Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes, Her hand soft touching, whisper'd thus. Awake My faireft, my efpous'd, my latest found, 25 Such E mormorare il fiume, e gli ar- foft western gales breathe on the bofcelli, flowers. Exceeding poetical and E con l'onda fcherzar l'aura, e co' beautiful. fiori. The birds awak'd her with their morning fong, The murm'ring brooks, and whift- their part did bear. Fairfax. 5.-th' only found] This Dr. Bentley calls ftrange diction, and he will have it to be early found: but the prefent reading is countenanc'd by the following line in Spenfer, Fairy Queen, B. 5. Cant. 11. St. 30. As if the only found thereof she fear'd. Thyer. 16. Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,] As when the Richardfon. For this delightful fimile Milton was probably oblig'd to his admir'd Ben Johnson in his Mafk of Love reconcil'd to Virtue. The fair will think you do 'em wrong, Go choose among but with a mind 21. Song 3d. Thyer. we lose the prime,] The prime of the day; as he calls it elsewhere that sweet hour of prime, and IX. 200. ver. 170. The feafon prime for fweeteft fents The Such whifp'ring wak'd her, but with startled eye On Adam, whom embracing, thus fhe fpake. O fole in whom my thoughts find all repose, 39 But between Adam and Eve, had his eye very frequently upon the book of Canticles, in which there is a noble spirit of eaftern poetry, and very often not unlike what we meet with in Homer, who is generally plac'd near the age of Solomon. I think there is no queftion but the poet in the preceding fpeech remember'd those two paifages which are spoken on the like occafion, and fill'd with the fame pleafing images of nature, Cant. II. 10, &c. My beloved fpake and faid unto me, Rife up, my love, my fair one, and come away; for lo the 26. Such whiff'ring wak'd her,] We were told in the foregoing book how the evil Spirit practiced upon Eve as the lay afleep, in order to infpire her with thoughts of vanity, pride, and ambition. The author, who fhows a wonderful art throughout his whole poem, in preparing the reader for the feveral Occurrences that arife in it, founds upon the above-mention'd circum- winter is paft, the rain is over and ftance the first part of the fifth gone, the flowers appear on the earth, book. Adam upon his awaking the time of the finging of birds is finds Eve ftill afleep, with an unu- come, and the voice of the turtle is fual difcompofure in her looks. beard in our land. The fig-tree putThe pofture in which he regards teth forth her green figs, and the her, is defcribed with a tenderness vines with the tender grapes give a not to be exprefs'd, as the whisper good smell. Arife my love, my fair with which he awakens her, is the one, and come away. Cant. VII. fofteft that ever was convey'd to a 11, 12. Come, my beloved, let us go lover's ear. I cannot but take no- forth into the field, let us get up early tice that Milton, in the conferences to the vineyards, let us fee if the vine florifb, But of offense and trouble, which my mind Knew never till this irksome night: methought 35 florif, whether the tender grapes appear, and the pomegranate bud forth. His preferring the garden of Eden to that, where the fapient king Held dalliance with his fair EgyPtian spouse, IX. 443. fhows that the poet had this delightful scene in view. Addison. 35. methought Clofe at mine ear &c.] Eve's dream is full of thofe high conceits ingendring pride, which we are told the Devil endevor'd to inftil into her. Of this kind is that part of it where the fancies herself awaken'd by Adam in the following beautiful lines, Why fleep'st thou Eve? &c. An injudicious poet would have made Adam talk thro' the whole work in fuch fentiments as thefe: but flattery and falfhood are not the courtship of Milton's Adam, and could not be heard by Eve in her state of innocence, excepting 40 Full only in a dream produced on purpofe to taint her imagination. Other vain fentiments of the fame kind in this relation of her dream will be obvious to every reader. Tho' the catastrophe of the poem is finely prefaged on this occafion, the particulars of it are so artfully fhadowed, that they do not anticipate the ftory which follows in the ninth book. I fhall only add, that tho' the vifion itself is founded upon truth, the circumftances of it are full of that wildness and incon-fiftency, which are natural to a dream. Addifon. 41. Tunes fweeteft his love-labor'd Jong;] Spenfer in his Epithalamion, a poem which Milton feems often to imitate, has it "the "bird's love-learned fong. We must farther obferve that our author takes great liberties in his use of the genders, fometimes making him and her and it of the fame thing or creature. We have a very remarkable inftance in VI. 878. Full orb'd the moon, and with more pleafing light In whofe fight all things joy, with ravishment I rofe as at thy call, but found thee not; my walk; 45 And on, methought, alone I pafs'd through ways 59 One fhap'd and wing'd like one of those from Heaven By us oft feen; his dewy locks diftill'd 56 ба Ambrofia; on that tree he alfo gaz'd; Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus cropt, |