And Adam wedded to another Eve,

Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct;

A death to think. Confirm'd then I refolve,
Adam shall share with me in blifs or woe:
So dear I love him, that with him all deaths
I could indure, without him live no life.

So faying, from the tree her step she turn'd,
But first low reverence done, as to the Power
That dwelt within, whofe prefence had infus'd
Into the plant sciential fap, deriv'd

From nectar, drink of Gods. Adam the while

A thing not undefirable, fometime Superior; for inferior who is free?] There is a very humorous tale in Chaucer, which is alfo verfify'd by Dryden, wherein the queftion is propos'd, what it is that women most affect and defire? Some fay wealth, fome beauty, fome flattery, fome in fhort one thing, and fome another; but the true answer is sovranty. And the thought of attaining the fuperiority over her husband is very artfully made one of the firft, that Eve entertains after her eating of the forbidden fruit: but ftill her love of Adam and jealoufy of another Eve prevail even over that; fo just is the obfervation of Solomon, Cant. VIII. 6. Love is strong as death, jealoufy is cruel as the grave.

832. So dear I love him, that with
him all deaths
VOL. II.

830

835

Whang fairns her m. had wove
Of diered dow is a puland to adorn

Fe mek. me her mal bors crown,

As reapers of are wont their harveft queen.
Great joy he promiss thoughts, and new
Solace in her return, & long delay'd;

Yer of his heart, divize of fomething ill,
Migure Him; he the filting measure felt ;
And forth to meet her went, the way she took
That morn when they parted; by the tree
Of knowledge he must puis, there he her met,
Scarce from the tree returning, in her hand
A bough of faireit fruit, that downy fmil'd,
New gather'd, and ambrotial smell diffus’d.
To him the hated; in her face excufe

840

845

850

854

Came prologue, and apology too prompt,
Which with bland words at will fhe thus addrefs'd.

845.- Evise of famething ill.] Foreboding fomething ill; a Latin phrafe, as in Hor. Od. III. XXVII.

10.

Imbrium divina avis imminentum:

and again De Arte Poet. 218.

Utiliamque fagax rerum, et divina futuri

Haft

Sortilegis non difcrepuit fententis
Delphis.

846.-be the faltring meafure felt ;] He found his heart kept not true time, he felt the falfe and intermitting meafure; the natural defcription of our minds foreboding ill, by the unequal beatings of the heart and pulfe. Hume.

Haft thou not wonder'd, Adam, at my stay?
Thee I have mifs'd, and thought it long, depriv'd
Thy prefence, agony of love till now

Not felt, nor fhall be twice, for never more
Mean I to try, what rash untry'd I fought,

860

The pain of abfence from thy fight. But strange
fath been the caufe, and wonderful to hear:

his tree is not as we are told, a tree
f danger tafted, nor to' evil unknown

Opening the way, but of divine effect

To open eyes, and make them Gods who tafte;
Го

And hath been tafted fuch: the ferpent wife,

Or not reftrain'd as we, or not obeying,

Hath eaten of the fruit, and is become,

865

Not dead, as we are threaten'd, but thenceforth 870 Indued with human voice and human sense, Reasoning to admiration, and with me

851. 4 bough of fairest fruit, that

downy fmil'd, New gather'd, and ambrofial fmell diffus'd.] That downy mild, that cover'd with foft down look'd (weedy.

Ipfe ego cana legam tenera lanu. gine mala. Virg. Ecl. II. 51.

and ambrofial smell diffus'd, Virgil's very words,

Per

Perfuafively hath fo prevail'd, that I
Haye alfo tafted, and have alfo found

Th' effects to correspond, opener mine eyes,
Dim erft, dilated fpirits, ampler heart,

875

And growing up to Godhead; which for thee
Chiefly I fought, without thee can despise.
For blifs, as thou hast part, to me is bliss,
Tedious, unfhar'd with thee, and odious foon. 88.
Thou therefore alfo tafte, that equal lot
May join us, equal joy, as equal love;

Left thou not tafting, different degree

Disjoin us, and I then too late renounce

Deity for thee, when fate will not permit.

88;

Thus Eve with count'nance blithe her story told;

But in her cheek diftemper flushing glow'd.

opener mine eyes,

875.
Dim erft, dilated Spirits, ampler
heart,

And growing up to Godhead;] Milton in the manner of expreffion here feems pretty plainly to allude to what Thirfis in Tallo's Aminta fays of himself upon his feeing Phoebus and the Mufes. A&t. I. Sc. 2.

Sentii mè far di mé stesso maggiore,
Pien di noua virtu, pieno di noua
Deitade. Thyer.

On

Ran through his veins, and all Es joints relax'd;] Obftupuere animi, gelidufque pe

ima cucurrit

Offa tremor. Virg. Æn. II. 123
Illi folvuntur frigore membra.

Æn. XII. 951. Ham

892. From his flack band the ga land wreath'd for Eve

Down dropt,] The beauty of t numbers, as well as of the imag here, must strike every reader. Ther

890. Aftonied food and blank, while is the fame kind of beauty in the

horror chill

placing of the words Deron drejt.

On th' other fide, Adam, soon as he heard
The fatal trespass done by Eve, amaz'd,
Aftonied stood and blank, while horror chill

890

Ran through his veins, and all his joints relax'd;
From his flack hand the garland wreath'd for Eve
Down dropt, and all the faded roses shed:

Speechlefs he ftood and pale, till thus at length
First to himself he inward filence broke.

O fairest of creation, laft and best

Of all God's works, Creature in whom excell'd
Whatever can to fight or thought be form'd,
Holy, divine, good, amiable, or fweet!
How art thou lost, how on a sudden loft,
Defac'd, deflowr'd, and now to death devote?
Rather how haft thou yielded to transgress

895

902

The

Neu patriæ validas in viscera ver-
tite vires.

Sometimes two or more letters are
repeated at the beginning of different
words, as Hom. Iliad. XXI. 407.
Ela Semeye winedea @sowv
and Virg. Æn. IV. 238.
Dixerat: ille patris magni parere
parabat
Imperio.

Erythræus and fome critics lay great
N 3

itrels