"And as a round piece of a rocke, which with a winter's flood
Is from his top torn, when a shoure poured from a bursten cloud,
Hath broke the
naturall
band it had within the roughftey rock,
Flies jumping all adourne the woods, resounding everie shocke,
And on, uncheckt, it headlong leaps till in a plaine it stay,
And then (tho' never so impelled), it stirs not any way:--
So Hector,--"
231 This book forms a most agreeable interruption to The continuous
round of battles, which occupy the latter part of the Iliad.
Iliad - Pope
"
--"Paradise Lost," vi. 245.
228 "He on his impious foes right onward drove,
_Gloomy as night._"
--"Paradise Lost," vi. 831
229 --_Renown'd for justice and for length of days,_ Arrian. de Exp.
Alex. iv. p. 239, also speaks of the independence of these people,
which he regards as the result of their poverty and uprightness.
Some authors have regarded the phrase "Hippomolgian," _i.e._
"milking their mares," as an epithet applicable to numerous tribes,
since the oldest of the Samatian nomads made their mares' milk one
of their chief articles of diet. The epithet abion or abion, in this
passage, has occasioned much discussion. It may mean, according as
we read it, either "long-lived," or "bowless," the latter epithet
indicating that they did not depend upon archery for subsistence.
230 Compare Chapman's quaint, bold verses:--
"And as a round piece of a rocke, which with a winter's flood
Is from his top torn, when a shoure poured from a bursten cloud,
Hath broke the
naturall
band it had within the roughftey rock,
Flies jumping all adourne the woods, resounding everie shocke,
And on, uncheckt, it headlong leaps till in a plaine it stay,
And then (tho' never so impelled), it stirs not any way:--
So Hector,--"
231 This book forms a most agreeable interruption to The continuous
round of battles, which occupy the latter part of the Iliad.
It is
as well to observe, that the sameness of these scenes renders many
notes unnecessary.
232 --_Who to Tydeus owes, i.e._ Diomed.
233 Compare Tasso:--
Teneri sdegni, e placide, e tranquille
Repulse, e cari vezzi, e liete paci,
Sorrisi, parolette, e dolci stille
Di pianto, e sospir tronchi, e molli baci."
Gier. Lib. xvi. 25
234 Compare the description of the dwelling of Sleep in Orlando Furioso,
bk. vi.
235 "Twice seven, the charming daughters of the main--
Around my person wait, and bear my train:
Succeed my wish, and second my design,
The fairest, Deiopeia, shall be thine."
