Yield thee, fo well this day thou haft purvey❜d. In things to us forbidd'n, it might be wifh'd, 1025 But come, fo well refresh'd, now let us play, For never did thy beauty fince the day apply it to the underftanding as well as to the palate: as in Cicero de Fin. II. 8. Nec enim fequitur, ut cui cor fapiat, ei non fapiat palatum. 1027. -- norv let us play, As meet is, after fuch delicious fare;] He feems to allude to Exod. XXXII. 6. 1 Cor. X. 7. And the people fat down to eat, and to drink, and rose up to play; understanding the word play with feveral commentators, not of dancing after the facrifices as it ought probably to be understood in thefe texts, but of committing uncleannefs, as when we fay to play the whore, and as the word is often used in the learned languages. 1029. For never did thy beauty &c.] Adam's converse with Eve, after having eaten the forbidden fruit, is an exact copy of that between Ju my fenfe 1030 With piter and Juno in the fourteenth Iliad. Juno there approaches Jupiter with the girdle which fhe had received from Venus; upon which he tells her, that the appear'd more charming and defirable than fhe had ever done before, even when their loves were at the highest. The poet afterwards describes them as repofing on a fummet of mount Ida, which produced under them a bed of flowers, the lotos, the crocus and the hyacinth; and concludes his defcription with their falling asleep. Let the reader compare this with the following paffage in Milton, which begins with Adam's fpeech to Eve. As no poet seems ever to have ftudied Homer more, or to have more refembled him in the greatness of genius than Milton, I think I should have given a very imperfect account of his beauties, if I had not observed the With ardor to enjoy thee, fairer now 1035 Thick overhead with verdant roof imbowr'd, And hyacinth, earth's fresheft fofteft lap. the most remarkable paffages which look like parallels in these two great authors. I might, in the courfe of thefe criticisms, have taken notice of many particular lines and expreffions which are tranflated from the Greek poet; but as I thought this would have appeared too minute and over-curious, I have purposely omitted them. The greater incidents, however, are not only fet off by being shown in the fame light with feveral of the fame nature in Homer, but by that means may be alfo guarded against the cavils of the tasteless or ignorant. Addifon. Our author had in mind the converfation between Paris and Helen in the third Iliad, as well as that between Jupiter and Juno on mount Ida. And as Mr. Pope obferves, it is with wonderful judgment and decency that Milton has ufed that ex 1040 Took largely, of their mutual guilt the seal, The folace of their fin, till dewy fleep Opprefs'd them, wearied with their amorous play. Soon as the force of that fallacious fruit, That with exhilerating vapor bland 1046 About their fpirits had play'd, and inmoft powers 1049. Bred of unkindly fumes,] How unlike the fleep mention'd V. 3. for his fleep -and groffer fleep Was aery light from pure digeftion bred, And temp'rate vapors bland. 1054 Juft And then follows be cover'd, for fhame (as Dr. Pearce obferves) is here made a perfon (as again in ver. 1097.) and this fhame is be who cover'd Adam and Eve with his robe but this robe of his uncover'd them more: that is, tho' they were clothed with fhame, yet they thereby more The fleep of fin is nothing like the difcover'd their nakednefs. Milton fleep of innocence. fpeaks in the fame manner in Samfon Agon. 841, 842. In vain thou ftriv'st to cover shame with fhame, Juft confidence, and native righteousness, And honor from about them, naked left 1060 Shorn of his strength, They destitute and bare ginning thas, So rofe the Danite ftrong &c with the punctuation which we have follow'd; from whence it evidently appears, that this is the true conftruction, that As Samfon wak'd fhorn of his ftrength, They wak'd deftitute and bare of all their virtue and then begins another fentence, filent and in face confounded long they fat. I fuppofe it need not be obferved that Samfon is called the Danite, as being of the tribe of Dan. 1067. O Eve, in evil hour &c.] As this whole tranfaction between Adam and Eve is manifeftly copied from the episode of Jupiter and Juno on mount Ida, has many of the fame circumftances, and often the very VOL. II. Το words tranflated, fo it concludes exactly after the fame manner in a quarrel. Adam awakes much in the fame humor as Jupiter, and their cafes are fomewhat parallel; they are both overcome by their fondels to their wives, and are fenfible of their error too late, and then their love turns to refentment, and they grow angry with their wives, when. they fhould rather have been angry with themselves for their weakness in hearkening to them. 1068. To that false worm,] That is ferpent. This is a general name for the reptil kind; as in VII. 476. And thus a ferpent is call'd in Shakefpear the mortal worm, 2 Hen. VI. А& III. 1084. O To counterfeit Man's voice, true in our fall, Our wonted ornaments now foil'd and ftain'd, 1070 1075 1080 Of foul concupifcence; whence evil store; |