First, wove
CERivisto adorn

840 F.

Bees crown, UserFnier veft queen. Gerosios ccghts, and new SZEZ icgiyd; Yuzsase ci inetting ill, 845

reis: be neafure felt; Asmisse he way she took The viste perted; by the tree Of bene e chere he her met, Serce face teren; in her hand 850 A beegh cé tret run to downy smild, New gather's, and smbreal imell diffus'd. To kin ne bited; in bar face excuse Came prologue, and apology too prompt, Which with bland words at will she thus address'd.

Haft

854

845. - 31 of Grettizgia.) Sordlegis non discrepuit fententis Foreboding fomech ng it; a Latia Delphis. phrase, as in Hor. Od. III. XXVII. 10.

846.-betbe

feltring meafare fel :)

He found his heart kept not true Imbrium diviza avis imminentum: time, he felt the false and intermit

ting meafure; the natural description and again De Arte Poet. 218. of our minds foreboding ill, by the

unequal beatings of the heart and Utiliamque fagax rerum, et divina pulfé. Hume. futuri

Hast thou not wonder'd, Adam, at my stay? hee I have miss’d, and thought it long, depriv'd Chy presence, agony of love till now Tot felt, nor shall be twice, for never more Tean I to try, what rash untry'd I fought, 860 he pain of absence from thy sight. But strange Iath been the cause, and wonderful to hear: his tree is not as we are told, a tree Of danger tasted, nor to' evil unknown ) pening the way, but of divine effect

865 to

open eyes, and make them Gods who tafte ; Ind hath been tasted such: the serpent wise, Do not restrain'd as we, or not obeying, Hath caten of the fruit, and is become, Not dead, as we are threaten’d, but thenceforth 870 Indued with human voice and human sense, Reasoning to admiration, and with me

Per851. & bougb of faireff fruit, that Et liquidum ambrofiæ diffudit odo: downy mild,

rem. Georg. IV.415. Hume. Now gather'd, and ambrosial

smell diffus'd.] That downy Smild, have here followed Dr. Bentley's

854. apology too prompt,] We that coverd with soft down look'd

and Mr. Fenton's editions as represweetly.

senting we conceive the true and Ipsc ego cana legam tenera lanu. genuin reading. In the former edi

gine mala. Virg. Ecl. II. 51. tions it was apology to prompt, which and ambrofial smell diffusid, Virgil's we presume to have been an error

of the press. Tery words,

875. - opener

N 2

87;

Persuasively hath so prevail'd, that I
Haye also tasted, and have also found
Th'effects to correspond, opener mine eyes,
Dim erst, dilated spirits, ampler heart,
And growing up to Godhead; which for thee
Chiefly I sought, without thee can despise.
For bliss, as thou hast part, to me is bliss,
Tedious, unshar'd with thee, and odious foon. 889
Thou therefore also taste, that equal lot
May join us, equal joy, as equal love;
Lest thou not tasting, 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 distemper flushing glow'd.

On opener mine eyes, Ran through his veins, and all as Dim erst, dilated spirits, ampler joints relax'd;]

heart, And growing up to Godbead;] Mil. · Obftupuere animi, gelidusque pe

ima cucurrit ton in the manner of expression here

Offa tremor.

Virg. Æn. II. 124 seems pretty plainly to allude to what Thirsis in Tallo's Aminta fays of Illi solvuntur frigore membra. himself upon his seeing Phæbus and

Æn. XII.

951. the Muses. Act. I. Sc. 2.

892. From bis fack band tbe get Sentii mè far di mé fteffo maggiore,

land wreath'd for Eve Pien di noua virtu, pieno di noua

Down dropt,] The beauty of the Deitade. Thyer.

numbers, as well as of the image

here, must strike every reader. There 890. Afonied food and blank, while is the same kind of beauty in the berror chill

placing of the words Down drept,

875.

On th' other side, 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 slack hand the garland wreath'd for Eve
Down dropt, and all the faded roses shed:
Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length
First to himself he inward silence broke.

895 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 sweet! How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost,

90 Defac'd, deflowr'd, and now to death devote? Rather how hast thou yielded to transgress

The

II. 531.

as in this passage of Virgil, Æn. and in Virgil, Æn. VI. 834. Ut tandem ante oculos evasit et ora

Neu patriæ validas in viscera ver

tite vires. parentum, Concidit.

Sometimes two or more letters are 901. Defac'd, deflowur'd, and nor repeated at the beginning of different

to death devote?] We have words, as Hom. Iliad. XXI. 407. before taken fome notice of what the critics call the allitteration, or

Επία " επεχε τελεθρς πίσωνbeginning of several words in the and Virg. Æn. IV. 238. fame verse with the same letter.

Dixerat: ille patris magni parere There are instances of this in the oldest and best writers, as in Homer,

parabat Tiad. IV. 526.

Imperio.
Χυλο χαμαι χαλαδες - Erythræus and some critics lay great

N 3

itrels

92;

930

Had it been only coveting to eye
That sacred fruit, facred to abstinence,
Much more to taste it under ban to touch.
But past who can recall, or done undo?
Not God omnipotent, nor Fate; yet so
Perhaps thou shalt not die, perhaps the fact
Is not so hainous now, foretasted fruit,
Profan’d first by the serpent, by him first
Made common and unhallow'd ere our taste;
Nor yet on him found deadly, he yet lives,
Lives, as thou saidft, and gains to live as Man
Higher degree of life, inducement strong
To us, as likely tasting to attain
Proportional ascent, which cannot be
But to be Gods, or Angels Demi-Gods.
Nor can I think that God, Creator wife,
Though threatning, will in earnest so destroy
Us his prime çreatures, dignify'd so high,
Set over all his works, which in our fall,

935

940

For

928. Perhaps thou shalt rot.die, &c.] action of Eve in eating the forbidHow just a picture does Milton here den fruit, and yet drawn by his fondgive us of the natural imbecillity of ness for her immediately summons the human mind, and its aptness to all the force of his reason to prove be warp'd into false judgments and what she had done to be right. This reafonings by paflion and inclination? may probably appear a fault to fuAdam had but just condema'd the perficial readers, but all intelligent