[95.] Nor second he, etc. "Milton" (Gray).
[96, 97.] Cf. Milton, P. L. vii. 12:
|
"Up led by thee, Into the heaven of heavens I have presumed, An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air." |
[98.] The flaming bounds, etc. Gray quotes Lucretius, i. 74: "Flammantia moenia mundi." Cf. also Horace, Epist. i. 14, 9: "amat spatiis obstantia rumpere claustra."
[99.] Gray quotes Ezekiel i. 20, 26, 28. See also Milton, At a Solemn Music, 7: "Aye sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne;" Il Pens. 53: "the fiery-wheeled throne;" P. L. vi. 758:
| "Whereon a sapphire throne, inlaid with pure Amber, and colours of the showery arch;" |
and id. vi. 771:
| "He on the wings of cherub rode sublime, On the crystalline sky, in sapphire throned." |
[101.] Blasted with excess of light. Cf. P. L. iii. 380: "Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear."
[102.] Cf. Virgil, Æn. x. 746: "in aeternam clauduntur lumina noctem," which Dryden translates, "And closed her lids at last in endless night." Gray quotes Homer, Od. viii. 64: