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est trees, and as they ascended in ranks shade above shade, they formed a kind of natural theatre, the rows of trees rising one above another in the same manner as the benches in the theatres and places of public shows and spectacles.--And yet higher than the highest of these trees grew up the verdurous wall of Paradise, a green inclosure like a rural mound, like a bank set with a hedge; but this hedge grew not up so high as to hinder Adam's prospect into the neighbouring country below, which is called his empire, as the whole earth was his dominion, v. 751. But above this hedge or green wall grew a circling row of the finest fruit trees; and the only entrance into Paradise was a gate on the eastern side. This account in prose may perhaps help the-reader the better to understand the description in verse.

This description exceeds any thing fever met with of the same kind; but the Italians, in my opinion, approach the nearest to our English poet; and if the reader will give himself the trouble to read over Ariosto's picture of the garden of Paradise, Tasso's garden of Armida, and Marino's garden of Venus, he will, I think, be persuaded that Milton imitates their manner, but yet that the copy greatly excels the originals.

163. ------with such delay

Well pleas'd they slack their course,] The north-east winds blowing contrary to those who have doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and are past the island Mozambic on the eastern coast of Africa near the continent, and are sailing forwards, they must necessarily slack their course; but yet they are well enough pleased with such delay, as it gives them the pleasure of smelling such delicious cours, Sabean odour, from Saba, a city and country of Arabia Felix, Araby the blest, the most famous for frankincense. "Sabæi Arabum propter thura clarissimi." Plin. Nat Hist. 1 vi. c. 28. and Virg. Georg. ii, 117. solis est thurea virga Sabæis.

168. Than Asmodeus with &c.] Asmodeus was the evil Spirit, enamoured of Sarah the daughter of Raguel, whose seven husbands he destroyed. See the book of Tobit, chap. viii.

183.--- As when a prowling wolf,] A wolf is often the subject of a smile in Homer and Virgil, but here is considered

in a new light, and perhaps never furnished out a stronger resemblance; and the additional simile of a thief seems to have been taken from St. John's gospel, x. I.

193.- —lead hirelings] The word lewd was formerly understood in a larger acceptation than it is at present, and signified profane, impious, wicked, vicious, as well as

wanton.

195. The middle tree and highest there that grew,]

The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, Gen. ii. 9. In the midst is a Hebrew phrase, expressing not only the local situation of this enlivening tree, but denoting its excellency, as being the most considerable, the tallest, gcodliest, and most lovely tree in that beauteous garden planted by God himself: So Scotius, Duran, Valesius, &c. whom our poet follows, affirming it the highest there that grew. Rev. ii. 7.

196. Sat like a cormorant ;] The thought of Satan's transformation into a cormorant, and placing himself on the tree of life, seems raised upon that passage in the Iliad, where two deities are described, as perching on the top of an oak in the shape of vultures. The poet had compared Satan to a vulture before, iii. 431; and here again he is well likened to a cormorant, which being a very voracious sea-fowl, is a proper emblem of this destroyer of mankind.

209. Of God the garden was, by him in the cast

Of Eden planted;] So the sacred text, Gen. ii. 8. We have in a few lines our author's topography of Eden This province (in which the terrestrial Paradise was planted) extended from Auran or Aaran, a city of Mesopotamia near the river Euphrates, eastward to Seleucia, a city built by Seleucus one of the successors of Alexander the Great, upon the river Tigris. See Sir Isaac Newton's Ch. p. 275. So that our author places Eden, agreeably to the accounts in Scripture, somewhere in Mesopotamia.

215. lis far more pleasant garden] In the description of Paradise, the poet has observed Aristotle's rule of lavishing all the ornaments of diction on the weak unactive parts of the fable, which are not supported by the beauty of sentiments and characters. Accordingly the reader may observe, that the expressions are more florid and elaborate in these de

scriptions, than in most other parts of the poem. I must further add, that though the drawings of gardens, rivers, rainbows, and the like dead pieces of nature, are justly censured in an heroic poem, when they run out into an unnecessary length; the description of Paradise would have been faulty, had not the poet been very particular in it, not only as it is the scene of the principal action, but as it is requi site to give us an idea of that happiness from which our first parents fell. There is scarce a speech of Adam and Eve in the whole poem, wherein the sentiments and allusione are not taken from this their delightful habitation.

248. Groves whose rich trees &c.] There were groves bearing aromatics, and there were others bearing fruit for sustenance. The former are called rich trees, as odorcus gums and balmy carry usually a higher price than fruit: and they are said to sweep gums and balm by a beautiful metaphor not unusual in poetry: as Ovid says of the myrrh trees, Met. x. 500. Flet tamen, et tepidæ manant ex arbore guttæ, Est honor et lacrymis.

255. irriguous valley] Well watered, full of springs and rills: it is the epithet of a garden in Horace, sat. ii. iv. 16.

Irriguo nihil est elutius horto.

Hume.

256. Flowers of all bue, and without thorn the rose :] Dr. Bentley rejects this verse, because he thinks it a jejune identy in the poet to say The flowery lap------spread flowers: but as Dr. Pearce observes, though the expression be not very exact, it is not so bad as Dr. Bentley represents it; for the construc. tion and sense is, The flowery lap of some valley spread her store, which store was what? Why flowers of every colour or bue. Dr. Bentley objects too to the latter part of the verse, and without thorn the rose, and calls it a puerile fancy. But it should be remembered, that it was part of the curse denounced upon the earth for Adam's transgression, that it should bring forth thorns and thistles, Gen. iii. 18.

257. Another side umbrageous grots and caves] Another side of the garden was umbrageous grots and caves, &c. or on another side were shady grots and caves, &c. the præposi tion being omitted, as is not unusual with our author. See i. 282. and 723. On one side were groves of aromatics,

others of fruit, and betwixt them lawns or downs. On ano ther side were shady grotto's and caves of cool recess. Our author indeed has not mentioned one side before, but without that he often makes use of the expression on the other side, as you may see in ii. 108, 706. iv. 985. ix. 888. as Virgil frequently says in parte alia, in another part, though he has not said expressly in one part before, Æn. i. 474. viii. 682. ix. 521.

266.---while universal Pan &c.] While universal nature linked with the graceful seasons canced a perpetual round, and throughout the earth yet unpolluted led eternal spring. All the poets favour the opinion of the world's creation in the spring. Virg. Georg. ii. 338.

Ver illud erat, ver magnus agebat

Orbis, et hibernis parcebant flatibus Euri,
Cum primum lucem pecudes hausere, &c.
Ov. Met. i. 107.

Ver erat æternum, placidique tepentibus auris
Mulcebant Zephyri natos sine semine flores.

That the Graces were taken for the beautiful seasons in which all things seem to dance and smile in an universal joy, is plain from Horace, Od. iv. vii. 1.

Diffugere nives, redeunt jam gramine campis------
Gratia cum nymphis geminisque sororibus audet

Ducere nuda choros.

And Homer joins both the Graces and Hours hand in hand with Harmony, Youth, and Venus, in his Hymn to Apollo.

The Ancients personified every thing. Pan is nature, the Graces are the beautiful seasons, and the Hours are the time requisite for the production and perfection of things. Milton only says in a most poetical manner (as Homer in his Hymn to Apollo had done before him) that now all nature was in beauty, and every hour produced something new, without any change for the worse. 268. Not that fair field, &c.] Not that fair field of Enna in Sicily, celebrated so much by Ovid for its beauty, from whence Proserpine was carried away by the gloomy God of Hell Dis or Pluto, which occasioned her mother Ceres to seek her all the world over; nor that sweet grove of Daphne

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near Antioch, the capital of Syria, seated on the banks of the river Orontes, together with the Castalian spring there, of the same name with that in Greece, and extolled for its prophetic qualities; nor the island Nysa, incompassed with the river Triton in Africa, where Cham or Ham the son of Noah, therefore called old, (who first peopled Egypt and Lybia, and among the Gentiles goes by the name of Ammon or Lybian Jove) hid his mistress Amalthea and her beautiful son Bacchus (therefore called Dionysius) from his stepdame Rheta's eye, the stepdame of Bacchus and wife of the Lybian Jove according to some authors, particularly Diodorus Siculus. Not any nor all of these could vie with this Paradise of Eden; this exceeded all that historians have written or poets have feigned of the most beautiful places in the world.

285. -Assyrian garden,] Milton here follows Strabo, who comprehends Mesopotamia in the ancient Assyria. Richardson

288. Two of far nobler shape, &c.] The description of Adam and Eve, as they first appeared to Satan, is exquisitely drawn, and sufficient to make the fallen Angel gaze upon them with all that astonishment and those emotions of envy, in which he is represented. There is a fine spirit of poetry in the lines which follow, wherein they are described as sitting on a bed of flowers by the side of a fountain, amidst a mixed assembly of animals. Addison.

297. For contemplation be and valour form'd,

For softness she and sweet attractive grace,] The curious rea der may please to observe upon these two charming lines, how the numbers are varied, and how artfully be and she are placed in each verse, so that the tone may fall upon them, and yet fall upon them differently. The author might have given both exactly the same tone, but every ear may judge this alteration to be much for the worse.

For valour he and contemplation form'd, For softness she and sweet attractive grace. 301.byacinthine locks] Thus Minerva in Homer gives Ulysses hyacinthine locks to make him more beautiful. Back from his brows a length of hair unfurls, His hyacinthine locks descend in wavy curls. Eustathius interprets hyacinthine locks by black locks, and

Broome.

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