To answer, and refound far other fong. 865 Out of my fight, thou Serpent; that name best Befits thee with him leagu'd, thy felf as falfe And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy fhape, Like his, and color ferpentine may show 870 Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thee Henceforth; left that too heav'nly form, pretended To hellish falfhood, fnare them. But for thee I had perfifted happy', had not thy pride And wand'ring vanity, when least was safe, Rejected my forewarning, and difdain'd Not to be trusted, longing to be seen 875 Though by the Dev'il himself, him overweening than ordinary commiferation, they likewife contain a very fine moral. The refolution of dying to end our miferies, does not fhow fuch a degree of magnanimity as a refolution to bear them, and fubmit to the difpenfations of Providence. Our author has therefore, with great delicacy, reprefented Eve as entertain ing this thought, and Adam as difapproving it. Addifon. 872. left that too heav'nly form, pretended 880 885 To or plac'd before: so we have in Virgil's Georg. I. 270. fegeti prætendere fepem; and in Æn VI. 60, prætentaque Syrtibus arva. So Pliny in his Epittles, Lib. 1. Ep. 16. fays, nec defidiæ noftræ prætendamus alienam. Pearce. Pretended to, held before. So Milton himself explains this phrafe, p. 809. Tol. Edit. but ecclefiaftical is ever pretended to political. Thus Quintil. Pref. to L. 1. Vultum et triftitiam et diffentientem a cæteris habitum peffimis moribus prætendebant, fpeaking of the falfe philofophers. Richardfon. To bellifh falfood, fnare them.] Dr. Bentley chooses rather obtended: but in English the word obtended is at least as unusual, as the fenfe here 883. And underfood not] The conof pretended is. Pretended to fignifies ftruction is I was fool'd and beguil'd here, as in the Latin tongue, held by thee, and underflood not &c. T 4 888. To To my juft number found. O why did God, Creator wife, that peopled highest Heaven With Spirits mafculine, create at last 890 This novelty on earth, this fair defect Of nature, and not fill the world at once With Men as Angels without feminine, Or find fome other way to generate Mankind? this mischief had not then befall'n, 895 And 888. To my juft number found.] The Ω Ζευ, τι δη κιβδηλον ανθρωποις juft number of ribs in a man is twentyfour, twelve on each fide, though fometimes there have been found those who have had thirteen as Galen fays, and very rarely fome who have had but eleven, as Tho. Bartholinus, a famous phyfician, obferved, in a lufy ftrong man whom he diffected in the year 1657, who had but eleven on one fide, and a fmall appearance of a twelfth on the other. Hiftor. Anatom. & Medic. Centur. 5. c. I. But fome writers have been of opinion that Adam had thirteen ribs on the left fide, and that out of the thirteenth rib God formed Eve: and it is to this opinion that Milton here alludes, and makes Adam fay, It was well if this rib was thrown out, as fupernumerary to bis just number. κακού, Γυναίκας, εις φως ηλιο κατωκισας ; Ει γαρ βροτείον ηθέλες σπείρας γενG, Ου κεκ γυναικών χρην παραχεσ Das Tode. &c. And Jafon is made to talk in the fame ftrain in the Medea, 573. χρήν γαρ αλλοθεν ποθεν βρότες Παιδας τεκνοποι, θηλυ δ' εκ eival yero, Ουτω δ' αν εκ αν δεν ανθρώποις And fuch fentiments as thefe, we Perche fatto non ha l'alma Natura Why And more that shall befall, innumerable 900 He never fhall find out fit mate, &c.] I have often thought, it was great pity that Adam's fpeech had not ended where thefe lines begin. The fenfe is quite complete without them; and they seem much fitter for a digreffional obfervation of the author's, fuch as his panegyric on marriage Is there no way for men to be, but &c, than to be put into the mouth women Muft be half-workers? And the complaints which Adam makes of the difafters of love may be compared with what Shakespear's of Adam, who could not very naturally be fuppofed at that time to foresee so very circumftantially the inconveniences attending our firait conjunction with this fex, as he exprefies it. Thyer. 916.- and By parents; or his happiest choice too late Shall meet, already link'd and wedlock-bound 905 To a fell adverfary', his hate or shame: Which infinite calamity fhall cause To human life, and houfhold peace confound. He added not, and from her turn'd; but Eve Not fo repuls'd, with tears that ceas'd not flowing, And treffes all diforder'd, at his feet Fell humble, and embracing them, befought His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint. I beg, and clafp thy knees; bereave me not, 911 915 |