12f 



agreeable blanks were I to adopt a strictly scientific classification. I 

 must be content to string together remarks of a sometimes heterogene- 

 ous character, which would perhaps be better disposed of as notes to 

 the text of the poet. 



A considerable difficult}^ lies in the followirg lines : — 

 I. 105. " What, though the field be lost ? 



All is not lost : the unconquerable -will 

 And study of revenge, immortal hate 

 And courage, never to submit or yield, 

 And what is else not to be overcome." 

 The last of these lines is generally looked upon as a question, and 

 explained as a boast of Satan, who declares, that every other quality is 

 liable to defeat, except the unconquerable will, study of revenge, 

 immortal hate and courage, never to submit or yield. Bat I agi'ee 

 with Pierce, who rejects the sigu of interrogation at the end of the 

 last line, and explains it, Et siquid sit aliud, quod superari nequeat, 

 if there be anything else, besides the particulars mentioned, which is 

 not to be overcome. Bentley's stopping is quite unintelligible to me. 

 He puts a comma after " else," a sign of interrogation after " overcome ?" 

 and begins " Not" with a capital. 



I. 604-612. " Yet faithful how they stood." 

 i.e. yet to behold (005) how they stood faithful. 

 VI. 391. " What stood, recoiled 



O'er wearied through the faint Satanic host 

 Defensive scarce, or with pale fear surprised, 

 Then first with fear sm-prised and sense of pain 

 Fled ignominious." 

 Bentley says the sentence is inexplicable. He sees a contradiction 

 in this expression, "What stood, fled," and asks, what is through the 

 host? His remedy is, of course, a sweeping emendation. His first 

 objection has been satisfactorily removed by Newton, %\ho shows that 

 " what stood" is said in opposition to that part of the Satanic host, 

 which lay overturned, and it does not imply that they kept their 

 ground, but merely that they kept on their feet. The second difficulty, 

 which lies in through, has not been noticed by Newton, but it is 

 greater than the other. Those who are related to have recoiled through 

 the Satanic host, belong to that host themselves. It is impossible that 

 the term Satanic host should apply to those only who lay overturned. 

 The difficulty is removed by explaining the preposition through, as 

 used for throughout, (as in I. 754.) This Latinism {through being 

 merely a translation of per) is not uncommon with Milton : — 

 I. 375. " And various idols through the heathen world." 

 I. 518. " Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds of Doric land." 



