While the great vifitant approach'd, thus fpake. 225 New laws to be obferv'd; for I defcry 230 235 But folemn and fublime, whom not to' offend, With reverence I must meet, and thou retire. He ended; and th' Arch-Angel foon drew nigh, Not in his shape celestial, but as man Clad to meet man; over his lucid arms 240 nd his fervant faid unto him, Alas, 220. War unproclam'd.] The fewere cenfure on this makes me fancy A that Milton hinted at the war with Holland, which broke out in 1664, when we furpris'd and took the Dutch Bourdeaux fleet, before war was proclam'd, which the Whigs much exclam'd againft. Warburton. 238. th' Arch Angel foon drew nigh, &c.] I need not obferve how properly this author, who always fuits his parts to the actors whom he introduces, has employ'd Michael in the expulsion of our firft parents from Paradife. The Arch Angel A military vest of purple flow'd, Livelier than Melibaan, or the grain Of Sarra, worn by kings and heroes old 250 Suff Phoenician name of a fifh there taken, whofe blood made the purple color. Georg. II. 506. Sarrano indormiat oftro. H. ufficient that thy pray'rs are heard, and Death, Then due by fentence when thou didst tranfgrefs, Defeated of his feisure many days Giv'n thee of grace, wherein thou mayft repent, 255 Permits not; to remove thee I am come, 260 And fend thee from the garden forth to till Former part of the period is indeed thus: By his fide hung the fword, and the Spear in his hand. The image then is, that as his fword hung loosely in his belt, he carried the fpear negligently in his hand, as he advanc'd toward Adam; and perhaps this is the picture intended to be given. But the reader is at liberty to imagin the fpear carried in the Angel's hand in what attitude pleases him beft, or feveral; for 'tis common with the Ancients for the verb not to be applicable to all the members of the period. So here bung may be reftrain'd to the fword only. There is another like inftance, IV. 509. pines agrees to defire only. Markland on Statius's Sylv. I. Í. 79. gives feveral inftances of this in the Ancients. Richardfon. 261. And fend thee from the garden He The ground whence thou waft taken, fitter foil.] It is after the manner of Homer, that the Angel is here made to deliver the order he had receiv'd in the very words he had receiv'd it. Homer's exactness is fo great in this kind, that fometimes I know not whether it is not rather a fault. He obferves this method not only when orders are given by a fuperior power, but also when meffages are fent between equals. Nay in the heat and hurry of a battel a man delivers a meffage word for word as he received it: and fometimes a thing is repeated fo often that it becomes almoft tedious. Jupiter delivers a commiffion to a Dream, the Dream delivers it ex actly in the fame words to Agamemnon, and Agamemnon repeats it a third time to the council, tho' it be a tautology of five or fix verfes toY gether. He added not, for Adam at the news Heart-ftruck with chilling gripe of forrow stood, That all his fenfes bound; Eve, who unseen Yet all had heard, with audible lament Discover'd foon the place of her retire. 265 O unexpected ftroke, worse than of Death! Muft I thus leave thee, Paradife? thus leave Thee, native foil, thefe happy walks and fhades, 270 Fit haunt of Gods? where I had hope to spend, Quiet though fad, the refpit of that day That must be mortal to us both. O flowers, That never will in other climate grow, gether. But in the paffage before us, here is all the beauty and fimplicity of Homer, without any of his faults. Here are only two lines repeated out of one fpeech, and a third out of another; ver. 48. and here again ver. 259. But longer in this Paradife to dwell. And it is a decree pronounced folemnly by the Almighty, and certainly it would not have become the Angel, who was fent to put it in execution, to deliver it in any other words than thofe of the Almighty. And let me add, that it was the more proper and neceffary to repeat the words in this place, as the cataftrophe of the poem depends fo much upon them, and by them the My fate of Man is determin'd, and Poradife is loft. 263. He added not, for Adam at the news &c.] How naturally and juftly does Milton here defcribe the different effects of grief upon our first parents! Mr. Addifon has already remark'd upon the beauty and propriety of Eve's complaint, but I think there is an additional beauty to be obferv'd when one comfiders the fine contraft which there is betwixt that and Adam's forrow, which was filent and thoughtful, Eve's was loud and hafty, both confiftent with the different character of the fexes, which Milton has indeed kept up with great exactres thro' the whole poem. Ther. 268. O unexpected stroke, &c.] Eve's complaint, upon hearing that the My early vifitation, and my laft At ev'n, which I bred up with tender hand 275 From the first opening bud, and gave ye names, And wild? how fhall we breathe in other air 285 Lament out of the author's copy, which he fupplies thus, how fhall we breathe in air les He asks, What do the fruits, now |