From unsuccessful charge, be not dismay'd, Nor troubled at these tidings from the earth, Which your sincerest care could not prevent ; Foretold so lately what would come to pass, When first this tempter cross'd the gulf from hell. I told ye then he should prevail, and speed On his bad errand; man should be seduced, And flatter'd out of all, believing lies Against his Maker; no decree of mine Concurring, to necessitate his fall, Or touch with lightest moment of impulse His free-will, to her own inclining left In even scale. But fallen he is; and now What rests, but that the mortal sentence pass On his transgression, death denounced that day? Which he presumes already vain and void, Because not yet inflicted, as he fear'd, By some immediate stroke; but soon shall find Forbearance no acquittance, ere day end. Justice shall not return as bounty scorn'd. But whom send I to judge them? whom but thee, Vicegerent Son? To thee I have transferr'dd All judgment, whether in heaven, or earth, or hell. Easy it may be seen that I intend Mercy colleague with justice, sending thee, Man's friend, his Mediator, his design'd Both ransom and Redeemer voluntary, And destined man himself to judge man fallen. So spake the Father; and, unfolding bright Toward the right hand his glory, on the Son Blazed forth unclouded deity: he full Resplendent all his Father manifest Express'd, and thus divinely answer'd mild :
Father Eternal, thine is to decree; Mine, both in heaven and earth, to do thy will Supreme: that thou in me, thy Son beloved, Mayst ever rest well pleased. I go to judge On earth these thy transgressours; but thou know'st, Whoever judged, the worst on me must light, When time shall be; for so I undertook
Before thee; and, not repenting, this obtain
Of right, that I may mitigate their doom
• Because not yet inflicted.
So, in Eccles. viii. 11:-"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."-TODD.
d To thee I have transferr'd.
From John v. 22:- "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son." HUME.
• Colleague with justice.
On me derived: yet I shall temper so Justice with mercy, as may illustrate most Them fully satisfied, and thee appease.
Attendance none shall need, nor train, where none Are to behold the judgment but the judged, Those two; the third best absent is condemn'd.
Convict by flight, and rebel to all law :
Conviction to the serpent none belongs.
Thus saying, from his radiant seat he rose Of high collateral glory. Him thrones, and powers,
Princedoms, and dominations ministrant, Accompanied to heaven-gate; from whence Eden, and all the coast, in prospect lay. Down he descended straight; the speed of gods Time counts not, though with swiftest minutes wing'd.
Now was the sun in western cadence low
From noon; and gentle airs, due at their hour,
To fan the earth now waked, and usher in The evening cool; when he, from wrath more cool, Came the mild Judge and Intercessour both, To sentence man. The voice of God they heard Now walking in the garden, by soft winds Brought to their ears while day declined; they heard, And from his presence hid themselves among The thickest trees, both man and wife; till God Approaching, thus to Adam call'd aloud :
Where art thou, Adams, wont with joy to meet My coming seen far off? I miss thee here; Not pleased, thus entertain'd with solitude, Where obvious duty erewhile appear'd unsought: Or come I less conspicuous, or what change Absents thee, or what chance detains ? Come forth!
He came; and with him Eve, more loth, though first To offend; discountenanced both and discomposed : Love was not in their looks, either to God Or to each other; but apparent guilt, And shame, and perturbation, and despair, Anger, and obstinacy, and hate and guile. Whence Adam, faltering long, thus answer'd brief:
I heard thee in the garden; and of thy voice Afraid, being naked, hid myself. To whom The gracious Judge without revile replied:
f The sun in western cadence low.
This beautiful description is founded upon this verse :-" And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God, amongst the trees in the garden," Gen. iii. 8.
See Gen. iii. 9, &c. It is curious to observe how the poet paraphrases and enlarges upon the divine historian. -NEWTON.
My voice thou oft hast heard, and hast not fear'd, But still rejoiced; how is it now become
So dreadful to thee? That thou art naked, who Hath told thee? Hast thou eaten of the tree, Whereof I gave thee charge thou shouldst not eat?
To whom thus Adam sore beset replied: O heaven! in evil straith this day I stand Before my Judge; either to undergo Myself the total crime, or to accuse My other self, the partner of my life; Whose failing, while her faith to me remains, I should conceal, and not expose to blame By my complaint: but strict necessity Subdues me, and calamitous constraint; Lest on my head both sin and punishment, However insupportable, be all Devolved; though, should I hold my peace, yet thou Wouldst easily detect what I conceal, This woman', whom thou madest to be my help, Aud gavest me as thy perfect gift, so good
So fit, so acceptable, so divine,
That from her hand I could suspect no ill; And what she did, whatever in itself, Her doing seem'd to justify the deed; She gave me of the tree and I did eat.
To whom the Sovran Presence thus replied: Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey Before his voice? or was she made thy guide, Superior, or but equal, that to her
Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place Wherein God set thee above her made of thee, And for thee, whose perfection far excell'd Hers in all real dignity? Adorn'd She was indeed, and lovely, to attract Thy love, not thy subjection; and her gifts Were such, as under government well seem'd:
hO heaven! in evil strait.
Nothing shows Milton's judgment more than keeping to the very words of Scripture, as far as possible, in the preceding conference between God and Adam; but the poet thought himself here obliged to deviate from his rule of adhering strictly to the sacred text, in order to keep up some dignity in Adam, by putting an apology into his mouth for the accusation that was to follow._ STILLINGFLEET.
Milton still preserves all that is in Scripture, though he intermixes other things that were likely enough to have been said and done. Adam speaks of Eve much in the same strain as he had done before to the angel, b. viii. 549 :
What she wills to do or say,
1 and his unwillingness to accuse his wife, and yet the necessity of doing it, are finely imagined. NEWTON.
Unseemly to bear rule; which was thy part And person, hadst thou known thyself aright. So having said, he thus to Eve in few : Say, woman, what is this which thou hast done? To whom sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelm'd, Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge Bold or loquacious, thus abash'd replied: The serpent me beguiled, and I did eat. Which when the Lord God heard, without delay To judgment he proceeded on the accused Serpent, though brute; unable to transfer The guilt on him who made him instrument Of mischief, and polluted from the end Of his creation: justly then accursed, As vitiated in nature: more to know Concern'd not man (since he no farther knew), Nor alter'd his offence; yet God at last To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied ; Though in mysterious terms, judged as then best: And on the serpent thus his curse let fall :
Because thou hast done this, thou art accursed Above all cattle, each beast of the field : Upon thy belly grovelling thou shalt go, And dust shalt eat all the days of thy life. Between thee and the woman I will put Enmity; and between thine and her seed : Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.
So spake this oracle, then verified', When Jesus, son of Mary, second Eve,
Saw Satan fallTM, like lightning, down from heaven, Prince of the air; then, rising from his grave, Spoil'd principalities and powers, triumph'd In open show; and, with ascension bright,
Captivity led captive through the air,
![[blocks in formation]](https://books.google.at/books/content?id=SKFX5mN6x00C&hl=de&output=html_text&pg=PA246&img=1&zoom=3&q=editions:ISBN1011124688&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U3oLj3HgU4tD4_bsMiH8oSSKAg3SA&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=102,1142,619,95)
Here is a manifest indication, that, when Milton wrote this passage, he thought Paradise was chiefly regained at our Saviour's resurrection. This would have been a copious and sublime subject for a second poem. The wonders then to be described, would have erected even an ordinary poet's genius; and, in episodes, he might have introduced his conception, birth, miracles, and all the history of his administration while on earth: and I much grieve, that, instead of this, he should choose for the argument of his 'Paradise Regained' the fourth chapter of Luke, the temptation in the wilderness :-a dry, barren, and narrow ground to build an epic poem on. In that work he has amplified his scanty materials to a surprising dignity; but yet, being cramped down by a wrong choice, without the expected applause. - BENTLEY.
See Luke, 18, in ver. 184; Ephes. ii. 2; Col. ii. 15; Psalm lxviii. 18; Ephes. iv. 8; Rom. xvi. 20.-TODD.
The realm itself of Satan, long usurp'd; Whom he shall tread at last under our feet; Ev'n he, who now foretold his fatal bruise : And to the woman thus his sentence turn'd: Thy sorrow I will greatly multiply By thy conception; children thou shalt bring In sorrow forth; and to thy husband's will Thine shall submit; he over thee shall rule.
On Adam last thus judgment he pronounced: Because thou hast hearken'd to the voice of thy wife, And eaten of the tree, concerning which I charged thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat thereof; Cursed is the ground for thy sake: thou in sorrow Shalt eat thereof all the days of thy life;
Thorns also and thistles it shall bring thee forth Unbid; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, Till thou return unto the ground; for thou Out of the ground wast taken; know thy birth; For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return.
So judged he man, both Judge and Saviour sent; And the instant stroke of death, denounced that day, Removed far off: then, pitying how they stood Before him naked to the air, that now Must suffer change, disdain'd not to begin Thenceforth the form of servant to assumeo, As when he wash'd his servants' feet; so now, As father of his family, he clad
Their nakedness with skins of beasts P, or slain, Or as the snake with youthful coat repaid; And thought not much to clothe his enemies : Nor he their outward only with the skins Of beasts, but inward nakedness, much more Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness 9 Arraying, cover'd from his Father's sight To him with swift ascent he up return'd, Into his blissful bosom reassumed,
In glory, as of old: to him appeased, All, though all-knowing, what had pass'd with man Recounted, mixing intercession sweet.
Meanwhile, ere thus was sinn'd and judged on earth,
Within the gates of hell sat Sin and Death,
Milton is exact in reporting the sentences pronounced on our first parents. See Gen. iii. 16-19. NEWTON.
See Phil. ii. 7; John xiii. 5.
« ZurückWeiter » |