As with a rural mound, the champain head
Of a steep wilderness, whofe hairy fides
With thicket overgrown, grottefque and wild,
Access deny'd; and over head up grew
Infuperable highth of loftiest shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A fylvan fcene, and as the ranks afcend
Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops
The verd❜rous wall of Paradise up fprung:
Which to our general fire gave profpect large
Into his nether empire neighb'ring round.
And higher than that wall a circling row
Of goodliest trees loaden with fairest fruit,
Bloffoms and fruits at once of golden hue,

another in the fame manner as the
benches in the theatres and places
of public fhows and fpectacles.
And yet higher than the higheft of
thefe trees grew up the verdu-
rous wall of Paradife, a green in-
closure like a rural mound, like a
bank fet with a hedge, but this
hedge grew not up fo high as to
hinder Adam's profpect into the
neighbouring country below, which
is called his empire, as the whole
earth was his dominion, V. 751.
But above this hedge or green
wall grew a circling row of the

135

140

145

Appear'd,

finest fruit trees; and the only entrance into Paradife was a gate on the eastern fide. This account in

profe may perhaps help the reader the better to understand the defcription in verse.

140. Afylvan fcene,] So Virgil, Æn. I. 164.

Tum fylvis fcena corufcis Defuper, horrentique atrum nemus

imminet umbra.

Hume

147.
with faireft fruit,
Bloffoms and fruits at once of golden
bue,] Dr. Bentley reads fruits

in

Appear'd, with gay enamel'd colors mix'd:

151

On which the fun more glad imprefs'd his beams
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath fhow'rd the earth; fo lovely feem'd
That landskip: And of pure now purer air
Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
All fadness but defpair: now gentle gales

in the firft verfe, because fruits follows in the next: but I fhould choose to read fruit in both places; because I obferve that when Milton speaks of what is hanging on the trees, he calls it fruit in the fingular number (when gather'd, in the plural) as in V. 341. fruit of all kinds. See alfo VIII. 307. and IV. 422. and in IV. 249. he repeats this very thought again thus,

155

Fanning

Dr. Bentley reads Than on fair evening cloud.

152.

-fo lovely feem'd

That landfkip:] And now if we compare our poet's topography of Paradife with Homer's defcription of Alcinous's gardens, or with that of Calypfo's fhady grotto, we may without affectation affirm, that in half the number of verfes that they confift of, our author has outdone them. But to make a comparison more obvious to moft un

Others whofe fruit burnish'd with derftandings, read the defcription golden rind &c.

of the bower of blifs by a poet of our own nation and famous in his time; but 'tis impar congreffus, and rime fetter'd his fancy. Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. 2. Cant. 12. St. 42. &c. Hume.

We may add another inftance from This defcription exceeds any thing the Paradife Loft, VII. 324.

and spread

Their branches hung with copious
fruit, or gemm'd
Their blooms.

I ever met with of the fame kind, but the Italians, in my opinion, approach the nearest to our English poet; and if the reader will give himself the trouble to read over Ariofto's picture of the garden of

151. Than in fair evening cloud,] Paradife, Taffo's garden of Ar

Fanning their odoriferous wings difpenfe

Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
Those balmy spoils. As when to them who fail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are paft
Mozambic, off at fea north-eaft winds blow
Sabean odors from the spicy fhore

Of Araby the bleft; with fuch delay

160

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

mida, and Marino's garden of Venus, he will, I think, be perfuaded that Milton imitates their manner, but yet that the copy greatly excels the originals. Thyer.

158.——and whisper whence they ftole

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

-like the sweet south That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing and giving odor.

Mr. Thyer is fill of opinion, that Milton rather alluded to the following lines of Ariofto's defcription of Paradife, where fpeaking 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. Fur. C. 34. St. 51.
VOL. I.

Chear'd

The two firft of these 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 the fweets of flowers is very common in the best Italian poets. To inftance 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 Well pleas'd they flack their courfe,] The north-eaft winds blowing con

trary

to those who have doubled

the Cape of Good Hope, and are paft the iland Mozambic on the eaftern coaft of Africa near the continent, and are failing forwards, they muft neceffarily lack 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

Сс

Saba,

166

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

170

That drove him, though enamour'd, from the 'fpoufe
Of Tobit's fon, and with a vengeance fent
From Media poft to Egypt, there fast bound.
Now to th' afcent of that fteep favage 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 fhrubs and tangling bushes had perplex'd

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

- folis eft thurea virga Sabæis.

175

All

173. Satan had journey'd on, &c.] The evil Spirit proceeds to make his discoveries concerning our firft 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

168. Than Afmodeus with &c.] Afmodeus was the evil Spirit, era mour'd of Sarah the daughter of Raguel, whofe feven hufbands he deftroy'd; but after that he was married to the fon of Tobit, he was driven away by the fumes of with his transforming himfelf into the heart and liver of a fifh; the different fhapes, in order to hear which smell when the evil Spirit had their converfation, are circumJmelled, he fled into the utmost parts ftances that give an agreeable furof Egypt, and the Angel bound him. prife to the reader, and are devifed See the book of Tobit, Chap. VIII. with great art to connect that feries

of

All path of man or beaft that pafs'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 difdain'd, and in contempt, 180
At one flight bound high over leap'd all bound
Of hill or highest wall, and fheer 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 fecure,

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

of adventures, in which the poet has engaged this artificer of fraud. Addifon.

.177. All path of man or beaft that pass'd that way:] Satan is now come to the afcent of the hill of Paradife, which was fo over grown with thicket and underwood, that neither man nor beast could pass that way. That pafsd 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 obferve in the beft claffic authors, as in Virg. Æn. VI. 467.

Of

Talibus Æneas ardentem et torva

tuentem

Lenibat dictis animum, lacrimafque ciebat.

Lenibat animum, did appease her mind, that is would have appeas'd her mind, for what he faid was without the defir'd effect. So Euripides in Ion. 1326.

Haugas wis extever noe unχάνεις;

Have you heard how the kill'd me, that is, would have kill'd me?

183.- As when a prowling wolf,] A wolf is often the fubject of a fimile in Homer and Virgil, but here is confider'd in a new light, and perhaps never furnish'd out a Cc 2

Stronger