Commotion strange, in all enjoyments else Against the charm of beauty's pow'rful glance. For well I understand in the prime end In outward also her resembling less ( 535 540 And inward faculties, which most excel, His image who made both, and less expressing 545 O'er other creatures; yet when I approach And in herself complete, so well to know 550 Loses discountenanc'd, and like folly shows; As one intended first, not after made To whom the angel with contracted brow. Less excellent, as thou thyself perceiv'st. For what admir'st thou, what transports thee so, 560. To whom the angel with 555 560 565 570 distant discoveries, brings about that fatal event which is the subject of the poem. Addison. 568. and worthy well Thy cherishing, thy honouring, and thy love,] He maketh use of these three words agreeably to Scripture. So ought men to love their wives, as their own bodies: he that loveth his wife, loveth himself: for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it. Eph. v. 28, 29. Giving honour unto the wife, 1 Pet. iii. 7. Well manag'd; of that skill the more thou know'st, The more she will acknowledge thee her head, Made so adorn for thy delight the more, So awful, that with honour thou may'st love Thy mate, who sees when thou art seen least wise. To cattle and each beast; which would not be 575 580 585 576. Made so adorn &c.] These verses contain a beautiful and instructive account of the end for which God bestowed on Eve so much of ornament and awfulness. But two such participles as made adorned would have sounded very oddly together; and therefore he has coined an adjective adorn, as the Italians have adonno for adornato. And in like manner he uses fledge for fledged, iii. 627. vii. 420. And devote for devoted, ix. 901. And there are other instances of his changing the participle into an adjective. 579. But if the sense of touch &c.] Answering to what Adam had said before, VOL. II. transported I behold, Transported touch. 589. So Spenser, to whom our author Such is the pow'r of that sweet passion, That it all sordid baseness doth expel, And the refined mind doth newly fashion Unto a fairer form. Spenser's Hymn of Love. Ne suffereth it thought of ungentle ness Ever to creep into his noble breast; H The thoughts, and heart enlarges, hath his seat But to the highest and the worthiest Lifteth it up that else would lowly fall. Faery Queen, b. iii. cant. 5. st. 2. See also b. iii. cant. 1. st. 1. But there is no doubt, I think, to be made, that both these admired poets had in view the refined theory of love of the divine Plato, and that Milton in particular in what he says here had his eye more especially upon the following passage, where the scale, by which we must ascend to heavenly love, is both mentioned and described. Туто дево de เรเ το ορθώς επι τα ερωτικά είναι, η υπ' αλλά αγέσθαι, αρχομένον απο των δε των καλών εκείνου ἑνεκα του καλου, επανιέναι· ώσπες επαναβαθμοις χρωμένον απο ενος επι δυο, και απο δύειν επι παντα τα καλά σώματα, και απο των καλων σωμάτων επί τα καλα επιτηδευματα, και OTO των καλων επιτηδευματων επι τα καλα μαθηματα επ' αν απο των μαθηματων επ' εκείνο το μαθημα τελευτηση, ο εσιν εκ αλλά η αυτό εκείνα τα καλά μα θημα, και γνω αυτο τελευτων ο επι xaλov. Plat. Conviv. p. 211. tom. 3. Edit. Serrani. This is the more probable from what Milton says in the account which he gives of himself. "Thus "from the laureat fraternity of "poets, riper years, and the "ceaseless round of study and "reading, led me to the shady 590 595 spaces of philosophy; but chiefly to the divine volumes " of Plato, and his equal Xeno66 phon: where if I should tell ye what I learnt of chastity "and love, I mean that which "is truly so," &c. Apol. for Smectymn. p. 111. vol. i. edit. 1738. Thyer. 591.and is judicious,] To be judicious means here to choose proper qualities in Eve for the object of love; to love her only for what is truly amiable: not for the sense of touch whereby mankind is propagated, ver. 579, &c.; but for what Adam found higher in her society, human and rational, ver. 586. &c. Pearce. 595. To whom thus half abash'd Adam replied.] Adam's discourse, which follows the gentle rebuke he received from the angel, shews that his love, however violent it might appear, was still founded in reason, and consequently not improper for Paradise. Addison. To whom thus half abash'd Adam replied. This verse might have been turned otherwise, To whom thus Adam half abash'd replied, and many perhaps will think that it runs smoother thus. But let the reader consider again, Neither her outside form'd so fair, nor ought More grateful than harmonious sound to th' ear. 600 605 610 615 whether the verse as it is in Milton does not better express the shame and modest confusion of Adam. 598. Though higher of the genial bed by far,] The genial bed, so Horace, Ep. i. i. 87. lectus genialis. And with mysterious reverence I deem. He had applied this epithet to marriage before in iv. 750. Hail wedded love, mysterious law. 615. Love not the heav'nly spirits, &c.] By studying the reveries of the Platonic writers, Milton contracted a theory concerning chastity and the purity of love, in the contemplation of which, like other visionaries, he indulged his imagination with ideal refinements, and with pleasing but unmeaning notions of excellence and perfection. Plato's sentimental or metaphysical love he seems to have ap |