Had ended now their orisons, and found
Strength added from above, new hope to spring

eighth he returned, ix. 67. at In his return to Hell he meets midnight, ver. 58. and took Sin and Death in the morning, possession of the serpent wait- ver. 329. ing close the approach of morn,

-while the sun in Aries rose. ver. 191. Morning is described, ver. 192.

After Sin and Death had arrived

in Paradise, the angels are comNow when as sacred light began to

manded to make several alter. dawn &c.

ations in the heavens and eleEve is prevailed upon to eat of ments: and Adam is represented the forbidden fruit a little be

as lamenting aloud to himself, fore noon, ix. 739.

ver. 846. Mean while the hour of noon drew

Through the still night, not now, as on, and wak'd

ere Man fell, An eager appetite

Wholesome and cool, and mild, but Adam eats likewise; they sleep,

with black air

Accompanied, with damps and dreadthey wake; and Adam re

ful gloom. proaches Eve with her desire of wandering this unhappy morn, ix. Adam is afterwards made to talk 1136. In the cool of the even- somewhat confusedly, in one ing the Messiah comes down to place as if it was still the day judge them, x. 92.

of the fall, ver. 962. Now was the sun in western cadence Since this day's death denounc'd, if low

ought I see, From noon, and gentle airs due at Will prove no sudden, but a slow. their hour

pac'd evil. To fan the earth now wak'd, and usher in

And in another place as if it The evening cool; when he from was some day after the fall, wrath more cool

ver. 1048. Came ihe mild Judge and Intercessor both

we expected To sentence Man.

Immediate dissolution, which we

thought Satan fled from his

presence, but Was meant by death that day, &c. returned by night, ver. 341.

And having felt the cold damps return'd

of the night before, he is conBy night, and list’ning where the sidering how they may provide hapless pair

themselves with Sat in their sad discourse, and va

some better rious plaint,

warmth and fire before another Thence gather'd his own doom, which night comes, ver. 1069.

understood Not instant, but of future time, with

-ere this diurnal star joy

Leave cold the night. And tidings fraught, to Hell he now return'd.

That other night we must now

140

Out of despair, joy, but with fear yet link'd ;
Which thus to Eve his welcome words renew'd.

Eve, easily may faith admit, that all
The good which we enjoy, from heav'n descends ;
But that from us ought should ascend to heaven
So prevalent as to concern the mind
Of God high-blest, or to incline his will,
Hard to belief may seem ; yet this will prayer
Or one short sigh of human breath, upborne
Ev’n to the seat of God. For since I sought
By pray'r th’ offended Deity to' appease ;
Kneel'd and before him humbled all my heart,

145

150

suppose to be past, since the morning here appears again

-which bids us seek Some better shroud, some better

warmth to cherish
Our limbs benumn'd, ere this di.

urnal star
Leave cold the night.

To resalute the world with sacred

light:

So that according to the best But indeed the author is not calculation we can make, this very exact in the computation is the eleventh day of the poem, of time, and perhaps he affected we mean of that part of it some obscurity in this particuwhich was transacted within lar, and did not choose to dethe sphere of day. Mr. Ad- fine, as the Scripture itself has dison reckons only ten days to not defined, how soon after the the action of the poem, that is,

fall it was that our first parents he supposes that our first pa- were driven out of Paradise. rents were expelled out of Para- 150. Kneeld and before him dise the very next day after the humbled all my heart,]

« Such fall; and indeed at first sight it

" is the force of the word keneeled appears so: but then we cannot “ in that situation, that we acsee with what propriety several tually see Adam upon his things are said, which we have “ knees before the offended here quoted: and particularly Deity; and by the conclusion of the sun's rising in Aries, “ of this paragraph, Bending when Satan met Sin and Death “ his ear, infinite goodness is at the brink of Chaos; and if it “visibly as it were represented was still the night after the fall, “ to our eyes as inclining to how could Adam say, as he is “ hearken to the prayers of his represented saying,

“penitent creature." See Let

155

160

Methought I saw him placable and mild,
Bending his ear; persuasion in me grew
That I was heard with favour; peace return'd
Home to my breast, and to my memory
His promise, that thy seed shall bruise our foe;
Which then not minded in dismay, yet now
Assures me that the bitterness of death
Is past, and we shall live. Whence hail to thee,
Eve rightly call’d, mother of all mankind,
Mother of all things living, since by thee
Man is to live, and all things live for Man.

To whom thus Eve with sad demeanour meek.
Ill worthy I such title should belong
To me transgressor, who for thee ordain'd
A help, became thy snare ; to me reproach
Rather belongs, distrust and all dispraise :
But infinite in pardon was my Judge,
That I who first brought death on all, am grac'd
The source of life; next favourable thou,
Who highly thus to' entitle me vouchsaf'st,
Far other name deserving. But the field

165

170

now

ters concerning poetical transla- she was taken out of Ish, Man, tions, &c. p. 58, 59.

Gev. ii. 23. 157. Assures me that the bilter- -Woman is her name, of Man ness of death

Extracted Is past,]

as it is expressed, viii. 496. But 1 Sam. xv. 32. And Agag said, he denominates her Eve or Surely the bitterness of death is Havah, from a Hebrew word past.

which signifies to live, in firm 159. Eve rightly called, mother belief that God would make her of all mankind,] Gen. iii. 20. the mother of all mankind, and And Adam called his wife's name of the promised Seed particuEve, because she was the mother larly. Our poet had called her of all living. He called her Eve before by way of anticibefore Isbah, Woman, because pation.

To labour calls us now with sweat impos'd,
Though after sleepless night; for see the morn,
All unconcern'd with our unrest, begins
Her rosy progress smiling ; let us forth,

175
I never from thy side henceforth to stray
Where'er our day's work lies, though now injoin'd
Laborious, till day droop; while here we dwell,
What can be toilsome in these pleasant walks ?
Here let us live, though in fall’n state, content.

So spake, so wish'd much-humbled Eve, but fate Subscrib'd not ; Nature first gave signs, impress'd

180

175. Her rosy progress smila of Paradise. There is a double ing;] This may serve to con- beauty in this incident, not only firm what we observed before, as it presents great and just that Leucothea is the most early omens, which are always agree. morning, that ushers in the able in poetry, but as it exAurora; she was pale and white presses that enmity which was before, now she is rosy red, with now produced in the animal the nearer approach of the sun- creation. The poet, to shew beams, agreeably to the quota- the like changes in nature, as tion that we made from Lu- well as to grace his fable with cretius,

a noble prodigy, represents the -roseam Matuta per oras

sun in an eclipse. This parEtheris duroram defert.

ticular incident has likewise a And the expression of the morn's of the reader, in regard to what

fine effect upon the imagination beginning her progress seems to be copied from Shakespeare, that the sun is under an eclipse,

follows; for at the same time 1 Henry IV. act ii.

a bright cloud descends in the -she heav'nly-harness'd team western quarter of the heavens, Begins his golden progress in the filled with an host of angels,

and more luminous than the 181. So spake, &c.] The con- sun itself. The whole theatre ference of Adam and Eve is full of nature is darkened, that this of moving sentiments. Upon glorious machine may appear in their going abroad after the all its lustre and magnificence. melancholy night which they Addison. had passed together, they dis- 182. Subscrib'd not;] That cover the lion and the eagle is, assented not, agreed not to pursuing each of them their it. Subscribere, to underwrite, prey, towards the eastern gate thence to agree to. So the

185

On bird, beast, air, air suddenly eclips'd
After short blush of morn ; nigh in her sight
The bird of Jove, stoop'd from his aery tour,
Two birds of gayest plume before him drove ;
Down from a hill the beast that reigns in woods,
First hunter then, pursu'd a gentle brace,

sonantem

word is sometimes used in Twelve swans behold in beauteous Latin; and Milton often uses

order move, words according to the Latin

And stoop with closing pinions from

above; idiom. So Ovid, Trist. lib. i.

Whoin late the bird of Jove had el. ii.

driv'n along,

And through the clouds pursued the Dii maris et cæli (quid enim nisi

scatt'ring throng. Dryden. vota supersunt ?) Solvere quassatæ parcite membra And Æn. xii. 247.

ratis : Neve precor magni subscribite Cæ

Namque volans rubrà fulvus Jovis

ales in æthra saris iræ.

Littoreas agitabat aves, turbamque And Phædrus, Fab. iii. x. 57.

Agminis aligeri. Aut gratiæ subscribit, aut odio suo.

For sudden in the fiery tracts above, And so Shakespeare in Measure

Appears in pomp th' imperial bird for Measure, act ii.

of Jove :

A plump of fowls he spies, that Admit no other way to save his life,

swim the lakes, As I subscribe not that.

And o'er their heads his sounding 184. -nigh in her sight] Dr.

pinions shakes.

Then stooping on the fairest of the Bentley says, Milton gave it, train, &c.

Dryder. nigh in their sight, not in Eve's only, but in the sight of both. But these omens have a sinBut it should rather be in her gular beauty here, as they show sight here, because it is said the change that is produced afterwards Adam observed &c.

among animals, as well as the 185. The bird of Jove, stoop'd change that is going to be made from his aery tour, &c.) The in the condition of Adam and bird of Jove, Jovis ales, the eagle. Eve; and nothing could be inStooped is a participle here, and vented more apposite and proa term of falconry. Such omens

per for this purpose. An eagle are not unusual in the poets, and a lion chasing a fine hart

pursuing two beautiful birds, Virg. Æn. i. 393.

and hind; and both to the eastAspice bis senos lætantes agmine ern gate of Paradise; as Adam

cycnos, Etherea quos lapsa plagâ Jovis ales by the angel at the eastern gate

and Eve were to be driven out aperto Turbabal cælo.