200

Goodliest of all the forest, hart and hind ;
Direct to th’ eastern gate was bent their flight. 190
Adam observ’d, and with his eye the chase
Pursuing, not unmov'd to Eve thus spake.

O Eve, some further change awaits us nigh, Which Heav'n by these mute signs in nature shows, Forerunners of his purpose, or to warn

195
Us haply too secure of our discharge
From penalty, because from death releas’d
Some days; how long, and what till then our life,
Who knows, or more than this, that we are dust,
And thither must return and be no more?
Why else this double object in our sight
Of flight pursu'd in th' air, and o’er the ground,
One way the self-same hour? why in the east
Darkness ere day's mid-course, and morning light
More orient in yon western cloud, that draws
O'er the blue firmament a radiant white,
And slow descends, with something heav'nly fraught?

He err'd not, for by this the heav'nly bands
Down from a sky of jasper lighted now
In Paradise, and on a hill made halt,
A glorious apparition, had not doubt
And carnal fear that day dimm’d Adam's eye.

205

210

204. Darkness ere day's mid- I would refer the curious reader course,]

to Marino's description of the Et noctis faciem nebulas fecisse descent of the three goddesses volucres

upon mount Ida, c. ii. st. 67. Sub nitido mirata die.

which is a scene of the same Ov. Met. i. 602.

sort with this, and painted, I Hunie.

think, even in livelier colours 204. —and morning light &c.] than this of Milton's. Thyer.

215

Not that more glorious, when the Angels met
Jacob in Mahanaim, where he saw
The field pavilion'd with his guardians bright;
Nor that which on the flaming mount appear'd
In Dothan, cover'd with a camp of fire,
Against the Syrian king, who to surprise
One man, assassin like, had levied war,
War unproclaim'd. The princely Hierarch
In their bright stand there left his pow'rs to seize
Possession of the garden ; he alone,
To find where Adam shelter'd, took his way,
Not unperceiv'd of Adam, who to Eve,
While the great visitant approach'd, thus spake.

920

925

213. Not that more glorious, the servant of the man of God was &c.] That was not a more glo- risen early, and gone forth, behold rious apparition of angels, which an host compassed the city, both appeared to Jacob in Mahanaim. . with horses and chariots : and his Gen. xxxii. 1, 2. And Jacob went servant said unto him, Alas, my on his way, and the angels of master, how shall we do? And he God met him: and when Jacob answered, Fear not: for they that saw them, he said, This is God's be with us are more than they that host; and he called the name of be with them. And Elisha prayed that place Mahanaim. Nor that and said, Lord, I pray thee, open which appeared on the flaming his eyes

that he may see.

And mount in Dothan against the the Lord opened the eyes of the king of Syria, when he levied young man, and he saw: and be war against a single man not hold, the mountain was full of like a generous enemy, but like horses and chariots of fire round a base assassin endeavoured to about Elisha. take him by surprise, namely 220. War unproclaim'd.] The Elisha, for having disclosed the

severe censure on this makes designs of the king of Syria to me fancy that Milton hinted at the king of Israel, 2 Kings vi. the war with Holland, which 13, &c. And it was told him, broke out in 1664, when we sursäying, Behold he is in Dothan. prised and took the Dutch BourTherefore sent he thither horses, deaux fleet, before war and chariots, and a great host : proclaimed, which the Whigs and they came by night, and com- much exclaimed against. Warpassed the city about. And when burton.

was

230

Eve, now expect great tidings, which perhaps
Of us will soon determine, or impose
New laws to be observ’d; for I descry
From yonder blazing cloud that veils the hill:
One of the heav'nly host, and by his gait
None of the meanest, some great potentate
Or of the thrones above, such majesty
Invests him coming ; yet not terrible,
That I should fear, nor sociably mild,
As Raphael, that I should much confide,
But solemn and sublime, whom not to' offend,
With reverence I must meet, and thou retire.

He ended; and th' archangel soon drew nigh,

235

230. -by his gait

rank: the supremacy of majestic None of the meanest,]

grace was attributed to Juno; The deities of the heathen my- Athenæus has the phrase 'Heator thology had a peculiar species of BadoS«, and Propertius, 1. ii. el. motion ascribed to them by 2. says of his mistress, incedit vel the poets. Thus Virgil makes Jove digna soror. Æneas discover his mother by Milton in the same manner the single circumstance of her ascribes to the angels a gait progait: vera incessu patuit Dea. portioned to their rank. When Æn. i. 405. Juno likewise de- Satan, in the third book, asscribes herself, Ast ego quæ Di- sumes the form of a stripling vùm incedo regina. Æn. i. 46. cherub, previous to his conferAnd, Æn. v. 647, we find among ence with Uriel, he has decent, the distinguishing marks of di- that is graceful, steps. And so vinity, the gressus eunti:

here. divini signa decoris

I descry Ardentesque notate oculos; qui spi

One of the heavenly host, and by his ritus illi,

gait Qui vultus, vocisque sonus, vel grese None of the meanest, some great sus cunti.

potentate The most ancient statues repre

Or of the thrones above, such majesty

Invests him coming ;sent the Dii Majores with their

Dunster feet even; not as walking, but as smooth-sliding without step.

238. —th' archangel soon drew P. L. viii. 302. The graceful nigh, &c.] I need not obness of their motion was sup- serve how properly this author, posed proportionate to their who always suits his parts to the

VOL. II.

240

Not in his shape celestial, but as man
Clad to meet man ; over his lucid arms
A military vest of purple flow'd,
Livelier than Melibean, or the grain
Of Sarra, worn by kings and heroes old
In time of truce; Iris had dipt the woof;
His starry helm unbuckled shew'd him prime
In manhood where youth ended ; by his side
As in a glist'ring zodiac hung the sword,
Satan's dire dread, and in his hand the spear.

245

actors whom he introduces, has Sarrano indormiat ostro. employed Michael in the expul

Hume. . sion of our first parents from

244. — Iris had dipt the woof;] Paradise. The archangel on this occasion neither appears in had said before, that it was

A most poetical expression. He his proper shape, nor in that livelier than the Melibean familiar manner with which Ra

grain, or than that of Sarra; phael the sociable spirit enter

it excelled the most precious tained the father of mankind

purple: but now he says that before the fall. His person,

his

Iris herself had given the colour, post, and behaviour are suitable the most beautiful colours being, to a spirit of the highest rank, in the rainbow; nay Iris had and exquisitely described in the dipt the very woofi Ke bad befollowing passage. Addison.

fore made use of a like expres242. Livelier than Melibaan,] sion in the Mask.

The attend Of a livelier colour and richer

ant spirit says, dye than any made at Meliboea, a city of Thessaly, famous for

-But I must first put off fish called ostrum, there caught

These my sky robes spun out of Iris'

woof. and used in dying the noblest purple.

248. -and in his hand the

spear.] The construction of this, -Quam plurima circum

and the former part of the pePurpura Mæandro duplici Meliba a cucurrit. Virg. Æn. v. 251. riod, is indeed thus: By his side

hung the sword, and the spear in Or the grain of Sarra, or the dye his hand. It is common with of Tyre, named Sarru of Sar, the ancients for the verb not to the Phænician name of a fish be applicable to all the members there taken, whose blood made of the period. So here hung the purple colour. Georg. ii. may be restrained to the sword 506.

only. There is another like in

250

Adam bow'd low; he kingly from his state
Inclin'd not, but his coming thus declar'd.

Adam, Heav'n's high behest no preface needs :
Sufficient that thy pray’rs are heard, and Death,
Then due by sentence when thou didst transgress,
Defeated of his seisure many days
Giv’n thee of grace, wherein thou may’st repent,
And one bad act with many deeds well done
May'st cover: well may then thy Lord appeas'd
Redeem thee quite from Death's rapacious claim;
But longer in this Paradise to dwell
Permits not ; to remove thee I am come,
And send thee from the garden forth to till

255

260

stance, iv. 509. pines agrees to mission to a dream, the dream desire only. Markland on Sta- delivers it exactly in the same tius's Sylv. i. i. 79. gives several words to Agamemnon, and Againstances of this in the ancients. memnon repeats it a third time Richardson.

to the council, though it be 'a 261. And send thee from the tautology of five or six verses

garden forth to till together. But in the passage The ground whence thou wast before us, here is all the beauty tuken, fitter soil.]

and simplicity of Homer, withIt is after the manner of Homer, out any of his faults. Here are that the angel is here made to only two lines repeated out of deliver the order he had received one speech, and a third out of in the very words he had re- another; ver. 48. and here again ceived it. Homer's exactness ver. 259. is so great in this kind, that sometimes I know not whether

But longer in this Paradise to dwell. it is not rather a fault. He ob. And it is a decree pronounced serves this method not only when solemnly by the Almighty, and orders are given by a superior certainly it would not have bepower, but also when messages come the angel, who was sent are sent between equals. Nay to put it in execution, to deliver in the heat and hurry of a battle it in any other words than those a man delivers a message word of the Almighty. And let me for word as he received it: and add, that it was the more proper sometimes a thing is repeated so and necessary to repeat the often that it becomes almost words in this place, as the catedious. Jupiter delivers a com- tastrophe of the poem depends