To triumph in victorious dance
O'er sensual folly, and intemperance.

The dances ended, the Spirit epiloguises.
SPIRIT.

To the ocean now I fly,

And those happy climes that lie
Where day never shuts his eye,
Up in the broad fields of the sky:
There I suck the liquid air

All amidst the gardens fair

Of Hesperus, and his daughters three
That sing about the golden tree:

976. To the ocean now I fly, &c.] This speech is evidently a paraphrase on Ariel's song in the Tempest, act v. s. 3.

Where the bee sucks, there suck I,
Warburton.

&c.

976. Pindar in his second Olympic, and Homer in his fourth Odyssey, describe a happy island at the extremity of the ocean, or rather earth, where the sun has his abode, the sky is perpetually serene and bright, the west wind always blows, and the flowers are of gold. This luxuriant imagery Milton has dressed anew, from the classical gardens of antiquity, from Spenser's gardens of Adonis "fraught with pleasures mani"fold," from the same gardens in Marino's L'Adone, Ariosto's garden of Paradise, Tasso's garden of Armida, and Spenser's Bowre of Blisse. The garden of Eden is absolutely Milton's own creation. T. Warton.

979. Up in the broad fields of

975

980

the sky :] And so in Virgil, Æn. vi. 888.

Aeris in campis latis.

At first he had written plain fields.

980. There I suck the liquid air.] Thus Ubaldo in Fairfax's Tasso, a good wizard, who dwells in the centre of the earth, but sometimes emerges, to breathe the purer air of mount Carmel. c. xiv. 43.

And there in liquid ayre myself disport. T. Warton. 982. Of Hesperus, and his daughters three] He had written

at first,

Of Atlas and his nieces three.

Hesperus and Atlas were brothers.

982. The daughters of Hesperus had gardens or orchards which produced apples of gold. Spenser makes them the daughters of Atlas, F. Q. ii. vii. 54. See Ovid, Metam. iv. 636. And Apollodor. Bibl. 1. ii. s. 11. But

Along the crisped shades and bowers

Revels the spruce and jocund Spring,
The Graces, and the rosy-bosom'd Hours,
Thither all their bounties bring;

That there eternal Summer dwells,

985

Our author's favourite tragic poet, Euripides, also celebrates the Hesperides under the title of ὕμνωδες κοραί. Herc. Furens, 393. Dunster.

And again as aaidos, Hippol. 740. where see Professor Monk's note, who cites also Hesiod. Theog. 274. and 516. as alluding to the songs of the Hesperides, and refers to Heynè, Observat. ad Apollodorum, p. 166. seq. for a full account of the ancient fictions concerning them. E.

984. Along the crisped shades &c.] These four lines were not at first in the Manuscript, but were added afterwards, I suppose when he scratched out those lines which we quoted at the beginning.

984. Compare Il Pens. 50. "That in trim gardens takes his pleasure." And Arcades, 46.

-To curl the grove
In ringlets quaint, and
windings wove.
Where see the notes.

wanton

I suspect

we have something of L'Architecture du Jardinage here also, in the spruce spring, the cedarn alleys, the crisped shades and bowers. T. Warton.

988. That there eternal summer
dwells,] So Fletcher, Faithful
i.
Shep. act iv. s. 163.
p.

On this bower may ever dwell
Spring and summer.

Again, ibid. p. 134.

L

And west-winds with musky wing

About the cedarn alleys fling

Nard and Cassia's balmy smells.

Iris there with humid bow

Waters the odorous banks, that blow

Flowers of more mingled hue

Than her purfled scarf can shew,
And drenches with Elysian dew

(List mortals, if your ears be true)
Beds of hyacinth and roses,
Where young Adonis oft reposes,

995. Than her purfled scarf can shew, &c.] Purfled is flourished or wrought upon with a needle, from the old French pourfiler. The word occurs in Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. 2. st. 13.

A goodly lady clad in scarlet red Purfled with gold and pearl of rich assay;

and in other places. And in the
Manuscript the following lines
were thus at first,

Yellow, watchet, green, and blew,
And drenches oft with manna dew
or with Sabaan dew
Beds of hyacinth and roses,
Where many a Cherub soft reposes.

All that relating to Adonis and
Cupid and Psyche was added af-
terwards.

997. If your ears be true.] Intimating that this Song, which follows, of Adonis, and Cupid, and Psyche, is not for the profane, but only for well purged ears. See Upton's Spenser, Notes on b. iii. c. 6. Hurd.

See Note on Arcad. v. 72. So the Enchanter, above, has "neither ear nor soul to ap"prehend" sublime mysteries. His ear no less than his soul, was impure, unpurged, and unprepared. T. Warton.

999. Where young Adonis oft reposes, &c.] Here Milton has plainly copied and abridged Spenser in his description of the

VOL. IV.

995

gardens of Adonis. Faery Queen, b. iii. cant. 6. st. 46-50.

STANZA 46.

There wont fair Venus often to enjoy
Her dear Adonis' joyous company,
And reap sweet pleasure of the
wanton boy;

There yet some say in secret he doth
lie,

Lapped in flowers and precious spicery, &c.

STANZA 48.

There now he liveth in eternal bliss, Joying his Goddess, and of her enjoy'd ;

Ne feareth he henceforth that foe of

his,

Which with his cruel tusk him deadly cloy'd: &c.

STANZA 49.

There now he lives in everlasting
joy,

With many of the Gods in company,
Which thither haunt, and with the

winged boy

Sporting himself in safe felicity: &c.

STANZA 50.

And his true love, fair Psyche, with him plays,

Fair Psyche to him lately reconcil'd, After long troubles and unmeet upbrays,

With which his mother Venus her
revil'd

And eke himself her cruelly exil'd:
But now in stedfast love and happy

state

She with him lives, and hath him borne a child,

Pleasure that doth both Gods and

men aggrate,

Pleasure, the daughter of Cupid and
Psyche late.

K

Make her his eternal bride,
And from her fair unspotted side
Two blissful twins are to be born,
Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn.

If the reader desires a larger account of the loves of Cupid and Psyche, he may find it in Apuleius.

1001. See Spenser's Astrophel, st. 48. T. Warton.

1002. th' Assyrian queen ;] Venus is so called because she was first worshipped by the Assyrians. Pausanias, Attic. lib. i. cap. 14. πλησιον δε ἱερον εστιν Αφροδίτης Ουρανίας. πρωτοις δε αν θρωπων Ασσυριοίς κατεστη σεβεσθαι την Ougaviar and from the Assyrians other nations derived the worship of her. μετα δε Ασσυρίους, Κυπρίων Παφίοις, και Φοινίκων τοις Ασκάλωνα έχουσιν εν τη Παλαιστινη, παρα δε Φοινίκων, Κυθηριοι μαθόντες σε ουσιν. Edit. Kuhnii, p. 36.

1010

That with her sovereign power and
Scepter sheen

All faery lond does peaceable susteen. But Milton uses it as a substantive both here and before in ver. 893. the azure sheen, and in several other places; and he makes sheeny the adjective, as in the verses On the death of a fair infant, st. 7.

Or did of late earth's sons besiege the
wall

Of sheeny heav'n, &c.
In using sheen for a substantive
Milton has the authority of
Shakespeare, Hamlet, a. iii. sc. 6.

And thirty dozen moons with bor-
row'd sheen &c.
1003. See Observat. on Spen-
T. Warton.
ser's F. Q. ii. 181.
I

1003. in spangled sheen] think this word is commonly used as an adjective, as in Spenser, Faery Queen, b. ii. cant. i.

st. 10.

To spoil her dainty corse so fair and sheen :

and again, cant. ii. st. 40.

1010. Two blissful twins &c.] Undoubtedly Milton's allusion at large is here to Spenser's garden of Adonis, above cited; but at the same time his mythology has a reference to Spenser's Hymne of Love. For the fable of Cupid and Psyche, see Fulgentius, iii. 6.