739, 740. "hour of noon . . . waked an eager appetite." Observe Milton's notion of the natural dinner-hour.

781. "eat." So in the original text, and not the present form “ate," as in some editions.

792. "knew not eating death": i.e. "knew not herself to be eating," a Greek idiom, used also in Latin. Mr. Browne quotes as an instance in Virgil, Æn. ii. 376, 377

"Dixit; et extemplo (neque enim responsa dabantur

Fida satis) sensit medios delapsus in hostes."

793. "hightened." In the original editions it stands "hight'nd," and not "highthened."

66

795. virtuous, precious": two positives used for superlatives, according to a classical idiom. Richardson quotes Iliad, v. 381, dîa Oɛáwy, and En. iv. 576, "sancte deorum."

811-813. "Heaven is high," &c. Job xxii. 12. (Todd.)

A curious

815, 816. "Our great Forbidder, safe with all his spies about him." Bentley annotated: "Safe is here pure nonsense. No doubt he gave it, 'Our great Forbidder's eye, with all his spies about him.'" example of the great scholar's ignorance of the idiom of his own language. Pearce corrected him thus: "Safe here signifies as in the vulgar phrases I have him safe,' or 'He is safe asleep ;' where not the safety of the person secured or asleep is meant, but the safety of others with respect to any danger from him." Mr. Browne refers to Shakespeare (Tempest, III. i.) for an instance, where Miranda says of her father, "He's safe for these three hours."

826-833. "what if God have seen, and death ensue," &c. On this passage Todd notes: "Perhaps the most striking instance of imitation by Milton of the Rabbi Eleazer is this part, Archbishop Laurence has shown, of Eve's soliloquy: Forsitan jam moriar, et Sanctus Benedictus parabit illi aliam uxorem. Sed dabo quoque Adamo, et causa illi ero ut edat mecum, ut, si moriamur, ambo simul moriamur, si vivamus, ambo quoque in vitâ maneamus.'”—On lines 832-3 Newton remarks: "How much stronger and more pathetic is this than that of Horace, Od. 111. ix. 24

"Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens !'"

845. "divine of something ill." This peculiar use of "divine" for "foreboding" is, as Newton remarked, from the Latin: Hor., Od. III. xxvii. 10:—

"Imbrium divina avis imminentum."

846. "the faltering measure": i.e. "the unequal beating of his heart."

853-855. "in her face to prompt." So in the author's own editions, but altered into "too prompt" by subsequent editors. The construction and meaning have puzzled commentators. I understand: "In her face, so, beautiful it was, excuse for what she had done came already, as prologue to the very speech of excuse she was to make, and to prompt (quicken, help on, or prepare for) that apology which she now addressed to him."

890, 891. "Astonied stood and blank," &c. Hume quotes Æn. ii.

120

901.

"to death devote": from Horace (Od. IV. xiv. 18), “devota morti.” 920. "his words to Eve he turned," the previous speech having been only with himself.

922-925. "hast dared." So in the First Edition, but in the Second there is the misprint "hath." There is no comma or other point after "dared" in the original; nor is any necessary-though the syntax is rather complex.-" coveting to eye" to eye covetously.

932. "He yet lives." This is the correct reading: corrupted in modern editions into "Yet he lives."

947, 948. "lest the Adversary," &c. 953. "Certain :" resolved to.

Deut. xxxii. 27. (Gillies.)

980. "oblige," in its etymological sense of "bind

998.

"not deceived."

1 Tim. ii. 14. (Hume.)

1007. "that now ie. "so that now."

1010, IOII. "wings wherewith to roam the Earth." Horace, Od. III. ii. 24: "Spernit humum fugiente penna" (Keightley).

1019, 1020.

"Since to each meaning savour we apply, and palate call judicious": i.e. "since we are in the habit of applying the term savour in either a physical or a moral sense, and of annexing the epithet judicious, which refers originally to the judgment or understanding, to the palate or sense of taste." The remark is chiefly suggested by the double meaning of sapere in Latin. It means either "to taste" or "to be wise."

1042. "their fill of love." Prov. vii. 18. (Todd.)

1058. "Shame." In the original text the stop after this word is omitted; which would make the construction impossible. Bowle quotes Ps. cix. 29.

1059-1062. "So rose the Danite strong, Herculean Samson Philistean Dalilah," &c. See Judges xiii. 2, 25. and xvi. Observe that, though the form of the name in the Authorized Version is “Delilah,"

Milton prefers "Dalilah,” and makes the second syllable of the name short (Dalilah). So in Sams. Ag., save that the final h is there omitted and the word spelt Dalila. That it is pronounced Dalila is proved by the metre: Sams. Ag. 229, 724, 1072.

1064. “strucken;" spelt struck'n in the original text. II. 165.

See note,

1068. "worm," used for "serpent" in the old Teutonic languages. It is used in this sense in Shakespeare (Ant. and Cleop. V. ii., "The pretty worm of Nilus "); and Mr. Keightley quotes a still more relevant instance from Donne's Progress of the Soul (stanza 11):—

"Nor is't writ

That Adam cropt or knew the apple; yet

The worm, and she, and he, and we, endure for it."

1088. "Cover me," &c. Rev. vi. 16, 17.

ΙΙΟΙ. "not that kind for fruit renowned, but such as, at this day, to Indians known, in Malabar or Decan," &c. : i.e. not the common fig-tree, but the so-called Ficus Indica or Indian Fig-tree, more properly known now as the Banian or Bhur. Warton points out that Milton must have had before him, when he wrote this passage, the following description of the Banian in "Gerard's Herbal," originally published in 1597, but of which there had been later editions: " Of the arched Indian Fig-tree. The ends hang doune, and touch the ground, where they take roote and grow in such sort that theyr twigs become great trees; and these, being grown up unto the like greatnesse, do cast their branches or twiggy tendrels into the earth, where they likewise take hold and roote; by means whereof it cometh to passe that of one tree is made a great wood or desart of trees, which the Indians do use for coverture against the extreme heat of the sun. Some likewise use them for pleasure, cutting doune by a direct line a long walke, or as it were a vault, through the thickest part, from which also they cut certain loopholes or windowes in some places, to the end to receive thereby the fresh cool air that entreth thereat, as also for light that they may see their cattell that feed thereby," &c. The reference to the leaves of the Indian Fig-tree (so called first by the Portuguese, from the resemblance of its fruit, though not eatable, to figs) as being "broad as Amazonian targe" is from Pliny's Natural History, as cited by Gerard; but the statement is incorrec,-the leaves of this tree being actually small. It is the large leaves of a different tree, the Platan, that are used in Malabar for the purpose described.

1115-1118. "Such of late Columbus found the American," &c. The first natives of America encountered by Columbus (1492) were totally naked; and it was later before tribes were found scantily dressed with cinctures of feathers, as in the text, or in any other fashion. Spenser, in a passage quoted by Keightley (F. Q. 111. xii. 8), refers to those garments of "painted plumes" worn by the American Indians.

1144. "What words," &c. Thyer compares Iliad, xiv. 83.

1163. "the love." Bentley proposed to read "thy"; but the change is unnecessary, as the meaning is "the love, and the recompense of my love to thee, expressed by thee a little while ago:" viz. at 961 et seq.

1183. "women." So in the original, but perhaps a misprint for "woman," as Bentley thought.

BOOK X.

9. "and free-will armed." In the original text there is a comma after armed; which would give an intelligible reading, but probably not that intended.

16. "manifold in sin." On this phrase Bishop Newton remarks, "The Divines, especially those of Milton's communion, reckon up several sins as included in this one act of eating the forbidden fruit-namely, pride, uxoriousness, wicked curiosity, infidelity, disobedience," &c. The Bishop took the remark from Hume.

38. "Foretold": i.e." though ye were foretold," or "inasmuch as ye were foretold."

45. “moment": i.e. momentum (movimentum), force applied to a balance. See VI. 239.

56, 57. "To thee I have transferred all judgment," &c. (Hume).

John v. 22

58-62. "Easy it may." So in the First Edition, but "might" in the Second.-Texts referred to in this passage are Ps. lxxxv. 10 (Newton), and John v. 27 (Hume).

66. "all his Father manifest," &c. Heb. i. 3.

73. "Whoever judged": i.e. "whoever are judged."

80. "shall need:" i.e. shall be needed; need being here a neuter verb. 84. "Conviction to the Serpent none belongs": i.e. no proof is required against the mere brute serpent, which was Satan's instrument.

66

92-95. Now was the Sun," &c. The authority for the time here is Gen. iii. 8; and in the sequel of that passage there is authority for what follows here, as far as line 222. It may be noted how, in various parts of all this narrative (92—222), Milton, in his studiousness to bring

in the very words of Scripture, is indifferent to the effects of such exactness upon his metre. This is characteristic.

106. "obvious," in its etymological sense of "meeting on the way."

125-136. "O Heaven," &c. While Milton has introduced, and almost literally, all the words of Scripture relating to the interview of God with Adam in the garden, he has here added something in a modern spirit," in order," says Stillingfleet, "to keep up some dignity in Adam."

156. “And person": i.e. "character," as in the phrase dramatis personæ. 165. "though brute, unable to transfer," &c., meaning "though the serpent was brute, and unable."

169-173. "More to know concerned not Man (since he no further knew)

yet God at last. . . to Satan . . . his doom applied, though in mysterious terms," &c. The meaning is, "Since Man had fallen by the temptation, so far as he knew at the time, only of the brute serpent, it mattered not to him, nor did it alter his offence, that this brute serpent had been the instrument of the ruined Archangel; yet God, in the peculiar terms of his judgment on the serpent, did mean, in a mysterious manner, an application of the same to the Satan." The word "applied" is deliberately selected, and "his doom" means "the Serpent's doom."

178. "And dust shalt eat," &c. In the apparently lame metre of this verse we have an instance of what has already been mentionedMilton's carefulness to quote as literally as possible the exact words of Scripture. (Gen. iii. 14, 15.)

184-191. "Saw Satan fall like lightning," &c. In this passage Hume noted the coagulation of Luke x. 18, Eph. ii. 22, Col. iii. 15, Ps. lxviii. 18, Rom. xvi. 20.

214. "the form of servant." Phil. ii. 7. (Hume.)

217, 218. or slain, or, as the snake, with youthfu! coat repaid”: i.e. "either slain for the purpose, or only stripped of their skins, and provided with others, as the snakes cast their skins." Death had now been brought into the world, but the poet professes ignorance whether beasts were slain or not to provide the first clothing for Adam and Eve.

221-223. "inward nakedness . . . with his robe of righteousness arraying," &c. Isaiah lxi. 10. (Newton.)

231. "In counterview": i.e. gazing on each other.

233, 234. "since the Fiend passed through, Sin opening." See Book II. 648 et seq.

241. avengers." In the First Edition the reading was avenger: the plural form, clearly the right one, is substituted in the Second Edition.