. It was called also Tophet, from the Hebrew toph, a drum; drums and such like noisy instruments being used to drown the cries of the miserable children who were offered to this idol: and Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnom, is in several places of the New Testament, and by our Saviour himself, made the name and type of hell.-NEWTON.

Next Chemos.

Moloch and Chemos are joined together, 1 Kings, xi. 7. And it was a natural transition from the god of the Ammonites to the god of their neighbours of the Moabites. See a long geographical note by NEWTON.

h Lust hard by hate.

What a fine moral sentiment has Milton here introduced and couched in half a verse! He might perhaps have in view Spenser's "Mask of Cupid," where anger, strife, &c., are represented as immediately following Cupid in the procession.-THYER.

The poet's moral is exactly verified in the incestuous and cruel conduct of Amnon towards Tamar, 2 Sam. xiii. 15:-"Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred, wherewith he hated her, was greater than the love, wherewith he had loved her." The hemistich is a fine commentary on the passage.-Todd.

i Old Euphrates.

Gen. ii. 14. It bordered eastward on the Promised Land. See NEWTON.

i Bäalam and Ashtaroth.

They are frequently named together in Scripture. They were the general names of

These feminine: for spirits, when they please,
Can either sex assume, or both; so soft

And uncompounded is their essence pure;

425

Not tied or manacled with joint or limb,

Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,

Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose,

Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure,

Can execute their aery purposes,

430

And works of love or enmity fulfil.

For those the race of Israel oft forsook

Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left
His righteous altar, bowing lowly down

To bestial gods; for which their heads as low
Bow'd down in battel, sunk before the spear
Of despicable foes. With these in troop
Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd
Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns;
To whose bright image nightly by the moon
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs;
In Sion also not unsung, where stood
Her temple on the offensive mountain, built

By that uxorious king, whose heart, though large,TM
Beguiled by fair Idolatresses, fell

To idols foul. Thammuz" came next behind,

Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured
The Syrian damsels to lament his fate.
In amorous ditties, all a summer's day;
While smooth Adonis from his native rock
Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale
Infected Sion's daughters with like heat;
Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch
Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led,

435

440

445

160

455

the gods and goddesses of Syria and Palestine: they are supposed to mean the sun and the host of heaven.-NEWTON.

For spirits, when they please.

See Michael Psellus's Dialogue, published in Greek and Latin, at Paris, in 1615, concerning the Operations of Demons. See also Wierus, "De Præstigiis Dæmonum," 1582.-NEWTON and TODD.

The passage in the catalogue, explaining the manner how spirits transform themselves by contraction or enlargement of their dimensions, is introduced with great judgment, to make way for several accidents in the sequel of the poem.-ADDISON. 1 With these in troop

Came Astoreth.

The goddess of the Phoenicians, under which name the moon was adored. Solomon built her a temple on the Mount of Olives.-NEWTON.

m Whose heart, though large.

1 Kings, iv. 29:-" And God gave Solomon largeness of heart."-TODD.

■ Thammuz.

He was the god of the Syrians, the same with Adonis.-NEWTON.

See Ezekiel, viii. 12.-TODD.

• Ezekiel saw.

His eye survey'd the dark idolatries

Of alienated Judah. Next came one

Who mourn'd in earnest, when the captive ark

Maim'd his brute image, head and hands lopp'd off
In his own temple, on the grunsel edge,
Where he fell flat, and shamed his worshippers:
Dagon his name; P sea monster, upward man
And downward fish: yet had his temple high
Rear'd in Azotus, dreaded through the coast
Of Palestine, in Gath, and Ascalon,
And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds.
Him followed Rimmon," whose delightful seat
Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks
Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.
He also against the house of God was bold:
A leper once he lost, and gained a king;
Ahaz his sottish conquerour, whom he drew
God's altar to disparage, and displace
For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn
His odious offerings, and adore the gods

460

465

470

475

Whom he had vanquish'd. After these appear'd

A crew, who under names of old renown,

Osiris, Isis, Orus," and their train,

With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused

Fanatic Egypt and her priests, to seek

48.

Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms
Rather than human. Nor did Israel 'scape

The infection, when their borrow'd gold composed
The calf in Oreb; and the rebel king
Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan,
Likening his Maker to the grazed ox;
Jehovah, who in one night, when he passed"
From Egypt marching, equal'd with one stroke
Both her first-born and all her bleating gods.

See 1 Sam. v. 4.-NEWTON.

P Dagon his name.

a Rimmon.

Rimmon was a god of the Syrians.-NEWTON.

r God's altar to disparage.

See 2 Kings, xvi. 10; and 2 Chron. xxviii. 23.-NEWTON.

• Orus, &c.

Orus was the son of Osiris and Isis.-NEWTON.

t Nor did Israel 'scape The infection.

485

The Israelites, by dwelling so long in Egypt, were infected with the superstitions cf the Egyptians.-NEWTON.

u Who in one night, when he pass'd.

See Exod. xii. 12, and Numb. xxxiii. 3, 4. See also Virg. Æn. viii. 699:

Omniger mque Deûm monstra, et latrator Anubis.-NEWTON.

Belial came last, than whom a spirit more lewd
Fell not from heaven, or more gross to love
Vice for itself: to him no temple stood
Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he
In temples and at altars, when the priest
Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who fill'd
With lust and violence the house of God?
In courts and palaces he also reigns,
And in luxurious cities, where the noise
Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers,
And injury, and outrage: and when night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night
In Gibeah, when the hospitable door
Exposed a matron to avoid worse rape.

These were the prime in order and in might;
The rest were long to tell, though far renown'd,
The Ionian gods, of Javan's issue, held
Gods, yet confess'd later than heaven and earth,
Their boasted parents. Titan, heaven's first born,
With his enormous brood, and birthright seized
By younger Saturn: he from mightier Jove,

▾ Belial came last.

490

495

50

550

510

Belial is described in the first book as the idol of the lewd and the luxurious: he is in the second book, pursuant to that description, characterized as timorous and slothful; and, if we look into the sixth book, we find him celebrated in the battle of angels for nothing but that scoffing speech which he makes to Satan, on their supposed advantage over the enemy. As his appearance is uniform, and of a piece, in these three several views, we find his sentiments in the infernal assembly every way conformable to his character. Such are his apprehensions of a second battle, his horrors of annihilation, his preferring to be miserable rather than not to be. I need not observe, that the contrast of thought in this speech, and that which precedes it, gives an agreeable variety to the debate.

Mammon's character is so fully drawn in the first book, that the poet adds nothing to it in the second. We were told that he was the first who taught mankind to ransack the earth for gold and silver, and that he was the architect of Pandemonium, or the infernal palace, where the evil spirits were to meet to counsel. His speech in the second book is every way suitable to so depraved a character. How proper is that reflection, of their being unable to taste the happiness of heaven, were they actually there, in the mouth of one, who, while he was in heaven, is said to have had his mind dazzled with the outward pomps and glories of the place, and to have been more intent on the riches of the pavement, than on the beatific vision! I shall also leave the reader to judge how agreeable the sentiments are to the same character, b. ii. 262, &c.

Beelzebub, who is reckoned the second in dignity that fell, and is, in the first book, the second that awakens out of the trance, and confers with Satan on the situation of their affairs, maintains his rank in the second book.-ADDISON.

w These were the prime.

Because these are the idols who are mentioned in the most ancient records, viz. by the sacred text.-CALLANder.

The Ionian gods.

Javan, the fourth son of Japhet, is supposed to have settled in the south-west part of Asia Minor, about Ionia.-NEWTON.

▾ Yet confess'd later.

See Deut. xxxii. 17.—TODD.