Him through the spicy foreft onward come Adam difcern'd, as in the door he fat Of his cool bow'r, while now the mounted fun 300 Shot down direct his fervid rays to warm Earth's inmoft womb,more warmth than Adam needs: And Eve within, due at her hour prepar'd For dinner favory fruits, of tafte to please 305 Of necta'rous draughts between, from milky ftream, Berry or grape: to whom thus Adam call'd. Haste hither Eve, and worth thy fight behold Eastward among those trees, what glorious shape Comes this way moving; feems another morn Ris'n on mid-noon; fome great 310 beheft from Heaven Το opinion of fome that Noah was the firft who made wine, because it is faid in Scripture, Gen. IX. 20. And Noah began to be an husbandman, and be planted a vineyard: but it cannot be inferr'd from hence that he was the first vine-dreffer any more than that he was the firft husbandman; and our author, we fee, gives an earlier date to the making of wine, and a little afterwards more exprefsly, for drink the grape She crushes, inoffenfive must. Muft To us perhaps he brings, and will vouchsafe This day to be our guest. But go with speed, 315 Our heav'nly ftranger: well we may afford 325 But But I will hafte, and from each bough and brake, Each plant and jucieft gourd, will pluck fuch choice Beholding fhall confefs, that here on Earth So faying, with dispatchful looks in haste 330 335 Beftirs 331. So faying, with difpatchful looks &c.] The author gives us here a particular description of Eve in her domeftic employments. Though in this, and other parts of the fame book, the subject is only the housewifry of our firft parent, it is fet off with so many pleafing images and ftrong expreffions, as make it none of the leaft agreeable parts in this divine work. Addifon Each plant and jucieft gourd,] Dr. Bentley would read branch inftead of brake, thinking that provifions are not to be gather'd from brakes but bough, brake, plant, and gourd, exprefs here all the feveral kinds of things which produce fruits. The bough belongs to fruit-trees; the plant is fuch as that which produces ftrawberries &c; the gourd includes all kinds that lie on the earth; and the brake is the fpecies between trees and plants; of this fort are (I think) the bushes which yield currants, black-berries, goofe-berries, rafberries &c. But if we read with the Doctor branch, it will be a fuperfluous word, because of bough which pre- Nam hunc fcio mea folide folum ceded it. Pearce. gavifurum gaudia: 333. What choice to choofe] This fort of jingle is very ufual in Milton, as to move motion, VIII. 130. thoughts mif-thought, IX. 289. finn'd fin, XI. 427. and is not unufual in the beft claffic authors, as in Terence, Phorm. V. V. 8. and 340 Beftirs her then, and from each tender stalk and in Virgil, Æn. XII. 680. and - hunc, oro, fine me furere ante Wants cian iland in the Ionian fea (now the gulf of Venice) anciently call'd Phæacia, then Corcyra, now Corfu, under the dominion of the Ve many more inftances might be netians. The foil is fruitful in oil, given. wine, and moft excellent fruits, and its owner is made famous for --- Hume. 338. Whatever Earth all-bearing his gardens celebrated by Homer. mother] So the Greeks call her Παμμητέρ γη, and the Latins Omniparensterræ omniparentis alumnum, Virg. Æn. VI. 595. She gathered all manner of fruits which the earth at that time af forded, or has fince produced in the nobleft and best cultivated gar dens. 344. for drink the grope She crushes, innoffenfive muft,] By the word inoffenfive Milton intends to hint at the later invention of and thereby giving it an intoxicatfermenting the juce of the grape, ing quality. This he would fay was not the wine of Paradise. Thyer. 345 and meaths] Sweet drinks like meads. A word ufed by Chaucer, and perhaps deriv'd from usu. Kk 2 348. - her Wants her fit veffels pure, then ftrows the ground With rose and odors from the shrub unfum'd. Mean while our primitive great fire, to meet 350 His God-like gueft, walks forth, without more train Accompanied than with his own complete Perfections; in himself was all his ftate, More folemn than the tedious pomp that waits Yet with fubmifs approach and reverence meek, 348. ber fit veffels pure, ] We may suppose the fhells of nuts and rinds of fruits, as was hinted before, IV. 335 and in the rind 355 As 356. befmear'd with gold,] Horace's aurum veftibus illitum, Od. IV. IX. 14. comes nearest to it. Hume. Virgil has ufed a like expreffion, Still as they thirfted fcoop the n. X. 314. brimming stream. 349-from the forub unfum'd.] That is, not burnt and exhaling fmoke as in fumigations, but with its natural fent. Heylin. 351. Accompanied than with his own &c.] Without more than with is a foloecifm. It should be without more train than his own complete perfections, with being expung'd, But he gave it with no more train than with &c. Bentley.. without more train Per tunicam fquallentem auro. Richardfon. 357- Dazles the croud, and fets them all agape.] Virgil Georg. H. 463. Nec varios inhiant pulchra teftu- En. VII. 812. Illam omnis tectis agrifque effufa juventus Turbaque |