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Or palmy hilloc; or the flow'ry lap

Of fome irriguous valley spread her store,
Flow'rs of all hue, and without thorn the rose :
Another fide, umbrageous grots and caves

Of cool recefs, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps

255

* Luxuriant; mean while murm'ring waters fall 260

Down

delicious tafte, thofe there had greffion, that it fhould bring forth none. Richardfon.

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Hume.

256. Flaw'rs of all bue, and without thorn the rofe:] Dr. Bentley rejects this verfe, because he thinks it a jejuine identity in the poet to fay The flow'ry lap Spread flow'rs: but, as Dr. Pearce obferves, tho' the expreffion be not very exact, it is not fo bad as Dr. Bentley reprefents it; for the conftruction and fenfe is, The flow'ry lap of Some valley Spread her ftore, which ftore was what? why flow'rs of every color or bue. Dr. Bentley objects too to the latter part of the verfe, and without thorn the rofe, and calls it a puerile fancy. But it fhould be remember'd, that it was part of the curfe denounced upon the earth for Adam's tranf

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thorns and thiftles. Gen. III. 18. and from hence the general opinion has prevailed that there were no thorns before; which is enough to justify a poet in saying the rose was without thorns or prickles.

257. Another fide, umbrageous grots

and caves] Another fide of the garden was umbrageous grots and caves, &c. Or on another fide were fhady grots and caves, &c. the præpofition being omitted as is not unusual with our author. See I. 282. and 723.

On one fide were groves of aromatics, others of fruit, and betwixt them lawns or downs. On another fide were fhady grotto's and caves of cool recefs. Our author indeed has not mention'd one fide before, but without that he often makes ufe of the expreffion, on th' other fide, as you may fee in II. 108, 706, IV. 985. IX. 888. as Virgil frequently fays in parte alia, in another part, though he has not faid exprefly in one part before, Æn. I. 474. VIII. 682. IX. 521.

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Down the flope hills, difpers'd, or in a lake,
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown'd
Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams.
The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs,
Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune 265
The trembling leaves, while univerfal Pan

262. difpers'd, or in a lake,] The waters fail difperfed, or unite their streams in a lake, that prefents her clear looking-glafs, holds her crystal mirror to the fringed bank crown'd with myrtle. He makes the lake we may obferve a perfon, and a critic like Dr. Bentley may find fault with it; but it is ufual with the poets to perfonify lakes and rivers, as Homer does the river Scamander and Virgil the Tiber; and Milton himself makes a person of the river of blifs, and a female perfon too, III. 359. as he does here of the lake. This language is certainly more poetical; and I fuppofe he thought Her cryftal mirror founded fmoother and better than Its cryftal mirror, or even His chryftal mirror.

266.—while univerfal Pan &c.] While univerial nature link'd with the graceful feafons danc'd a perpetual round, and throughout the earth yet unpolluted led eternal fpring. All the poets favor the opinion of the world's creation in the spring. Virg. Georg II.3 38

Ver illud erat, ver magnus age

bat

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That the Graces were taken for the beautiful feafons in which all things feem to dance and finile in an univerfal joy is plain from Horace, Od. IV. VII. ì.

Diffugere nives, redeunt jam gramina campis

Gratia cum nymphis geminisque fororibus audet

Ducere nuda choros.

And Homer joins both the Graces

and Hours hand in hand with Har

mony, Youth, and Venus, in his Hume. Hymn to Apollo.

The Ancients perfoniz'd every thing. Pan is nature, the Graces are the beautiful feafons, and the Hours are the time requifite for the production and perfection of things, Milton only fays in a moft poetical

manner

Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance
Led on th' eternal fpring. Not that fair field
Of Enna, where Proférpin gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flow'r by gloomy Dis
Was gather'd, which cost Ceres all that pain
To feek her through the world; nor that sweet

manner (as Homer in his Hymn to Apollo had done before him) that now all nature was in beauty, and every hour produc'd fomething new, without any change for the worse. Richardfen.

268. Not that fair field &c.] Not that fair field of Enna in Sicily, celebrated fo much by Ovid and Claudian for its beauty, from whence Proferpin was carried away by the gloomy God of Hell Dis or Pluto, which occafion'd her mother Ceres to feek her all the world over; nor that fweet grove of Daphne near Antioch, the capital of Syria, feated on the banks of the river Orontes, together with the Caftalian spring there, of the fame name with that in Greece, and extoll'd for its prophetic qualities; nor the iland Nfa, incompaf'd with the river Tryton in Africa, where Cham or Ham the fon of Noah, therefore called old, (who first peopled Egypt and Ly bia, and among the Gentiles gods by the name of Ammon or Lybian Jove) hid his mistress Amalthea and her beautiful fon Bacchus (therefore called Dionyfius) from his

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270

grove

Of

stepdame Rhea's eye, the stepdame of Bacchus, and wife of the Lybian Jove according to fome authors, particularly Diodorus Siculus, Lib. 3. and Sir Walter Raleigh's Hift. B. 1. ch. 6. fect. 5. tho' different from others; nor mount Amara, where the kings of Abaffinia or Abyffinia (a kingdom in the upper Ethiopia) keep their children guarded, a place of moft delightful profpect and fituation, inclos'd with alabaster rocks, which it is a day's journey to afcend, fuppofed by fome (tho' fo far diftant from the true Paradife) to be the feat of Paradife under the Ethiopian or equinoctial line near the fprings of the river Nile: Not any nor all of thefe could vy with this Paradife of Eden; this exceeded all that hiftorians have written or poets have feign'd of the most beautifui places in the world. By the way we should obferve his manner of pronouncing Proferpin with the accent upon the fecond fyllable, like the Latin, and as Spencer and the old English authors pronounce it. Faery Queen, Book 1. Cant. 2. St. 2.

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Of Daphne by Orontes, and th' inspir'd
Caftalian spring, might with this Paradise
Of Eden strive; nor that Nyseian ile

Girt with the river Triton, where old Cham,
Whom Gentiles Ammon call and Lybian Jove,
Hid Amalthea and her florid fon

275

280

Young Bacchus from his stepdame Rhea's eye;
Nor where Abaffin kings their iffue guard,
Mount Amara, though this by some suppos'd
True Paradife under the Ethiop line
By Nilus head, inclos'd with fhining rock,
A whole day's journey high, but wide remote
From this Affyrian garden, where the Fiend 285

Saw

And fad Proférpin's wrath, them and thofe emotions of envy, in to affright; which he is reprefented. There but not as it is commonly used at lines which follow, wherein they is a fine fpirit of poetry in the this time, as in Cato,

So Pluto feiz'd of Proferpin convey'd.

285. Affyrian garden,] Milton here follows Strabo, who comprehends Mefopotamia in the ancient Affyria. Richardjon.

288. Two of far nobler shape &c.] The defcription of Adam and Eve, as they firft appeared to Satan, is exquifitely drawn, and fufficient to make the fallen Angel gaze upon them with all that aft nifhment

are defcribed as fitting on a bed of flowers on the fide of a fountain, amidst a mixed assembly of animals.

Addifon.

293. Truth, wisdom, fanctitude
fevere and pure,
(Severe but in true filial freedom
plac'd)

Whence true authority in men ;] The middle verfe ought to have been put thus in a parenthefis; for the true authority in men arifes not from filial freedom, but from their having truth, wildom, and fancti

tude

Saw undelighted all delight, all kind

290

Of living creatures new to fight and strange.
Two of far nobler fhape erect and tall,
Godlike erect, with native honor clad
In naked majesty feem'd lords of all,
And worthy feem'd; for in their looks divine
The image of their glorious make shone,
Truth, wisdom, fanctitude severe and pure,
(Severe but in true filial freedom plac'd)
Whence true authority in men; though both 295
Not equal, as their fex not equal seem'd;
For contemplation he and valor form'd,
For foftness she and fweet attractive grace,

:

tude fevere and pure, that is ftri&t holinefs; which are qualities that give to magiftrates true authority, that proper authority which they may want who yet have legal authority. This is Milton's meaning and for explaining the word Jevere, he inferts a verfe to show that he does not mean fuch a fanctitude or holinefs as is rigid and auftere, but fuch as is plac'd in filial freedom; alluding to the fcriptural expreffions, which reprefent good Chriftians as free and as the Jons of God: on which foundation our obedience (from whence our fanctitude arifes) is a filial, and not a flavish one; a reverence ra

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297. For contemplation he and va-
lor form'd,
For foftness foe and feet attractive

grace,] The curious reader may pleafe to obferve upon these two charming Lines, how the numbers are varied, and how artfully be and he are placed in each verfe, fo as the tone may fall upon them, and yet fall upon them differently. The author might have given both exactly the fame tone, but every Ꭲ .

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