How dearly I abide that boast so vain, But fay I could repent and could obtain 90 By act of grace my former state, how foon 94 Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unfay 100 Where wounds of deadly hate have pierc'd so deep : This 111. Divided empire] Divifum imperium cum Jove Cæfar habet. Greenwood. 112. By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;] This paffage has occafion'd much perplexity and confufion, but it may eafily be understood thus. Evil be thou my good; be thou all my delight, all my happiness; by thee I bold at least divided empire with Heav'n's king at prefent, I ruling in Hell as God in Heaven: by the I fay; he is made to repeat it with emphafis, to add the greater force to his diabolical fentiment, and to mark it more strongly to the reader: and in a fhort time will reign perhaps more than half, in this new world as well as in Hel; as Man ere long and this new world shall know. And he is very properly made to conclude his fpeech with this, as this was now his main bufinefs and the end of his coming hither. 114--each 105 This knows my punisher; therefore as fir 110 Thus while he spake, each paffion dimm'd his face Thrice chang'd with pale, ire, envy, and despair; 115 Which marr'd his borrow'd vifage, and betray'd Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld. For heav'nly minds from fuch diftempers foul Are ever clear. Whereof he foon aware, Each perturbation smooth'd with outward calm, That practic'd falfhood under faintly show, 121 126 Uriel once warn'd; whofe eye pursued him down He mark'd and mad demeanour, then alone, Now nearer, crowns with her inclosure green, 130 As 126. on th' Affyrian mount] Dr. Bentley reads Armenian mount: but Niphates is by Pliny reckon'd between Armenia and Affyria, and therefore may be called Affyrian. It is plain from Milton's account of the fituation of Eden, ver. 210, 285, that Eden was in Affyria; and it is plain from comparing III. 742. with IV. 27. that Niphates was not far from Eden; fo that Milton must have plac'd it in Affyria, at leaft on the borders of it. &c.] Satan is now come to the border of Eden, where he has a nearer profpect of Paradise, which the poet reprefents as fituated in a champain country upon the top of a fteep hill, called the Mount of Paradife The fides of this hill were overgrown with thickets and bufhes, fo as not to be paffable; and over-head above thefe, on the fides of the hill likewife grew the loftieft trees, and as they afcended in ranks fhade above fhade, they formed a kind of natural theatre, 132.-where delicious Paradife, the rows of trees rifing one above Pearce. another As with a rural mound, the champain head another in the fame manner as the benches in the theatres and places of public fhows and fpectacles. And yet higher than the higheft of thefe trees grew up the verdurous wall of Paradife, a green inclofure like a rural mound, like a bank fet with a hedge, but this hedge grew not up fo high as to hinder Adam's profpect into the neighbouring country below, which is called his empire, as the whole earth was his deminion, V. 751. But above this hedge or green wall grew a circling row of the finest 135 149 145 Appear'd, fruit trees; and the only entrance into Paradife was a gate on the eaftern fide. This account in profe may perhaps help the reader the better to understand the defcription in verse. 140. Afylvan feene,] So Virgil, Tum fylvis fcena corufcis mus imminet umbra. Hume. 147. -with fairest fruit, Blooms and fruits at once of gelden bue,] Dr. Bentley reads fruits Appear'd, with gay enamel'd colors mix'd: 151 On which the fun more glad imprefs'd his beams Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires in the first verfe, because fruits her fruit. and spread 155 Fanning compare our poet's topography of Paradife with Homer's defcription of Alcinous's gardens, or with that of Calypfo's fhady grotto, we may without affectation affirm, that in half the number of verses that they confift of, our author has outdone them. But to make a comparison more obvious to most understandings, read the defcription of the bower of bliss by a poet of our own nation and famous in his time; but 'tis impar congreffus, and rime fetter'd his fancy. Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. 2. Cant. 12. St. 42. &c. Hume. This defcription exceeds any thing I ever met with of the fame kind, but the Italians, in my opinion, approach the nearest to our English Their branches hung with copious poet; and if the reader will give fruit, or gemm'd Their blooms. 151. Than in fair evening cloud,] Dr. Bentley reads Than on fair evening cloud. 152. -fo lovely feem'd himfelf the trouble to read over |