Page images
PDF
EPUB

From whom I have that thus I move and live,
And feel that I am happier than I know.
While thus I call'd, and stray'd I knew not whither,
From where I firft drew air, and first beheld
This happy light, when answer none return'd, 285
On a green shady bank profuse of flowers
Penfive I fat me down; there gentle fleep
First found me, and with foft oppreffion feis'd
My droused sense, untroubled, though I thought
I then was paffing to my former ftate
Infenfible, and forthwith to diffolve:

When suddenly stood at my head a dream,
Whose inward apparition gently mov'd
My fancy to believe I yet had being,

[blocks in formation]

290

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

And liv'd: One came, methought, of shape divine,

And faid, Thy manfion wants thee, Adam, rise, 296 First Man, of men innumerable ordain'd

300

First Father, call'd by thee I come thy guide
To the garden of blifs, thy feat prepar'd.
So faying, by the hand he took me rais'd,
And over fields and waters, as in air
Smooth fliding without step, last led me up
A woody mountain; whose high top was plain,
A circuit wide, inclos'd, with goodlieft trees 304
Planted, with walks, and bow'rs, that what I saw
Of earth before scarce pleasant seem'd. Each tree
Loaden with faireft fruit, that hung to th' eye

[blocks in formation]

- Tempting, ftirr'd in me sudden appetite

To pluck and eat; whereat I wak’d, and found
Before mine eyes all real, as the dream

Had lively shadow'd: Here had new begun
My wand'ring, had not he who was my guide
Up hither, from among the trees appear'd,
Presence divine. Rejoicing, but with awe,
In adoration at his feet I fell

310

315

Submifs: he rear'd me', and Whom thou fought'ft I am,

Said mildly, Author of all this thou feest

Above, or round about thee, or beneath.

This Paradife I give thee, count it thine
To till and keep, and of the fruit to eat :

[blocks in formation]

320

Of

juftify it. It gives a greater ftrength to the fenfe, as it confines the awe to the rejoicing, and thereby expreffes that mixture of joy and reverence, which the Scriptures so often recommend to us in our approaches to the divine Being. Thyer.

320. To till and keep,] Dr. Bentley fays that Paradife was not to be till'd,

but the common earth after the fall:

he therefore fays that Milton defign'd it To drefs and keep, as in Gen. II. 15. to dress it and to keep it. This looks like a juft objection, and yet is not fo in reality: for if he had confulted the original, he would have found that Adam was to till as well before as after the fall: while he continued in that garden,

he

Of

every tree that in the garden grows

Eat freely with glad heart; fear here no dearth:
But of the tree whofe operation brings
Knowledge of good and ill, which I have fet
The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith,
Amid the garden by the tree of life,
Remember what I warn thee, fhun to tafte,
And fhun the bitter confequence: for know,
The day thou eat'ft thereof, my fole command
Tranfgrefs'd, inevitably thou fhalt die,
From that day mortal, and this happy state
Shalt lofe, expell'd from hence into a world
Of woe and forrow. Sternly he pronounc'd
The rigid interdiction, which resounds

325

330

Yet

render'd to till: but the LXX. likewife employ one and the fame word

he was to fill that; after his expulfion from thence he was to till the common earth Our poet feems here in both places, as the to have approv'd of the opinion of Fagius (a favorite annotator of his) who in his note on Gen. II. 9. thinks that Adam was to have plough'd and fow'd in Paradite, if he had continued there: And Milton here follows Ainsworth's tranflation, which has in Gen. II, 15. to till it and to keep it: And Aint worth's tranflation is more exact than that of our common bible; for not only the original word here ufed is the very fame with that ufed in Chap. III. 23. and which is there

Vulgar Latin does operari: and the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin word alike fignify to labor, cultivate, or till. In Chap. III. 23. our tranf lators render it till, and they might as well have render'd it fo Chap. II. 15. fince that word in the common acceptation fignifies no more than to cultivate; and therefore Ainsworth has till, and Le Clerc colere in both places. Our English tranflators chofe to use dress here, as imagining it (I fuppofe) more applicable to a garden. But Dr. Bent

ley

Yet dreadful in mine ear, though, in

my

choice 335

Not to incur; but foon his clear afpéct
Return'd, and gracious purpose thus renew'd.
Not only these fair bounds, but all the earth
To thee and to thy race I give; as lords
Poffefs it, and all things that therein live,
Or live in fea, or air, beast, fish, and fowl.
In fign whereof each bird and beast behold
After their kinds; I bring them to receive
From thee their names, and pay thee feälty
With low fubjection; understand the fame
Of fish within their watry refidence,

Not hither fummon'd, fince they cannot change
Their element to draw the thinner air.

ley should have confulted the ancient verfions and the original, and not have trufted to our English tranflation, especially before he found fault with an author who underflood the original fo well as Milton did. Pearce.

323. But of the tree &c.] This being the great hinge on which the whole poem turns, Milton has mark'd it ftrongly. But of the tree- Remember what I warn thee - he dwells, expatiates upon it from ver. 323 to 336, repeating, enforcing, fixing every word; 'tis all nerve and energy. Richardfon.

340

345

As

330. inevitably thou shall die,] In the day that thou eateft thereof thon fhalt furely die, as it is express'd Gen. II. 17. that is from that day thou fhalt become mortal, as our poet im. mediately afterwards explains it.

335. Yet dreadful in mine ear,] The impreffion, which the interdiction of the tree of life left in the mind of our firft parent, is describ'd with great ftrength and judgment; as the image of the feveral beafts and birds paffing in review before him is very beautiful and lively.

Addison.

353-with

« PreviousContinue »