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And in her looks, which from that time infus'd
Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before,
And into all things from her air inspir'd
The spirit of love and amorous delight.
She disappear'd, and left me dark; I wak'd
To find her, or for ever to deplore
Her loss, and other pleasures all abjure:
When out of hope, behold her, not far off,
Such as I saw her in my dream, adorn'd
With what all earth or heaven could bestow
To make her amiable: On she came,
Led by her heav'nly Maker, though unseen,
And guided by his voice, nor uninform'd
Of nuptial sanctity and marriage rites:

476. And into all things from
her air inspir'd
The spirit of love and amorous
delight.]

Lucretius iv. 1047.

Seu mulier toto jactans è corpore

The rino

amorem.

Bentley.

very same compliment Mapays to the three Goddesses, when they descended upon mount Ida to present themselves before Paris,

Ne presente vi fù creata cosa,

Che non sentisse in sè forza amo. rosa. Adon. cant. ii. st. 125.

The Italian poet, with a surprising redundancy of fancy and beauty of expression, carries on and explains the same thought for six stanzas together, but the graver turn of our author's poem, and the divine character of the person Adam is talking to, would

475

480

485

have made an imitation in this respect indecent and inconsistent. Thyer.

478. She disappear'd, and left me dark;] She that was my and comfortless. For light is in light vanished, and left me dark almost all languages a metaphor for joy and comfort, and darkness for the contrary. As Dr. Pearce observes, it is something of the same way of thinking that Milton uses in his Sonnet on his deceased wife; after having described her as appearing to him, he says,

She fled, and day brought back my night.

485. Led by her heav'nly Maker,] For the Scripture says, Gen. ii. 22. that the Lord God brought her unto the man; and our author still alluding to this text says afterwards, ver. 500. that she was divinely brought.

Grace was in all her steps, heav'n in her eye,

In every gesture dignity and love.

This turn hath made amends; thou hast fulfill'd

I overjoy'd could not forbear aloud.

Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign,
Giver of all things fair, but fairest this

Of all thy gifts, nor enviest. I now see

490

Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, myself
Before me; Woman is her name, of man
Extracted; for this cause he shall forego
Father and mother, and to' his wife adhere ;

488. heav'n in her eye,] A passage in Shakespeare's Troilus seems to have been in our author's view, act iv.

Diom. Lady Cressid,
So please you, save the thanks this

prince expects:

The lustre in your eye, heav'n in your cheek,

Pleads your fair usage.

494. nor enviest.] The verb enviest is joined in construction to thou hast fulfilled: there is then no such loose syntax here, as Dr. Bentley imagines; nor will the words nor enviest be too flat for the present passion, if we understand by them, Nor thinkest this gift too good for me. See concerning the sense of this word the note on i. 259. Pearce.

495. Bone of my bone, &c.] As if he should say, O my Crealor, those creatures which thou broughtest to me before were neither like nor suitable to me; but this that now thou hast bestowed upon me is bone of my bone, my similitude, myself. That

own

495

Adam, waking from his deep sleep, should in words so express and prophetic own and claim his companion, gave ground to that opinion, that he was not only asleep, but intranced too, by which he saw all that was done to him, and understood the mystery of it, God informing his understandidg in his ecstasy. Hume.

498. —and to his wife adhere ;] Adhærebit uxori suæ, as it is in the vulgar Latin; shall cleave unto his wife, says the English Bible. Gen. ii. 23, 24. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh. How has Milton improved upon the last words, and they shall be one flesh; and what an admirable climax has he formed!

And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul.

And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul.

She heard me thus, and though divinely brought, 500 Yet innocence and virgin modesty,

Her virtue and the conscience of her worth,

That would be woo'd, and not unsought be won,
Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retir'd,
The more desirable, or to say all,

Nature herself, though pure of sinful thought,
Wrought in her so, that seeing me, she turn'd;
I follow'd her, she what was honour knew,
And with obsequious majesty approv'd

And by the way we may observe, that there may be great force and beauty in a verse, that consists all of monosyllables. It is true indeed that

-ten low words oft crept in one dul! line:

but there are several monosyllable verses in Milton as strong and sublime, as beautiful and harmonious, as can possibly be written. No number of syllables can equal the force of these monosyllables, ii. 621, and 950.

Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens,

and shades of death.

And swims, or sinks, or wades, or

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505

1 Cor. viii. 7. Some with conscience of the idol eat. And thus conscientia is used by the Latin authors, as in Cicero de Senect. Conscientia bene actæ vitæ jucundissima est. Pearce.

505. -or to say all, &c.] The construction of the whole

passage is this, Though she was
divinely brought, yet innocence
and virgin modesty, her virtue
and the conscience of her worth,
or
or to say all, nature herself
wrought in her so, that seeing
me she turned. Wrought is the
verb, and the nominative cases
are innocence and virgin modesty,
virtue, and conscience of worth,
and nature. We mention this
because the passage hath been
misunderstood by Dr. Bentley,
and may be so again by others.

509. And with obsequious majesty approv'd] How exactly does our author preserve the same character of Eve in all places where he speaks of her! This obsequious majesty is the very same with the coy submission, modest pride in the fourth

My pleaded reason. To the nuptial bower
I led her blushing like the morn: all heaven,
And happy constellations on that hour
Shed their selectest influence; the earth
Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill;
Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs
Whisper'd it to the woods, and from their wings
Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub,
Disporting, till the amorous bird of night
Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening star

book, and both not unlike what
Spenser has in his Epithala-
mium.

Behold how goodly my fair love

doth lie

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Glad earth perceives, and from her bosomi pours

Unbidden herbs and voluntary flow'rs

Celestial dews, descending o'er the ground,

Perfume the mount, and breathe ambrosia round.

Pope. But Milton has greatly improved this, as he improves every thing, in the imitation. In all his copies of the beautiful passages of other authors he studiously varies and disguises them, the better to give himself the air of an original, and to make by his additions and improvements what he borrowed the more fairly his own; the only regular

510

515

way of acquiring a property in thoughts taken from other writers, if we may believe Horace, whose laws in poetry are of undoubted authority. De Art. Poet. 131.

Publica materies privati juris erit, si
Nec circa vilem patulumque mora-
beris orbem,

Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere
fidus
Interpres, &c.

For what originally others writ,
May be so well disguis'd, and so
improv'd,

That with some justice it may pass

for yours:

But then you must not copy trivial things,

Nor word for word too faithfully translate. Roscommon. Milton indeed in what he borrows from Scripture observes the contrary rule, and generally adheres minutely, or rather religiously, to the very words as much as possible of the original. 519. and bid haste the evening star

On his hill top, to light the bridal lamp] The evening star is said to light the bridal lamp, as it was the

On his hill top, to light the bridal lamp.
Thus have I told thee all my state, and brought
My story to the sum of earthly bliss

Which I enjoy, and must confess to find

520

In all things else delight indeed, but such

As us'd or not, works in the mind no change,

525

Nor vehement desire, these delicacies

I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and flowers,
Walks, and the melody of birds; but here
Far otherwise, transported I behold,
Transported touch; here passion first I felt,

signal among the ancients to
light their lamps and torches in
order to conduct the bride home
to the bridegroom.

Vesper adest, juvenes consurgite &c.
Catul.

On his hill top, says our author,
writing in the language as well
as in the spirit of the ancients;
for when this star appeared
eastward in the morning, it was
said to rise on mount Ida.

-Phoebus' fiery car

530

In haste was climbing up the eastern hill.

And Shakespeare, Romeo and
Juliet, act ii.

Now is the sun upon the highmost hill

Of this day's journey.

And this ceremony of the ancients, of lighting their bridal lamps and torches at evening, is

Jamque jugis summæ surgebat Lu. alluded to more plainly in book

cifer Idæ, Ducebatque diem.

Virg. Æn. ii. 801. when it appeared westward in the evening, it was said to be seen on mount Eta. Virg. Ecl. viii. 30.

Sparge marite nuces, tibi deserit
Hesperus tam.

Our author therefore writes in
classical language. He does not
mention any mountain by name,
but says only the evening star on
his hill top, as appearing above
the hills. And so Spenser says
of the sun, Faery Queen, b. i.

cant. 2. st. 1.

xi. 588.

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