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Of God the garden was, by him in th' east
Of Eden planted; Eden ftretch'd her line
From Auran eastward to the royal towers
Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings,
Or where the fons of Eden long before
Dwelt in Telaffar: in this pleasant foil
His far more pleasant garden God ordain'd;
Out of the fertil ground he caus'd to grow
All trees of nobleft kind for fight, smell, taste;

make of the tree of life? They did not use it ill before the fall, and after the fall they were not permitted to use or eat of it at all. 209. Of God the garden was, by bim in th' eaft

Of Eden planted; So the facred text, Gen. II. 8. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, that is eastward of the place where Mofes writ his history, tho' Milton fays in th' east of Eden; and then we have in a few lines our author's topography of Eden. This province (in which the terreftrial Paradife was planted) extended from Auran or Haran or Charran or Charræ, a city of Mefopotamia near the river Euphrates, extended, I fay, from thence eastward to Se leucia, a city built by Seleucus one of the fucceffors of Alexander the great, upon the river Tigris. Or in other words, this province was the fame, where the children of Eden dwelt in Telaffar (as Ifaiah

210

215

And

fays Chap. XXXVII. 12.) which Telaffar or Talatha was a province and a city of the children of Eden, placed by Ptolomy in Babylonia, upon the common ftream of Tigris and Euphrates. See Sir Ifaac Newton's Chronol. p. 275. So that our author places Eden, agreeably to the accounts in Scripture, fomewhere in Mefopotamia.

215. His far more pleasant garden] In the defcription of Paradife, the poet has obferved Aristotle's rule of lavishing all the ornaments of diction on the weak unactive parts of the fable, which are not fupported by the beauty of fentiments and characters. Accordingly the reader may obferve, that the expreffions are more florid and elaborate in thefe defcriptions, than in moft other parts of the poem. I muft farther add, that tho' the drawings of gardens, rivers, rainbows, and the like dead pieces of nature, are justly cenfured in an

220

And all amid them stood the tree of life,
High eminent, blooming ambrofial fruit
Of vegetable gold; and next to life,
Our death the tree of knowledge grew faft by,
Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill.
Southward through Eden went a river large,
Nor chang'd his course, but through the fhaggy hill
Pafs'd underneath ingulf'd; for God had thrown
That mountain as his garden mold high rais'd 226

heroic poem, when they run out into an unneceffary length; the defcription of Paradife would have been faulty, had not the poet been very particular in it, not only as it is the scene of the principal action, but as it is requifite to give us an idea of that happiness from which our first parents fell. The plan of it is wonderfully beautiful, and formed upon the fhort fketch which we have of it in holy Writ. Milton's exuberance of imagination has poured forth fuch a redundancy of ornaments on this feat of happiness and innocence, that it would be endless to point out each particular. I must not quit this head without farther obferving. that there is fcarce a fpeech of Adam and Eve in the whole poem, wherein the fentiments and allufions are not taken from this their delightful habitation. The reader, during their whole courfe of action, always finds himself in the

Upon

walks of Paradife. In fhort, as the critics have remarked that in thofe poems, wherein thepherds are actors, the thoughts ought always to take a tincture from the woods, fields, and rivers; fo we may obferve, that our firft parents feldom lofe fight of their happy ftation in any thing they fpeak or do; and if the reader will give me leave to use the expreffion, that their thoughts are always Paradifiacal. Addison.

223. Southward through Eden

went a river large,] This is moft probably the river formed by the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris, which flows fouthward, and muft needs be a river large by the joining of two fuch mighty rivers. Upon this river it is fuppofed by the beft commentators that the terreftrial Paradife was fituated. Milton calls this river Tigris in IX. 71.

233. And

Upon the rapid current, which through veins
Of porous earth with kindly thirst up drawn,
Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill
Water'd the garden; thence united fell
Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood,
Which from his darksome paffage now appears,
And now divided into four main ftreams,

230

Runs diverse, wand'ring many a famous realm
And country, whereof here needs no account; 235
But rather to tell how, if Art could tell,

ed

233. And now divided into four main ftreams,] This is groundupon the words of Mofes, Gen. II. io. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into four beads. Now the moft probable account that is given of these four rivers we conceive to be this. The river that water'd the garden of Eden was, as we think, the river formed by the junction of Euphrates and Tigris; and this river was parted into four other main ftreams or rivers; two above the garden, namely Euphrates and Tigris before they are join'd, and two below the garden, namely Euphrates and Tigris after they are parted again; for Euphrates and Tigris they were ftill call'd by the Greeks and Romans, though in the time of Moles they were named Pifon and Gihon. Our

How

poet expreffes it as if the river had been parted into four other rivers below the garden; but there is no being certain of these particulars, and Milton, fenfible of the great uncertainty of them, wifely avoids giving any farther defcrip tion of the countries thro' which the rivers flow'd, and fays in the general that no account needs to be given of them here.

238. Rolling on orient pearl and

fands of gold,] Pactolus, Hermus, and other rivers are described by the poets as having golden fands; but the defcription is made richer here, and the water rolls on the choiceft pearls as well as fands of gold. So in III. 507. we have orient gems; fee the note there. We have likewife orient pearl in Shake fpear, Richard III. A&t IV. and in Beaumont and Fletcher, The faithful Shepherdefs, Act III. And in

the

How from that faphir fount the crisped brooks,
Rolling on orient pearl and fands of gold,
With mazy error under pendent shades

240

Ran nectar, vifiting each plant, and fed
Flow'rs, worthy' of Paradife, which not nice Art
In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon
Pour'd forth profuse on hill and dale and plain,
Both where the morning fun first warmly smote
The open field, and where the unpierc'd shade 245
Imbrown'd the noontide bow'rs: Thus was this place

the Fox, Mofca afks Corvino, who had brought a rich pearl as a prefent to old Volpone; Is your pearl orient, Sir? A& I.

244. Both where the morning fun

firft warmly fmote

The open field,] This is a manner of expreffion unufual in our language, and plainly borrow'd from the Italian poets, with whom it is very common. Ariofto Orl. Fur. Cant. 8. St. 20.

A

of to defcribe any thing fhaded. Thus Boiardo defcribing a fleet of fhips going to put to fea. Orl. Inam. Cant. 29.

De le fue vele e tanto fpeffa l'ombra

Che fotto a quelle il mar e fatto bruno.

So alfo Ariosto I remember upon a like occafion,

fotto le vele il mar s'imbruni.

To these inftances may be added from Taffo Gier. Lib. Cant. 14.

Percote il fole ardente il vicin colle.
Cant. 10. St. 35.
Percote il fol nel colle, e fa ri- St. 70.
torno. Thyer.

246. Imbrown'd the noontide

Quinci ella in cima à una mon

tagne afcende Difhabitata, e d'ombre ofcura, e

bruna.

bow'rs] A perfon must be acquainted with the Italian language to difcern the force and In like manner to exprefs the apexact propriety of this term. It is proach of the evening they fay Ju a word which their poets make ufe_l'imbrunir, or if they would fay it

VOL. I.

T

grows

A happy rural feat of various view;

Groves whofe rich trees wept odorous gums and balm,
Others whose fruit burnish'd with golden rind
Hung amiable, Hefperian fables true,

If true, here only', and of delicious taste :
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
Grazing the tender herb, were interpos'd,

grows dufky or gloomy-Il tempo comincia ad imbrunirfi. Thyer. 248. Groves whofe rich Trees &c.] There were groves bearing aromatics, and there were others bearing fruit for fuftenance. The former are called rich trees, as odorous gums and balm carry ufually a higher price than fruit; and they are faid to weep gums and balm by a beautiful metaphor not unufual in poetry as Ovid fays of the myrrhtree, Met. X. 500.

Flet tamen, et tepidæ manant e arbore guttæ,

Eft honor et lacrymis.

250. Hefperian fables true, &c.] Dr. Bentley prefers apples to fables, and afks how fables can be true any where ? If they cannot, I

wonder how the Doctor in his edi-
tions of Phædrus, fuffer'd the fol-
lowing paffage to ftand without any
cenfure,

Hanc emendare, fi tamen poffum,
volo
Vera fabella.

250

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