Girt with the river Triton, where old Cham,
Whom Gentiles Ammon call and Lybian Jove,
Hid Amalthea and her florid son
Young Bacchus from his stepdame Rhea's eye:
Nor where Abassin kings their issue guard,
Mount Amara, though this by some suppos'd
True paradise, under the Ethiop line
By Nilus head, enclos'd with shining rock,
A whole day's journey high, but wide remote
From this Assyrian garden, where the fiend
Saw undelighted all delight, all kind
Of living creatures new to sight and strange.
Two of far nobler shape erect and tall,
Godlike erect, with native honour clad
In naked majesty, seem'd lords of all,
And worthy seem'd: for in their looks divine.
The image of their glorious Maker shone,
Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure,
Severe, but in true filial freedom plac'd;
Whence true authority in men: though both
Not equal, as their sex not equal, seem'd;
For contemplation he and valour form'd,
For softness she and sweet attractive grace;
He for God only, she for God in him.
281 Amara] See Bancroft's Epigrams (1639), 4to. p. 35 (200). 'Of the Ethiopian mountain Amara,' and Stradling's Divine Poems (1625), p. 27.
'The famous hill Amara to this clime
Is but a muddie moore of dirt and slime.'
299 He] See St. Paul, 1. Corinth. xi. 7. and glory of God; but the woman is the
He is the image glory of the man.
His fair large front and eye sublime declar'd
Absolute rule; and hyacinthin locks
Round from his parted forelock manly hung
Clust❜ring, but not beneath his shoulders broad:
She as a veil down to the slender waist
Her unadorned golden tresses wore
Disshevel❜d, but in wanton ringlets wav'd
As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied
Subjection, but requir'd with gentle sway,
And by her yielded, by him best receiv'd,
Yielded with coy submission, modest pride,
For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man.' This passage seems to justify the old reading, 'God in him,' and rejects Bentley and Pearce's alteration, 'God and him.'
301 hyacinthin] See Dionysii Geograph. ver. 1112. Theocriti Idyll. xviii. 2. Longi Pastor. lib. iv. c. 13, and the note in Dyce's ed. of Collins, 'Like vernal hyacinths of sullen hue," p. 180. To which add Nonni Dionysiaca, xvi. ver. 81.
Αθρήσας δ' Υακίνθου ἴδον κυανόχροα χαίτην.
304 as a veil] Carew's Poem's, p. 143.
Fann'd with the breath of gentle air,
O'erspreads her shoulders like a tent,
And is her veil and ornament.'
Spenser's F. Queen, iv. 113.
'Which doft, her golden looks that were unbound
Still in a knot unto her heeles down traced,
And like a silken veil in compasse round
About her backe, and all her bodie wound.'
307 As the vine] See Merrick's Tryphiodorus, ver. 108.
'His flowing train depends with artful twine,
Like the long tendrils of the curling vine.'
And sweet reluctant amorous delay.
Nor those mysterious parts were then conceal'd;
Then was not guilty shame; dishonest shame
Of nature's works, honour dishonourable,
Sin-bred, how have ye troubled all mankind
With shews instead, mere shews of seeming pure,
And banish'd from man's life his happiest life,
Simplicity and spotless innocence!
So pass'd they naked on, nor shunn'd the sight
Of God or angel, for they thought no ill:
So hand in hand they pass'd, the loveliest pair
That ever since in love's embraces met,
Adam the goodliest man of men since born
His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve.
Under a tuft of shade, that on a green
Stood whisp'ring soft, by a fresh fountain side
They sat them down; and after no more toil
Of their sweet gard'ning labour than suffic'd
To recommend cool Zephyr, and made ease
More easy, wholesome thirst and appetite
More grateful, to their supper fruits they fell,
Nectarine fruits, which the compliant boughs
815 ye] Should we not read 'you?' For what is he speaking to besides Shame? Newton.
323 goodliest] On this idiom, borrowed from the Greek, refer to Vigerus de Idiotismis, p. 68, and Thucyd. lib. i. c. 50. Ναυμαχία γὰρ ἅυτη Ἕλλησι πρὸς Ἕλληνας νεῶν πλήθει με γίστη δὴ τῶν πρὸ ἑαυτῆς γεγένηται. v. Herman ad Euripid. Med. ed. Elmsley, p. 67.
332 compliant boughs] Compare the Sarcotis of Masenius, lib. i. p. 94, ed. Barbou:
Yielded them, side-long as they sat recline
On the soft downy bank damask'd with flowers.
The savoury pulp they chew, and in the rind, 335
Still as they thirsted, scoop the brimming stream;
Nor gentle purpose nor endearing smiles
Wanted, nor youthful dalliance, as beseems
Fair couple, link'd in happy nuptial league
Alone as they. About them frisking play'd
All beasts of th' earth, since wild, and of all chase
In wood or wilderness, forest or den ;
Sporting the lion ramp'd, and in his paw
Dandled the kid; bears, tigers, ounces, pards,
Gambol'd before them; th' unwieldly elephant 345
To make them mirth us'd all his might, and wreath'd
His lithe proboscis; close the serpent sly
Insinuating wove with Gordian twine
His braided train, and of his fatal guile
Gave proof unheeded; others on the grass
Couch'd, and now fill'd with pasture gazing sat,
Or bedward ruminating: for the sun
Declin'd was hasting now with prone career
To th' ocean isles, and in th' ascending scale
Of heav'n the stars that usher evening rose :
Hic mensæ genialis opes, et dapsilis arbos
Fructibus inflexos, foecundo palmite, ramos
Curvat ad obsequium, præbetque alimenta petenti.'
834 damask'd] P. Fletcher. P. Isl. c. xii. 1.
Where various flowers damaske the fragrant seat.'
387 gentle] Spens. F. Qu. iii. 8. 14. 'He gan make gentle
purpose to his dame.' Thyer.
When Satan still in gaze, as first he stood,
Scarce thus at length fail'd speech recover'd sad.
O hell! what do mine eyes with grief behold,
Into our room of bliss thus high advanc'd
Creatures of other mould, earth-born perhaps, 360
Not spirits, yet to heavenly spirits bright
Little inferior; whom my thoughts pursue
With wonder, and could love, so lively shines
In them divine resemblance, and such grace
The hand that form'd them on their shape hath
pour'd!
Ah gentle pair, ye little think how nigh
Your change approaches, when all these delights
Will vanish and deliver ye to woe,
More woe, the more your taste is now of joy:
Happy, but for so happy ill secur'd
Long to continue; and this high seat your heaven
Ill fenc'd for heaven to keep out such a foe
As now is enter'd: yet no purpos'd foe
To you, whom I could pity thus forlorn,
Though I unpitied. League with you I seek, 375
And mutual amity, so strait, so close,
That I with you must dwell, or you with me
Henceforth my dwelling haply may not please,
358 O hell] Compare the speech of Antitheus, in the Sarcotis, at the sight of the happiness of Sarcothea, lib. i. p. 94. "Viderat Antitheus niveam per gramina nympham Errantem, et facilis captantem gaudia ruris, Pascentemque animum jucundæ munere vitæ. Vidit, et indoluit tantorum herede bonorum,' &c.
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