Of Eden planted; Eden stretch'd her line city built by Seleucus one of the successors of Alexander the Great, upon the river Tigris. Or, in other words, this province was the same, where the children of Eden dwelt in Telassar, (as Isaiah says chap. xxxvii. 12.) which Telassar or Talatha was a province and a city of the children of Eden, placed by Ptolomy in Babylonia, upon the common streams of Tigris and Euphrates. See Sir Isaac Newton's Chronol. p. 275. So that our author places Eden, agreeably to the accounts in Scripture, somewhere in Mesopotamia. 215. His far more pleasant garden] In the description of Paradise, the poet has observed Aristotle's rule of lavishing all the ornaments of diction on the weak unactive parts of the fable, which are not supported by the beauty of sentiments and characters. Accordingly the reader may observe, that the expressions are more florid and elaborate in these descriptions, than in most other parts of the poem. I must further add, that though the drawings of gardens, rivers, rainbows, and the like dead pieces of nature, are justly censured in an heroic poem, when they run out into an unnecessary length; the description of Paradise would have been faulty, had not the 210 215 poet been very particular in it, not only as it is the scene of the principal action, but as it is requisite 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 short sketch which we have of it in holy writ. Milton's exuberance of imagination has poured forth such a redundancy of ornaments on this seat of happiness and innocence, that it would be endless to point out each particular. I must not quit this head without farther observing, that there is scarce a speech of Adam and Eve in the whole poem, wherein the sentiments and allusions are not taken froin this their de lightful habitation. The reader, during their whole course of action, always finds himself in the walks of Paradise. In short, as the critics have remarked that in those poems, wherein shepherds are actors, the thoughts ought always to take a tincture from the woods, fields, and rivers; so we may observe, that our first parents seldom lose sight of their happy station in any thing they speak or do; and if the reader will give me leave to use the expression, that their thoughts are always Paradisiacal. Addison. Out of the fertile ground he caus❜d to grow All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste; Our death the tree of knowledge grew fast by, 223. Southward through Eden went a river large,] This is most probably the river formed by the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris, which flows southward, and must needs be a river large by the joining of two such mighty rivers. Upon this river it is supposed by the best commentators that the terrestrial Paradise was situated. Milton calls this river Tigris in ix. 71. 233. And now divided into four main streams,] This is grounded upon the words of Moses, Gen. ii. 10. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. Now the 220 225 230 most probable account that is given of these four rivers we conceive to be this. The river that watered 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 streams or rivers; two above the garden, namely Euphrates and Tigris before they are joined, and two below the garden, namely Euphrates and Tigris after they are parted again; for Euphrates and Tigris they were still called by the Greeks and Romans, though in the time of Moses they were named Pison and Gihon. Our Runs diverse, wand'ring many a famous realm How from that sapphire fount the crisped brooks, poet expresses 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, sensible of the great uncertainty of them, wisely avoids giving any farther description of the countries through which the rivers flowed, and says in the general that no account needs to be given of them here. 237. the crisped brooks,] Indented, running in and out, says Dr. Johnson and Mr. Warton remarks, that here v. 239. the brooks are said to run with mazy error; and he cites the Tempest, a. iv. sc. 1. where we have the "crisp channels" of brooks, and the First part of K. Henry IV. a. i. s. 4. where the Severn hides "his crisped head in the hollow "bank." But the surface of water, he says, curled by the wind may be signified. See the notes, Il. Pens. 50. Arcades, 46. Comus, 984. E. 238. Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold,] Pactolus, 235 240 Hermus, and other rivers, are 244. Both where the morning Percote il sole ardente il vicin colle. 245 The open field, and where the unpierc'd shade Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm, 250 244. Virgil says of light, Æn. from Tasso, Gier. Lib. cant. xiv. 246. Imbrown'd the noontide bow'rs:] A person must be acquainted with the Italian language to discern the force and exact propriety of this term. It is a word which their poets make use of to describe any thing shaded. Thus Boiardo describing a fleet of ships going to put to sea. Orl. Inam. cant. xxix. De le sue vele e tanto spessa l'ombra Che sotto a quelle il mar e fatto bruno. So also Ariosto I remember upon a like occasion, -sotto le vele il mar s'imbruni. st. 70. Quinci ella in cima à una montagna ascende Dishabitata, e d'ombre oscura, с bruna. In like manner to express the approach of the evening they say su l'imbrunir, or if they would say it grows dusky or gloomy-Il tempo comincia ad imbrunirsi. Thyer. 248. Groves whose rich trees &c.] They are said to weep gums and balm by a beautiful metaphor not unusual in poetry : as Ovid says of the myrrh-tree, Met. x. 500. Flet tamen, et tepidæ manant ex arbore guttæ, Est honor et lacrymis. 250. Hesperian fables true, &c.] Every objection is answered by reading, as I think we ought to do, the whole passage thus, Others, whose fruit burnish'd with golden rind Hung amiable, (Hesperian fables true, If true, here only) and of delicious taste. Pearce. Fables, stories, as xi. 11. What is said of the Hesperian gardens is true here only; if all is not To these instances may be added pure invention, this garden was If true, here only', and of delicious taste: Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks Or palmy hilloc; or the flow'ry lap Of some irriguous valley spread her store, 256. Flow'rs of all hue, and without thorn the rose:] Dr. Bentley rejects this verse, because he thinks it a jejune identity in the poet to say The flowery lap-spread flowers: but, as Dr. Pearce observes, though the expression be not very exact, it is not so bad as Dr. Bentley represents it; for the construction and sense is, The flowery lap of some valley spread her store, which store was what? why flowers of every colour or hue. Dr. Bentley objects too to the latter part of the verse, and without thorn the rose, and calls it a puerile fancy. But it should be remembered, that it was part of the curse denounced upon the earth for Adam's transgression, 255 260 that it should bring forth thorns and thistles, Gen. iii. 18. and from hence the general opinion has prevailed that there were no thorns before; which is enough to justify a poet in saying the rose was without thorns or prickles. 257. Another side, umbrageous grots and caves] Another side of the garden was umbrageous grots and caves, &c. Or on another side were shady grots and caves, &c. the preposition being omitted as is not unusual with our author. See i. 282. and 723. On one side were groves of aromatics, others of fruit, and betwixt them lawns or downs. On another side were shady grottos and caves of cool recess. Our author indeed has not mentioned one side before, but without that he often makes use of the expression, on the other side, as you may see in ii. 108, 706. iv. 985. ix. 888. as Virgil frequently says in parte alia, in another part, though he has not said expressly in one part before, Æn. i. 474. viii. 682. ix. 521. |