250 Veiled with his gorgeous wings, up springing light
Flew through the midst of Heaven: the angelic quires,
On each hand parting, to his speed gave way
Through all the empyreal road; till, at the gate
Of Heaven arrived, the gate self-opened wide
255 On golden hinges turning, as, by work

Divine, ❘ the sovereign Architect had framed.]
From hence (no cloud, or, to obstruct his sight,
Star interposed), however small, he sees,

Not unconform to other shining globes,

260 Earth, and the garden of God, with cedars crowned
Above all hills: as, when by night the glass
Of Galileo, less assured, observes
Imagined lands and regions in the Moon :
Or pilot, from amidst the Cyclades,

265 Delos, or Samos, first appearing, kens

A cloudy spot. Down thither prone in flight
He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky
Sails between worlds and worlds; with steady wing
Now on the polar winds ;] then, with quick fan
270 Winnows the buxom air; till, within soar
Of towering eagles, to all the fowls he seems

254. Arrived.-Participle unattached to any noun; grammatical license.

257. From hence.-See note on Deserted Village, 94.

257. No cloud or star [being] interposed is a Nom. Absol. The sentence runs thus: "He sees earth, however small, [yet] notunconform (i.e., not unlike) to other shining globes."

261. Above all hills, i.e., more than all hills, not higher than all hills.

263. Imagined lands, i.e., that which he imagines to be lands.

265. Samos was not reckoned one of the Cyclades.

266. A cloudy spot, i.e., kens Delos or Samos, on first appearing, as a cloudy spot. 266. Prone-Bent forward, pronus. 270. Buxom.-Elastic, connected with the German biegsam, i.e., flexible.

270. Within soar.-Compare within call, within gunshot.

271. He seems a phanix.-Mr. Gilfillan, adopting Dr. Newton's sophism, says, "It is not meant that he assumed the form, but only that he appeared a phoenix." He seems to feel the weight of Bentley's objection to so strange a whim on the part of an archangel. But how could he have appeared like a phoenix, if he had not been like a phoenix? The unsophisticated birds would not take a poetical, but a plain natural view of the winged creature; and as they were no doubt perfectly familiar with the appearance of a real phoenix, and thought Raphael was a phoenix, it follows that the Seraph must have assumed somewhat very like the shape of that "sole bird." This appears particularly plain from 1. 276 where he is said to return to his proper

G

A phoenix, gazed by all as that sole bird, |
When, to enshrine his relic in the Sun's
Bright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies. |

275 At once on the eastern cliff of Paradise

He lights, and to his proper shade returns,
A Seraph winged: six wings he wore, to shade
His lineaments divine: the pair that clad
Each shoulder broad came mantling o'er his breast
280 With regal ornament; the middle pair

Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round
Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold,
And colours dipped in heaven ;] the third his feet
Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail,
285 Sky-tinctured grain. Like Maia's son he stood,
And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance filled
The circuit wide. Straight knew him all the bands
Of angels under watch; and to his state,

And to his message high, in honour rise;

290 For on some message high they guessed him bound.
Their glittering tents he passed, and now is come
Into the blissful field, through groves of myrrh,
And flowering odours, cassia, nard, and balm,-
A wilderness of sweets! for nature here
295 Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will
Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet,
Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss!
Him through the spicy forest onward come

shape. The idea of likening the angel to a phoenix is taken from Tasso (Jerus. Deliv. xviii. 35), and is based upon the absurd account given by Herodotus (ii. 73) of that fabulous bird.

272. Gazed, use as a Transit. Verb for gazed at.

277. Six wings, according to Isaiah vi. 285. Like Maia's son.-In truth, the Homeric Hermes (Mercury) was very unlike Raphael. He has no wings at all, and later

writers and artists attribute to him only a winged hat and sandals, but never six wings growing to his body.

293. Flowering odours, i.e., odorous plants, for odours do not flower.

295. Wantoned as, scil. being. 296. More sweet, wild above rule or art, i.e., being more sweet, in being wild above rule or art.

298. Onward come.-See note on escaped. Cowper's Task, i. 4.

Adam discerned, as in the door he sat

300 Of his cool bower, while now the mounted Sun
Shot down direct his fervid rays, to warm

Earth's inmost womb ;-more warmth than Adam needs:
And Eve within, due at her hour, prepared

For dinner savoury fruits, of taste to please

305 True appetite, and not disrelish thirst

Of nectarous draughts between, from milky stream,
Berry, or grape to whom thus Adam called:

"Haste hither, Eve !] and,) worth thy sight,) behold,
Eastward among those trees,) what glorious shape
310 Comes this way moving :) (seems another morn
Risen on mid-noon :) some great behest from Heaven
To us perhaps he brings, and will vouchsafe
This day to be our guest. But go with speed,
And, what thy stores contain, bring forth, and pour
315 Abundance, fit to honour and receive

Our heavenly stranger: well may we afford
Our givers their own gifts, and large bestow
From large bestowed, where nature multiplies
Her fertile growth, and by disburdening grows
320 More fruitful; which instructs us not to spare."

To whom thus Eve: [" Adam, earth's hallowed mould
Of God inspired !] small store will serve, where store,
All seasons, ripe for use hangs on the stalk;

Save what by frugal storing firmness gains

325 To nourish, and superfluous moist consumes:

302. More warmth than Adam needs.Rather undignified.

303. Due at her hour.-A punctual housewife.

305. True appetite is healthy, natural appetite, not that which is stimulated by the skill of the cook.

305. Not disrelish thirst.-Not to give thirst a disrelish of nectarous draughts.

308 Worth thy sight qualifies glorious shape.

322. Inspired, in the original signification, breathed into.

323. All seasons, through all seasons. Accusat. of time.

325. And superfluous moist consumes"This is rather too philosophical for the female character of Eve; and, in my opinion, one of Milton's greatest faults is his introducing inconsistencies in the characters both of angels and man, by mixing too much with them his own philosophical notions."-THYER.

But I will haste, and from each bough and brake,
Each plant and juiciest gourd, will pluck such choice
To entertain our angel-guest, as he

Beholding shall confess, that here on Earth.
330 God hath dispensed his bounties as in Heaven."
So saying, with despatchful looks, in haste
She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent;
What choice to choose for delicacy best;
What order, so contrived as not to mix
335 Tastes, not well joined, inelegant; but bring
Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change :|
Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk,)
Whatever Earth, all-bearing mother, yields
In India East or West, or middle shore,
340 In Pontus or the Punic coast, or where

Alcinous reigned; | fruit of all kinds, in coat
Rough, or smooth rind, or bearded husk, or shell,
She gathers, tribute large,) and on the board
Heaps with unsparing hand :] for drink the grape
345 She crushes inoffensive must, and meaths

350

From many a berry; and, from sweet kernels pressed
She tempers dulcet creams; nor these to hold
Wants her fit vessels pure; then strews the ground
With rose, and odours from the shrub unfumed.

Meanwhile our primitive great sire, to meet

328. As, used as a Pronoun and object of beholding.

Lines 333-336 are all explanatory of the word thoughts, and may be analysed as enlargements of it.

335. But (so contrived as to) bring.

336. Upheld cannot refer to tastes; these are not upheld, but, on the contrary, always changed; it is the taste, i.e., the relish which is upheld. That idea, therefore, the reader must evolve.

337. The Subject of bestirs is she, retained in the mind from line 332.

340. Where Alcinous reigned.-The gar

dens of Alcinous, in the fabulous island of Scheria, are celebrated in the Odyssey for their luxuriance.

345. Inoffensive must, i.e., unfermented juice. The syntax here is rather indefinite; but some Participle like making may be supplied to render the analysis possible.

Meaths mead.

348. Wants her fit vessels pure.-To want, in the signification of to lack, to be without, the Latin carere, is now unusual. It is used again with a different meaning, v. 365.

349. Unfumed-unburnt.

His godlike guest walks forth, without more train
Accompanied than with his own complete

Perfections in himself was all his state,

More solemn than the tedious pomp that waits 355 On princes, when their rich retinue long

Of horses led, and grooms besmeared with gold,
Dazzles the crowd, and sets them all agape.
Nearer his presence, Adam, though not awed,
Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek,
360 As to a superior nature, bowing low,

Thus said: "Native of Heaven! for other place
None can, than Heaven, such glorious shape contain ;
Since, by descending from the thrones above,
Those happy places thou hast deigned a while
365 To want, and honour these ; vouchsafe with us
Two only, who yet by sovereign gift possess
This spacious ground, in yonder shady bower
To rest; and what the garden choicest bears
To sit and taste, till this meridian heat
370 Be over, and the sun more cool decline."

Whom thus the angelic Virtue answered mild :
“Adam! I therefore came; nor art thou such
Created, or such place hast here to dwell,

As may not oft invite, though spirits of Heaven,
375 To visit thee: lead on then where thy bower
O'ershades; for these mid-hours, till evening rise,
I have at will." So to the sylvan lodge

They came, that like Pomona's arbour smiled,
With flowerets decked, and fragrant smells; | but Eve,
380 Undecked save with herself, more lovely fair)
Than wood-nymph, or the fairest goddess feigned
Of three] that in Mount Ida naked strove

351. Without stands for with not.

365. To want-to do without, to dispense

with.

See line 348, note.

871. Virtue.-See line 601.

376. O'ershades.-Transit. Verb without Object. See 1. 259.

382. Of three.-Aphrodite (Venus), Hera (Juno), and Athene (Minerva), in the judgment of Paris.