A happy rural feat of various view; Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm, Others whose fruit burnish'd with golden rind If true, here only', and of delicious taste : grows dufky or gloomy Il tempo comincia ad imbrunirfi. Thyer. 248. Groves whofe rich trees &c.] There were groves bearing aromatics, and there were others bearing fruit for fuftenance. The former are called rich trees, as odo rous gums and balm carry ufually a higher price than fruit; and they are faid to weep gums and balm by a beautiful metaphor not unufual in poetry: as Ovid fays of the myrrhtree, Met. X. 500. 250 Or The first and most proper fense of the word fabula, as all the dictionaries inform us, is fomething commonly talked of, whether true or falfe: and if Milton us'd the word fable fo here, the fenfe is clear of the objection. But the Doctor would rather throw out the words Hefperian apples (or fables) true, If true, bere only, becaufe (fays he) the Hefperian apples are reprefented by the poets as of folid gold, far from being of delicious tafe. This objection is answer'd Flet tamen, et tepida manant ex by reading, as I think we ought to arbore gutta, Eft honor et lacrymis. do, the whole paffage thus, Others, whofe fruit burnish'd with golden rind Hung amiable, (Hefperian fables true, 250.-Hefperian fables true, &c] Dr. Bentley prefers apples to fables, and asks how fables can be true any where? If they cannot, I wonder how the Doctor in his edition of Phædrus, fuffer'd the following paffage to ftand without any Fables, ftories as XI. 11. What is cenfure, Hanc emendare, fi tamen poffum, If true, here only) and of delicious taste. Pearce. faid of the Hefperian gardens is true here only; if all is not pure invention, this garden was meant : and moreover these fruits have a delicious Or palmy hilloc; or the flow'ry lap Of fome irriguous valley fpread her store, 255 Of cool recefs, o'er which the mantling vine 255- irriguous valley] Wellwater'd, full of fprings and rills: it is the epithet of a garden in Ho. race, Sat. II. IV. 16. Irriguo nihil eft elutius horto. Down thorns and thistles, Gen. III. 18. and from hence the general opinion has prevailed that there were no thorns before; which is enough to juftify a poet in saying the rose was without thorns or prickles. 257. Another fide, umbrageous grots and caves] Another fide of 256. Flow'rs of all bue, and with the garden was umbrageous grots out thorn the rofe:] Dr. Bent- and caves &c. Or on another fide ley rejects this verfe, because he were fhady grots and caves, &c. thinks it a jejune identity in the poet the præpofition being omitted as is to fay The flow'ry_lap· -Spread not unufual with our author. See flow'rs: but, as Dr.Pearce obferves, I. 282 and 723. On one fide were tho' the expreffion be not very groves of aromatics, others of fruit, exact, it is not fo bad as Dr. Bent- and betwixt them lawns or downs. ley reprefents it; for the conftruc- On another fide were fhady grotto's tion and fenfe is, The flow'ry lap of and caves of cool recefs. Our aufome valley Spread her fore, which thor indeed has not mention'd one ftore was what? why flow'rs of fide before, but without that he often every color or hue. Dr. Bentley makes ufe of the expreffion, on objects too to the latter part of the th' other fide, as you may fee in II. verfe, and without thorn the rofe, 108, 706. IV. 985. IX. 888. as and calls it a puerile fancy. But Virgil frequently fays in parte alia, it fhould be remember'd, that it in another part, though he has not was part of the curfe denounced faid exprefly in one part before, Æn. upon the earth for Adam's tranf- I. 474. VIII. 682. IX. 521. greffion, that it should bring forth 261.- difpers'd, Down the flope hills, difpers'd, or in a lake, 261. difpers'd, or in a lake,] The waters fall difperfed, or unite their ftreams in a lake, that prefents her clear looking-glafs, holds her crystal mirror to the fringed bank crown'd with myrtle. He makes the lake we may obferve a perfon, and a critic like Dr. Bentley may find fault with it; but it is ufual with the poets to perfonify lakes and rivers, as Homer does the river Scamander and Virgil the Tiber; and Milton himfelf makes a perfon of the river of blifs, and a female perfon too, III. 359. as he does here of the lake. This language is certainly more poetical; and I fuppofe he thought Her cryftal mirror founded smoother and better than Its cryftal mirror, or even His cryftal mirror. 266.- while univerfal Pan &c.] While univerfal Nature link'd with the graceful feafons danc'd a perpetual round, and throughout the earth yet unpolluted led eternal fpring. All the poets favor the opinion of the world's creation in the fpring. Virg. Georg. II. 338. Ver illud erat, ver magnus agebat Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance Of Enna, where Proférpin gathering flowers, 270. Was gather'd, which coft Ceres all that pain manner (as Homer in his Hymn to Apollo had done before him) that now all nature was in beauty, and every hour produc'd fomething new, without any change for the worfe. Richardfon. Of ftepdame Rhea's eye, the ftepdame of Bacchus and wife of the Libyan Jove according to fome authots, particularly Diodorus Siculus, Lib. 3. and Sir Walter Raleigh's Hift. B. 1. ch. 6. fect. 5. tho' different from others; nor mount 268. Not that fair field &c.] Amara, where the kings of AbafNot that fair field of Enna in Si- finia or Abyffinia (a kingdom in cily, celebrated fo much by Ovid the upper Ethiopia) keep their and Claudian for its beauty, from children guarded, a place of moft whence Proferpin was carried away delightful profpe&t and fituation, by the gloomy God of Hell Dis or inclos'd with alabafter rocks, which Pluto, which occafion'd her mother it is a day's journey to afcend, Ceres to feek her all the world fuppofed by fome (tho' fo far diover; nor that sweet grove of ftant from the true Paradise) to be Daphne near Antioch, the capital the feat of Paradife under the of Syria, feated on the banks of the river Orontes, together with the Caftalian fpring there, of the fame name with that in Greece, and extoll'd for its prophetic qualities; nor the iland Nya, incompafs'd with the river Triton in Africa, where Cham or Ham the fon of Noah, therefore called old, (who firft peopled Egypt and Lybia, and among the Gentiles goes by the name of Ammon or Lybian Jove) hid his miftrefs Amalthea and her beautiful fon Bacchus (therefore called Dionyfus) from his Ethiopian or equinoctial line near the fprings of the river Nile: Not any nor all of thefe could vy with this Paradife of Eden; this exceeded all that hiftorians have written or poets have feign'd of the most beautiful places in the world. By the way we should obferve his manner of pronouncing Proferpin with the accent upon the fecond fyllable, like the Latin, and as Spenfer and the old English authors pronounce it, Fairy Queen, B. 1. Cant. 2. St. 2. And Of Daphne by Orontes, and th' infpir'd Caftalian spring, might with this Paradise Girt with the river Triton, where old Cham, Young Bacchus from his stepdame Rhea's eye; 275 280 285 Saw And fad Proférpin's wrath, them and thofe emotions of envy, in to affright; which he is reprefented. There but not as it is commonly used at lines which follow, wherein they is a fine spirit of poetry in the this time, as in Cato, are described as fitting on a bed of So Pluto feis'd of Proferpin con- flowers by the fide of a fountain, amidst a mixed assembly of animals, vey'd. 285. Affyrian garden,] Milton here follows Strabo, who comprehends Mefopotamia in the ancient Affyria. Richardfon. 288. Two of far nobler Shape &c.] The description of Adam and Eve, as they first appeared to Satan, is exquifitely drawn, and fufficient to make the fallen Angel gaze upon them with all that aftonishment Addifen. 293. Truth, aifdom, fan&titude fe Whence true authority in men;] The middle verfe ought to have been put thus in a parenthefis; for the true authority in men arifes not from filial freedom, but from their having truth, wisdom, and sandi tude |