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Full forty days he pass'd, whether on hill
Sometimes, anon in shady vale, each night
Under the covert of some ancient oak,
Or cedar, to defend him from the dew,
Or harbour'd in one cave, is not reveal'd;
Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt
Till those days ended, hunger'd then at last
Among wild beasts: they at his sight grew mild,

and elegantest authors of the learned tongues, and thereto brought an ear that could measure a just cadence, and scan without articulating; rather nice and humorous in what was tolerable, than patient to read every drawling versifier. Prose Works, vol. i. 120. This is spoken against hobbling distichs in Bishop Hall's satires."

But surely we may in general suppose that Milton purposely introduced lines of this kind with a view to variety in his numbers. And they often have a good effect: which indeed we should mar if we could really alter the measure by alteration of the accent. But no one will in fact read vanquish or choicest with the last syllable accented; the attempt at improvement is more aukward than the supposed fault; which we should correct, if it be a fault, by pronouncing the words in question without any strong accent on either syllable. E.

306. to defend him from the dew,] The dews of that country were very considerable. Maundrell, in his Travels, when within little more than half a day's journey of Mount Hermon, says,

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we were sufficiently instructed by experience what the holy Psalmist means by the dew of Hermon, (Ps. cxxxiii. 3.) our tents being as wet with it, as if it had rained all night." Dunster.

307. -one cave] Read, some cave. Jortin.

310. they at his sight grew mild,] All this is very common in description, but here very judiciously employed as a mark of the returning Paradisiacal state. Warburton

G. Fletcher, in his Christ's Triumph on Earth, has given a similar but more diffuse description of the effects of our Lord's presence on the wild beasts in the wilderness. Giles Fletcher (the younger brother of Phineas Fletcher, author of the Purple Island, and cousin of John Fletcher the dramatic poet) published his Christ's Victory and Triumph in 1610. It is in four parts, and the subject of the second part (above referred to) is our Lord's Temptation; but it is not often that we can trace our Author to any part of it. The whole poem has great merit, considering the age in which it was written.

The change which Milton

Nor sleeping him nor waking harm'd, his walk
The fiery serpent fled, and noxious worm,
The lion and fierce tiger glar'd aloof.
But now an aged man in rural weeds,

here supposes in the disposition of the wild beasts, upon the appearance of perfect innocence in a human form amongst them, corresponds with his descriptions of them in the Par. Lost. Before the fall they are harmless, void of ferocity to each other, and even affectionate towards man. Immediately after the fall they begin to grow savage. See P. L. iv. 340. and x. 707.

It is remarkable that Abp. Secker, in his Sermon on the Temptation, from the words of St. Mark, i. 13. who says that our blessed Lord was with the wild beasts, infers that the fiercest animals were in reality "awed by his presence, and so far laid aside their savage nature for a time." Dunster.

312 -and noxious worm] This beautiful description is formed upon that short hint in St. Mark's Gospel, i. 13. and was with the wild beasts. A circumstance not mentioned by the other Evangelists, but excellently improved by Milton to show how the ancient prophecies began to be fulfilled, Isa. xi. 6-9. Ixv. 25. Ezek. xxxiv. 25; and how Eden was raised in the waste wilderness. But the word worm, though joined with the epithet noxious, may give too low an idea to some readers: but as we observed upon the Paradise Lost, ix. 1068, where Satan is called false worm, it is a general name

for the reptile kind, and a serpent is called the mortal worm by Shakespeare. 2 Henry VI. act iii. and so likewise by Cowley in his Davideis, book i.

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312. Worm is also used for a serpent, by Crashaw, in his Sospetto d'Herode, stanz. lix. and in the Midsummer Night's Dream, act iii.

Could not a worm, an adder do as

much?

And again in Antony and Cleopatra, the aspic is called "the pretty worm of Nilus;" on which Johnson observes, that "worm is the Teutonic word for serpent. We have the blind-worm and slowworm still in our language, and the Norwegians call an enormous monster, seen sometimes in the northern ocean, the sea-worm." Dunster.

314. But now an aged man &c.] As the Scripture is entirely silent about what personage the Tempter assumed, the poet was at liberty to indulge his own fancy; and nothing, I think, could be better conceived for his present purpose, or more likely to prevent suspicion of fraud. The poet might perhaps take the hint from a design of David Vinkboon's, where the Devil is represented addressing himself to our Saviour under the appearance of an old man. It is to be met with among Vischer's cuts to the Bible, and is engraved by Landerselt. Thyer.

Following, as seem'd, the quest of some stray ewe, 315
Or wither'd sticks to gather, which might serve
Against a winter's day when winds blow keen,
To warm him wet return'd from field at eve,
He saw approach, who first with curious eye
Perus'd him, then with words thus utter'd spake. 320
Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this place
So far from path or road of men, who pass
In troop or caravan? for single none
Durst ever, who return'd, and dropt not here

Thus in the Faery Queen, b. i. c. i. 29. Una and the Red-cross Knight are met by the enchanter Archimago, disguised under the appearance of an old hermit,

At length they chanc'd to meet upon their way

An aged man in long black weeds y-clad.

safest way of travelling in Turkey and Persia with the caravan, though it goes indeed slower than in less company, or with a guide alone, as some will do. See Travels into Persia in Harris, vol. ii. b. ii. ch. 2.

323. Milton seems here to have had in his mind the sandy

So the Spirit in Comus, 84, says deserts of Africa, as they are

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described by Diodorus Siculus, full of wild beasts, of a vast extent, and, from the want of water and of all kind of food, not only difficult, but absolutely dangerous to pass over.

Indeed the wilderness of Judea itself (and it was not necessary to confine these descriptions merely to that part of it, into which our Lord was just entering) was of a great length, the most habitable part being northward towards the river Jordan; southward it extended into vast and uninhabited deserts, termed in Reland's Palæstina, vastissimæ solitudines. And to describe these in such a manner as might excite a lively idea of danger, was perfectly consistent with the Tempter's purpose. Dunster...

His carcase, pin'd with hunger and with drought. 325

I ask the rather, and the more admire,

For that to me thou seem'st the man, whom late
Our new baptizing Prophet at the ford

Of Jordan honour'd so, and call'd thee Son

Of God; I saw and heard, for we sometimes

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Who dwell this wild, constrain'd by want, come forth To town or village nigh (nighest is far)

Where ought we hear, and curious are to hear,

What happens new; fame also finds us out.

To whom the Son of God. Who brought me hither,

Will bring me hence; no other guide I seek.

By miracle he may, replied the swain,

What other way I see not, for we here
Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inur'd
More than the camel, and to drink go far,

339. -tough roots and stubs,] This must certainly be a mistake of the printer, and instead of stubs it ought to be read shrubs. It is no uncommon thing to read of hermits and ascetics living in deserts upon roots and shrubs, but I never heard of stubs being used for food, nor indeed is it reconcileable to common sense. Some have thought that the angides, which the Scripture says were the meat of the Baptist, were the tops of plants or shrubs. Thyer.

I find the word stubs used in Spenser. Faery Queen, b. i.

cant. ix. st. 34.

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as food, which seems impossible, and therefore I embrace the former ingenious conjecture.

339. Yet, in the Tempest, Prospero threatens Ferdinand with nearly as hard fare. Act i.

sc. 3.

-thy food shall be The fresh brook mussels, wither'd roots, and husks Wherein the acorn cradled.

Stubs are in fact only broken ends of the larger withered roots. Dunster.

340. More than the camel,] It is commonly said, that camels will go without water three or four days. Sitim et quatriduo tolerant. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. viii. sect.

And all about old stocks and stubs of 26. But Tavernier says, that they

trees :

but this only proves the use of the word, and not of the thing

will ordinarily live without drink eight or nine days. See Harris, ibid. And therefore, as Dr. Shaw

Men to much misery and hardship born;

But if thou be the Son of God, command

That out of these hard stones be made thee bread,
So shalt thou save thyself and us relieve
With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste.

He ended, and the Son of God replied.
Think'st thou such force in bread? is it not written
(For I discern thee other than thou seem'st)
Man lives not by bread only, but each word
Proceeding from the mouth of God, who fed
Our fathers here with manna? in the mount
Moses was forty days, nor eat nor drank;
And forty days Elijah without food
Wander'd this barren waste; the same I now :
Why dost thou then suggest to me distrust,

justly observes in his physical observations on Arabia Petræa, p. 389, we cannot sufficiently admire the great care and wisdom of God in providing the camel for the traffic and commerce of these and such like desolate countries.

340. An Arabian author, cited by Bochart, (Hierozoicon, part b. ii. c. 2.) says, "the camel can not only go without water for ten days, but will eat such things as grow in the deserts, which no other beasts of burthen will eat." Dunster.

349. Man lives not by bread only, &c.] St. Matt. iv. 44. He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. This refers to Deut. viii. 3, and the Poet has availed himself of the

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