Among sweet dews and flowers; where any row
Of fruit-trees over-woody reached too far

Their pampered boughs, and needed hands to check
Fruitless embraces or they led the vine

To wed her elm; she spoused about him twines
Her marriageable arms, and with her brings
Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn
His barren leaves. Them thus employed beheld
With pity Heaven's high King, and to him called
Raphael, the sociable Spirit, that deigned

To travel with Tobias, and secured

His marriage with the seven-times wedded maid.

220

"Raphael," said he, "thou hearest what stir on Earth.
Satan, from Hell scaped through the darksome gulf,
Hath raised in Paradise, and how disturbed
This night the human pair, how he designs
In them at once to ruin all mankind.
Go therefore, half this day, as friend with friend,
Converse with Adam, in what bower or shade
Thou findest him from the heat of noon retired,
To respite his day-labour with repast,

Or with repose; and such discourse bring on,
As may advise him of his happy state,
Happiness in his power left free to will,

Left to his own free-will, his will though free

230

221. Raphael, etc. See Pneumatology, 3. This is the second allusion we have had to the Book of Tobit, which seems to have been a favourite, and not unjustly so, with the poet.

216.

221.

224.

"Ergo aut adulta vitium propagine

Altas maritat populos." Hor. Ep. ii. 9.—N.
Ερμεία, σοὶ γάρ τε μάλιστά γε φιλτατόν ἐστιν
̓Ανδρὶ ἐταιρίσσαι. Il. xxiv. 334. St.

"Chiama a se Michele...

E dice lui: Non vedi or come s' armi

Contra la mia fedel diletta greggia

L'empia schiera d' Averno, e insin dal fondo

Delle sue morti a turbar sorga il mondo?

Va, dille tu," etc. Tasso, Ger. Lib. ix. 58.-Th.

229. "And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." Ex. xxxiii. 11.-K.

Yet mutable; whence warn him to beware

He swerve not, too secure. Tell him withal
His danger, and from whom; what enemy,
Late fallen himself from Heaven, is plotting now
The fall of others from like state of bliss;
By violence? no, for that shall be withstood;
But by deceit and lies. This let him know,
Lest wilfully transgressing he pretend
Surprisal, unadmonished, unforewarned."

So spake the eternal Father, and fulfilled
All justice. Nor delayed the winged Saint
After his charge received; but, from among
Thousand celestial Ardours, where he stood,

240

Veiled with his gorgeous wings, up-springing light,

250

Flew through the midst of Heaven;-the angelic quires,
On each hand parting, to his speed gave way

Through all the empyreal road; till, at the gate
Of Heaven arrived, the gate self-opened wide,
On golden hinges turning, as by work

Divine the sovran Architect had framed.
From hence-no cloud or, to obstruct his sight,

Star interposed however small-he sees,

Not unconform to other shining globes,

Earth, and the garden of God, with cedars crowned 260
Above all hills. As when by night the glass

Of Galileo, less assured, observes

242. By violence? There is a semicolon here in the original editions. 247. Saint, i.e. holy one: see on iii. 60.

249. Ardours, i.e. Seraphim. Saraf, Heb., and ardeo, Lat., are the same. 250. Veiled, i.e. covered, velatus.

257. no cloud... interposed. As this is evidently what is called the abl. abs. we have so pointed it. The pointing of the original editions is very confused.

259. not unconform, etc., being formed not unlike.

262. Galileo. The Tuscan artist,' i. 288.—less assured, i.e. less certain; for his were only conjectures.

247.

255.

Ὡς ἔφατ'· οὐδ ̓ ἀπίθησε διάκτορος Αργειφόντης·

Αὐτίκ ̓ ἔπειθ'. κ.τ.λ. Π. xxiv. 339.-Κ.

"Le porte qui d'effigiato argento

Sui cardini stridean di lucido oro." Tasso, Ger. Lib. xvi. 2.—T.

Imagined lands and regions in the moon;
Or pilot from amidst the Cyclades
Delos or Samos first appearing kens,

A cloudy spot. Down thither prone in flight
He speeds, and, through the vast ethereal sky,
Sails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing
Now on the polar winds, then with quick fan
Winnows the buxom air; till, within soar
Of towering eagles, to all the fowls he seems
A phoenix, gazed by all, as that sole bird,
When, to enshrine his reliques in the Sun's
Bright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies.

At once on the eastern cliff of Paradise
He lights, and to his proper shape returns,
A Seraph winged. Six wings he wore, to shade
His lineaments divine; the pair that clad

Each shoulder broad came mantling o'er his breast
With regal ornament; the middle pair

Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round
Skirted his loins and thighs, with downy gold
And colours dipped in heaven; the third his feet
Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail,
Sky-tinctured grain. Like Maia's son he stood,
And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance filled
The circuit wide. Straight knew him all the bands

264. Or pilot, etc. An error of the poet's see Life of Milton, p. 430. 266. A cloudy spot, i.e. as a cloudy spot.-prone, headlong, pronus.

270

280

270. buxom air. See on ii. 842.—within soar, etc., i.e. in the region to which eagles can soar.

271. seems, i.e. appears, is: comp. v. 276.-sole. Because there was only one phoenix at a time. In what follows he keeps close to the narrative in Herodotus, ii. 73.

277. Six, etc. See Isaiah vi.

285. Like Maia's son, i.e. like Mercury, as described by the ancient poets, Homer, Virgil, Ovid.

285.

286.

"A station like the herald Mercury

New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill." Ham. iii. 4.—T.

"On Lebanon at first his foot he set

And shook his wings with roarie May-dew wet."

Fairfax, Godf. of Bul. i. 14.-N.

Of Angels under watch, and to his state
And to his message high in honour rise;
For on some message high they guessed him bound.
Their glittering tents he passed, and now is come
Into the blissful field, through groves of myrrh,
And flowering odours, cassia, nard, and balm,
A wilderness of sweets; for Nature here
Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will
Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet,
Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss.
Him, through the spicy forest onward come,
Adam discerned, as in the door he sat

Of his cool bower, while now the mounted sun
Shot down direct his fervid rays, to warm

290

300

Earth's inmost womb, more warmth than Adam needs;
And Eve within, due at her hour, prepared

For dinner savoury fruits, of taste to please

True appetite, and not disrelish thirst

Of nectarous draughts between, from milky stream,

292. field, i.e. champain of Paradise (iv. 134): comp. v. 136.

295. her prime, sc. of life, her spring.

296. sweet, i.e. sweetly.-enormous bliss, i.e. bliss without measure, e norma. 297. Wild, etc. The original editions placed a semicolon at art. Newton first made the correction.

298. Him, etc. The whole of what follows and the entertainment is founded on the visit of Jehovah and his angels to Abraham, Gen. xviii.

305. not disrelish, i.e. not take away thirst by their juices so as to leave no relish for liquids.

306. milky stream, i.e. stream whose waters were sweet as milk: see on Sam. Agon. v. 551.

307. Berry, etc., sc. the must and meaths, v. 345.

T. Watson, Ital. Madrigals, etc., 1590.-T. 298. "And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre : and he sat in the tent-door, and he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him." Gen. xviii. 1.-B.

300.

"Cælo et medium sol igneus orbem Hauserat." Virg. Geor. iv. 426.—K.

"Nunc Phoebus utraque

Distat idem terra, finditque vaporibus arva."

Ov. Met. iii. 151.-K.

Berry or grape: to whom thus Adam called:

"Haste hither, Eve, and, worth thy sight, behold
Eastward among those trees what glorious shape
Comes this way moving; seems another morn
Risen on mid-noon. Some great behest from Heaven
To us perhaps he brings, and will vouchsafe
This day to be our guest. But go with speed,
And what thy stores contain bring forth, and pour
Abundance, fit to honour and receive

Our heavenly stranger. Well we may afford
Our givers their own gifts, and large bestow
From large bestowed, where Nature multiplies
Her fertile growth, and by disburdening grows
More fruitful, which instructs us not to spare."

310

320

To whom thus Eve:-"Adam, earth's hallowed mould,

Of God inspired! small store will serve, where store,
All seasons, ripe for use hangs on the stalk;

Save what by frugal storing firmness gains

To nourish, and superfluous moist consumes.

But I will haste, and from each bough and brake,
Each plant and juiciest gourd, will pluck such choice
To entertain our Angel-guest, as he
Beholding shall confess, that here on Earth
God hath dispensed his bounties as in Heaven."
So saying, with despatchful looks in haste
She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent,
What choice to choose for delicacy best,
What order, so contrived as not to mix

330

312. vouchsafe. In the original editions the word is uniformly, but incorrectly, spelt voutsafe, probably by the poet, euphoniæ gratia.

323. All seasons, i.e. at, or through all seasons; in the Latin and Italian form. He forgets, as elsewhere, that there was but one season at that time.

326. brake. He uses this word (spelt break in his own editions) as equivalent to bush. Its original meaning is said to be fern; Scot., bracken.

328. as, sc. that, a usual form at the time. In v. 330 it is, as well as. 333. What choice, etc., i.e. on what, etc. He here combines the subst. and verb after the manner of the Classics.

321. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." Gen. ii. 7.—K.