Appear'd, with gay enamel'd colors mix'd: 151 On which the fun more glad impress'd his beams Meets his approach, and to the heart infpires in the firft verfe, because fruits follows in the next: but I fhould choose to read fruit in both places; because I obferve that when Milton fpeaks of what is hanging on the trees, he calls it fruit in the fingular number (when gather'd, in the plural) as in V. 341. fruit of all kinds. See alfo VIII. 307. and IV. 422. and in IV. 249. he repeats this very thought again thus, 155 Fanning Dr. Bentley reads Than on fair evening cloud. 152. -fo lovely feem'd That landfkip:] And now if we compare our poet's topography of Paradife with Homer's defcription of Alcinous's gardens, or with that of Calypfo's fhady grotto, we may without affectation affirm, that in half the number of verfes that they confift of, our author has outdone them. But to make a comparison more obvious to moft un Others whofe fruit burnish'd with derftandings, read the defcription golden rind &'c. and in the Mask we have Pearce. her fruit. We may add another instance from the Paradife Loft, VII. 324. of the bower of blifs by a poet of our own nation and famous in his time; but 'tis impar congreffus, and To fave her blooms, and defend rime fetter'd his fancy. Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. 2. Cant. 12. St. 42. &c. Hume. This defcription exceeds any thing I ever met with of the fame kind, but the Italians, in my opinion, approach the nearest to our English poet; and if the reader will give himself the trouble to read over Ariofto's picture of the garden of and fpread Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemm' Their blooms. 'd 151. Than in fair evening cloud,] Paradife, Tafio's garden of Ar Fanning their odoriferous wings dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Of Araby the bleft; with fuch delay 160 Well pleas'd they flack their course, and many a league mida, and Marino's garden of Ve- 158.-—and whisper whence they Thofe balmy spoils.] This fine paf- - like the sweet fouth Stealing and giving odor. Mr. Thyer is ftill of opinion, that lowing lines of Ariofto's defcrip- E quella à i fiori, à i pomi, e à la verzura Gli odor diverfi depredando giva, VOL. I. 2 Chear'd with the grateful smell old Ocean fmiles : 166 So entertain'd those odorous fweets the Fiend 170 That drove him, though enamour'd, from the spouse 175 All 173. Satan had journey'd on, &c.] The evil Spirit proceeds to make his discoveries concerning our firft parents, and to learn after what manner they may be beft attack'd. His bounding over the walls of Paradife; his fitting in the fhape of a cormorant upon the tree of life, which stood in the center of it and overtopped all the other trees of the garden; his alighting among the herd of animals, which are fo beautifully reprefented as playing about Adam and Eve, together with his transforming himself into different fhapes, in order to hear their converfation, are circumftances that give an agreeable farprife to the reader, and are devised with great art to connect that feries of All path of man or beast that pass'd that way: Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold: of adventures, in which the poet has engaged this artificer of fraud. Addifon. 177. All path of man or beaft that pass'd that way:] Satan is now come to the afcent of the hill of Paradife, which was fo overgrown with thicket and underwood, that neither man nor beast could pass that way. That pafi'd that way, that would have pafs'd that way, a remarkable manner of fpeaking, fomewhat like that in II. 642. So feem'd far off the flying Fiend, that is (fpeaking ftrictly) would have feem'd if any one had been there to have feen him. And the like manner of fpeaking we may obferve in the beft claffic authors, as in Virg. Æn. VI. 467. Of fome rich burgher, whofe fubftantial doors, In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles : Thereby regain'd, but fat devifing death ftronger refemblance; and the hint of this and the additional fimile of a thief feems to have been taken from those words of our Saviour in St. John's gofpel, X. 1. He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up fome other way, the fame is a thief and a robber. 193. lewd hirelings] The word lewd was formerly underftood in a larger acceptation than it is at prefent, and fignified profane, impious, wicked, vicious, as well as wanton: and in this larger fense it is employ'd by Milton in the other places where he uses it, as well as here; I. 490. 190 195 Of 195. The middle tree and highest there that grew,] The tree of life alfo in the midst of the garden, Gen. II. 9. In the midft is a Hebrew phrafe, expreffing not only the local fituation of this inlivening tree, but denoting its excellency, as being the most confiderable, the talleft, goodlieft, and moft lovely tree in that beauteous garden planted by God himself: So Scotus, Duran, Valefius, &c. whom our poet follows, affirming it the highest there that grew. Tobim that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradife of God, Rev. II. 7. Hume. than whom a Spirit more lewd: thought of Satan's transformation 196. Sat like a cormorant ;] The and VI. 182. into a cormorant, and placing himfelf on the tree of life, feems raifed Yet lewdly dar'ft our miniftring upon that paffage in the Iliad, where two deities are described, as perching upbraid. |