Knew it not good for man to be alone, To see how thou could'st judge of fit and meet: He ended, or I heard no more, for now 445 450 Which it had long stood under, strain'd to th' highth In that celestial colloquy sublime, As with an object that excels the sense Dazzled and spent, sunk down, and sought repair logue between Adam and his Maker. And then follows both in Moses and in Milton the account of the formation of Eve and institution of marriage. 453. My earthly by his heav'nly overpower'd,] The Scripture says only, that the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, Gen. ii. 21. and our author endeavours to give some account how it was effected: Adam was overpowered by conversing with so superior a Being, his faculties having been all strained and exerted to the highth, and now he sunk down quite dazzled and spent, and sought repair of sleep, which instantly fell on him, and closed his eyes. Mine eyes he closed, says he again, turning the words, and making sleep a per 455 460 son, as the ancient poets often do. 460. Mine eyes he clos'd, &c.] Adam then proceeds to give an account of his second sleep, and of the dream in which he beheld the formation of Eve. The new passion that was awakened in him at the sight of her is touched very finely. Adam's distress upon losing sight of this beautiful phantom, with his exclamations of joy and gratitude at the discovery of a real creature, who resembled the apparition which had been presented to him in his dream; the approaches he makes to her, and his manner of courtship, are all laid together in a most exquisite propriety of sentiments. Though this part of the poem is worked up with Of fancy my internal sight, by which Abstract as in a trance methought I saw, 465 Who stooping open'd my left side, and took great warmth and spirit, the love which is described in it is every way suitable to a state of innocence. If the reader compares the description which Adam here gives of his leading Eve to the nuptial bower, with that which Mr. Dryden has made on the same occasion in a scene of his Fall of Man, he will be sensible of the great care which Milton took to avoid all thoughts on so delicate a subject, that might be offensive to religion or good manners. The sentiments are chaste, but not cold; and convey to the mind ideas of the most transporting passion, and of the greatest purity. Addison. 462. Abstract as in a trance] For the word, that we translate a deep sleep, Gen. ii. 21. The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, the Greek interpreters render by trance or ecstasy, in which the person is abstract, is withdrawn as it were from himself, and still sees things, though his senses are all locked up. So that Adam sees his wife, as he did Paradise, first in vision. 470 465. open'd my left side, and took From thence a rib,-wide was the wound, But suddenly with flesh fill'd up and heal'd:] Gen. ii. 21. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. The Scripture says only one of his ribs, but Milton follows those interpreters who suppose this rib was taken from the left side, as being nearer to the heart. 469. -fashon'd] Spelt after the French façon. a 470. Under his forming hands creature grew, &c.] This whole account of the formation of Eve, and of the first meeting and nuptials of Adam and Eve, is delivered in the most natural and easy language, and calls to mind an observation of Mr. Pope upon Milton's style, in his Postscript to the Odyssey. "The "imitators of Milton, like most "other imitators, are not copies "but caricatures of their origi"nal; they are a hundred times more obsolete and cramp than "he, and equally so in all places: Manlike, but different sex, so lovely fair, That what seem'd fair in all the world, seem'd now Mean, or in her summ'd up, in her contain❜d "whereas it should have been "observed of Milton, that he is "not lavish of his exotic words " and phrases every where alike, "but employs them much more "where the subject is marvel"lous, vast, and strange, as in the "scenes of heaven, hell, chaos, "&c. than where it is turned to "the natural and agreeable, as " in the pictures of Paradise, the "loves of our first parents, the "entertainments of angels, and "the like. In general, this un"usual style better serves to "awaken our ideas in the descriptions and in the imaging "and picturesque parts, than it agrees with the lower sort of "narrations, the character of "which is simplicity and purity. "Milton has several of the lat"ter, where we find not an antiquated, affected, or uncouth "word, for some hundred lines together; as in his fifth book, "the latter part of the eighth, "the former of the tenth and "eleventh books, and in the "narration of Michael in the "twelfth. I wonder indeed that "he, who ventured (contrary "to the practice of all other epic poets) to imitate Homer's "lownesses in the narrative, "should not also have copied "his plainness and perspicuity "in the dramatic parts: since in "his speeches (where clearness "above all is necessary) there "is frequently such transposi"tion and forced construction, And in her looks, which from that time infus'd 476. And into all things from Lucretius iv. 1047. Seu mulier toto jactans è corpore amorem. Bentley. The very same compliment Ma- Ne presente vi fù creata cosa, rosa. Adon. cant. ii. st. 125.. The Italian poet, with a surprising redundancy of fancy and beauty of expression, carries on and explains the same thought for six stanzas together, but the graver turn of our author's poem, and the divine character of the person Adam is talking to, would 475 480 485 have made an imitation in this respect indecent and inconsistent. Thyer. and 478. She disappear'd, left me dark;] She that was my light vanished, and left me dark and comfortless. For light is in almost all languages a metaphor for joy and comfort, and darkness for the contrary. As Dr. Pearce observes, it is something of the same way of thinking that Milton uses in his Sonnet on his deceased wife; after having described her as appearing to him, he says, She fled, and day brought back my night. 485. Led by her heav'nly Maker,] For the Scripture says, Gen. ii. 22. that the Lord God brought her unto the man; and our author still alluding to this text says afterwards, ver. 500. that she was divinely brought. Grace was in all her steps, heav'n in her eye, In every gesture dignity and love. I overjoy'd could not forbear aloud. 4.90 This turn hath made amends; thou hast fulfill'd Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign, Giver of all things fair, but fairest this Of all thy gifts, nor enviest. I now see 488. heav'n in her eye,] A passage in Shakespeare's Troilus seems to have been in our author's view, act iv. Diom. Lady Cressid, So please you, save the thanks this prince expects: The lustre in your eye, heav'n in your cheek, Pleads your fair usage. 494. nor enviest.] The verb enviest is joined in construction to thou hast fulfilled: there is then no such loose syntax here, as Dr. Bentley imagines; nor will the words nor enviest be too flat for the present passion, if we understand by them, Nor thinkest this gift too good for me. See concerning the sense of this word the note on i. 259. Pearce. 495. Bone of my bone, &c.] As if he should say, 0 my Crealor, those creatures which thou broughtest to me before were neither like nor suitable to me; but this that now thou hast bestowed upon me is bone of my bone, my 495 Adam, waking from his deep. sleep, should in words so express and prophetic own and claim his companion, gave ground to that opinion, that he was not only asleep, but intranced too, by which he saw all that was done to him, and understood the mystery of it, God informing his understandidg in his ecstasy. Hume. 498. —and to' his wife adhere ;] Adhærebit uxori suæ, as it is in the vulgar Latin; shall cleave unto his wife, says the English Bible. Gen. ii. 23, 24. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh. How has Milton improved upon the last words, and they shall be one flesh; and what an admirable climax has he formed! And they shall be one flesh, one |