So fit, fo acceptable, fo divine, That from her hand I could suspect no ill, To whom the Sovran Presence thus replied. Was the thy God, that her thou didst obey Before his voice? or was she made thy guide, Superiour, or but equal, that to her 140 145 Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place Wherein God fet thee above her made of thee, And for thee, whofe perfection far excell'd Hers in all real dignity? Adorn'd "fo well apparell'd, 150 "So clear, fo fhining, and fo evident." DUNster. Ver. 145. Was fhe thy God?] An expoftulation suggested perhaps by Scripture, as Mr. Stillingfleet alfo notes. See Gen. xxx. 2, and 11 Kings, v. 7. TODD. She was indeed, and lovely, to attract Thy love, not thy fubjection ;] Dr. Newton obferves, that this is the fame fentiment as the Angel had inculcated, B. viii. 568, &c.; and that, in other parts of his work, Milton feems to have been a strenuous advocate for keeping up the authority of the husband. I fubjoin, from the poet's Doct. and Difcip. of Divorce, another pointed obfervation, as a striking proof how determined he had been, from his firft having a wife, to rule a wife! -"What an injury it is after wedlock, &c. to be contended with, in point of house-rule, who shall be the head; not for any parity of wisdom, for that were fomething reasonable, but out of a female pride! I fuffer not, faith St. Paul, the woman to ufurp authority over the man. If the Apoftle could not fuffer it, into what mould is he mortified that can?"-This was written very soon after his first marriage. TODD. She was indeed, and lovely, to attract Say, Woman, what is this which thou haft done? Ver. 155. thy part And perfon,] A pure Latinifm. The perfonæ dramatis. So Cicero pro Muren. c. 2. "Has partes lenitatis et mifericordiæ, quas me Natura ipfa docuit, femper ago libenter; illam verò gravitatis, feveritatis, perfonam non appetivi." Milton, in his Hift. of Eng. p. 37, edit. Toland, ufes the word thus: "If it were an honour to that perfon which he sustained." Ver. 157. RICHARDSON. he thus to Eve in few.] Words are here understood; an ellipfis very common both in the Greek and Latin writers. LORD MON BODDO. It was also not unusual with our own writers. Thus Shakspeare, K. H. IV. P. ii. A. i. S. i. "In few; his death, whose spirit lent a fire, &c." And Warner, Albion's England, 1602, p. 40. "In few; the warres are full of woes." And even in profe: "In few; if a veftall virgine in time of gentilifme &c." See A Decacordon of ten Quodlibetical Questions &c. 1602, p. 238. TODD. Ver. 158. The question in this, and the reply in verse 162, are taken, as Hume and Dr. Newton have obferved, from Gen. iii. 13. While Milton, however, in the answer of Eve keeps exactly close to the words of Scripture, in describing her manner of fpeaking, he has moft ably and judiciously thrown in, as Mr. Dunfter obferves, fome highly appropriate poetick decorations; which have an infinitely better effect than any enlargement of her brief acknowledgement of her guilt would have had. TODD. To whom fad Eve, with fhame nigh over whelm'd, 160 Confeffing foon, yet not before her Judge 165 To judgement he proceeded on the accus'd 171 Though in mysterious terms, judg'd as then best: And on the Serpent thus his curse let fall. Because thou haft done this, thou art accurs'd Ver. 169. More to know Concern'd not Man, (fince he no further knew)] This is badly expreffed. The meaning is, As Man was not to be let into the mysteries of the Redemption at this time, it did not concern him to know that the ferpent was but the inftrument of the Devil. When Milton wrote this, I fancy he had it not then in his thoughts to make Michael reveal to Adam, in the last book, the doctrine of Redemption; or, if he did intend it, he forgot that a theological comment on those words in Genefis would ill agree with what was to follow. WARBURTON. Ver. 175. Because thou hast done this, &c.] See Gen. iii. 14, 15. Milton was certainly here more in the right than ever in adhering religiously to Scripture, though he has thereby spoiled the go, Above all cattle, each beast of the field; 176 180 Her feed fhall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel. So fpake this oracle, then verified harmony of his verfe. He thought, without doubt, that, to mix any thing of his own, would be a violation of decency, and a profanation, like that of Uzzah's putting forth his hand to the ark of God. And the fentence is very well explained by him, that it was pronounced immediately upon the ferpent as made the inftrument of mischief and vitiated in nature, but is to be applied immediately to Satan, the old Serpent, though in myfterious terms: And as the author explains how the fentence was to be understood be fore he relates it, fo he shows afterwards how it was fulfilled. NEWTON. But Milton throughout his poem, where the Divine Perfons are the speakers, is only studious that his language should be made, by being founded on Scripture, as appropriate as poffible, without giving himself any concern about the harmony of the verse, which he feems really studious to avoid, from a fort of reverential awe and chaftened fear of appearing to attempt decoration of language, where it cannot serve to elevate the ideas, and therefore is peculiarly unappropriate and unfeemly. DUNSTER. Ver. 182. oracle, then verified When Jefus, Son of Mary, &c.] Here is a manifeft indication, that, when Milton wrote this paffage, he thought Paradife was chiefly regained at our Saviour's refurrection. This would have been a copious and fublime subject for a fecond poem. The wonders, then to be described, would have erected even an ordinary poet's genius; and, in epifodes, he might have introduced his conception, birth, miracles, and all the hiftory of his administration, while on earth. And I much grieve, that, instead of When Jefus, Son of Mary, fecond Eve, Saw Satan fall, like lightning, down from Heaven, this, he should choose for the argument of his Paradife Regained Ver. 184. Saw Satan fall, like lightning, &c.] In this speech Ver. 192. And to the Woman &c.] Milton is exact in re- |