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A thousand demigods on golden seats,

Frequent and full.

After short silence then,

And summons read, the great consult began. |

BOOK V.

Now Morn her rosy steps in the eastern clime
Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl,|
When Adam waked, so customed; for his sleep
Was airy-light, from pure digestion bred,

5 And temperate vapours, bland, which the only sound
Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan,

Lightly dispersed, and the shrill matin song
Of birds on every bough: | so much the more
His wonder was to find unwakened Eve,

thus asserted, Mr. Todd refers to a passage
in P. Fletcher's Locusts, p. 36,-

"Till to the bottom of Hell's palace diving, They enter Dis' deepe conclave, &c." From which Milton may have borrowed the reference to a conclave.

797. Frequent and full-Frequent, in the sense of the Latin frequentes, means full. See Note on Cowper, Task, i. 684.

1. Rosy steps.-In close imitation of Homer's "rosy fingered morn" (ροδοδάκ TUλos ús). Milton elsewhere (vi. 3) attributes a rosy hand to Morn. In speaking here of her rosy steps, he does not describe the person, for steps are not parts of the body, but he dwells on the effects of the advance of the Morning.

2. Orient, originally eastern, is equivalent to bright.

3. So customed, very concise and vigorous expression, equivalent to accustomed to awake early in the morning.

4. Pure, ie., perfect.

5. Vapours, i.e., the food in the stomach

undergoing digestion. It is thus used, v. 420. After vapours must be a comma, and bland inust be referred to sleep.

5. The only sound.-Only as an Adj. in this sense, is quite unusual; it frequently occurs in Spenser, as Faerie Queen, v. 11, 30.

6. Fuming rills; the vapour arising from water cannot be properly called fume, i.e., smoke but the confusion of smoke and steam is very common.

6. Aurora's fan.-This simile is not happy; for though leaves may be like a fan, rills certainly are not; nor does it seem that Aurora is so much troubled with heat, as to require a fan. Bentley proposes to improve the passage by reading

"With the early sound

Of leaves, Aurora's fan and murmuring rills"

7. The leading idea is, that Adam's sleep is light and easily dispersed. This idea suffers from the addition of the words shrill

and every; for light sleep is dispelled by

sounds neither shrill nor numerous.

10 With tresses discomposed, and glowing cheek,
As through unquiet rest :| he, on his side
Leaning half-raised, with looks of cordial love
Hung over her enamoured, and beheld
Beauty,] which whether waking or asleep
15 Shot forth peculiar graces; then, with voice
Mild) as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes, |
Her hand soft touching, whispered thus :) "Awake,
My fairest, my espoused, my latest found,
Heaven's last, best gift, my ever new delight!

20 Awake; the morning shines, and the fresh field
Calls us; we lose the prime, to mark | how spring
Our tended plants, how blows the citron grove,—

What drops the myrrh,

and what the balmy reed,-]
How nature paints her colours,- | how the bee
25 Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet."

Such whispering waked her, but with startled eye
On Adam ;] whom embracing, thus she spake |

["O sole] in whom my thoughts find all repose, |
[My glory, my perfection !] glad I see

30 Thy face, and morn returned; | for I this night,
(Such night till this I never passed,) have dreamed,
(If dreamed,) not,) as I oft am wont, | of thee,
Works of day past, or morrow's next design;
But of offence and trouble,) which my mind
35 Knew never till this irksome night. Methought,]
Close at mine ear, one called me forth to walk
With gentle voice; | I thought it thine :| it said, |
'Why sleep'st thou, Eve? | now is the pleasant time,
The cool, the silent, save | where silence yields
40 To the night-warbling bird, | that now awake
Tunes sweetest his love-laboured song; | now reigns

21. The prime here, as r. 170, is the morning hour.

28. O sole. The English adjective being entirely destitute of terminations, cannot be used without a substantive, except in a few

well-defined cases.

From these restricting rules Poetry emancipates herself. It is poetical license, when Milton, v. 18, says, my latest found, and here, O sole,

33. Works, scil. of; morrow's, scil. of the

Full-orbed the Moon, and with more pleasing light
Shadowy sets off the face of things; in vain,]

:

If none regard | Heaven wakes with all his eyes,
45 Whom to behold but thee, Nature's desire ;|
In whose sight all things joy, with ravishment
Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze.' |

I rose, as at thy call, | but found thee not ;]
To find thee I directed then my walk ;|
50 And on, [methought,] alone I passed through ways
That brought me on a sudden to the tree

Of interdicted knowledge: | fair it seemed,-|
Much fairer to my fancy than by day :]

And,) as I wondering looked, beside it stood.

55 One shaped and winged like one of those from Heaven By us oft seen ;) his dewy locks distilled

Ambrosia on that tree he also gazed :|

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And,) O fair plant,') said he,) with fruit surcharged ! Deigns none to ease thy load, and taste thy sweet, 60 Nor God, nor Man ?) is knowledge so despised?| Or envy, or what reserve, forbids to taste ?| Forbid who will, | none shall from me withhold Longer thy offered good; why else set here ?'| This said, he paused not, | but with venturous arm 65 He plucked, |—he tasted;| me damp horror chilled At such bold words vouched with a deed so bold:[ But he thus, overjoyed :] [O fruit divine!

42. More pleasing, viz., than the sun by day.

44. All his eyes, i.e., the stars.

46. Joy, as a verb, is found in the English Bible, Habak. iii. “I will joy in the God of my salvation."

46. With ravishment belongs to gaze, to which the object may be easily supplied.

59. None here is Singular; it is generally used in the Plural.

59. To ease thy load; properly the load is not eased; but the tree is eased of the load.

60 Nor God, nor Man.-The word God is

9

frequently used by Milton to designate a spiritual being, superior to man; it is not restricted to the Deity alone. See v. 70, 71, 81. In this sense Milton employs even the word goddess, 1. 78.

61. Either envy or reserve-but what reserve ?-forbids to taste.

66. Vouched confirmed.

67 to 73. With exception of the parenthetical sentence it seems, there is no principal verb in all these lines. It is simply an invocation with adjective and participial clauses joined on to it, strongly expressive of emotion in the mind of the speaker.

Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus cropt !
Forbidden here, [it seems,] as only fit

70 For gods, yet able to make gods of men :

And why not gods of men,] since good, the more
Communicated, more abundant grows,

The author not impaired, but honoured more? |
Here, happy creature, fair angelic Eve,
75 Partake thou also; happy though thou art,

Happier thou mayst be, worthier canst not be:
Taste this,] and be henceforth among the gods
Thyself a goddess; not to earth confined,]

But sometimes in the air,) as we,] sometimes
80 Ascend to Heaven, by merit thine,) and see]
What life the gods live there, and such live thou!'|
So saying he drew nigh, and to me held,-

Even to my mouth,—of that same fruit held part Which he had plucked: the pleasant savoury smell 85 So quickened appetite, that I, [methought,]

Could not but taste. Forthwith up to the clouds
With him I flew, and underneath beheld

The earth outstretched immense,- —a prospect wide And various, wondering at my flight and change 90 To this high exaltation: suddenly

95

My guide was gone; and I, methought, sunk down,
And fell asleep but, O how glad I waked

To find this but a dream !" Thus Eve her night
Related, and thus Adam answered sad :

"Best image of myself, and dearer half!
The trouble of thy thoughts this night in sleep
Affects me equally; nor can I like

This uncouth dream,-of evil sprung, [I fear :] Yet evil whence in thee can harbour none, 100 Created pure. But know,] that in the soul | Are many lesser faculties,

EO. Thine, i.e., which is thine.

89. Wondering, to be connected with the Subj. I.

that serve

96. This night in sleep must be connected with thoughts, thus: "Thy thoughts during this night in sleep."

Reason as chief; | among these Fancy next
Her office holds; of all external things,)
Which the five watchful senses represent,
105 She forms imaginations, airy shapes,)

Which Reason joining, or disjoining, frames
All what we affirm, or what deny,] and call
Our knowledge or opinion ;] then retires
Into her private cell,] when nature rests. |
110 Oft in her absence mimic Fancy wakes

To imitate her; but, misjoining shapes,
Wild work produces oft, and most in dreams,
Ill matching words and deeds long past or late.]
Some such resemblances, methinks I find

115 Of our last evening's talk in this thy dream,
But with addition strange; yet be not sad
Evil into the mind of God or Man

May come and go, so unapproved; and leave
No spot or blame behind which gives me hope |
120 That) what in sleep thou didst abhor to dream, |
Waking thou never wilt consent to do.)

Be not disheartened then ;] nor cloud those looks,]
That wont to be more cheerful and serene |

Than when fair Morning first smiles on the world: | 125 And let us to our fresh employments rise

Among the groves, the fountains, and the flowers,
That open now their choicest bosomed smells,
Reserved from night, and kept for thee in store."
So cheered he his fair spouse, and she was cheered;

106. Frames and retires (108) are the Predicates of Principal Clauses, of which Reason is the Subject. The use of the Relat. Pron. which instead of the Demonstrative, for the purpose of connecting Principal Sentences, is borrowed from the Latin.

113. Ill matching, &c.-Participle used as adjunct of manner to produces.

114. Such, i.e., produced by ill-matched words and misjoined shapes, therefore imperfect, fallacious.

117. God, see note, v. 60.

118. So, i.e., if.

123. Wont is here the Imperf. tense of the antiquated verb, of which only the particip. wont is now in use; comp. vi. 93, "Who wont to meet," and Spenser, "A yearly solemn feast she wont to make." See i. 764, note.

124. The meaning is, "Than fair morning when it first smiles on the world."

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