ancestor a little before observe to the angel! b. viii. 546 &c.-THYER. 26 Ver. 372. Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more. It is related of Milton's first wife, that she had not cohabited with him above a month, before she was very desirous of returning to her friends in the country, there to spend the remainder of the summer. We may suppose that, upon this occasion, their conversation was somewhat of the same nature as Adam and Eve's; and it was upon some such consideration as this, that, after much solicitation, he permitted her to go. It is the more probable that he alluded to his own case in this account of Adam and Eve's parting; as, in the account of their reconciliation, it will appear that he copied exactly what happened to himself.-NEWTON. 27 Ver. 396. Virgin of Proserpina from Jove. A virgin, not having yet conceived Proserpina, who was begot by Jove.-WARBURTON. 28 Ver. 404. O, much deceived. That is, much failing of thy presumed return. These beautiful apostrophes and anticipations are frequent in the poets, who affect to speak in the character of prophets, and like men inspired with the knowledge of futurity. See Virg. Æn. x. 501, &c., and Homer, Il. xvii. 497.-NEWTON. 29 Ver. 442. Or that, not mystic. The garden of Solomon.-TODD. 30 Ver. 464. From his own evil. This passage is preeminently beautiful, and of extraordinary originality. 31 Ver. 499. Fold above fold. We have the description of such a sort of serpent in Ovid, Met. iii. 32:— Cristis præsignis et auro; Igne micant oculi. VOL. III. K Ille volubilibus squamosos nexibus orbes 32 Ver. 506. Hermione and Cadmus. The serpents that changed Hermione and Cadmus into themselves. 33 Ver. 530. Organic, or impulse of vocal air. That the devil moved the serpent's tongue, and used it as an instrument to form that tempting speech he made to Eve, is the opinion of some; that he formed a voice by impression of the sounding air, distant from the serpent, is that of others; of which Milton has left the curious to their choice.HUME. 34 Ver. 613. So talk'd. Milton has shown more art and ability in taking off the common objections to the Mosaic history of the temptation, by the addition of some circumstances of his own invention, than in any other theological part of his poem.-WARBURTON. 35 Ver. 654. Law to ourselves. See Rom. ii. 14: "These, having not the law, are a law unto themselves."-RICHARD SON. 36 Ver. 656. Indeed. See Gen. iii. 1: "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" In which our author has followed the Chaldee paraphrase, interpreting the Hebrew particle indeed. Is it true that God has forbidden you to eat of the fruits of Paradise? as if he had forbidden them to taste, not of one, but of all the trees; another of Satan's sly insinuations. The Hebrew particle yea, or indeed, plainly shows that the short and summary account which Moses gives of the serpent's temptation has respect to some previous discourse, which could, in all probability, be no other than what Milton has pitched upon. HUME. 37 Ver. 685. Ye shall not die. See Gen. iii. 4: "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die." And it is very artfully contrived by Milton to make the serpent give an instance in himself.-NEWTON. 38 Ver. 702. Your fear itself of death. Justice is inseparable from the very being and essence of God; so that could he be unjust, he would be no longer God, and then neither to be obeyed nor feared; so that the fear of death, which does imply injustice in God, destroys itself, because God can as well cease to be, as to be just: a Satanic syllogism.-HUME. 39 Ver. 794. Thus to herself. 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 fallen nature. Instead of those little defects in her intellectual faculties before the Fall, which were sufficiently compensated by her outward charms, and were rather softenings than blemishes in her character; we see her now running into the greatest absurdities, and indulging the wildest imaginations. 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, expressing 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 possible that she should, in these rapturous acknowledgments, forget her guide and instructor, the 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 between Adam and her.-THYER. 40 Ver. 811. And I perhaps am secret. She questions even God's Omniscience, and flatters herself that she is still in secret, like other sinners, who say, "The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it." Psalm xciv. 7.-NEWTON. 41 Ver. 910. Woods forlorn. How vastly expressive are these words of Adam's tenderness and affection for Eve; as they imply that the mere imagination of losing her had already converted the sweets of Paradise into the horrors of a desolate wilderness!-THYER. 42 Ver. 928. Perhaps thou shalt not die. How just a picture does Milton here give us of the natural imbecility of the human mind, and its aptness to be warped into false judgments and reasonings by passion and inclination!— THYER. 43 Ver. 998. Not deceived. According to the historical relation of Moses, he did not plead for himself that he was deceived, the excuse of Eve cheated by the serpent; but rather enticed and persuaded by her. "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat," Gen. iii. 12. Whence St. Paul, "Adam was not deceived; but the woman, being deceived, was in the trans gression," 1 Tim. ii. 14. Overcome with female charms, which the holy page styles "hearkening unto the voice of his wife," Gen. iii. 17. 44 Ver. 1088. Cover me, ye pines. This beautifully poetical address of Adam to the pines and cedars to shelter him from the face of God and angel must be referred to Scripture; and we cannot doubt but that Milton here has taken his general idea from the description of the end of the world and the day of wrath, in the Revelations: "And the kings of the earth and the great men hid themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" Rev. vi. 13, 14, 15.—Dunster. 45 Ver.1101. The fig-tree. Instead of a variety of references to books, a remote satisfaction; the reader will compare at once the passage from Pliny, which has received the advantage of Milton's versification : "Ficus ibi exilia poma habet. Ipsa se semper ferens, vastis diffunditur ramis: quorum pondera adeo in terram curvantur, ut annuo spatio infigantur, novamque sibi propaginem faciant circa parentem in orbes quodam opere topiario. Intra sepem eam æstivant pastores, opacam pariter et munitam vallo arboris, decora specie subter intuenti, proculve fornicato ambitu. Foliorum latitudo peltæ effigiem Amazonicæ habet."-Plinius, lib. xii. 5. de ficu Indica. 46 Ver. 1183. Worth in women. I have corrected this inaccuracy, and inserted woman in the present text; not in deference to the assertion of Dr. Bentley, or the inclination of Bishop Newton; but to the more decisive authority of Milton himself, in another passage of the same book; where Adam is also the speaker : |