Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct;

A death to think. Confirm'd then I resolve,
Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe:
So dear I love him, that with him all deaths
I could indure, without him live no life.

So saying, from the tree her step she turn'd,
But first low reverence done, as to the Power
That dwelt within, whose presence had infus'd
Into the plant sciential sap, deriv'd

From nectar, drink of Gods. Adam the while
Waiting desirous her return, had wove

Of choicest flow'rs a garland to adorn
Her tresses, and her rural labours crown,
As reapers oft are wont their harvest queen.
Great joy he promis'd to his thoughts, and new
Solace in her return, so long delay'd;

Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill,
Misgave him; he the falt'ring measure felt;

832. So dear I love him, that

with him all deaths I could endure, without him live no life.]

How much stronger and more pathetic is this than that of Horace, Od. iii. ix. 24.

Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens !

835. But first low reverence done, as to the Power That dwelt within,] Eve falling into idolatry upon the taste of the forbidden tree, as the first fruit of disobedience, is finely imagined. Richardson. -Adam the while &c.] Andromache is thus described as amusing herself, and prepar

838.

830

835

840

845

ing for the return of Hector, not knowing that he was already slain by Achilles. Hom. Iliad. xxii. 440. Aax” ây2 150v ¿Quive. &c.

845. divine of something ill,] Foreboding something ill; a Latin phrase, as in Hor. od. iii. xxvii. 10.

Imbrium divina avis imminentum: and again, De Arte Poet. 218. Utiliumque sagax rerum, et divina futuri Sortilegis non discrepuit sententia Delphis.

846. he the fall'ring measure felt ;] He found his heart kept not true time, he felt the false and intermitting measure; the natural description of our minds

And forth to meet her went, the way she took
That morn when first they parted; by the tree
Of knowledge he must pass, there he her met,
Scarce from the tree returning; in her hand
A bough of fairest fruit, that downy smil'd,
New gather'd, and ambrosial smell diffus'd.
To him she hasted; in her face excuse

Came prologue, and apology too prompt,

850

Which with bland words at will she thus address'd. 855
Hast thou not wonder'd, Adam, at my stay?
Thee I have miss'd, and thought it long, depriv'd

Thy presence, agony of love till now

Not felt, nor shall be twice, for never more

Mean I to try, what rash untried I sought,

The pain of absence from thy sight. But strange
Hath been the cause, and wonderful to hear:
This tree is not as we are told, a tree
Of danger tasted, nor to' evil unknown
Opening the way, but of divine effect

To open eyes, and make them Gods who taste;
And hath been tasted such; the Serpent wise,
Or not restrain'd as we, or not obeying,

foreboding ill, by the unequal
beatings of the heart and pulse.
Hume.

851. A bough of fairest fruit,
that downy smil'd,
New gather'd, and ambrosial

smell diffus'd.]
That downy smiled, that covered
with soft down looked sweetly.

Ipse ego cana legam tenerà lanu

gine mala. Virg. Ecl. ii. 51. and ambrosial smell diffused, Virgil's very words,

860

865

Et liquidum ambrosiæ diffudit odo

rem.

Georg. iv. 415.
Hume.

854. apology too prompt,] We have here followed Dr. Bentley's and Mr. Fenton's editions as representing we conceive the true and genuine reading. In the former editions it was apology to prompt, which we presume to have been an error of the press.

Hath eaten of the fruit, and is become,

Not dead, as we are threaten'd, but thenceforth

Indued with human voice and human sense,

870

Reasoning to admiration, and with me
Persuasively hath so prevail'd, that I
Have also tasted, and have also found
Th' effects to correspond, opener mine eyes,
Dim erst, dilated spirits, ampler heart,
And growing up to Godhead; which for thee
Chiefly I sought, without thee can despise.
For bliss, as thou hast part, to me is bliss,
Tedious, unshar'd with thee, and odious soon.
Thou therefore also taste, that equal lot
May join us, equal joy, as equal love;
Lest thou not tasting, different degree
Disjoin us, and I then too late renounce
Deity for thee, when fate will not permit.

875

Thus Eve with count'nance blithe her story told;

But in her cheek distemper flushing glow'd.
On th' other side, Adam, soon as he heard
The fatal trespass done by Eve, amaz'd,
Astonied stood and blank, while horror chill

880

885

890

Ran through his veins, and all his joints relax'd;
From his slack hand the garland wreath'd for Eve
Down dropt, and all the faded roses shed:
Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length
First to himself he inward silence broke.

O fairest of creation, last and best

Of all God's works, creature in whom excell'd
Whatever can to sight or thought be form'd,
Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet!
How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost,
Defac'd, deflour'd, and now to death devote?

895

900

of different words, as Hom. Iliad. xxi. 407.

Επτα δ' επέσχε πελεθρα πισων
and Virg. Æn. iv. 238.

Dixerat: ille patris magni parere
parabat
Imperio.

Erythræus and some critics lay
great stress upon this, esteeming
it a singular beauty in writing,
though it is probable that the
ancients fell into it by chance as
often as by design but the
moderns have carried it to a
ridiculous degree of affectation,
and Dryden particularly thought
it one of the greatest arts of
versification. As there is scarce
numbers, that is not to be found
any beauty in writing, or art in
in Milton, so he has something
of this, but is more sparing in
the use of it than several of the

modern poets. We produced before an instance of the single alliteration, vii. 471.

Behemoth liggest bornand here two or more letters are repeated, vi. 840.

Rather how hast thou yielded to transgress
The strict forbiddance, how to violate

The sacred fruit forbidd'n? some cursed fraud
Of enemy hath beguil'd thee, yet unknown,
And me with thee hath ruin'd, for with thee
Certain my resolution is to die;

905

How can I live without thee, how forego

Thy sweet converse and love so dearly join'd,
To live again in these wild woods forlorn?
Should God create another Eve, and I

910

Another rib afford, yet loss of thee

Would never from my heart; no no, I feel
The link of nature draw me: flesh of flesh,
Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state

915

Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.

So having said, as one from sad dismay Recomforted, and after thoughts disturb'd Submitting to what seem'd remediless,

O'er shields and helms and helmed heads he rode,

love of thee so dearly joined to This is a common way of

me.

as well as in the instance before speaking in Milton, and the

us,

Defac'd, deflour'd, and now to death devote.

And certainly now and then an
instance may have a very good
effect; but the continued affec-
tation of it is below a great
genius, and must be offensive to
the ear instead of pleasing.

908. How can I live without
thee, how forego
Thy sweet converse, and love so
dearly join'd,]

reader may see more instances of it in iv. 129. and viii. 423. The sense of this last verse is again found in ver. 970.

-link'd in love so dear.

910. To live again in these wild 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