In ample space under the broadeft fhade game, 340 In All dainties made by art, and at the table An hundred virgins ferv'd, for hufbands able. Fairfax. 340. 4 table richly spread, &c.] This temptation is not recorded in Scripture, but is however invented with great confiftency, and very aptly fitted to the prefent condition of our Saviour. This way of embellishing his fubject is a privilege which every poet has a juft right to, provided he obferves harmony and decorum in his hero's character; and one may further add, that Milton had in this particular place ftill a ftronger claim to an indulgence of this kind, fince it was a pretty general opinion among the Fathers, that our Saviour underwent many more temptations than those which are mentioned by the Evangelifts; nay, Origen goes fo far as to fay, that he was every day, whilft he continued in the wildernefs, attacked by a fresh one. The beauties of this defcription are too obvious to escape any reader of tafte. It is copious, and yet expreffed with a very elegant concifenefs. Every proper circumftance is mentioned, and yet it is not at all clogged or incumbered, as is often the cafe, with too tedious a de tail In pastry built, or from the fpit, or boil'd, tail of particulars. It was a fcene entirely fresh to our author's imagination, and nothing like it had before occurred in his Paradife Loft, for which reafon he has been the more diffufe, and labored it with greater care, with the fame good judgment that makes him in other places avoid expatiating on fcenes which he had before defcribed. See the note on his short defcription of night at the end of the first book. In a word, it is in my opinion worked up with great art and beauty, and plainly fhows the crudity of that notion which fo much prevails among fuperficial readers, that Milton's genius was upon the decay when he wrote his Paradife Regain'd. Thyer. Pontus, which laft I have eat of at an "old courtier's table. And I re"member, in an old chronicle "there is much complaint of the "nobilities being made fick at "Cardinal Wolfey's banquets, with "rich fented cakes and difhes moft "coitly dreffed with ambergris. I "alfo recollect I once faw a little "book writ by a gentlewoman of 66 Queen Elizabeth's court, where "ambergris is mentioned as the 344. Gris-amber-fteam'd;] Ambergris or grey amber is efteemed the beft, and used in perfumes and cordials. A curious lady communicated the following remarks upon this paffage to Mr. Peck, which we. will here tranfcribe." Grey am"ber is the amber our author here fpeaks of, and melts like butter. "It was formerly a main ingre. "dient in every concert for a banquet; viz. to fume the meat "with, and that whether boiled, "roafted, or baked; laid often on "the top of a baked pudding; 66 66 haut-gout of that age. I fancy "Milton tranfpofed the word for "the fake of his verfe; to make it read more poetically." So far this curious Lady. And Beaumont and Fletcher in the Cuftom of the Country. A&t III. Scene 2. Pontus, and Lucrine bay, and Afric coast. the names of lacrymæ Chrifti and lac Virginis. Warburton. 347. Pontus, and Lucrine bay, and Afric coaft. The fish are brought to furnish this banquet from all the different parts of the world then known; from Pontus or the Euxine fea in Afia, from the Lucrine bay in Europe in Italy, and from the coaft of Africa. And all these places are celebrated for different kinds of fish by the authors of antiquity. It would be almost endless to quote the paffages. Of the Lucrine lake in particular many derive the name à lucro, from the abundance of fish there taken. 349. that diverted Eve!] It is ufed, as he ufes many words according to their proper fignification in Latin. Diverto, to turn afide. We should rather fay perverted. 350. And at a flately fide-board &c.] As the fcene of this entertainment lay in the eaft, Milton has with great judgment thrown in this and the following particulars to give it an air of eaftern grandeur, in which part of the world, it is 350 Than Than Ganymed or Hylas ;] Thefe were two most beautiful youths, and beloved the one by Jupiter, and the other by Hercules. Ganymed was cup-bearer to Jupiter, and Hylas drew water for Hercules, and therefore they are both properly mentioned upon this occafion. 355. and Naiades] Milton is not to be blamed for writing as others did in his time. But fince the critics have determined to write Naïdes in three fyllables, or Naïades in four, it is time for the English poets to call these nymphs Naïds, Jortin. and not Naiads. 356. from Amalthea's horn,] The fame as the cornu copiæ; the horn of plenty. Amalthea was, as fome fay, a Ñaid, the nurse of Jupiter, who nourished him with the milk of a goat, whose horn was afterwards made the horn of plenty; others Than Ganymed or Hylas; diftant more Under the trees now tripp'd, now folemn stood 355 With fruits and flow'rs from Amalthea's horn, And ladies of th' Hefperides, that seem'd Fairer than feign'd of old, or fabled fince others fay, that Amalthea was the name of the goat. 357. And ladies of th' Hefperides,] If we compare this with what the Devil fays a little lower, ver. 374. All these are spirits of air and woods and springs, we shall find that they do not tally each to the other, for the Hefperides were neither ladies of woods nor fprings. Sympfon. What are the Hefperides famous for but the gardens and orchards which they had bearing golden fruit in the western iles of Africa? They may therefore not improperly be ranked, they and their ladies, with the Spirits of woods and fprings. 357. And ladies of th' Hefperides, that feem'd &c.] This is the pointing of the firft, and all the editions; but I take it to be wrong. The Demons feem'd (or were like) nymphs of Diana's train, &c. but they were really fairer than thofe nymphs, &c. were feigned to be. This I take to be the poet's thought; and therefore the comma fhould be put after feem'd. Calton. Of This is very good fenfe, but it may be queftioned whether that feem'd may be referred fo far back as to nymphs of Diana's train; and if these Spirits were fome nymphs of Diana's train, and fome Naiades, others might as well be faid to be ladies of th' Hefperides; and then that feem'd will be joined in conftruction as it is placed, with what follows. Fairer than feign'd of old, or fabled fince Of faery damfels &c. But here feems to be fome defect in the fyntax, as if the poet had meant to fay Fairer than feign'd of old, or what has been fabled fince of faery damfels met in foreft wide by knights, &c. of whom he had read in his romances, where it is not fo easy to trace him, but the name of Sir Pelleas occurs in the Faery Queen B. 6. Cant. 12. St. 39. 358. or fabled fince &c.] Some readers may perhaps in this paffage think our author a little too fond of fhowing his great reading, a fault which he is indeed fometimes guilty of: but those who are converfant in romance writers, and G 3 know Of faery darnfels met in foreft wide By knights of Logres, or of Lyones, And all the while harmonious airs were heard 360 Of chiming ftrings, or charming pipes, and winds Of gentleft gale Arabian odors fann'd From their foft wings, and Flora's earliest smells. 365 Such was the fplendor, and the Tempter now His invitation earneftly renew'd. What doubts the Son of God to fit and eat? These are not fruits forbidden; no interdict Defends the touching of thefe viands pure; 370 Their fion to the eastern custom of ufing perfumes at their entertainments, for the reafon alledged in the note on ver. 350. He has expreffed the very fame idea in the Paradise Loft in the following lines IV. 156. now gentle gales Fanning their odoriferous wings difpenfe Native perfumes, and whisper and by this little specimen one may but |