More to the part sinister, from me drawn, 888. To my just number found.] The just number of ribs in a man is twenty-four, twelve on each side, though sometimes there have been found those who have had thirteen, as Galen says, and very rarely some who have had but eleven, as Tho. Bartholinus, a famous physician, observed, in a lusty strong man whom he dissected in the year 1657, who had but eleven on one side, and a small appearance of a twelfth on the other. Hist. Anatom. et Medic. Centur. 5. c. 1. But some writers have been of opinion, that Adam had thirteen ribs on the left side, and that out of the thirteenth rib God formed Eve: and it is to this opinion that Milton here alludes, and makes Adam say, It was well if this rib was thrown out, as supernumerary to his just number. 888. -O why did God, &c.] This thought was originally of Euripides, who makes Hippolytus in like manner expostulate with Jupiter for not creating man without women. See Hippol. 616. Ω Ζευ, τι δε κιβδηλον ανθρωποις κακον, And Jason is made to talk in the same strain in the Medea, 573. -χρην γαρ αλλοθεν ποθην βροτως Haidas Texverbal, enλuvys, Ούτω δ' αν εκ ην εδεν ανθρωποις κακον. And such sentiments as these, we suppose, procured Euripides the name of the Woman-hater. Ariosto however hath ventured upon the same in Rodomont's invective against women. Orlando Furioso, cant. xxvii. st. 120, Perche fatto non ha l'alma Natura Why did not Nature rather so pro- Without your help, that man of man might come, And one be grafted on another's side, As are the apples with the pear and plome? Harrington, st. 97. Nor are similar examples wanting among our English authors. Sir Thomas Brown, in the second part of his Religio Medici, sect 9. has something very curious to this purpose, which no doubt Milton had read, that work having been first published in the year 1642, about twentyfive years before Paradise Lost. Shakespeare makes Posthumus cry out in resentment of Imogen's behaviour, Cymbeline, act ii. which we are sure that our author had read, Is there no way for men to be, but women Must be half-workers? And the complaints which Adam makes of the disasters of love may be compared with what Shakespeare's Lysander says in the Midsummer Night's Dream, act i. Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven Of nature, and not fill the world at once Or find some other way to generate Mankind? this mischief had not then befall'n, To human life, and household peace confound. 890 895 900 905 speech had not ended where these lines begin. The sense is quite complete without them; and they seem much fitter for a digressional observation of the author's, such as his panegyric on marriage, &c. than to be put into the mouth of Adam, who could not very naturally be supposed at that time to foresee so very circumstantially the inconveniences attending our strait conjunction with this sex, as he expresses it. Thyer. Not so repuls'd, with tears that ceas'd not flowing, 910 Fell humble, and embracing them, besought heart I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not, 915 920 While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps, 925 Against a foe by doom express assign'd us, As join'd in injuries, one enmity That cruel serpent: On me exercise not More miserable; both have sinn'd, but thou 916. -and unweeting have offended,] Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. ii. st. 45. As all unweeting of that well she knew. Thyer. 925. -one enmity] There is something not improbable in Dr. Bentley's reading, --both joining As join'd in injuries, in enmity: 930 but perhaps the author put owe in opposition to both; both joining one enmity. 926. Against a foe by doom express assign'd us,] For it was part of the sentence pronounced upon the Serpent, Ĝen. iii. 15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. There with my cries importune Heav'n, that all She ended weeping, and her lowly plight, 985 940 to meet him at a friend's whom he often visited, and there fell prostrate before him, imploring forgiveness and reconciliation. It is not to be doubted (says Mr. Fenton) but an interview of that nature, so little expected, must wonderfully affect him : made on his imagination conand perhaps the impressions it tributed much to the painting of that pathetic scene in Paradise Lost, in which Eve addresseth herself to Adam for pardon and peace. At the intercession of his friends who were present, after a short reluctance, he generously sacrificed all his re sentment to her tears: soon his heart relented Tow'ards her, his life so late and sole delight, Now at his feet submissive in distress. Mr. Thyer thus farther enlarges upon the same subject. "This picture of Eve's distress, her "submissive tender address to "her husband, and his generous "reconcilement to her, are ex Itremely beautiful, I had al"most said beyond any thing "in the whole poem; and that "reader must have a very sour "and unfriendly turn of mind, Tow'ards her, his life so late and sole delight, 945 And thus with peaceful words uprais'd her soon. So now of what thou know'st not, who desir'st Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain His full wrath, whose thou feel'st as yet least part, prayers Could alter high decrees, I to that place Would speed before thee, and be louder heard, 950 955 Thy frailty and infirmer sex forgiven, To me committed and by me expos'd. 66 "honourablest things,-and have "in himself the experience and practice of all that which is praiseworthy: of the truth of "which observation he himself " is, I think, a shining instance "in this charming scene now "before us, since there is little room to doubt but that the particular beauties of it are owing to an interview of the same nature which he had "with his own wife, and that "he is only here describing "those tender and generous "sentiments, which he then "felt and experienced." |