Far otherwise th' event, not death, but life Augmented, open'd eyes, new hopes, new joys, 985 Hath touch'd my sense, flat seems to this, and harsh. So saying, she embrac'd him, and for joy 989. And fear of death deliver to the winds.] To deliver to the winds is a sort of proverbial expression, Hor. od. i. xxvi. 1. -Tristitiam et metus 998. not deceiv'd, 990 995 1000 but the woman being deceived was in the transgression, 1 Tim. ii. 14. Overcome with female charm, which the holy page styles, Hearkening unto the voice of his wife, Gen. iii. 17. Improbe amor, quid non mortalia Virg. En. iv. 412. 1000. Earth trembled from her entrails,] When Dido in the fourth Eneid yielded to that fatal temptation which ruined her, Virgil tells us the earth trembled, the heavens were filled with flashes of lightning, and the nymphs howled upon the mountain tops. Milton, in the same In pangs, and Nature gave a second groan, poetical spirit, has described all So saying, her rash hand in evil hour plucked, she eat: Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat been properly introduced as a reason for his awakening his apprehensions, and making his heart, divine of something ill, misgive him, as well as her so long delayed return, ver. 844. or it might have been cleared up by some other such lucky turn of thought, as our author is master Green Sighing, through all her works gave of upon most occasions. signs of woe, That all was lost. Upon Adam's falling into the same guilt, the whole creation appears a second time in convulsions. As all nature suffered by the guilt of our first parents, these symptoms of trouble and consternation are wonderfully imagined, not only as prodigies, but as marks of her sympathizing in the fall of man. Addison. It could not be expected that Adam should take any more notice of this second groan of Nature, when he had eaten of the forbidden fruit, than Eve did of the first after her transgression; because they are represented as with new wine intoxicated both. But I wonder that this accurate and careful writer hath not hinted something at Adam's thoughts upon the first convulsion, when he was in a state of innocence, calmness, and retirement. As Nature through all her works gave signs of woe, he could not but be very sensible of it: and if so, he must certainly be startled at a phænomenon so strange and new. This I think deserved in some measure to be accounted for; and it might perhaps have wood. 1002. Sky low'r'd, and mutiering thunder,] It is not meant that thunder also lowered, but Sky lowered, and muttering thunder in the ablative case absolute, some sad drops wept at completing of the mortal sin. It was not loud claps of thunder, but muttering thunder, melancholy and mournful. The passage alluded to in Virgil is this. Æn. iv. 166. -Prima et Tellus et pronuba Dant signum; fulsere ignes et con- Connubiis: summoque ulularunt vertice Nymphæ. Ille dies primus lethi, primusque Wept at completing of the mortal sin Her former trespass fear'd, the more to sooth 1005 As with new wine intoxicated both They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel Divinity within them breeding wings, 1010 Wherewith to scorn the earth: but that false fruit Far other operation first display'd, Carnal desire inflaming; he on Eve Began to cast lascivious eyes, she him As wantonly repaid; in lust they burn: And palate call judicious; I the praise Yield thee, so well this day thou hast purvey'd. nominative case, and thunder is 1019. Since to each meaning savour we apply,] Since we use the word savour in both senses, and apply it to the understandVOL. II. 1015 1020 1025 ing as well as to the palate: as in Cicero de Fin. ii. 8. Nec enim sequitur, ut cui cor sapiat, ei non sapiat palatum. 1027. -now let us play, As meet is, after such delicious fare;] He seems to allude to Exod. N As meet is, after such delicious fare; xxxii. 6. 1 Cor. x. 7. And the people sat down to eat, and to drink, and rose up to play; understanding the word play with several commentators, not of dancing after the sacrifices as it ought probably to be understood in these texts, but of committing uncleanness, as the word is often used in the learned languages. 1029. For never did thy beauty, &c.] Adam's converse with Eve, after having eaten the forbidden fruit, is an exact copy of that between Jupiter and Juno in the fourteenth Iliad. Juno there approaches Jupiter with the girdle which she had received from Venus; upon which he tells her, that she appeared more charming and desirable than she had ever done before, even when their loves were at the highest. The poet afterwards describes them as reposing on a summit of mount Ida, which produced under them a bed of flowers, the lotos, the crocus, and the hyacinth; and concludes his description with their falling asleep. Let the reader compare this with the following passage in Milton, which begins with Adam's speech to Eve. As no poet seems ever to have studied Homer more, or to have more resembled him in the greatness of genius, than Milton, I think I 1030 should have given a very imperfect account of his beauties, if I had not observed the most remarkable passages which look like parallels in these two great authors. I might, in the course of these criticisms, have taken notice of many particular lines and expressions which are translated from the Greek poet; but as I thought this would have appeared too minute and overcurious, I have purposely omitted them. The greater incidents, however, are not only set off by being shown in the same light with several of the same nature in Homer, but by that means may be also guarded against the cavils of the tasteless or ignorant. Addison. Our author had in mind the conversation between Paris and Helen in the third Iliad, as well as that between Jupiter and Juno on mount Ida. And as Mr. Pope observes, it is with wonderful judgment and decency that Milton has used that exceptionable passage of the dalliance, ardour, and enjoyment of Jupiter and Juno. That which seems in Homer an impious fiction, becomes a moral lesson in Milton; since he makes that lascivious rage of the passion the immediate effect of the sin of our first parents after the fall. So said he, and forbore not glance or toy He led her nothing loath; flow'rs were the couch, And hyacinth, earth's freshest softest lap. 1035 1040 Oppress'd them, wearied with their amorous play. 1045 Soon as the force of that fallacious fruit, That with exhilarating vapour bland About their spi'rits had play'd, and inmost powers Had shadow'd them from knowing ill, was gone, 1050 1055 -and grosser sleep Bred of unkindly fumes,] v. 3. -for his sleep Was airy light from pure digestion bred, And temp'rate vapours bland. The sleep of sin is nothing like the sleep of innocence. |