Each other, blam'd enough elsewhere, but strive Each other's burden, in our share of woe; To whom thus Eve, recovering heart, replied, How little weight my words with thee can find, 960 965 970 975 976. Tending to some relief of and seed at once, they should our extremes, Or end,] Adam had said before, that the death denounced upon them, as far as he could see, would prove no sudden but a slow-paced evil, a long day's dying, and would likewise be derived to their posterity. Eve therefore proposes, to prevent its being derived to their posterity, that they should resolve to remain childless; or if they found it difficult to do so, that then, to prevent a long day's dying to themselves make short and destroy themselves. The former method she considers as some relief of their extremes, the latter as the end. And, as Dr. Greenwood observes, Milton might possibly take the hint of putting these proposals into the mouth of Eve, from Job's wife attempting to persuade her husband in his afflictions to curse God and die. Job ii. 9, 10. 978. As in our evils,] That is, considering the excess of evil to which we are reduced; an If care of our descent perplex us most, Which must be born to certain woe, devour'd 980 By Death at last; and miserable it is To be to others cause of misery, Our own begotten, and of our loins to bring Into this cursed world a woeful race, That after wretched life must be at last 985 Food for so foul a monster; in thy power It lies, yet ere conception to prevent The race unblest, to be'ing yet unbegot. Childless thou art, childless remain: so Death From love's due rites, nuptial embraces sweet, Before the present object languishing With like desire, which would be misery And torment less than none of what we dread; 990 995 Then both ourselves and seed at once to free elegant Latin use of the word 989. Childless thou art, childléss remain :] It is a strange mis 1000 take in some editions, and especially in Milton's own, where this imperfect verse is printed as a whole verse, and the words so Death wanting to complete the line are added to the next line, which is thereby made as much too long as this is too short. So Death shall be deceived his glut, and with us two. Why stand we longer shivering under fears, She ended here, or vehement despair Broke off the rest; so much of death her thoughts Of misery, so thinking to evade The penalty pronounc'd, doubt not but God 1004. and have the power, So these verses are pointed in 1007. She ended here- Virg. Æn. iv. 499. 1005 1010 1015 1020 Hæc effata silet: pallor simul occupat ora. Jortin. -maculisque trementes Interfusa genas, et pallida morte futurâ. En. iv. 644. -Multorum palor in ore Mortis venturæ est, faciesque simillima fato. Luc. vii. 130. Hume. 1011.—his more attentive mind] Attending more to what had passed, calling to mind with heed their sentence, as it is ver. 1030. Hath wiselier arm'd his vengeful ire than so 1024. To be forestall'd;] This word appears too low for heroic poetry it might not be so trite and vulgar formerly; for Fairfax likewise uses it in his Jerusalem, cant. xv. st. 47. But forth there crept (from whence An ugly serpent, which forestall' d 1024. The word forestall was formerly less offensive in a se 1025 1030 1035 1040 rious and sublime poem than at present. It occurs in Comus, 285. Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. And again, v. 362. What need a man forestall his date of grief, &c. So also in Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 88. ed. fol. and often in Spenser and Shakespeare. T. Warton. S 4 Reluctance against God and his just yoke 1045 1050 My bread; what harm? Idleness had been worse; 1055 Or heat should injure us, his timely care 1054. Glanc'd on the ground;] The quibble here is insufferable. Warburton. 1066. -shattering the graceful locks] This shattering is an excellent word, and very expressive of the sense, shaking or breaking to pieces; and etymologists derive it of the Belgic 1060 1065 Schetteren. Our author had used it before in his Lycidas, Shatter your leaves before the mel- And locks of trees is a Latinism: |