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So fit, fo acceptable, so divine,

That from her hand I could fufpect no ill,
And what she did, whatever in itself,
Her doing feem'd to justify the deed;
She gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

To whom the Sovran Presence thus replied. Was the thy God, that her thou didst obey Before his voice? or was she made thy guide, Superiour, or but equal, that to her

140

145

Thou didst refign thy manhood, and the place Wherein God fet thee above her made of thee, And for thee, whose perfection far excell'd Hers in all real dignity? Adorn'd

"fo well apparell❜d,

150

"So clear, fo fhining, and fo evident." DUNSter. Ver. 145. Was fhe thy God?] An expoftulation fuggefted perhaps by Scripture, as Mr. Stillingfleet alfo notes. See Gen. xxx. 2, and 11 Kings, v. 7. TODD.

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She was indeed, and lovely, to attract

Thy love, not thy fubjection;] Dr. Newton obferves, that this is the fame fentiment as the Angel had inculcated, B. viii. 568, &c.; and that, in other parts of his work, Milton feems to have been a strenuous advocate for keeping up the authority of the husband. I fubjoin, from the poet's Doct. and Difcip. of Divorce, another pointed obfervation, as a striking proof how determined he had been, from his first having a wife, to rule a wife!

"What an injury it is after wedlock, &c. to be contended with, in point of house-rule, who shall be the head; not for any parity of wifdom, for that were fomething reafonable, but out of a female pride! I fuffer not, faith St. Paul, the woman to ufurp authority over the man. If the Apoftle could not fuffer it, into what mould is he mortified that can?"-This was written very foon after his first marriage. TODD.

She was indeed, and lovely, to attract
Thy love, not thy fubjection; and her gifts
Were fuch, as under government well seem'd;
Unfeemly to bear rule; which was thy part 155
And perfon, hadft thou known thyself aright.
So having faid, he thus to Eve in few.

Say, Woman, what is this which thou hast done?

Ver. 155.

thy part

And perfon,] A pure Latinifm. The perfona dra matis. So Cicero pro Muren. c. 2. "Has partes lenitatis et misericordiæ, quas me Natura ipfa docuit, femper ago libenter; illam verò gravitatis, feveritatis, perfonam non appetivi." Milton, in his Hift. of Eng. p. 37, edit. Toland, ufes the word thus: "If it were an honour to that perfon which he fuftained."

Ver. 157.

RICHARDSON.

he thus to Eve in few.] Words are here understood; an ellipfis very common both in the Greek and Latin writers. LORD MON BODDO.

It was alfo not unusual with our own writers. Thus Shakspeare, K. H. IV. P. ii. A. i. S. i.

"In few; his death, whofe fpirit lent a fire, &c."

And Warner, Albion's England, 1602, p. 40.

"In few; the warres are full of woes."

And even in profe: "In few; if a veftall virgine in time of gentilifme &c." See A Decacordon of ten Quodlibetical Questions &c. 1602, p. 238. TODD.

Ver. 158. The question in this, and the reply in verse 162, are taken, as Hume and Dr. Newton have obferved, from Gen. iii. 13. While Milton, however, in the answer of Eve keeps exactly close to the words of Scripture, in describing her manner of speaking, he has most ably and judiciously thrown in, as Mr. Dunfter obferves, fome highly appropriate poetick decorations; which have an infinitely better effect than any enlargement of her brief acknowledgement of her guilt would have had. TODD.

To whom fad Eve, with fhame nigh over

whelm'd,

160

Confeffing soon, yet not before her Judge
Bold or loquacious, thus abash'd replied.
The Serpent me beguil'd, and I did eat.
Which when the Lord God heard, without
delay

165

To judgement he proceeded on the accus'd
Serpent, though brute; unable to transfer
The guilt on him, who made him instrument
Of mischief, and polluted from the end
Of his creation; justly then accurs'd,
As vitiated in nature: More to know
Concern'd not Man, (fince he no further knew)
Nor alter'd his offence; yet God at last
To Satan firft in fin his doom applied,
Though in mysterious terms, judg'd as then beft:
And on the Serpent thus his curfe let fall.
Because thou haft done this, thou art accurs'd

Ver. 169.

More to know

171

Concern'd not Man, (fince he no further knew)] This is badly expreffed. The meaning is, As Man was not to be let into the mysteries of the Redemption at this time, it did not concern him to know that the serpent was but the instrument of the Devil. When Milton wrote this, I fancy he had it not then in his thoughts to make Michael reveal to Adam, in the last book, the doctrine of Redemption; or, if he did intend it, he forgot that a theological comment on those words in Genefs would ill agree with what was to follow. WARBURTON.

Ver. 175. Because thou haft done this, &c.] See Gen. iii. 14, 15. Milton was certainly here more in the right than ever in adhering religiously to Scripture, though he has thereby spoiled the

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go,

Above all cattle, each beast of the field;
Upon thy belly groveling thou shalt
And duft fhalt eat all the days of thy life.
Between thee and the woman I will

put

Enmity, and between thine and her feed;

176

180

Her feed fhall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.

So fpake this oracle, then verified

harmony of his verfe. He thought, without doubt, that, to mix any thing of his own, would be a violation of decency, and a profanation, like that of Uzzah's putting forth his hand to the ark of God. And the fentence is very well explained by him, that it was pronounced immediately upon the ferpent as made the inftrument of mischief and vitiated in nature, but is to be applied immediately to Satan, the old Serpent, though in mysterious terms: And as the author explains how the fentence was to be understood be fore he relates it, fo he fhows afterwards how it was fulfilled.

NEWTON.

But Milton throughout his poem, where the Divine Perfous are the speakers, is only studious that his language should be made, by being founded on Scripture, as appropriate as poffible, without giving himself any concern about the harmony of the verse, which he feems really ftudious to avoid, from a fort of reverential awe and chaftened fear of appearing to attempt decoration of language, where it cannot ferve to elevate the ideas, and therefore is peculiarly unappropriate and unfeemly. DUNSTER.

Ver. 182.

oracle, then verified

When Jefus, Son of Mary, &c.] Here is a manifeft indication, that, when Milton wrote this paffage, he thought Paradife was chiefly regained at our Saviour's refurrection. This would have been a copious and fublime subject for a fecond poem. The wonders, then to be described, would have erected even an ordinary poet's genius; and, in epifodes, he might have introduced his conception, birth, miracles, and all the hiftory of his adminiftration, while on earth. And I much grieve, that, instead of

When Jefus, Son of Mary, fecond Eve,

Saw Satan fall, like lightning, down from Heaven,
Prince of the air; then, rifing from his grave, 185
Spoil'd Principalities and Powers, triumph'd
In open show; and, with ascension bright,
Captivity led captive through the air,
The realm itself of Satan, long ufurp'd;
Whom he shall tread at last under our feet; 190
Even he, who now foretold his fatal bruise;
And to the Woman thus his sentence turn'd.
Thy forrow I will greatly multiply

this, he should choose for the argument of his Paradife Regained
the fourth chapter of Luke, the temptation in the wilderness; a dry,
barren, and narrow ground, to build an epick poem on. In that
work he has amplified his fcanty materials to a furprising dignity;
but yet, being cramped down by a wrong choice, without the ex-
pected applause. BENTLEY.

Ver. 184. Saw Satan fall, like lightning, &c.] In this speech
are many allufions to Scripture, which Hume and Dr. Newton
have noticed; as particularly to Luke x. 18, in ver. 184; to
Ephef. ii. 2, in calling Satan Prince of the air; to Col. ii. 15, in
ver. 186; to Pfalm Ixviii. 18, and Ephef. iv. 8, in the two follow-
ing verfes; and to Rom. xvi. 20, in ver. 190. Poffibly by the
realm of Satan, in v. 189, the poet alludes alfo to Ephef. vi. 12,
where the minifters of this kingdom are exprefsly mentioned:
"the Principalities, the Powers, the Rulers of the darkness of
this world, the wicked Spirits [as the Greek is rendered in the
margin] in high places." The opinion that the air was ruled by
devils, feems to have obtained also among the Jewish and Heathen
writers. See more on this fubject, in Burton's Anat. of Melan-
choly, part i. fect. 2, fubfect. 2. TODD.

Ver. 192. And to the Woman &c.] Milton is exact in re-
porting the fentences pronounced on our firft parents. See Gen.
iii. 16, 17, 18, 19. NEWTON.

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