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Blind Melesigenes thence Homer call'd,
Whose poem Phoebus challeng'd for his own.
Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught
In Chorus or Iambic, teachers best
Of moral prudence with delight receiv'd

of poetry. Such wise men as Dionysius the Halicarnassean, and Plutarch, have attempted to shew, that poetry in all its forms, tragedy, comedy, ode, and epitaph, are included in his works. See the ingenious author of the Inquiry into the life and writings of Homer enlarging upon this subject, sect. 12. Blind Melisigenes thence Homer called; our author here follows Herodotus in his account of the life of Homer, that he was born near the river Meles, from whence he had the name of Melesigenes, Tibera όνομα τῳ παιδι Μελεσιγενεί, απο του ποταμου την επωνυμίαν λαβουσα, and because he was blind, thence he was called Homer, oμn igav, syrubs δε και τουνομα Όμηρος επεκράτησε τῷ Μελησιγενεί απο της συμφορης· οἱ γαρ Κυμαίοι τους τυφλους όμηρους λεγου

σιν.

Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own, alluding to a Greek epigram in the first book of the Anthologia,

Ηείδον μεν εγων, εχαρασσε δε θειος Όμηρος, which Mr. Fenton has enlarged and applied to Mr. Pope's English Iliad.

261. the lofty grave tragedians,] These are the epithets usually applied to tragedy by the ancients, as Quintilian, l. x. c. 1. Claudian, De Mall. Theod. Cons. 314. Ovid, Trist. l. ii. el. i. 381. and 553. Horace, in his Ode to Asinius Pollio. And

260

thus Milton in his Preface to Sams. Agon. "Tragedy, as it was anciently composed, hath ever been held the gravest, moralest, and most profitable of all other poems, &c." Dunster.

262. In Chorus or Iambic,] These may be said to be the two constituent parts of the ancient tragedy, which was written either in lambic verse, or in verses of various measures, whereof the Chorus usually consisted. And the character here given of the ancient Greek tragedy is very just and noble; and the English reader cannot form a better idea of it in its highest beauty and perfection than by reading our author's Samson Agonistes. 262.

teachers best

Of moral prudence, &c.] This description particularly applies to Euripides, who, next to Homer, was Milton's favourite Greek author. See Quinctilian, 1. x. c. 1. And Aulus Gellius, 1. xi. c. 4. Aristotle takes almost all his examples of sentences from Euripides. (Rhetoric. ii. c. 22.) See Bp. Hurd's note on Horace's art of Poetry, v. 219. for an admirable account of the reasons why the Greek Tragic poets introduced in their pieces so great an abundance of moral precepts, and why they were with such delight received. Dunster.

In brief sententious precepts, while they treat
Of fate, of chance, and change in human life;
High actions, and high passions best describing:
Thence to the famous orators repair,
Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce democraty,
Shook th' arsenal and fulmin'd over Greece,

264. Of fate, and chance, and

change in human life High actions, and high passions best describing:]

The most usual arguments of the Greek tragic writers (and indeed of their epic poets also) were the accomplishment of some oracle, or some supposed decree of fate. But the incidents which led to the destined event, according to their system, depended on chance. Fate and chance then furnished the subject and incidents of their dramas, whilst the catastrophe produced the peripetia, or change of fortune. The history of Edipus, one of their principal dramatic subjects, was here perhaps in our poet's mind; and it affords a striking exemplification of the preceding remarks. Change in human life however might not only refer to the pathetic catastrophes of the Greek tragedy, since it sometimes formed, as in the Edipus Coloneus, the entire argument of their pieces. High actions, the xadas eau of Aristotle, refer to fate and chance, the arguments and incidents of tragedy; high passions to the peripetia, or change of fortune, which included the Talos or affecting part. Dunster.

267. Thence to the famous orators repair, &c.] How happily

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does Milton's versification in this and the following lines concerning the Socratic philosophy express what he is describing! In the first we feel as it were the nervous rapid eloquence of Demosthenes, and the latter have all the gentleness and softness of the humble modest character of Socrates. Thyer.

268. Those ancient,] For Milton was of the same opinion as Cicero, who preferred Pericles, Hyperides, schines, Demosthenes, and the orators of their times, to Demetrius Phalereus and those of the subsequent ages. See Cicero de claris Oratoribus. And in the judgment of Quintilian Demetrius Phalereus was the first who weakened eloquence, and the last almost of the Athenians who can be called an orator; is primus inclinasse eloquentiam dicitur-ultimus est fere ex Atticis qui dici possit orator. De Instit. Orat. x. 1.

270. and fulmin'd over Greece,] Alluding (as Mr. Jortin has likewise observed) to what Aristophanes has said of Pericles in his Acharnenses, act ii. sc. 5.

Εστραπτεν, εβροντα, ξυνεκυκα την Ελε λαδα.

Since I have mentioned this passage, I will add, that Cicero has

To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne:

To sage philosophy next lend thine ear,
From heav'n descended to the low-roof'd house

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και παλιν εν αλλοις Ευπολις ὁ ποιητης

Περικλέης ολυμπιος Ησραπτό, εβροντα, συνέκυκα την Ελλαδα. Cicero had at first fallen into the same mistake as Diodorus, which is often the case of writers who quote by memory; and therefore desires Atticus to correct the copies, and for Eupolis to put in Aristophanes. Cic. ad Att. xii. 6.

270. See Kuster's note on the passage in Aristophanes for the various authors who have alluded to it; but he has omitted Quinctilian, lib. ii. c. 16. and lib. xii. c. 10. In the eleventh En. 383, Virgil makes Turnus say to Drances,

Proinde tona cloquio; solitum tibiCicero (Ep. ad Attic. xv. 1.) speaks of the fulmina Demosthe

nis; and Longinus also (c. xxxii.) says of Demosthenes, καταβροντα και καταφέγγει του απ' αιώνος ῥητο

gas, x. T. λ.

Dunster.

271. To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne:] As Pericles and others fulmined over Greece to Artaxerxes' throne against the

Persian king, so Demosthenes was the orator particularly, who fulmined over Greece to Macedon against king Philip in his orations, therefore denominated Philippics.

273. From heav'n descended to
the low-roof'd house
Of Socrates;]

Mr. Calton thinks the author alludes to Juv. Sat. xi. 27.

me caelo descendit γνωθι σεαυτον, as this famous Delphic precept was the foundation of Socrates's philosophy, and so much used by him, that it hath passed with some for his own. Or as Mr. Warburton and Mr. Thyer conceive, the author here probably alludes to what Cicero says of Socrates, Socrates autem primus philosophiam devocavit e cœlo, et in urbibus collocavit, et in domus etiam introduxit. Tusc. Disp. v. 4. But he has given a very different sense to the words either by design or mistake, as Mr. Warburton observes. It is properly called the low-roofed house; for I believe, said Socrates, that if I could meet with a good purchaser, I might easily get for my goods and house and all five pounds. Er zi έφη ο Σωκρατης) οι αγαθού ανήτου u

ITUKOIUI, EUGE¡v a po e by και τα όντα παντα πανυ ραδίως πέντε μνας. Xenophon, Economic, five minas or Attic pounds were better than sixteen pounds of our money, a mina, according to Barnard, being three pounds eight shillings and nine pence.

Of Socrates; see there his tenement,
Whom well inspir'd the oracle pronounc'd
Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth
Mellifluous streams that water'd all the schools
Of academics old and new, with those

273. In the Clouds of Aristophanes, Strepoiades calls the habitation of Socrates, oxidior, ædicula. Dunster.

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speaks of Philosophorum ingenia
Socratico ore defluentia. See also
Minucius Felix, Octav. c. xiii.
But our author had here per-

275. Whom well inspir'd the haps in his mind a well known

oracle pronounc'd

Wisest of men ;]

The verse delivered down to us upon this occasion is this,

Ανδρων άπαντων Σωκράτης σοφώτατος. Of all men Socrates is the wisest. See Diogenes Laertius in vita Socratis. Mr. Calton adds, that the Tempter designs here a compliment to himself; for he would be understood to be the inspirer.

276. from whose mouth issued forth &c.] Thus Quintilian calls Socrates fons philosophorum, i. 10. and as the ancients looked upon Homer as the father of poetry, so they esteemed Socrates the father of moral philosophy. The different sects of philosophers were but so many different families, which all acknowledged him for their common parent. See Cicero, Academic. i. 4. Tusc. Disp. v. 4. and particularly De Orat. iii. 16, 17. The quotation would be too long to be inserted. See likewise Mr. Warburton's account of the Socratic school, b. iii. sect. 3. of the Divine Legation.

276. Compare Cicero, Brutus, sect. 31. ed. Proust, and De Orator. i. 42. and De Nat. Deor. i. 34. Paterculus (lib. i. c. 16.)

passage of Ælian (Var. Hist. lib. xiii. c. 22.) concerning Homer, whence also Manilius says, speaking of him, (lib. ii. 8.)

cujusque ex ore profusos Omnis posteritas latices in carmina duxit,

Amnemque in tenues ausa est deducere rivos

Unius fœcunda bonis.

And Ovid, 3 Amor. ix. 25.
Adjice Mæonidem, a quo, ceu fonte
perenni,

Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis.
Dunster.

278. Of Academics old and new, &c.] The Academic sect had its three epochs, old, middle, and new. Plato was the head of the old academy, Arcelisas of the middle, and Carneades of the new. The Peripatetics were surnamed from the gτ or walk of the Lyceum, where Aristotle taught, as the Stoics from the Toa or portico where they attended the instructions of Zeno. "The common opinion adopted by Cicero and others that the Peripatetics were so named x TOU περιπατείν, ex deambulatione, is refuted," says Dr. Gillies, "by the authors cited by Brucker, vol. i. p. 787." The severity of the Stoics is proverbial; see Se

Surnam❜d Peripatetics, and the sect

Epicurean, and the Stoic severe;

These here revolve, or, as thou lik'st, at home,
Till time mature thee to a kingdom's weight;
These rules will render thee a king complete
Within thyself, much more with empire join'd.

To whom our Saviour sagely thus replied,
Think not but that I know these things, or think
I know them not; not therefore am I short
Of knowing what I ought: he who receives

neca de Clement. ii. 5. Cicero
Pro Murena, 35. Dunster.

283. These rules will render thee &c.] Ask what rules, and no answer can be regularly given: ask whose, and the answer is easy. There is no mention before of rules; but of poets, orators, philosophers, there is. We should read therefore,

Their rules will render thee a king complete.

Calton

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throughout this work thrown the ornaments of poetry on the side of error, whether it was that he thought great truths best expressed in a grave unaffected style, or intended to suggest this fine moral to the reader, that simple naked truth will always be an overmatch for falsehood though recommended by the the most bewitching colours. gayest rhetoric, and adorned with Thyer.

288. he who receives

Light from above, from the fountain of light,

No other doctrine needs, though granted true;]

This passage, says Mr. Warton, seems to favour Mr. Peck's notion, (grounded on Milton's acquaintance with Ellwood and Mrs. Thompson, to whom he has inscribed a Sonnet,) that the poet was a Quaker. But it is rather scriptural than sectical, being built on James i. 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights; which refers to ver. 5. in the same chapter; If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that

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