Or of reviv'd Adonis, or renown'd Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son, death, and concluded with singing and rejoicing for his revival. It is very true, as Dr. Bentley says, that Κηποι Αδωνίδος, the gardens of Adonis, so frequently mentioned by Greek writers, Plato, Plutarch, &c. were nothing but portable earthen pots with some lettuce or fennel growing in them, and thrown away the next day after the yearly festival of Adonis: whence the gardens of Adonis grew to be a proverb of contempt for any fruitless, fading, perishable affair. But, as Dr. Pearce replies, Why did the Grecians on Adonis's festival carry these small earthen gardens about in honour of him? was it not because they had a tradition, that when he was alive he delighted in gardens, and had a magnificent one? Pliny mentions the gardens of Adonis and Alcinous together as Milton does. There is nothing that the ancients admired more than the gardens of the Hesperides, and those of the kings Adonis and Alcinous. Antiquitas nihil prius mirata est quàm Hesperidum hortos, ac regum Adonidis et Alcinoi. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xix. cap. 4. The Italian poet Marino in his L'Adone, cant. vi. describes the gardens of Adonis at large: and Huetius in his Demonstr. Evangel. prop. iv. cap. iii. sect. 3. says of the Greeks, Regem Adonidem hortorum curæ impensè fuisse deditum narrantes. Our countryman Spenser celebrates the gardens of Adonis in his Faery 440 Queen, book iii. cant. 6. the title of which is The gardens of Adonis, fraught With pleasures manifold; where he likewise gives an account of his death and revival. Shakespeare too mentions the garden of Adonis, 1 Part of Henry VI. act i. The Dauphin speaks to Pucelle, Thy promises are like Adonis' garden, That one day bloom'd, and fruitful were the next. And Milton himself in the Mask speaks of Beds of hyacinth and roses, Where young Adonis oft reposes, And in his Defensio Secunda he mentions both the gardens of Alcinous and Adonis, and here calls them feigned, which sufficiently distinguishes these gardens of Adonis from those little earthen pots which were really exhibited at his festival. And the gardens of Alcinous he has alluded to before, v. 341. Alcinous, host to old Laertes' son, that is, to Ulysses, whom he entertained in his return from Troy, as Homer informs us, Odyssey, book vii. where he gives us a charming description of his gardens; which Mr. Pope selected from other parts of Homer's works, and translated and published in the Guardian before he attempted the rest. Or that, not mystic, not fabulous as the rest, not alle Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king gorical as some have fancied, but a real garden, which Solomon made for his wife, the daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. See Canticles. And thus, as the most beautiful countries in the world, iv. 268 -285. could not vie with Paradise, so neither could the most delicious gardens equal this flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve. 450.-tedded grass,] Grass just mowed and spread for drying. Richardson. See likewise Lye's Junii Etymologicum under the word Tede. 453. What pleasing seem'd, for her now pleases more,] Did not the beautiful assemblage of proper circumstances in this charm 445 450 455 ingly natural and familiar simile lead one to think, that Milton took the hint of it from some real scene of this sort, which had some time or other smit his fancy, I should be apt to think that he alluded to this same thought in Spenser, who, describing his hero Guyon with a fair lady upon a little island adorned with all the beauties of nature, adds, Faery Queen, b. ii. cant. vi. st. 24. And all though pleasant, yet she made much more. Thyer. 457. her heav'nly form &c.] This is a scene of much the same nature with that betwixt the Saracen king Aladin and the Italian virgin Sophronia in the Angelic, but more soft, and feminine, Her graceful innocence, her every air Of gesture or least action overaw'd His malice, and with rapine sweet bereav'd 2d canto of Tasso's Jerusalem: -Her every air Tasso speaking of Sophronia's A l'honesta baldanza, a l'improviso sembiante. 460 It must be owned, however, that notwithstanding this similitude of circumstances, the English poet vastly excels the Italian both in strength of sentiments and beauty of expression. It may be further observed, that there never was a finer or juster compliment paid to beauty than is here by Milton, as it is not made up of rant and rhapsody as most of this kind are, but only saying what one may easily imagine might have really happened upon the sight of so de How like again is what Milton lightful a scene. Thyer. says of Satan, That space the evil-one abstracted stood From his own ev'il, and for the time remain'd Stupidly good,— to what Tasso says of the state of Aladin's mind, Fù stupor, fù vaghezza, e fù diletto, S'amor non fù, che mosse il cor villano ! They both also agree in making each of them immediately to 461. -with rapine sweet bereav'd, &c.] Compare Spenser, Astrophel, st. vii. That all men's hearts with secret ravishment He stole away. T. Warton. 462. His fierceness of the fierce intent] Though Dr. Bentley thinks it jejune, yet such a repetition is not uncommon in the best poets. Et nostro doluisti sæpe dolore. From his own ev'il, and for the time remain'd 465 Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge; But the hot hell that always in him burns, 470 Thoughts, whither have ye led me! with what sweet Compulsion thus transported to forget What hither brought us! hate, not love, nor hope 475 468. Though in mid heav'n,] That is, would do though he were in heaven, or it may be understood as if he were sometimes in heaven, and justified by Job i. 6. ii. 1. There was a day, when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And Satan speaks to the same purpose in Paradise Regained, i. 366. -nor from the heav'n of heav'ns Hath he excluded my resort sometimes, &c. 468. Compare Comus, 382. 480 And strength, of courage haughty, and of limb The So spake the enemy' of mankind, inclos'd 486. -exempt from wound,] As Eve had said before that they were not capable of death or pain, ver. 283. that is, as long as they continued innocent. 490. Not terrible, though terror be in love And beauty, not approach'd by stronger hate,] Satan had been saying that he dreaded Adam, such was his strength of body and mind, and his own so debased from what it was in heaven: but Eve (he goes on to say) is lovely, not terrible, though terror be in love and beauty, unless it is approached by a mind armed with hate as his is; a hate the greater, as it is disguised under dissembled love. An excellent writer (Dr. Pearce) hath observed on this passage, "that a 485 4.90 495 "beautiful woman is approached "with terror, unless he who ap proaches her has a stronger “ hatred of her than her beauty can beget love in him." Richardson. Something like this in Paradise Regained, ii. 159. -virgin majesty with mild And sweet allay'd, yet terrible t' approach. Thyer. 496. not with indented wave,] Indented is of the same derivation as indenture, notched and going in and out like the teeth of a saw: and Shakespeare applies it likewise to the motions of a snake in As you like it, act iv. And with indented glides did slip away. 499. Fold above fold &c.] We |