EXTRACTS FROM PARADISE REGAINED.1
THE BANQUET.2

HE spake no dream; for, as his words had end,
Our Saviour, lifting up his eyes, beheld
In ample space, under the broadest shade,
A table richly spread, in regal mode,

3

With dishes piled, and meats of noblest sort
And savour, beasts of chace, or fowl of game,
In pastry built, or 'from the spit, or boiled,
Gris-amber-steamed; all fish from sea or shore,
Freshet, or purling brook, of shell or fin,
And exquisitest name, for which was drained
Pontus and Lucrine bay,5 and Afric coast.
(Alas! how simple to these cates compared,
Was that crude apple that diverted Eve!)
And at a stately sideboard, by the wine

That fragrant smell diffused, in order stood

(1) "Paradise Regained" was published in 1671, and was, singularly enough, preferred by its author to "Paradise Lost,"-"a prejudice which," says Dr. Johnson, "Milton had to himself." The great critic afterwards remarks:"Had this poem been written not by Milton, but by some imitator, it would have claimed and received universal praise." One of the main hindrances, it may be suggested, to its popularity, is its obvious theological deficiency. According to Milton, Paradise is regained by the Saviour's triumph over the temptation of Satan, as recited in the first eleven verses of the fourth chapter of St. Matthew's gospel, while no reference whatever is made throughout the poem to the death of Christ, as an atonement for sin.

(2) "Our Lord is an hungered,' and through that appetite tempted of the devil. Narrow as this ground is, for Milton it is enough; and he forthwith raises a table in the wilderness, furnished from 'Pontus and Lucrine bay, and Afric coast;' and the charming pipes are heard to play, and Arabian odours and early flowers breathe around, and nymphs and naiads of Diana's train are summoned forth to dance beneath the shade; and the whole is combined into one of those splendid banquets with which nothing but a most perfect knowledge of antiquity could have supplied him."-Quarterly Review, vol. xxxvi., p. 55.

(3) Gris-amber-steamed-seasoned or flavoured with ambergris, which is said to have been formerly much employed in eulinary operations.

(4) Freshet-a stream of fresh water.

(5) Lucrine bay-this Italian bay was famous for its oysters.

(6) Diverted-" is here used," says Dr. Newton, "in the Latin signification of divertor, 'to turn aside.'"

Tall stripling youths rich clad, of fairer hue
Than Ganymed or Hylas; distant more
Under the trees now tripped, now solemn stood,
Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiades,
With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn,'
And ladies of the Hesperides, that seemed,
Fairer than feigned of old, or fabled since
Of faery damsels met in forest wide

By knights of Logres,3 or of Lyones,3
Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore :

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And all the while harmonious airs were heard
Of chiming strings, or charming pipes; and winds
Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fanned
From their soft wings, and Flora's earliest smells.

GLORY.5

FOR what is glory but the blaze of fame,
The people's praise, if always praise unmixed?
And what the people but a herd confused,

A miscellaneous rabble, who extol

Things vulgar, and, well weighed, scarce worth the praise.
They praise and they admire they know not what,

And know not whom, but as one leads the other;

And what delight to be by such extolled,

To live upon their tongues and be their talk,
Of whom to be dispraised were no small praise?—
His lot who dares be singularly good.

The intelligent among them and the wise
Are few, and glory scarce of few is raised.

(1) Amalthea's horn-See note 7, p. 32.

(2) Ladies of the Hesperides--the Hesperides were fabulous islands, where fruittrees bore golden apples, and where the nymphs called Hesperides lived. (See also note 2, p. 334.)

(3) Logres, Lyones-the former an ancient name of England generally; the latter of Cornwall.

(4) Lancelot, &c.-The names of persons famous in the old romance of "Morte d'Arthur."

(5) This fine discourse is put into the mouth of our Saviour in answer to Satan's temptation to the pursuit of glory. "How admirably," remarks Thyer, "does Milton in this speech expose the emptiness and uncertainty of a popular character, and found true glory upon its only basis, the approbation of the God of Truth!"

This is true glory and renown, when God
Looking on the earth, with approbation marks
The just man, and divulges him through heaven
To all his angels, who, with true applause
Recount his praises: thus he did to Job,

When to extend his fame through heaven and earth,
As thou to thy reproach mayst well remember,
He asked thee, "Hast thou seen my servant Job?"
Famous he was in heaven, on earth less known,
Where glory is false glory, attributed

To things not glorious, men not worthy of fame.
They err who count it glorious to subdue
By conquest far and wide, to overrun

Large countries, and in field great battles win,
Great cities by assault: what do these worthies
But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave
Peaceable nations, neighbouring or remote,
Made captive, yet deserving freedom more
Than those their conquerors, who leave behind
Nothing but ruin wheresoe'er they rove,
And all the flourishing works of peace destroy;
Then swell with pride, and must be titled gods,
Great benefactors of mankind, deliverers,
Worshipped with temple, priest, and sacrifice?
One is the son of Jove, of Mars the other;
Till conqueror Death discover them scarce men,
Rolling in brutish vices, and deformed,
Violent or shameful death their due reward.
But if there be in glory aught of good,
It may by means far different be attained,
Without ambition, war, or violence;
By deeds of peace, by wisdom eminent,
By patience, temperance. I mention still
Him whom thy wrongs, with saintly patience borne,
Made famous in a land and times obscure;
Who names not now with honour patient Job?
Poor Socrates (who next more memorable ?)
By what he taught, and suffered for so doing,
For truth's sake suffering death unjust, lives now
Equal in fame to proudest conquerors.
Yet, if for fame and glory aught be done,
Aught suffered; if young African for fame

(1) One is the, &c.-Alexander and Romulus are intended.

His wasted country freed from Punic rage,
The deed becomes unpraised, the man at least,
And loses, though but verbal, his reward.
Shall I seek glory then, as vain men seek,
Oft not deserved? I seek not mine, but His
Who sent me, and thereby witness whence I am.

ROME.1

He brought our Saviour to the western side
Of that high mountain, whence he might behold
Another plain, long, but in breadth not wide,
Washed by the southern sea; and on the north
To equal length backed with a ridge of hills,
That screened the fruits of the earth, and seats of men
From cold Septentrion blasts; thence in the midst
Divided by a river, of whose banks

On each side an imperial city stood,
With towers and temples proudly elevate
On seven small hills, with palaces adorned,
Porches and theatres, baths, aqueducts,
Statues and trophies, and triumphal arcs,
Gardens and groves, presented to his eyes,
Above the height of mountains interposed:
(By what strange parallax or optic skill
Of vision, multiplied through air, or glass

(1) "And now, in her turn, Rome under Tiberius is depicted, with the spirit indeed of a poet, but with the accuracy of a contemporary annalist: and her imperial palaces, the houses of her gods, the conflux of divers nations and languages at her gates; the embassies from far crowding the Emilian and Appian roads; the prætors and proconsuls hasting to their provinces, or on their triumphant return, all fill the mind's eye."-Quarterly Review, ubi supra.

(2) Another plain, &c.-The "plain" is that part of Italy contained between the "southern sea," the Mediterranean, and the "ridge of hills," the "Apennines." (3) Porches-from the Latin porticus, a portico-a walk covered with a roof and supported by columns, a colonnade. These erections were beautifully constructed both at Athens and Rome, and were the favourite resorts of the fashionable and literary circles. See note 3, p. 351; and also Dr. Smith's "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," article "Porticus."

(4) Trophies-memorials or monuments of victory, consisting generally of the arms, shields, &c., of the enemy, fixed on some elevation.

(5) Parallax-from the Greek Tapáλλağıç, a difference-aberration, the distance between the true and the apparent place of a star; hence here, the elevation of the object to the eye, by which the city was seen "above the height of mountains interposed."

Of telescope, were curious to enquire)

And now the tempter thus his silence broke :—

"The city which thou seest no other deem
Than great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth,
So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched
Of nations; there the Capitol thou seest,
Above the rest lifting his stately head
On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel
Impregnable; and there mount Palatine,
The imperial palace, compass huge, and high
The structure, skill of noblest architects,
With gilded battlements, conspicuous far
Turrets and terraces, conspicuous far
Many a fair edifice besides, more like
Houses of gods (so well I have disposed
My aery microscope), thou mayst behold,
Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs,
Carved work, the hand of famed artificers
In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold.

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and see

Thence to the gates cast round thine eye,
What conflux issuing forth, or entering in;
Prætors, proconsuls to their provinces
Hasting, or on return, in robes of state;
Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power,
Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings:
Or embassies from regions far remote
In various habits on the Appian road,3

Or on the Emilian; some from farthest south,
Syene, and where the shadow both way falls,
Meroe, Nilotic isle, and, more to west,

The realm of Bocchus to the Blackmoor sea;
From the Asian kings, and Parthian among these;
From India and the golden Chersonese,*

(1) Hasting" The rapacity of the Roman provincial governors, and their eagerness to take possession of their prey, is here strongly marked by the word hasting.""-Dunster.

(2) Turms-from the Latin turma, a cavalry troop-troops of horse.

(3) The Appian road, &c.-The Appian road led south; the Emilian, north of Rome. The nations on the Appian road are enumerated in the seven lines beginning "Syene," &c.; those in the Emilian, in the three beginning "From Gallia," &c.

(4) Golden Chersonese-the Aurea Chersonesus, or Golden Peninsula, Malacca.