On bird, beast, air; air fuddenly eclips'd,
After short blush of morn; nigh in her fight
The bird of Jove, stoop'd from his aery tour, 185
Two birds of gayeft plume before him drove;

And in Marlowe's Luft's Dominion, as Mr. Steevens remarks, "Subscribe to his defires." TODD.

Ver. 184. nigh in her fight] Dr. Bentley fays, Milton gave it, "nigh in their fight," not in Eve's only, but in the fight of both. But it should rather be " in her fight" bere, because it is faid afterwards " Adam obferv'd." NEWTON.

Ver. 185. The bird of Jove, ftoop'd from his aery tour,] The bird of Jove, Jovis ales, the eagle. Stoop'd is a participle here, aud a term of falconry. NEWTON.

The term is thus explained by Latham: "Stooping is when a hawke, being upon her wings at the height of her pitch, bendeth violently downe to ftrike the fowle, or any other prey." See Reed's Old Pl. vol. vii. 190. Dr. Johnson thinks that tour here is tower, elevation, high flight. Perhaps it is rather, as Hume has obferved, a wheeling, fuch as birds make in their flight, from the French tour. But Mr. Dunfter remarks, that the lark's “watch-tower in the skies," as described in L'Allegro, may ferve to corroborate Dr. Johnfon's interpretation. TODD.

Ver. 186. Two birds of gayeft plume before him drove; &c.] Such omens are not unusual in the poets. See Virgil. Æn. i. 393, and Æn. xii. 247. But thefe omens have a fingular beauty here, as they show the change that is going to be made in the condition of Adam and Eve; and nothing could be invented more appofite and proper for this purpose. An eagle pursuing two beautiful birds, and a lion chafing a fine hart and hind; and both to the eaftern gate of Paradife; as Adam and Eve were to be driven out by the Angel at that gate. NEWTON.

The print, prefixed to the fifth scene of the fourth act of Andreini's Adamo, reprefents, as confequences of the Fall, beasts, and birds, destroying one another. TODD.

Down from a hill the beast that reigns in woods,
First hunter then, pursued a gentle brace,
Goodliest of all the foreft, hart and hind;
Direct to the eastern gate was bent their flight. 190
Adam obferv'd, and with his eye the chase
Pursuing, not unmov'd, to Eve thus spake.
O Eve, some further change awaits us nigh,
Which Heaven, by these mute figns in Nature,
shows

195

Forerunners of his purpose; or to warn
Us, haply too fecure, of our discharge
From penalty, because from death releas'd
Some days: how long, and what till then our life,
Who knows? or more than this, that we are duft,
And thither must return, and be no more? 200
Why else this double object in our fight
Of flight pursued in the air, and o'er the ground,
One way the self-fame hour? why in the east
Darkness ere day's mid-course, and morning-light
More orient in yon western cloud, that draws 205
O'er the blue firmament a radiant white,
And flow defcends with fomething heavenly
fraught?

Ver. 204. Darkness ere day's mid-course,] Ovid, Met. i. 602. "Et noctis faciem nebulas feciffe volucres

"Sub nitido mirata die." HUME.

Compare Ifaiah, xvi. 3. "Make thy fhadow as the night in the midst of the noon day." Bowle.

Ver. 205. More orient in yon western cloud, that draws

O'er the blue firmament a radiant white,

And flow defcends with fomething heavenly fraught?]

210

He err'd not; for by this the heavenly bands Down from a sky of jafper lighted now In Paradise, and on a hill made halt; A glorious apparition, had not doubt And carnal fear that day dimm'd Adam's eye. Not that more glorious, when the Angels met

I think it would not be amifs to refer the curious reader to Marino's defcription of the defcent of the three Goddeffes upon Mount Ida, Adon. C. ii. ft. 67; which is a scene of the fame fort with this, and painted, I think, even in livelier colours than this of Milton's. THYER.

It is not improbable that Milton had in mind the frequent fcenery of this kind, exhibited in the Masks of his own time; to which indeed he makes reference on other occafions, even of the most serious description. See his Ode on the Passion, ver. 19. And the note there. See alfo his Ode on the Death of a Fair Infant, ver. 55.

"Or any other of that heavenly brood

"Let down in cloudy throne to do the world fome good?" Thus in Carew's Mask at Whitehall in 1633: "The dance being paft, there appears in the further part of the heaven coming down a pleafant cloud, bright and transparent, which, coming foftly downwards before the upper part of the mountain, embraceth the Genius; and then rifing again with a gentle motion bears up the Genius of the three Kingdoms, &c." So in Marfton's Mask, defcribed in the fixth volume of this edition: "The cloudes defcend, whilft fofte mufique foundeth: Cynthia and Ariadne dismount from theire cloudes, &c." p. 153. Many illuftrations of this kind might be added. TODD.

Ver. 213. Not that more glorious, &c.] That was not a more glorious apparition of Angels, which appeared to Jacob in Mahanaim, Genefis xxxii. 1, 2. Nor that, which appeared on the flaming mount in Dothan against the king of Syria, when he levied war against a single man, not like a generous enemy; but, like a bafe affaffin, endeavoured to take him by furprife, namely Elifha, for having difclofed the defigns of the king of Syria to the king of Ifrael, 11 Kings vi. 13, &c. NEWTON,

Jacob in Mahanaim, where he faw

The field pavilion'd with his guardians bright; 215
Nor that, which on the flaming mount appear'd
In Dothan, cover'd with a camp of fire,
Against the Syrian king, who to surprise
One man, affaffin-like, had levied war,
War unproclaim'd. The princely Hierarch 220
In their bright stand there left his Powers, to seise
Poffeffion of the garden; he alone,
To find where Adam fhelter'd, took his way,
Not unperceiv'd of Adam; who to Eve,
While the great vifitant approach'd, thus fpake.
Eve, now expect great tidings, which perhaps
Of us will foon determine, or impose
New laws to be observ'd; for I descry,
From yonder blazing cloud that veils the hill,
One of the heavenly hoft; and, by his gait, 230
None of the meaneft; fome great Potentate

224

Ver. 215. The field pavilion'd] The tented field, alluding to the original meaning of Mahanaim, that is, " two hofts or camps." Shakspeare alfo ufes pavilion'd for tented, as Mr. Bowle likewise obferves, A. i. S. ii.

"And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France." TODD.

Ver. 220. War unproclaim'd.] The fevere cenfure on this makes me fancy that Milton hinted at the war with Holland, which broke out in 1664, when we furprised and took the Dutch Bourdeaux fleet, before war was proclaimed; which the Whigs much exclaimed againft. WARBURTON.

Ver. 230.

and, by his gait,

None of the meaneft;] Milton often uses this expreffion, to denote the fuperiour rank of the perfon. Thus Eve

Or of the Thrones above; fuch majesty
Invests him coming! yet not terrible,
That I should fear; nor fociably mild,
As Raphaël, that I should much confide; 235
But folemn and fublime; whom not to offend,
With reverence I must meet, and thou retire.
He ended: and the Arch-Angel foon drew nigh,
Not in his shape celestial, but as man
Clad to meet man; over his lucid arms
A military vest of purple flow'd,
Livelier than Meliboan, or the grain
Of Sarra, worn by kings and heroes old

240

"furpaffes Delia's felf in gait, and Goddess-like deport" B. ix. 389. And the Prince of Hell is known "by his gait," B. iv. 870. Compare Virgil, Æn. i. 405. "Et vera incessu patuit Dea." It is alfo mentioned in Eccus, xix, 30, that " a man's gait fhows what he is." And in King Lear, Albany fays to Edmund,

"Methought thy very gait did prophefy
"A royal noblenefs." TODD.

Ver. 232.

Such majesty

Invests him coming!] Probably in allufion to the expreffion, applied by the Pfalmift to the Moft High: "He is clothed with majesty," Pfalm xciii. 1. TODD.

Ver. 242. Livelier than Melibean,] Of a livelier colour, and richer dye, than any made at Melibaa, a city of Theffaly; famous for a fish called oftrum, there caught and used in dying the nobleft purple. Virgil, Æn. v. 251.

"Quam plurima circum

"Purpura Mæandro duplici Melibaa cucurrit."

Or the grain of Sarra, the dye of Tyre, named Sarra of Sar, the Phoenician name of a fish there taken, whose blood made the purple colour. Virgil, Georg. ii. 506.

"Sarrano indormiat oftro." HUME.