And live for ever, dream at least to live 95 100 Hafte thee, and from the Paradife of God Without remorfe drive out the finful pair, 105 From hallow'd ground th' unholy, and denounce To them and to their progeny from thence 22, 23, 24. And the Lord God faid, Man: and he placed at the east of the At the fad fentence rigorously urg'd, For I behold them foften'd and with tears To Adam what shall come in future days, 110 115 My covenant in the Woman's feed renew'd; 111. Bewailing their excefs,] God is here reprefented as pitying our first parents, and even while he is ordering Michael to drive them out of Paradise, orders him at the fame time to hide all terror; and for the fame reafon he chooses to speak of their offenfe in the fofteft manner, calling it only an excess, a going beyond the bounds of their duty, by the fame metaphor as fin is often call'd tranfgreffion. 120 And every one had four faces, and that their whole bodies, and their back, and their hands, and their wing were full of eyes round about. Addifon Dr. Bentley throws out the greate part of these verses, and reads thus, each four fac'd were And all their fhape fpangled with eyes. Mean while &c. His chief objection is to the expre fion more wakeful than to drow which (he fays) is the fame as more vocal than to be mute, more white than to be black. But the whole expreffion is, more wakeful than t droufe, charm'd with Arcadian py or opiate rod of Hermes. When two fuch powerful causes of droufing art mention', And guard all paffage to the tree of life: To Spirits foul, and all With whofe ftol'n fruit Man once more to delude. 125 He ceas'd; and th' archangelic Pow'r prepar'd Had, like a double Janus, all their shape mention'd, there is great force in faying, that they were more wakeful than to be influenc'd by them. Pearce. Ezekiel fays that every one had four faces, X. 14. The poet adds, four faces each bad, like a double Janus; Janus was a king in Italy, and is reprefented with two faces, to denote his great wisdom, looking upon things paft and to come; and the mention of a well-known image with two faces may help to give us the better idea of others with four. Ezekiel fays X. 12. And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings were full of eyes round about: The poet expreffes it by a delightful metaphor, all their shape Spangled with eyes, and then adds by Leu way of comparifon more numerous than thofe of Argus, a fhepherd who had an hundred eyes, and more wakeful than to droufe, as his did, charm'd with Arcadian pipe, the paft'ral reed that is the pait'ral pipe made of reeds, as was that of Hermes or Mercury, who was employ'd by Jupiter to lull Argus afleep and kill him, or his opiate rod, the caduceus of Mercury with which he could give fleep to whomfoever he pleafed. With this pipe and this rod he lull'd Argus afleep and cut off his head. It is an allufion to a celebrated story in Ovid, Met. I. 625. &'c. Centum luminibus cin&tum caput Leucothea wak'd, and with fresh dews imbalm'd 135 The earth, when Adam and first matron Eve 135. Leucothea wak'd,] The White Goddess as the name in Greek imports, the fame with Matuta in Latin, as Cicero fays, Leucothea nominata a Græcis, Matuta habetur a noftris. Tufc. I. 12. Quæ Leucothea a Græcis, a nobis Matuta dicitur. De Nat. Deor. III. 19. And Matuta is the early morning that ushers in the Aurora rofy with the fun beams, according to Lucretius, V. 655. Tempore item certo rofeam Matuta per oras Ætheris Auroram defert, et lumina pandit. And from Matuta is deriv'd matuti nus, early in the morning. This is the last morning in the poem, the morning of the fatal day, wherein our first parents were expell'd out of Paradife. It is impoffible to fay, how much time is taken up in the action of this poem, fince a great part of it lies beyond the fphere of day; and for that part which lies within the sphere of day, it is not eafy to ftate and define the time exactly, fince our author himself feems not to have been very exact in this particular. Satan came to earth about noon, when the full blazing fun fat high in his meridian tower, IV. 30. The evening of that firft day is defcrib'd IV. 598. Now came ftill evening on &c. That night Satan tempts Eve in her dream, is discover'd clofe at her ear, and flies out of Paradife, IV. 1015. Had and with him fled the fhades of night. Seven days after that he was coafting round the earth, but always in the fhade of night, IX. 62. -thence full of anguifh driven, The space of fev'n continued nig he rode With darkness. But we have no farther account of any of these days, excepting the firit, which begins at the beginning of Book V. Now morn her rofy fteps in th eaftern clime Advancing &c. Eve there relates her dream to Adam; they go to work. Raphael is or der'd to go, and converse with Adam half this day as friend with friend, V. 229. He comes to Paradife a midnoon, ver. 311. and 300. while now the mounted fun Shot down direct his fervid rays to warm Earth's inmoft womb.—— He and Adam converfe together, which difcourfe is related at large in the remainder of Book V, and Book VI, VII, and VIII, till the evening parts them, VIII. 630. But I can now no more; the part ing fun Beyond the earth's green Cape and verdant Iles Hefperian fets, my fignal to depart. Had ended now their orifons, and found Strength added from above, new hope to fpring This is the first of the seven days, during which Satan was compaffing the earth. On the eighth he return'd, IX. 67. at midnight, ver. 58. and took poffeffion of the ferpent waiting close th approach of morn, ver. 191. Morning is defcrib'd, ver 192. Now when as facred light began to dawn &c. Eve is prevail'd upon to eat of the forbidden fruit a little before noon, IX. 739. Mean while the hour of noon drew Paradife, the Angels are commanded on, and wak'd An eager appetiteAdam eats likewife; they play, they fleep, they wake; and Adam reproaches Eve with her defire of wandring this unhappy morn, IX. 1136. In the cool of the evening the Meffiah comes down to judge them, X. 92. Now was the fun in western cadence low From noon, and gentle airs due at their hour To fan the earth now wak'd, and ufher in The evening cool; when he from wrath more cool Came the mild judge and interceffor both To fentence Man.- to make several alterations in the Heavens and elements: and Adam is reprefented as lamenting aloud to himself, ver. 846. Through the ftill night, not now, as Wholfome and cool, and mild, but Adam is afterwards made to talk ver. Since this day's death denounc'd, if ought I fee, Will prove no fudden, but a flowpac'd evil. and in another place as if it was fome Satan fled from his prefence, but re- day after the fall, ver. 1048. turn'd by night, ver. 341. return'd By night, and lift'ning where the hapless pair Immediate diffolution, which we we expected And |
