Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays:
Others on silver lakes and rivers bath'd

Their downy breast; the swan with arched neck

Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid

Tunes her nocturnal note.

In that charming description of evening, iv. 598. nothing can be more charming than what is said of the nightingale.

Silence accompanied; for beast and bird,

They to their grassy couch, these to their nests

From branch to branch the smaller birds with song

Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings

Till ev'n, nor then the solemn nightingale

Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays.

And upon Adam's and Eve's first coming together the nightingale sung the epithalamium or wedding song, viii. 518.

-The amorous bird of night Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening star

Were slunk; all but the wakeful nightingale;

She all night long her amorous descant sung;

On his hill top to light the bridal lamp.

Silence was pleas'd.

In that tender speech of Eve's to
Adam, iv. 639.

With thee conversing I forget all
time, &c.

Other poets mention the nightingale perhaps by way of simile, but none of them dwells, or de

Amongst other pleasing images lights to dwell, so much upon it

he mentions twice

-the silent night With this her solemn bird. And Adam and Eve are made to sleep lulled by nightingales, iv. 771.

And when the evil Spirit tempts Eve in her dream, he mentions this as one of the strongest temptations to induce her to walk out in the cool evening, v. 38.

Why sleep'st thou, Eve? now is the
pleasant time,

The cool, the silent, save where si-
lence yields

To the night warbling bird, that now

awake

Tunes sweetest his love-labour'd song. And here when the poet is describing the creation of all the sorts and species of fowl, of singing birds he particularizes the nightingale alone.

our author. And he expresses the same fondness and admiration in other parts of his works. We will give an instance out of the Il Penseroso, as it is rather more particular than the rest.

And the mute silence hist along,
'Less Philomel will deign a song,
In her sweetest, saddest plight,
Smoothing the rugged brow of night.
Sweet bird that shunn'st the noise of

440

Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows
Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit
The dank, and rising on stiff pennons, tower
The mid aereal sky: Others on ground
Walk'd firm; the crested cock whose clarion sounds
The silent hours, and th' other whose gay train
Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue
Of rainbows and starry' eyes. The waters thus
With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl,
Evening and morn solemniz'd the fifth day.

The sixth, and of creation last arose

With evening harps and matin, when God said,

their descriptions of the swan, Homer calls the swan longnecked δουλιχοδειρον, but how much more picturesque if he had arched this length of neck! her wings mantling proudly, her wings are then a little detached from her sides, raised and spread as a mantle, which she does with an apparent pride, as is also seen in her whole figure, attitude, and motion. Richardson.

Dr. Bentley wonders that he should make the swan of the feminine gender, contrary to both Greek and Latin. I suppose he did it because he thought it would be more agreeable to the ear. Rows his state sounds rather too rough.

a

439. Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows

Her state with oary feet;] A state signified a canopy over throne or chair of state. In this peculiar sense, and not under the general and popular idea of pomp or dignity, state is to be understood in this pas

445

450

Here is an affected and unnatural conceit, like too many others, even in Milton. He means that the swan in swimming forms a superb canopy with her neck and head, under which she floats, or which she rows forward with her feet. [See the note, Par. Lost, x. 445.] T. Warton.

443. -the crested cock-] So Ovid calls him cristatus ales. Fast. i. 455.

Nocte Deæ Nocti cristatus cæditur ales,

Quod tepidum vigili provocat ore diem.

450.-when God said, &c.] So Gen. i. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind. We observed before, that when Milton makes the divine Person speak, he keeps closely to Scripture. Now what we render living creature is living soul in the Hebrew, which Milton usually fol

Let th' earth bring forth soul living in her kind, Cattle and creeping things, and beast of th' earth, Each in their kind. The earth obey'd, and straight Opening her fertile womb teem'd at a birth

Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
Limb'd and full grown : out of the ground up rose
As from his lair the wild beast where he wons

In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den ;
Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walk'd :
The cattle in the fields and meadows green :
Those rare and solitary, these in flocks

:

Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung,
The grassy clods now calv'd, now half appear'd

The tawny lion, pawing to get free

His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds, 465
And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce,

The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole
Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw
In hillocs: the swift stag from under ground

Bore up his branching head: scarce from his mould 470

ver. 457. these the tame, the cattle; and it is a very signal act of Providence that there are so few of the former sort, and so many of the latter, for the use and service of man.

of the beasts rising out of the earth, though Dr. Bentley condemns it as an insertion of the editor's, is certainly not only worthy of the genius of Milton, but may be esteemed a shining part of the poem. He supposes the beasts to rise out of the earth, in perfect forms, limbed and full grown, as Raphael had painted this subject before in the Vatican; and he describes their manner of rising in figures Virgil hath a long herd, Æn. i. and attitudes, and in numbers

462. -broad herds] This will sound a little strange to the ear of an English reader, who must therefore be told that he follows Homer literally. Iliad. xi. 678.

-αιπόλια πλατί' αιγων.

186.

-et longum per valles pascitur agmen. Richardson.

463. The grassy clods now calv'd,] Dr. Bentley quarrels with this expression, and says, that calved is a metaphor very heroical, especially for wild beasts. But, as Dr. Pearce justly observes, to calve (from the Belgic word Kalven) signifies to bring forth: it is a general word, and does not relate to cows only; for hinds are said to calve in Job xxxix. 1. and Psalm xxix. 9. Mr. Addison particularly commends this meta

too, suited to their various natures.

467. The libbard,] The same as the leopard; a word used by Spenser and the old poets, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. vi. st. 25. 470. scarce from his mould Behemoth biggest born of earth upheav'd

His vastness:]

The numbers are excellent, and admirably express the heaviness and unwieldiness of the elephant, for it is plainly the elephant that Milton means. Behemoth and leviathan are two creatures, described in the book of Job, and formerly the generality of

Behemoth biggest born of earth upheav'd
His vastness: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose,

As plants: ambiguous between sea and land

The river horse and scaly crocodile.

At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, 475
Insect or worm: those wav'd their limber fans

For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries deck'd of summer's pride
With spots of gold and purple', azure and green :
These as a line their long dimension drew,
Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all
Minims of nature; some of serpent kind,

the elephant and the whale: but
the learned Bochart and other
later critics have endeavoured to
shew, that behemoth is the river
horse, and leviathan the crocodile.
It seems as if Milton was of the
former opinion, by mentioning
leviathan among the fishes, and
the river horse and scaly crocodile,
ver. 474. as distinct from behe-
moth and leviathan; and there
is surely authority sufficient to
justify a poet in that opinion.
Behemoth biggest born. The al-
literation, as the critics call it,
is very remarkable, all the words
beginning with b. We had an-
other instance a little before in
the production of the mountains,
ver. 286.

-and their broad bare backs upheave

Into the clouds.

It is the same kind of beauty that is admired in Virgil, Æn. i. 61.

Hoc metuens, molemque et montes insuper altos

Imposuit.

480

It is the same style of sound, and the verse labours as much with broad bare backs and behemoth biggest born as with metuens, molem, montes. And the labour of these lines appears greater in contrast with the ease of the following measures, which describe the lesser animals springing up as lightly and as thick as plants;

-fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose, As plants.

478.-deck'd] It is a verb here and not a participle-and decked their smallest lineaments exact in all the liveries &c.

482. Minims of nature;] This word minims is formed from the adjective minima, and in allusion to the Vulgar Latin of Prov. xxx. 24. Quatuor ista sunt minima terræ. The word was in use before for an order of friars, Minim, minimi, so called from affected humility.