And Adam wedded to another Eve, Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct; A death to think. Confirm'd then I refolve, So faying, from the tree her step she turn'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 830 835 Whang fairns her m. had wove Fe mek. me her mal bors crown, As reapers of are wont their harveft queen. Yer of his heart, divize of fomething ill, 840 845 850 854 Came prologue, and apology too prompt, 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 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? Not felt, nor fhall be twice, for never more 860 The pain of abfence from thy fight. But strange his tree is not as we are told, a tree Opening the way, but of divine effect To open eyes, and make them Gods who tafte; 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 Th' effects to correspond, opener mine eyes, 875 And growing up to Godhead; which for thee 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. 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, On Ran through his veins, and all Es joints relax'd;] Obftupuere animi, gelidufque pe ima cucurrit Offa tremor. Virg. Æn. II. 123 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 890 Ran through his veins, and all his joints relax'd; Speechlefs he ftood and pale, till thus at length O fairest of creation, laft and best Of all God's works, Creature in whom excell'd 895 902 The Neu patriæ validas in viscera ver- Sometimes two or more letters are Erythræus and fome critics lay great itrels |