With ardor to enjoy thee, fairer now Than ever, bounty of this virtuous tree. 1035 Her hand he feis'd, and to a fhady bank, Thick overhead with verdant roof imbowr'd, He led her nothing loath; flow'rs were the couch, And hyacinth, earth's fresheft fofteft lap. the moft remarkable paffages which look like parallels in these two great authors. I might, in the courfe of these criticisms, have taken notice of many particular lines and expreffions which are tranflated from the Greek poet; but as I thought this would have appeared too minute and over-curious, I have purposely omitted them. The greater incidents, however, are not only fet off by being fhown in the fame light with feveral of the fame nature in Homer, but by that means may be alfo guarded against the cavils of the taftelefs or ignorant. Addifon. Our author had in mind the converfation between Paris and Helen in the third Iliad, as well as that between Jupiter and Juno on mount Ida. And as Mr. Pope obferves, it is with wonderful judgment and deency that Milton has used that ex 1040 Took ceptionable paffage of the dalliance, ardor, and enjoyment of Jupiter and Juno. That which feems in Homer an impious fiction, becomes a moral leffon in Milton; fince he makes that lafcivious rage of the paffion the immediate effect of the fin of our firft parents after the fall. 1034. So faid he, and forbore not glance or toy &c.] What a fine contraft does this description of the amorous follies of our firft parents after the fall make to that lovely picture of the fame paffion in its ftate of innocence in the preceding book ver. 510. To the nuptial bower I led her blushing like the morn: all Heaven, And happy constellations &c! Thyer. 1049.-and Took largely, of their mutual guilt the feal, The folace of their fin, till dewy fleep Opprefs'd them, wearied with their amorous play. That with exhilerating vapor bland · 1046 About their spirits had play'd, and inmost powers 1054 Juft And then follows be cover'd, for fhame (as Dr. Pearce obferves) is here made a perfon (as again in ver. 1097.) and this fhame is be who cover'd Adam and Eve with his robe; but this robe of his uncover'd them more: that is, tho' they were clothed with shame, yet they thereby more The fleep of fin is nothing like the discover'd their nakednefs. Milton fleep of innocence. fpeaks in the fame manner in Samfon Agon. 841, 842. In vain thou ftriv'ft to cover shame with fhame, For by evafions thy crime unco uft confidence, and native righteousness, Of Philiftéan Dalilah, and wak'd 1060 horn of his strength, They destitute and bare To words tranflated, fo it concludes exactly after the fame manner in a quarrel. Adam awakes much in the fame humor as Jupiter, and their cafes are fomewhat parallel; they are both overcome by their fondels to their wives, and are fenfible of their error too late, and then their love turns to resentment, and they grow angry with their wives, when they fhould rather have been angry with themselves for their weakness in hearkening to them. 1068. To that falfe vorm,] That is ferpent. This is a general name for the reptil kind; as in VII. 476. And thus a ferpent is call'd in Shakefpear the mortal worm, z Hen. VI. А& III, 1084 O To counterfeit Man's voice, true in our fall, Our wonted ornaments now foil'd and ftain'd, 1075 1080 Of foul concupifcence; whence evil store; 1085 in folitude live favage, in fome glade Hide me, where I where I may never see them more. 1090 But let us now, as in bad plight, devise What best may for the present serve to hide The parts of each from other, that seem most To shame obnoxious, and unfeemliest seen; Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves together fow'd, And girded on our loins, may cover round 1096 Those middle parts, that this new comer, shame, There fit not, and reproach us as unclean. So counsel'd he, and both together went Into the thickest wood; there foon they chose 1100 |