Fanning their odoriferous wings dispense
Native perfumes, and whifper whence they stole
Those balmy spoils. As when to them who fail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past
Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow
Sabean odors from the spicy fhore

Of Araby the bleft; with fuch delay

160

Well pleas'd they flack their course, and many a league

158. and whisper whence they ftole

Thofe balmy spoils.] This fine paffage is undoubtedly taken from as fine a one in Shakespear's Twelfth Night at the beginning,

-like the sweet south

Chear'd

The two firft of thefe lines exprefs the air's ftealing of the native perfumes, and the two latter that vernal delight which they give to the mind. Befides it may be further obferv'd that this expreffion of the air's ftealing and difperfing

That breathes upon a bank of the fweets of flowers is very com

violets

Stealing and giving odor. But much improved (as Dr. Greenwood remarks) by the addition of that beautiful metaphor included in the word, whisper, which conveys to us a foft idea of the gentle manner in which they are communicated. Mr. Thyer is ftill of opinion, that Milton rather alluded to the following lines of Ariofto's defcription of Paradife, where speaking of the dolce aura he says

E quella à i fiori, à i pomi, e à la

verzura

Gli odor diverfi depredando giva,
E di tutti facera una mistura,
Che di foavità à l'alma notriva.

Orl. Far. C. 34. St. 51.

mon in the best Italian poets. To instance only in one more.

Dolce confufion di mille odori Sparge, e 'nvola volando aura predace.

Adon. di Marino C. 1. St. 13. 163. -with fuch delay The north-eaft winds blowing conWell pleas'd they lack their courfe,] the Cape of Good Hope, and are paft trary to thofe who have doubled the iland Mozambic on the eastern coaft of Africa near the continent, and are failing forwards, they must neceffarily flack their courfe; but yet they are well enough pleas'd with fuch delay, as it gives them the pleasure of fmelling fuch delicious odors, Sabean odors, from

Saba,

1

166

Chear'd with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles :
So entertain'd those odorous fweets the Fiend
Who came their bane, though with them better pleas'd
Than Afmodeus with the fishy fume

170

That drove him, though enamour'd, from the spouse
Of Tobit's fon, and with a vengeance fent
From Media poft to Egypt, there fast bound.
Now to th' afcent of that steep savage hill
Satan had journey'd on, penfive and flow;
But further way found none, fo thick intwin'd,
As one continued brake, the undergrowth
Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplex'd

175

All

Saba, a city and country of Ara-
bia Felix Araby the bleft, the moft
famous for frankincenfe. Sabei
Arabum propter thura clariffimi.
Plin. Nat. Hift. L. 6. C. 28. and
Virg. Georg. II. 117.

—folis eft thurea virga Sabæis.

168. Than Afmodeus with &c.] Afmodeus was the evil Spirit, enamour'd of Sarah the daughter of Raguel, whofe feven hufbands he defroy'd; but after that fhe was married to the fon of Tobit, he was driven away by the fumes of the heart and liver of a Fish; the which smell when the evil Spirit had fmelled, he fled into the utmost parts of Egypt, and the Angel bound him. See the book of Tobit, Chap. VIII.

173. Satan had journey'd on, &c.] The evil Spirit proceeds to make his difcoveries concerning our first parents, and to learn after what manner they may be best attack'd. His bounding over the walls of Paradife; his fitting in the shape of a cormorant upon the tree of life, which stood in the center of it and overtopped all the other trees of the garden; his alighting among the herd of animals, which are fo beautifully reprefented as playing about Adam and Eve, together with his transforming himself into different fhapes, in order to hear their converfation, are circumftances that give an agreeable furprise to the reader, and are devised with great art to connect that series of

180

All path of man or beast that pass'd that way:
One gate there only was, and that look'd east
On th' other fide: which when th' Arch-felon faw,
Due entrance he disdain'd, and in contempt,
At one flight bound high over leap'd all bound
Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within
Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf,
Whom hunger drives to feek new haunt for prey,
Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve 185
In hurdled cotes amid the field secure,

Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold:
Or as a thief bent to unhord the cash

177. All path of man or beaft

that pass'd that way:] Satan is now come to the afcent of the hill of Paradise, which was so overgrown with thicket and underwood, that neither man nor beaft could pass that way. That pass'd that way, that would have pafs'd that way, a remarkable manner of fpeaking, fomewhat like that in II. 642. So feem'd far off the flying Fiend, that is (fpeaking ftrictly) would have feem'd if any one had been there to have feen him. And the like manner of fpeaking we may observe in the best claffic authors, as in Virg. Æn. VI, 467.

Of

Talibus Æneas ardentem et torva

tuentem

Lenibat dictis animum, lacrimafque ciebat.

Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors,
Cross-barr'd and bolted fast, fear no assault,
In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles:
So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold;
So fince into his church lewd hirelings climb.
Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life,
The middle tree and highest there that grew,
Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life

Thereby regain'd, but fat devifing death

To them who liv'd; nor on the virtue thought

190

195

Of

ftronger refemblance; and the hint

f this and the additional fimile of a thief feems to have been taken from thofe words of our Saviour in St. John's gospel, X. 1. He that ntereth not by the door into the sheepold, but climbeth up fome other way, be fame is a thief and a robber.

193. --lead hirelings] The word lewd was formerly underftood in a larger acceptation than it is at prefent, and fignified profane, impious, wicked, vicious, as well as wanton and in this larger fenfe it is employ'd by Milton in the other places where he ufes it, as well as here; I. 490.

-than whom a Spirit more lewd: and VI. 182.

195. The middle tree and highest there that greu,] The tree of life alfo in the midst of the garden, Gen. II. 9. In the midft is a Hebrew phrafe, expreffing not only the local fituation of this inlivening tree, but denoting its excellency, as being the moft confiderable, the talleft, goodlieft, and moft lovely tree in that beauteous garden planted by God himself: So Scotus, Duran, Valefius, &c, whom our poet follows, affirming it the highest there that grew. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradife of God, Rev. II. 7.

Hume.

196. Sat like a cormorant ;] The thought of Satan's transformation into a cormorant, and placing himfelf on the tree of life, feems raised

Yet lewdly dar't our miniftring upon that paffage in the Iliad,

upbraid.

I

where two deities are defcribed, as perching

Of that life-giving plant, but only us'd

For profpect, what well us'd had been the pledge Of immortality. So little knows

Any, but God alone, to value right

The good before him, but perverts beft things
To worst abufe, or to their meanest use.

Beneath him with new wonder now he views 205 To all delight of human fense expos'd

In narrow room Nature's whole wealth, yea more, A Heav'n on Earth: for blissful Paradise