Since higher I fall fhort, on him who next Of Heav'n, this man of clay, fon of despite, 175 So faying, through each thicket dank or dry, Like a black mift low creeping, he held on 180 His midnight fearch, where fooneft he might find The serpent: him fast sleeping soon he found In labyrinth of many a round felf-roll'd, His head the midft, well stor'd with fubtle wiles: my envy, fo it light on Man, fince I cannot accomplish my revenge on God. A truly diabolical fentiment this. So he can but be any ways reveng'd, he does not value tho' his revenge recoil on himself. 176. Jon of defpite,] 'Tis a Hebraifm by which wicked men are termed fons of Belial Deut. XIII. 13. valiant men, fons of courage 2 Sam. II. 7. untameable beafts, fons of pride Job XLI. 25. the difciples, fons of light Luke XVI. 8. So Satan calls man the fon of defpite, the ofspring of hatred and envy, created to increase his punishment, by feeing this man of clay fubftituted into that glorious station of him forlorn, outcaft of Heaven. Hume. I have often wonder'd that this fpeech of Satan's escaped the parti 185 Nor Nor nocent yet, but on the graffy herb In heart or head, poffeffing foon inspir'd 190 Disturb'd not, waiting close th' approach of morn. Now when as facred light began to dawn In Eden on the humid flow'rs, that breath'd Their morning incenfe, when all things that breathe, From th' earth's great altar fend up filent praise 195 186. Nor nocent yet,] Thus it is in the second and in the fubfequent editions; in the first edition it is Not nocent yet. 186. the graffy herb] So we have in Virgil, Ecl. V. 25. graminis berbam. 192. Now when as facred light &c.] The author gives us a defcription of the morning, which is wonderfully fuitable to a divine poem, and peculiar to that first season of nature: He represents the earth, before it was curs'd, as a great altar, breathing out its incenfe from all parts, and fending up a pleafant favor to the noftrils of its Creator; to which he adds a noble idea of Adam and Eve, as offering their morning worship, and filling up the univerfal confort of praife and adoration. Addison. This is the morning of the ninth day, as far as we can reckon the time in this poem, a great part of the action lying out of the sphere of Το day. The first day we reckon that wherein Satan came to the earth; the space of feven days after that he was coafting round the earth; he comes into Paradise again by night, and this is the beginning of the ninth day, and the laft of Man's innocence and happiness. And the morning often is called facred by the poets, because that time is ufually allotted to facrifice and devotion, as Euftathius fays in his remarks upon Homer. 193. In Eden on the humid flow'rs, things that breathe,] Here Milton gives to the English word breathe, which is generally used in a more confin'd fenfe, the extensive fignification of the Latin fpirare, imitating perhaps Spenser, Fairy Queen B. 1. Cant. 4. St. 38. With pleafance of the breathing fields yfed. Thyer. 197. With i To the Creator, and his noftrils fill 200 Then commune how that day they best may ply And Eve first to her husband thus began. 210 This garden, ftill to tend plant, herb and flower, The clasping ivy where to climb, while I 213. Or bear what to my mind So the fecond edition has it; in the firft it is Or hear. Either will do, and we find fometimes the one and fometimes the other in the following editions. 226. To whom mild anfwer Adam thus return'd.] The difpute which follows between our two first parents is reprefented with great art: It proceeds from a difference of judgment, not of paffion, and is manag'd with reason, not with heat: It is fuch a difpute as we may fuppofe might have happen'd in Paradife, had Man continued happy and innocent. There is a great delicacy in the moralities which are interfperfed in Adam's difcourfe, and which the moft ordinary reader cannot but take notice of. That force In yonder spring of roses intermix'd 220 With myrtle, find what to redress till noon: Compare above all living creatures dear, Well haft thou motion'd, well thy thoughts employ'd fome curfed fraud Of enemy hath beguil'd thee &: The beginning of this fpeech, and the preparation to it, are animated with the fame spirit as the conclufion which I have here quoted. Addison. 227. Sole Eve, affociate fole,] Sole affociate (fays Dr. Bentley) is very well, but Sole Eve would deferve in reply Sole Adam he therefore pronounces that Milton gave it O Eve, and quotes two paffages for the legality of this interjection O, join'd to Eve. But as fhe had her name Eve upon account of her being the mother of all living Gen. III. 20. the epithet fole is as properly applied to Eve as to affociate. Pearce. 227. beyond Compare] I think we took notice before, that VOL. II. |