I of brute human, ye of human Gods.

So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off

Human, to put on Gods; death to be wish'd,

Though threaten'd, which no worse than this can bring. And what are Gods that Man may not become

As they, participating God-like food?

The Gods are first, and that advantage use
On our belief, that all from them proceeds;
I question it, for this fair earth I see,
Warm'd by the sun, producing every kind,
Them nothing: if they all things, who inclos'd
Knowledge of good and evil in this tree,
That whoso eats thereof, forthwith attains
Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies

Th' offence, that Man should thus attain to know?
What can your knowledge hurt him, or this tree
Impart against his will if all be his?

Or is it envy, and can envy dwell

714. to put on Gods;] The Scripture expression as in 1 Cor. xv. 53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

727. What can your knowledge

hurt him, or this tree Impart against his will if all be his?]

Dr. Bentley says that Milton had said Gods in all the argument before, and therefore designed here,

What can your knowledge hurt them,

or this tree

Impart against their will, if all be theirs?

But Milton had said God in ver. 692. and 700: and I think he

716

720

725

uses the singular number in the very next preceding sentence, ver. 722.

who inclos'd

Knowledge of good and evil in this tree?

So that him and his here refer to

him, who inclosed &c. Pearce.

He seems to use both numbers promiscuously, sometimes speaking of God, sometimes of Gods; and I think we may observe that he generally speaks of Gods, when the sentiment would be too horrid, if it was spoken of God.

729. -can envy dwell In heav'nly breasts ?] Like that in Virgil, Æn. i. 11.

Tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ ?

In heav'nly breasts? these, these and many more
Causes import your need of this fair fruit.
Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste.

He ended, and his words replete with guile
Into her heart too easy entrance won:
Fix'd on the fruit she gaz'd, which to behold
Might tempt alone, and in her ears the sound
Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregn'd
With reason, to her seeming, and with truth ;
Mean while the hour of noon drew on, and wak'd
An eager appetite, rais'd by the smell

730

785

740

So savoury of that fruit, which with desire,

Inclinable now grown to touch or taste,

Solicited her longing eye; yet first

Pausing a while, thus to herself she mus❜d.

Great are thy virtues, doubtless, best of fruits,

745

Though kept from man, and worthy to be' admir'd,
Whose taste, too long forborne, at first assay

Gave elocution to the mute, and taught

The tongue not made for speech to speak thy praise :
Thy praise he also who forbids thy use,

Conceals not from us, naming thee the tree
Of knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil;
Forbids us then to taste, but his forbidding
Commends thee more, while it infers the good

739. Mean while the hour of monstrous.

noon drew on, and wak'd

An eager appetite,] This is a circumstance beautifully added by our author to the Scripture account, in order to make the folly and impiety of Eve appear less extravagant and

VOL. II.

750

750. he also who forbids] As if it had not been God who had forbidden; but God was not now in all her thoughts. She afterwards professes herself ignorant of him, ver. 775.

M

755

760

By thee communicated, and our want:
For good unknown, sure is not had, or had
And yet unknown, is as not had at all.
In plain then, what forbids he but to know,
Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise?
Such prohibitions bind not. But if death
Binds us with after-bands, what profits then
Our inward freedom? In the day we eat
Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die.
How dies the Serpent? he hath eat'n and lives,
And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns, 765
Irrational till then. For us alone

Was death invented? or to us denied

This intellectual food, for beasts reserv'd?

For beasts it seems: yet that one beast which first.

Hath tasted, envies not, but brings with joy
The good befall'n him, author unsuspect,
Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile.
What fear I then, rather what know to fear
Under this ignorance of good and evil,
Of God or death, of law or penalty?
Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine,
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,

Of virtue to make wise: what hinders then
To reach, and feed at once both body' and mind?
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit, she pluck'd, she eat:

777. Fair to the eye inviting to

770

775

780

tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one

the taste, Of virtue to make wise:] Gen. iii. 6. The woman saw that the wise.

Earth felt the wound, and nature from her seat
Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe,
That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk
The guilty Serpent, and well might, for Eve
Intent now wholly on her taste, nought else
Regarded, such delight till then, as seem'd,
In fruit she never tasted, whether true

Or fancied so, through expectation high

785

Of knowledge, nor was Godhead from her thought. 790
Greedily she ingorg'd without restraint,

And knew not eating death: satiate at length,
And highten'd as with wine, jocund and boon,
Thus to herself she pleasingly began.

793. And highten'd as with wine, &c.] That secret intoxication of pleasure, with all those transient flushings of guilt and joy, which the poet represents in our first parents upon their eating the forbidden fruit, to those flaggings of spirit, damps of sorrow, aud mutual accusations which succeed it, are conceived with a wonderful imagination, and described in very

natural sentiments. Addison.

794. Thus to herself &c.] As our author had in the preceding conference betwixt our first parents described with the greatest art and decency the subordination and inferiority of the female character in strength of reason and understanding; so in this soliloquy of Eve's after tasting the forbidden fruit, one may observe the same judgment, in his varying and adapting it to the condition of her faller. nature. Instead of those little defects in

O sovran, virtuous, precious of all trees In Paradise, of operation blest

To sapience, hitherto obscur'd, infam'd,
And thy fair fruit let hang, as to no end
Created; but henceforth my early care,
Not without song, each morning, and due praise,
Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease
Of thy full branches offer'd free to all;
Till dieted by thee I grow mature

her intellectual faculties before
the fall, which were sufficiently
compensated by her outward
charms, and were rather soften-
ings than blemishes in her cha-
racter, we see her now running
into the greatest absurdities, and
indulging the wildest imagina-
tions. It has been remarked
that our poet in this work seems
to court the favour of his female
readers very much, yet I cannot
help thinking, but that in this
place he intended a satirical as
well as a moral hint to the ladies,
in making one of Eve's first
thoughts after her fatal lapse to
be, how to get the superiority
and mastery over her husband.
There is, however, I think, a
defect in this speech of Eve's,
that there is no notice taken
of the Serpent in it. Our author
very naturally represents her in
the first transports of delight ex-
pressing her gratitude to the
fruit, which she fancied had
wrought such a happy change
in her, and next to experience her
best guide: but how is it possi-
ble that she should in these rap-
turous acknowledgments forget
her guide and instructor the

795

800

Serpent, to whom in her then notion of things she must think herself the most indebted? I do not doubt but Milton was sensible of this, but had he made Eve mention the Serpent, he could not have avoided too making her observe that he was slunk away, which might have given her some suspicions, and would consequently have much altered the scene which follows betwixt Adam and her. Thyer.

795. precious of all trees] The positive for the superlative; the most precious of all trees; as Virg. Æn. iv. 576. Sequimur te Sancte Deorum; and Hom. Iliad. v. 381. Aia biawy, &c. Richard

son.

799. but henceforth my early

care,

Not without song, each morning, and due praise,

Shall tend thee, &c.] I conceive the construction to be, not My early care and due praise shall tend thee, but My early care shall tend thee not without song and due praise; and therefore have added a comma after due praise to make the sense plainer.