Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease Gather'd, not harshly pluck'd, for death mature : Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty, which will change To wither'd, weak, and gray; thy senses then. To what thou hast; and for the air of youth, To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume Henceforth I fly not death, nor would prolong 540 545 550 537. Gather'd, not harshly plucked, for death mature:] He seems to have had in mind this passage of Cicero de Senect. 19. Et quasi poma ex arboribus, cruda si sint, vi avelluntur; si matura et cocta, decidunt: sic vitam adolescentibus vis aufert, senibus maturitas. 538. but then thou must outlive &c.] There is something very just and poetical in this description of the miseries of old age, so finely contrasted as they are with the opposite pleasures of youth. It is indeed short, but vastly expressive, and I think ought to excite the pity as well as the admiration of the reader; since the poor poet is here no doubt describing what he felt at the time he wrote it, being then in the decline of life, and troubled with various infirmities. Thyer. 551. -and patiently attend My dissolution,] In the first edition it was thus, Which I must keep till my appointed day Of rend'ring up, Michael to him replied. But I suppose the author thought that ending too abrupt, and therefore added these words in the second edition, and omitted to him for the verse sake. Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st He look'd, and saw a spacious plain, whereon 553. Nor love thy life, nor hate;] Martial, lib. x. Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes. 554. permit to Heaven:] Permitte Divis. Hor. od. i. ix. 9. a 556. He look'd, and saw spacious plain, &c.] As there is nothing more delightful in poetry than a contrast and opposition of incidents, the author after this melancholy prospect of death and sickness, raises up a scene of mirth, love, and jollity. The secret pleasure that steals into Adam's heart, as he is intent upon this vision, is imagined with great delicacy. I must not omit the description of the loose female troop, who seduced the sons of God, as they are called in Scripture. 555 560 to Jabal, he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. Gen. iv. 20. Others, whence the sound was heard of harp and organ; these belonged to Jubal, he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. Gen, iv. 21. In other part stood one at the forge, this was Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron. Gen. iv. 22. 562. Instinct through all proportions &c.] His nimble fingers, as if inspired, flew through all the various distances of sound, treble or bass, and through all over all proportions, low or high, its parts followed the sounding symphony. A fugue (of fuga, Latin, a flight) is in music the correspondency of parts, answering one another in the same For that fair female troop thou notes, either above or below; saw'st, &c. Addison. 557. Were tents of various hue; &c.] These were the tents of the posterity of Cain, as the author himself afterwards instructs us; by some were herds of cattle grazing; these belonged therefore exactly and graphi cally styled resonant, as sounding the same notes over again. Hume. Milton is the more particular in this description, as he was himself a lover of music, and a performer upon the organ. 565 Fled and pursu'd tranverse the resonant fugue. 570 Into fit moulds prepar'd; from which he form'd 565. two massy clods of ir'on and brass Had melted, (whether found Quod superest, as atque aurum, Ignis ubi ingentes silvas ardore cremârat Montibus in magnis. But these verses want emenda tion. Plumbi potestas is nonsense. The stop should be placed thus: After these, As 573. After these,] being the descendants of the younger brother, but on the hither side, Cain having been banished into a more distant country, a different sort, the posterity of Seth wholly different from that of Cain, from the high neighbouring hills, which was their seat, having their habitation in the mountains near scended, where the Cainites Paradise, down to the plain dedwelt; by their guise just men they seemed, and all their study Scripture itself speaks of them bent to worship God aright, the as the worshippers of the true God, and know his works not hid, Et simul argenti pondus, plumbi and Josephus and other writers que, potestas inform us that they were addicted to the study of natural philosophy, and especially of astronomy, (Joseph. Antiq. lib. i. c. 2.) nor those things last (in the first edition it is lost, but afterwards corrected among the errata) which might preserve, nor was it their last care and study to know those things which might preserve freedom and peace But on the hither side, a different sort 576 From the high neighb'ring hills, which was their seat, In gems and wanton dress; to th' harp they sung 580 The men though grave, ey'd them, and let their eyes 585 Fast caught, they lik'd, and each his liking chose ; to men. Though this account 582. A bevy of fair women,] A bevy is a company, of the Italian beva, (says Hume,) a covey of partridges. It is a word used by Chaucer, and by Spenser likewise of a company of women, Faery Queen, b. ii. cant. ix. st. 34. 590 A lovely bevy of fair ladies sat. A bevy of fair virgins clad in white. And by Shakespeare, Henry VIII. act i. -none here he hopes, In all this noble bevy, has brought with her One care abroad. 586. -till in the amorous net Fast caught, they lik'd,] Dr. Bentley finding first in the later editions, says that Milton must have given it fast: and so he did in both the editions published in his life time. Pearce. 588. -till th' evening star, &c.] See the note on viii. 519. Hymen, then first to marriage rites invok'd: Of love and youth not lost, songs, garlands, flowers, To whom thus Michael. Judge not what is best By pleasure, though to nature seeming meet, Created, as thou art, to nobler end Holy and pure, conformity divine. Those tents thou saw'st so pleasant, were the tents 614. For that fair female troop thou saw'st,] The construction is not, as some may apprehend, For that fair female troop (which) thou sawest; but thou sawest that 595 600 605 610 615 fair female troop, that seemed &c. which is a sufficient proof of the posterity of Cain begetting a beauteous offspring. |