download PDF version: 1.15MB - Global Grey

390
SELECT NOTES ON
And thus Spenfer, in his Hymn of Heavenly Love,
O bleffed well of love ! O flowre of ! grace
O glorious morning star ! O lamp of !
light
Moft lively image of thy Father's face,
Eternal king of glory, Lord of might,
Meek Lamb of God before all worlds behight,
How can we thee requite for all this good ?
Or what can prize that thy moft precious blood ?
/. 30*. p, 13. Full forty days hepafs'd, "whether on hill
Sometimes, anon onjhady vale, &fc.J
Here the Poet of Paradife Loft breaks out in his meridian fplendour.
There is fomething particularly pi&urefque in this defcription.
/. 312. />. 13. The fiery ferpentfled and noxious worm,!
The word worm, though joined with the epithet noxious, may give
too low an idea to fome readers ; but, as we obferved upon the Para-
dife Loft, ix. 1068, where Satan is called falfc "worm, it is a general
name for the reptile kind ; and a ferpent is called the mortal worm,
by Shakefpear, 2 Henry sixth, Act III. Newton.
/. 458. p. 18. Delphcs, ]
In the famous controversy about ancient and modern learning, Mr.
Wotton reproves Sir William Temple for putting Delphos for Delphi
every where in his Efiays. Mr. Boyle juftifies it, and lays that it is
ufed by all the fineft writers of our tongue, and beft judges of it, par-
ticularly Waller, Dryden, Creech, &c. If thefe authorities may juf-
tify Sir William Temple, they may alfo juftify Milton ;
but certainly
the true way of writing it is not Delphos in the accufative cafe, but
Delphi
in the nominative. Newton.