Wanted, nor youthful dalliance as beseems
Fair couple, link'd in happy nuptial league,
Alone as they. About them frisking play'd

340

All beafts of th' earth, fince wild, and of all chafe

In wood or wilderness, foreft or den;

Sporting the lion ramp'd, and in his paw
Dandled the kid; bears, tigers, ounces, pards,
Gambol'd before them; th' unwieldy elephant 345
To make them mirth us'd all his might, and wreath'd
His lithe probofcis; close the ferpent fly
Infinuating, wove with Gordian twine
His breaded train, and of his fatal guile
Gave proof unheeded; others on the grass

350 Couch'd,

could unty, but Alexander cut it
with his fword. His breaded train,
his plaited twisted tail. And of his
fatal guile gave proof unheeded; That
intricate form into which he pat
himself was a fort of fymbol or
type of his fraud, tho' not then
regarded. Hume and Richardfon.
We may obferve that the poet is
larger in the defcription of the fer-
pent, than of any of the other
animals, and very judiciously, as
he is afterwards made the inftru-
ment of so much mischief; and at
the fame time an intimation is
given of his fatal guile, to prepare
the reader for what follows.
351. Couch'd,

Couch'd, and now fill'd with pasture grazing fat,
Or bedward ruminating; for the fun

Declin'd was hafting now with prone carreer
To th' ocean iles, and in th' afcending scale
Of Heav'n the stars that usher evening rose :
When Satan ftill in gaze, as first he stood,
Scarce thus at length fail'd speech recover'd fad.

355

O Hell! what do mine eyes with grief behold! Into our room of blifs thus high advanc'd Creatures of other mold, earth-born perhaps, 360

Not

351. Couch'd] Let the reader and again ver. 156. obierve how artfully the word couch'd is placed, so as to make the found expreffive of the sense,

Πατερι δε γιον και κηδία λυγία

Λειπ'.

and in feveral other places.

And the English reader may fee fimilar inftances in our English Homer. Pope's Homer, B. 16. ver. 445.

Chariots on chariots roll; the clashing spokes

Shock; while the madding steeds brake fhort their yokes.

And in the Temple of Fame, ver. 85.

Amphion there the loud creating
lyre

Strikes, and behold a fudden
Thebes afpire!

And it is obfervable that this paufe

Not Spirits, yet to heav'nly Spirits bright
Little inferior; whom my thoughts pursue
With wonder, and could love, so lively shines
In them divine refemblance, and fuch grace
The hand that form'd them on their fhape hath pour'd.
Ah gentle pair, ye little think how nigh

366 Your change approaches, when all these delights Will vanish and deliver ye to woe,

More woe, the more your taste is now of joy;
Happy, but for so happy ill secur'd

is ufually made upon the verb, to mark the action more ftrongly to the reader.

352. Or bedward ruminating ;] Chewing the cud before they go to rest. Hume.

354. To th' ocean iles,] The ilands in the western ocean; for that the fun fet in the fea, and rofe out of it again, was an ancient poetic notion, and is become part of the phrafeology of poetry. And in th' afcending feale of Heav'n. The balance of Heaven or Libra is one of the twelve figns, and when the fun is in that fign, as he is at the autumnal equinox, the days and nights are equal, as if weigh'd in a balance:

Libra diei fomnique parcs ubi fecerit horas.

Virg. Georg. I. 208.

370 Long

and from hence our author feems to have borrow'd his metaphor of the fea es of Heaven, weighing night and day, the one afcending as the other finks.

357. Scarce thus at length fail'd

Speech recover'd fad.] Tho' Satan came in queft of Adam and Eve, yet he is ftruck with such aftonishment at the fight of them, that it is a long time before he can recover his fpeech, and break forth into this foliloquy: and at the fame time this dumb admiration of Satan gives the poet the better opportunity of inlarging his defcription of them. This is very beautiful.

362. Little inferior;] For this there is the authority of Scripture. Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels, Pfal. VIII. 5. Heb.

11. 7.

389.-yet

Long to continue, and this high feat your Heaven
Ill fenc'd for Heav'n to keep out fuch a foe
As now is enter'd; yet no purpos'd foe
Το you, whom I could pity thus forlorn,
Though I unpitied: League with

you

I feek, 375

And mutual amity so strait, so close,
That I with you must dwell, or you with me
Henceforth; my dwelling haply may not please,

fense, yet fuch

Like this fair Paradife, your
Accept your Maker's work; he gave

it me,

Which I as freely give; Hell fhall unfold,
To entertain you two, her wideft gates,

380

And fend forth all her kings; there will be room,
Not like thefe narrow limits, to receive

Your numerous ofspring; if no better place, 385
Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge
On you who wrong me not for him who wrong'd.

389-yet public reafon juft, &c.] Public reafon compels me, and that public reafon is honor and empire inlarg'd with revenge, by conquering this new world. And thus Satan is made to plead public reafon just, and neceffity to excufe bis de vilish deeds; the tyrant's plea, as the poet calls it, probably with a view to his own times, and particularly to the plea for fhip-money.

And

395. Then from his lofty stand on

that high tree &c.] The tree of life, higher than the reft, where he had been perching all this while from ver. 196. And then for the transformations which follow, what changes in Ovid's Metamorphofs. are fo natural, and yet fo furprizing as thefe le is well liken'd to the fierceft beafts, the lion and the tiger, and Adam and Eve in their

And should I at your harmless innocence

Melt, as I do, yet public reason just,
Honor and empire with revenge inlarg'd,

By conqu'ring this new world, compels me now
To do what else though damn'd I should abhor.
So fpake the Fiend, and with neceffity,
The tyrant's plea, excus'd his devilish deeds.
Then from his lofty stand on that high tree
Down he alights among the fportful herd
Of those four-footed kinds, himself now one,
Now other, as their shape serv'd best his end
Nearer to view his prey, and unespy'd

390

395

To mark what of their ftate he more might learn 400
By word or action mark'd: about them round
A lion now he stalks with fiery glare;

Then as a tiger, who by chance hath spy'd

In fome purlieu two gentle fawns at play,

Strait

native innocence to two gentle did not do it for want of attention, fawns.

and that it was not merely the effect of his blindness. See inftances of it in my note on III. 147. and we have another following here, ver. 405.

Strait couches clofe, then rifing changes oft

His couchant watch.

Pearce. 410. Turn'a