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To labour calls us now with sweat impos'd,
Though after sleepless night; for see the morn,
All unconcern'd with our unrest, begins
Her rosy progress smiling; let us forth,
I never from thy side henceforth to stray
Where'er our day's work lies, though now injoin'd
Laborious, till day droop; while here we dwell,
What can be toilsome in these pleasant walks?
Here let us live, though in fall'n state, content.
So spake, so wish'd much-humbled Eve, but fate
Subscrib'd not; Nature first gave signs, impress'd

175. Her rosy progress smil ing;] This may serve to confirm what we observed before, that Leucothea is the most early morning, that ushers in the Aurora; she was pale and white before, now she is rosy red, with the nearer approach of the sunbeams, agreeably to the quotation that we made from Lucretius,

-roseam Matuta per oras Etheris Auroram defert.

And the expression of the morn's beginning her progress seems to be copied from Shakespeare, 1 Henry IV. act ii.

-the heav'nly-harness'd team Begins his golden progress in the

east.

181. So spake, &c.] The conference of Adam and Eve is full of moving sentiments. Upon their going abroad after the melancholy night which they had passed together, they discover the lion and the eagle pursuing each of them their prey, towards the eastern gate

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of Paradise. There is a double beauty in this incident, not only as it presents great and just omens, which are always agreeable in poetry, but as it expresses that enmity which was now produced in the animal creation. The poet, to shew the like changes in nature, as well as to grace his fable with a noble prodigy, represents the sun in an eclipse. This particular incident has likewise a fine effect upon the imagination of the reader, in regard to what follows; for at the same time that the sun is under an eclipse, a bright cloud descends in the western quarter of the heavens, filled with an host of angels, and more luminous than the sun itself. The whole theatre of nature is darkened, that this glorious machine may appear in all its lustre and magnificence. Addison.

182. Subscrib'd not;] That is, assented not, agreed not to it. Subscribere, to underwrite, thence to agree to. So the

On bird, beast, air, air suddenly eclips'd
After short blush of morn; nigh in her sight.
The bird of Jove, stoop'd from his aery tour,
Two birds of gayest plume before him drove ;
Down from a hill the beast that reigns in woods,
First hunter then, pursu'd a gentle brace,

word is sometimes used in Latin; and Milton often uses words according to the Latin idiom. So Ovid, Trist. lib. i. el. ii.

Dii maris et cœli (quid enim nisi vota supersunt ?)

Solvere quassatæ parcite membra ratis :

Neve precor magni subscribite Cæ

saris iræ.

And Phædrus, Fab. iii. x. 57.

Aut gratiæ subscribit, aut odio suo. And so Shakespeare in Measure for Measure, act ii.

Admit no other way to save his life,
As I subscribe not that.

184. nigh in her sight] Dr. Bentley says, Milton gave it, nigh in their sight, not in Eve's only, but in the sight of both. But it should rather be in her sight here, because it is said

afterwards Adam observed &c.

185. The bird of Jove, stoop'd from his aery tour, &c.] The bird of Jove, Jovis ales, the eagle. Stooped is a participle here, and a term of falconry. Such omens are not unusual in the poets, Virg. Æn. i. 393.

Aspice bis senos lætantes agmine

cycnos,

Etherea quos lapsa plagâ Jovis ales aperto Turbabat cœlo.

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Twelve swans behold in beauteous order move,

And stoop with closing pinions from above;

Whom late the bird of Jove had driv'n along,

And through the clouds pursued the scatt'ring throng. Dryden.

And Æn. xii. 247.

Namque volans rubrâ fulvus Jovis ales in æthra

Littoreas agitabat aves, turbamque

sonantem

Agminis aligeri.

For sudden in the fiery tracts above, Appears in pomp th' imperial bird of Jove :

A plump of fowls he spies, that swim the lakes,

And o'er their heads his sounding pinions shakes.

Then stooping on the fairest of the train, &c. Dryden.

But these omens have a singular beauty here, as they show the change that is produced among animals, as well as the change that is going to be made

in the condition of Adam and

Eve; and nothing could be invented more apposite and proper for this purpose. An eagle pursuing two beautiful birds, and a lion chasing a fine hart and hind; and both to the eastern gate of Paradise; as Adam and Eve were to be driven out by the angel at the eastern gate of Paradise.

Goodliest of all the forest, hart and hind;

Direct to th' eastern gate was bent their flight.
Adam observ'd, and with his eye the chase
Pursuing, not unmov'd to Eve thus spake.

O Eve, some further change awaits us nigh, Which Heav'n by these mute signs in nature shows, Forerunners of his purpose, or to warn

Us haply too secure of our discharge
From penalty, because from death releas'd

Some days; how long, and what till then our life,
Who knows, or more than this, that we are dust,
And thither must return and be no more?
Why else this double object in our sight
Of flight pursu'd in th' air, and o'er the ground,
One way the self-same hour? why in the east
Darkness ere day's mid-course, and morning light
More orient in yon western cloud, that draws
O'er the blue firmament a radiant white,

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And slow descends, with something heav'nly fraught?
He err'd not, for by this the heav'nly bands
Down from a sky of jasper lighted now
In Paradise, and on a hill made halt,

A glorious apparition, had not doubt

And carnal fear that day dimm'd Adam's eye.

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204. Darkness ere day's mid- I would refer the curious reader course,]

Et noctis faciem nebulas fecisse volucres

Sub nitido mirata die.

Ov. Met. i. 602.

Hume. 204. —and morning light &c.]

to Marino's description of the descent of the three goddesses upon mount Ida, c. ii. st. 67. which is a scene of the same sort with this, and painted, I think, even in livelier colours than this of Milton's. Thyer.

Not that more glorious, when the Angels met
Jacob in Mahanaim, where he saw

The field pavilion'd with his guardians bright;
Nor that which on the flaming mount appear'd
In Dothan, cover'd with a camp of fire,
Against the Syrian king, who to surprise
One man, assassin like, had levied war,

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War unproclaim'd. The princely Hierarch

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In their bright stand there left his pow'rs to seize Possession of the garden; he alone,

To find where Adam shelter'd, took his way,
Not unperceiv'd of Adam, who to Eve,
While the great visitant approach'd, thus spake.

213. Not that more glorious, &c.] That was not a more glorious apparition of angels, which appeared to Jacob in Mahanaim. Gen. xxxii. 1, 2. And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him: and when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host; and he called the name of that place Mahanaim. Nor that which appeared on the flaming mount in Dothan against the king of Syria, when he levied war against a single man not like a generous enemy, but like a base assassin endeavoured to take him by surprise, namely Elisha, for having disclosed the designs of the king of Syria to the king of Israel, 2 Kings vi. 13, &c. And it was told him, saying, Behold he is in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. And when

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the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold an host compassed the city, both with horses and chariots: and his servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round

about Elisha.

And

220. War unproclaim'd.] The severe censure on this makes me fancy that Milton hinted at the war with Holland, which broke out in 1664, when we surprised and took the Dutch Bourdeaux fleet, before war was proclaimed, which the Whigs much exclaimed against. Warburton.

Eve, now expect great tidings, which perhaps Of us will soon determine, or impose

New laws to be observ'd; for I descry

From yonder blazing cloud that veils the hill
One of the heav'nly host, and by his gait
None of the meanest, some great potentate
Or of the thrones above, such majesty
Invests him coming; yet not terrible,
That I should fear, nor sociably mild,
As Raphael, that I should much confide,

But solemn and sublime, whom not to' offend,
With reverence I must meet, and thou retire.
He ended; and th' archangel soon drew nigh,

230.by his gait None of the meanest,] The deities of the heathen mythology had a peculiar species of motion ascribed to them by the poets. Thus Virgil makes Eneas discover his mother by the single circumstance of her gait: vera incessu patuit Dea. En. i. 405. Juno likewise describes herself, Ast ego quæ Divûm incedo regina. Æn. i. 46. And, Æn. v. 647, we find among the distinguishing marks of divinity, the gressus eunti:

-divini signa decoris Ardentesque notate oculos; qui spiritus illi,

Qui vultus, vocisque sonus, vel gressus eunti.

The most ancient statues represent the Dii Majores with their feet even; not as walking, but as smooth-sliding without step. P. L. viii. 302. The gracefulness of their motion was supposed proportionate to their

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