Not to defer; hunger and thirst at once, For high from ground the branches would require 590 I spar'd not, for such pleasure till that hour Of reason in my inward pow'rs, and speech I turn'd my thoughts, and with capacious mind 601. shape retain'd.] Bentley would have it restrained. But the word of exactest propriety is retained. For retained signifies the being kept within such and such bounds in a natural state; restrained to be kept within them in an unnatural; but the serpent's being confined to his own shape, was being in his natural state. Warburton. 605. or middle,] In the air, the element placed between, and, as our author says, spun out between, heaven and earth, vii. 241. Hume. 595 600 605 605. all things fuir and good; But all that fair and good in thy divine Semblance, and in thy beauty's heav'nly ray United 1 beheld ;] This is very like what Adam had said before to the angel, viii. 471. -so lovely fair, That what seem'd fair in all the And in her looks. But all that fair and good in thy divine Equivalent or second, which compell'd Me thus, though importune perhaps, to come So talk'd the spirited sly Snake; and Eve The virtue of that fruit, in thee first prov'd: say, where grows the tree, from hence how far? And it is really wonderful, that the poet could express things so much alike so differently, and yet both so well. The numbers too, as well as the sentiments, are equally admirable in both places. 609. Equivalent or second,] Nec viget quicquam simile aut secundum. Hor. od. i. xii. 18. 612. -universal dame.] The word dame conveys a low idea at present: but formerly it was an appellation of respect and honour, and signified mistress or lady, and was probably 610 615 620 Univer and the Latin domina. 613. So talk'd &c.] Milton has shewn more art and ability in taking off the common objections to the Mosaic history of the temptation by the addition of some circumstances of his own invention, than in any other theologic part of his poem. Warburton. 618. trees of God] A Scripture phrase, as in Psal. civ. 16. 624. birth.] In Milton's own editions this word is spelt bearth in this place, but as in all To whom the wily Adder, blithe and glad. 625 630 635 in my notes on the first book. There is one, however, in this part of the poem, which I shall here quote, as it is not only very beautiful, but the closest of any in the whole poem; I mean that where the serpent is described as rolling forward in all his pride, animated by the evil spirit, and conducting Eve to her destruction, while Adam was at too great a distance from her to give her his assistance. These several particulars are all of them wrought into the following similitude. -Hope elevates, and joy Brightens his crest; as when a wand'ring fire, &c. Addison. And there is not perhaps any more philosophic account of the ignis fatuus, than what is contained in these lines. Philosophy and poetry are here mixed together. Kindled through agitation to a flame, 640 Which when she saw, thus to her guide she spake. Of prohibition,] E. 645 650 648. Fruitless to me, though fruit be here to excess,] Besides the jingle, the same word is used in a literal and metaphorical sense, as in Bion, Idyl. i. 16, 17. Αγριον αγριον ἑλκος έχει κατα μηρον Μείζον δ ̓ ἡ Κυθέρεια φέρει ποτι καρδιαν And not unlike is that in Virgil, Æn. vii. 295. Num capti potuere capi?— 653. Solè daughter of his voice ;] Another Hebraism. Bath Kol, The daughter of a voice, is a noted phrase among An Hebraism for the prohibited the Jews, and they understand Law to ourselves, our reason is our law. To whom the Tempter guilefully replied. To whom thus Eve yet sinless. Of the fruit this command is called the sole 426. -for well thou know'st God hath pronounc'd it death to taste that tree, The only sign of our obedience left &c. -Then let us not think hard One easy prohibition. 653. the rest, we live Law to ourselves,] The rest, as for what remains, in all things else. A Grecism, and common in Latin. So Virgil, Æn. iii, 594. cætera Graius. We live law to ourselves. Rom. ii. 14. These having not the law, are a law unto themselves. Richard son. 656. Indeed? hath God then said that of the fruit Of all these garden trees ye shall not eat,] Gen. iii. 1. Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? In which our author has followed the Chaldee paraphrase interpreting the He 655 660 brew particle, Indeed. Is it true that God has forbid you to eat of the fruits of Paradise? as if he had forbidden them to taste, not of one, but of all the trees; another of Satan's sly insinuations. The Hebrew particle, Yea or Indeed, plainly shews that the short and summary account that Moses gives of the Serpent's temptation, has respect to some previous discourse, which could in all probability be no other than what our poet has pitched upon. Hume. 659. -Of the fruit &c.] This is exactly the answer of Eve in Genesis iii. 2, 3. put into verse. We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And it shews great art and judgment in our author, in knowing so well when to adhere to the words of Scripture, and when to amplify and enlarge upon them, as he does in Satan's reply to Eve. |