Runs diverse, wandering many a famous realm
And country, whereof here needs no account; 235
But rather to tell how, if Art could tell,
How from that fapphire fount the crifped brooks,
Rolling on orient pearl and fands of gold,
With mazy errour under pendant shades
Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed
Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice Art
In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon

240

"In ipfo hortorum apice fons eft eximius, qui primùm argenteis aquarum vorticibus ebulliens, mox diffufus in fluvium finuofis flexibus, atque maandris concifus oberrat, et felicia arva perennibus fœcundat rivulis. Ad fummum in quatuor falientes divifus celeberrimos amnes efficit, qui, varias terrarum plagas intersecantes, pingui ac feraci limo rigant." P. Caufinus de Eloq. lib. xi. edit. 1634. TODD.

Ver. 236. if Art could tell,] Bentley afks whether the poet meaus here the art of poetry, or the art of gardening? Both, he adds, are improper. It is indeed aukwardly expreffed; but, I apprehend, it includes both. It is an apology for the poet's attempting, on fuch flight ground as the brief account of Paradife in Scripture, to fabricate in his imagination, and defcribe in his poem, an extenfively varied scene of fequestered beauty, fertility, and delight. DUNSTER.

Ver. 238. Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold,] Pactolus, Hermus, and other rivers, are defcribed by the poets as having golden fands; but the description is made richer here, and the water rolls on the choiceft pearls as well as on fands of gold. Orient pearl occurs in Shakspeare's Rich. III., in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdefs, and in Jonfon's Fox. NEWTON.

Milton's defcription here ftrongly refembles that of an elder poet, John Davies of Hereford, in his Wittes Pilgrimage, 4to. s. d. fign. T. 2. The poet is alfo defcribing Paradife:

"Rivers of nectar ran on golden fand." TODD.

Pour'd forth profufe on hill, and dale, and plain, Both where the morning fun first warmly smote The open field, and where the unpierc'd fhade 245 Imbrown'd the noontide bowers: Thus was this place

A happy rural feat of various view;

Ver. 244. Both where the morning fun firft warmly fmote &c.] This is a manner of expreffion unusual in our language, and plainly borrowed from the Italian poets, with whom it is very common. Ariofto, Orl. Fur. C. viii. ft. 20.

"Percote il fole ardente il vicin colle."

And fee C. x. ft. 35. THYER.

Mr. Thyer must have forgotten these paffages in Spenser, Faer. Qu. ii. xii. 63.

"The funny beames, which on the billowes beat."

And iii. v. 49. "When the bright fun his beames thereon doth beat." So Chapman, Ovid's Banquet of Senfe, 1595, v. S. -"with right beames the fun her bofom beat."

And Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdefs, A. iv.

"The hot fun beats on it." BowLE.

See alfo R. Niccols, in the Mir. for Mag. 1610, p. 875, “While heauen's light the earth's broade face fhall fmite." And Pfalm cxxi. 6. Old tranflation.

by day." TODD.

Ver. 245.

Drayton's Polyolbion, Song vii.

"The fun fhall not smite thee

the unpierc'd fhade] So, in

"In gloomie fecret fhades not pierc't with fommer's funne."

Todd.

Ver. 246. Imbrown'd the noontide bowers:] Mr. Thyer obferves, that a perfon must be acquainted with the Italian lan guage to difcern the force and exact propriety of this term. It is a word which their poets make use of to describe any thing shaded. See the note on Milton's Sonnet iii. ver. 1. TODD.

Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and

balm,

Others whose fruit, burnifh'd with golden rind,

Hung amiable, Hefperian fables true,

Ver. 248.

250

wept] Wept, by the fame beautiful metaphor, as Ovid fays of the myrrh-tree, Met. x. 500. "Flet tamen: et tepidæ manant ex arbore guttæ :

"Eft honor et lacrymis." NEWTON.

Many inftances of this metaphor might be added from our old and modern poets. I will not omit that of Pope, in his Temple of Fame:

"And trees weep amber on the banks of Po."

But he borrowed it from an old poet. See Poems written by Shakspeare and others, 12mo. 1640, fign. M. 2.

"A tree might drop an amber teare." TODD.

Ver. 250. Hefperian fables true, &c.] Dr. Bentley prefers apples to fables, and asks how fables can be true any where? If they cannot, I wonder how the Doctor, in his edition of Phaedrus, fuffered the following paffage to stand without any cenfure,

"Hanc emendare, fi tamen poffum, volo

"Vera fabella."

The first and moft proper fenfe of the word fabula, as all the dictionaries inform us, is fomething commonly talked of, whether true or falfe: And if Milton ufed the word fable fo here, the fenfe is clear of the objection. But the Doctor would rather throw out the words Hefperian apples (or fables) true, If true, here only, becaufe (fays he) the Hefperian apples are represented by the poets as of folid gold, far from being of delicious tafte, This objection is anfwered by reading, as I think we ought to do,the whole paffage thus,

"Others, whofe fruit burnifh'd with golden rind

"Hung amiable, (Hefperian fables true,

"If true, here only) and of delicious tafte." PEARCE.

Fables, ftories, as in B. xi. 11. What is faid of the Hefperian gardens is true here only; if all is not pure invention, this garden

255

If true, here only, and of delicious taste :
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
Grazing the tender herb, were interpos'd,
Or palmy hillock; or the flowery lap
Of fome irriguous valley spread her store,
Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rofe:
Another fide, umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recefs, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps

was meant And moreover thefe fruits have a delicious taste thofe there had none. RICHARDSON.

Ver. 255. -irriguous] Well-watered, full of Springs and rills: It is the epithet of a garden in Horace, Sat. II. iv. 16. Irriguo nihil eft elutius horto." HUME.

Ver. 256. and without thorn the rofe:] Dr. Bentley calls the rofe without thorn a puerile fancy. But it fhould be remembered, that it was part of the curfe denounced upon the earth for Adam's tranfgreffion, that it should “bring "forth thorns and thiftles," Gen. iii. 18. Hence the general opinion has prevailed, that there were no thorns before; which is enough to justify a poet, in faying "the rofe was without thorn." NEWTON.

The rose without thorn is a rarity. And, though it was fine to imagine fuch an one in Paradise, could only be an Italian refinement. Taffo is the original :

"Senza quei fuoi pungenti ifpidi dumi

"Spiegò le foglie la purpurea rofa." HURD.

Our own poetry was in poffeffion of this "rarity," before Milton's exhibition of it, fupported by venerable authority. See Herrick's Noble Numbers, edit. 1647, p. 71.

"Before man's fall, the rofe was born

(St. Ambrofe fays) without the thorn."

St. Bafil was of the fame opinion. Milton, in his description of Paradife particularly, confulted the Fathers. TODD.

Luxuriant; mean while murmuring waters fall 260 Down the flope hills, difpers'd, or in a lake, That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown'd Her cryftal mirrour holds, unite their streams. The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs, Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune 265 The trembling leaves, while universal Pan, Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance, Led on the eternal Spring. Not that fair field

Ver. 264. The birds their quire apply ;] Spenser, Faerie Queene, iii. i. 40.

Ibid.

"fweet birds thereto applide
"Their dainty layes and dulcet melody." Bowle.

airs, vernal airs,

Breathing the fmell of field and grove, attune

The trembling leaves,] Compare alfo ver. 156, and

Dante, Purg. C. xxviii.

"In questa altezza, che tutta è difciolta,

"Nell' aer vivo, tal moto percuote,

"E fa fonar la felva, perch' è folta:

"E la percoffa pianta tanto puote,

"Che della fua virtute l' aura impregna,

"E quella poi girando intorno scuote." TODD.

Ver. 266. while univerfal Pan, &c.] While univerfal Nature, linked with the graceful Seafons, danced a perpetual round, and throughout the earth, yet unpolluted, led eternal spring. All the poets favour the opinion of the world's creation in the fpring. See Virgil, Georg. II. 338, and Ovid, Met. I. 107. That the Graces were taken for the beautiful feafons, in which all things seem to dance and fmile with an univerfal joy, is plain from Horace, Od. IV. vii. 1, &c. And Homer joins both the Graces and Hours hand in hand with Harmony, Youth, and Venus, in his Hymn to Apollo. HUME.