When Adam wak'd, so custom'd; for his fleep
Was aery-light, from pure digeftion bred,
And temperate vapours bland, which the only
found

Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan,

p. 114. And still more to the point, in the fame work, the dews are called "the grayne and feed, once reaped from the ocean fields, and foune again upon the earth for a better harveft," p. 60. TODD.

Ver. 5. And temperate vapours &c.] Fenton thinks this and the following line to have been thus dictated by Milton:

"And temperate vapours bland from fuming rills,
"Which the only found of leaves (Aurora's fan)

"Lightly difpers'd, &c."

But he has mistaken the fenfe: For which, as Dr. Newton has obferved, refers to fleep, and not to vapours; "which fleep was difperfed by the found only of leaves, and fuming rills, and fongs of birds." TODD.

Ibid.

the only found] The found alone, as Dr. Pearce obferves; a phrafe countenanced, as Mr. Thyer adds, by Spenfer, Faer. Qu. v. xi. 30.

"As if the onely found thereof the fear'd." TODD.

Ver. 6. fuming rills,] Fumes or feams rife from the water in the morning, according to v. 186. "From hill or Steaming lake, &c." But they do not make a noife as fuming, but only as rills. NEWTON.

: Ibid.

Aurora's fan,] The fanning winds among the leaves may be properly called the fan of the morning; and it is not unusual to refer a thing, which follows two fubftantives, to the first of the two only. NEWTON.

The winds are called "heaven's fresh fans," in Sylvester's Du Bart. 1621, p. 244. But fee more particularly that work, p. 342. "Now began

"Aurora's usher, with his windy fan,

"Gently to shake the woods on euery fide." TODD.

Lightly difpers'd, and the shrill matin song
Of birds on every bough; fo much the more
His wonder was to find unwaken'd Eve
With treffes discompos'd, and glowing cheek, 10
As through unquiet reft: He, on his fide
Leaning half rais'd, with looks of cordial love
Hung over her enamour'd, and beheld
Beauty, which, whether waking or asleep,

Ver. 7.

difpers'd,] This elegant expreffion of dif

perfing fleep, is justified by Sophocles, Trachin, v. 1006...

Ibid.

καὶ μὴ ΣΚΕΔΑΣΑΙ

Τῷδ ̓ ἀπὸ κρατὸς βλεφάρων θ' ΥΠΝΟΝ. NEWTON.

viii. 456.

the fhrill matin fong

Of birds &c.] So Evander is waked in Virgil, En.

"Evandrum ex humili tecto lux fufcitat alma,

"Et matutini volucrum fub culmine cantus."

And Arminia in Taffo, by the fweet noife of birds, winds, and waters, Gier. Lib. C. vii. ft. 5.

"Non fi deftò fin che garrir gli augelli,

"Non fentì lieti, e falutar gli arbori,

"E mormorare il fiume, e gli arbofcelli,

"E con l'onda scherzar l'aura, e co' fiori." NEWTON.

Mr. Bowle cites the following paffage from the Rime del Ang. Grillo, P. i. fol. 9. b.

"Ecco forger l'Aurora, ecco gli augelli

"Salutar la co'l canto."

The fhrill matin fong of birds, it may be added, correfponds with an expreffion of Sophocles, Electra, v. 18. See alfo Herrick's Hefperides, 1648, p. 74.

"When all the birds have mattens feyd,

"And fung their thankful hymnes, &c." TODD.

Ver. 13. Hung over her enamour'd,] Compare Lucretius, lib. i. 37.

Shot forth peculiar graces; then with voice 15 Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes, Her hand foft touching, whisper'd thus. Awake, My faireft, my efpous'd, my latest found, Heaven's laft beft gift, my ever new delight! Awake: The morning fhines, and the fresh field 20 Calls us; we lose the prime, to mark how spring Our tender plants, how blows the citron grove, What drops the myrrh, and what the balmy reed,

"Atque ita fufpiciens tereti cervice repofta

"Pafcit amore avidos inhians in te, dea, vifus;
"E que tuo pendet refupini fpiritus ore.”

STILLINGFLert.

Ver. 16. Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,] For this delightful fimile Milton was probably obliged to his admired Ben Jonfon, in his Mafk of Love reconciled to Virtue, Song iii.

"The 'fair will think you do them wrong;

"Go, choose among-but with a mind

“As gentle as the firoaking wind

"Runs o'er the gentle flowers." THYER.

But fee alfo Habington's Caftara, edit. 1635, p. 79. To Zephirus: "Whofe whispers foft as those which lovers breathe, "Caftara and my felfe, &c."

And ibid. p. 24.

-“ mild as Zephyrus' cool whispers be." TODD.

Ver. 17.

Awake, &c.] Addison has

obferved the fimilarity of this addrefs to that of Solomon, Cant. ii. 10, &c. See also Spenfer, in his Epithalamion, v. 74.

"Wake now, my love! awake, for it is time:

"The rofie morn long fince left Tithon's bed." TODD. Ver. 21. prime,] The prime of the day; as he calls it below, v. 170, "that fweet hour of prime." And fee P. L. B. ix. 200. So Spenfer, Faer, Qu. i. vi. 13,

"They all, as glad as birdes of joyous pryme," NEWTON,

How nature paints her colours, how the bee Sits on the bloom extracting liquid fweet.

25

Such whispering wak'd her, but with startled

eye

On Adam, whom embracing, thus she spake.
O fole in whom my thoughts find all repose,
My glory, my perfection! glad I fee
Thy face, and morn return'd; for I this night 30
(Such night till this I never pass'd) have dream'd,
If dream'd, not, as I oft am wont, of thee,
Works of day past, or morrow's next defign,
But of offence and trouble, which my mind
Knew never till this irksome night: Methought,
Close at mine ear one call'd me forth to walk 36
With gentle voice; I thought it thine: It said,
"Why fleep'ft thou, Eve? now is the pleasant
time,

"The cool, the filent, fave where filence yields

To the night-warbling bird, that now awake 40

Ver. 30. The breaks in Eve's narration are extremely beautiful, and adapted to the circumftance of one juft awakened before the thoughts were well recollected. STILLINGFLEET.

Ver. $1.

have dream'd,

If dream'd,] Thefe repetitions, from a point of doubt, are beautiful, and, I believe, frequent in Latin poetry. Horace, at least, has an eminent inftance, Od. iv. iii. 24.

Quòd fpiro et placeo, fi placeo, tuum eft." DUNSTER. Ver. 38. Why fleep'ft thou, Eve?] So the deceitful dream. begins his meffage to Agamemnon, Il. ii. 23.

Rudiis, Arpios vis, x, 7, CALLANDer.

"Tunes sweetest his love-labour'd fong; now

reigns

"Full-orb'd the moon, and with more pleasing

66

light

Shadowy fets off the face of things; in vain, "If noneregard; Heaven wakes with all his eyes, "Whom to behold but thee, Nature's defire? 45 "In whose fight all things joy, with ravishment

66

Ver. 41. Tunes fweeteft his love-labour'd fong;] Spenfer in his Epithalamion, a poem which Milton feems often to imitate, has it the bird's love-learned fong." We muft further observe, that our author takes great liberties in his ufe of the genders, fometimes making him and her and it of the fame thing or creaWe have a very remarkable instance in B. vi. 878. "Difburthen'd Heaven rejoic'd, and foon repair'd "Her mural breach, returning whence it roll'd."

ture.

The nightingale, though it is the cock that fings, he makes ufually of the feminine gender, as in B. iv. 602. See likewife B. iii. 40, B. vii. 436. But here he fays his love-labour'd fong, as the fpeech is addrefs'd to Eve. And for the fame reafon he fays

"Heaven wakes with all his eyes,"

though commonly he ufes Heaven itfelf in the feminine gender, as in B. vii. 205, 574. The reafon of this alteration of the genders the judicious reader, when he examines each paffage, will eafily perceive. NEWTON.

Ver. 44.

Heaven wakes with all his eyes,] Here again he has his master Spenfer full in view, Farr. Qu, iii. xi. 45, "with how many eyes

66

High Heaven beholds &c. NEWTON.

He had, probably, Giles Fletcher alfo in view. See his Christ's Victorie, P. i. ft. 78.

"Heaven awaken'd all his eyes

"To fee another funne at midnight rife." TODD.