101 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VIII. THE ARGUMENT. ADAM inquires concerning celestial motions, is doubtfully answer'd, and exhorted to search rather things more worthy of knowledge. Adam assents; and still desirous to detain Raphael, relates to him what he remember'd since his own creation; his placing in Paradise; his talk with GOD concerning solitude and fit society; his first meeting and nuptials with Eve. His discourse with the angel thereupon; who, after admonitions repeated, departs. THE angel ended, and in Adam's ear What thanks sufficient, or what recompence 5 1 The angel] In the first edition of this Poem in ten books, here was only this line, To whom thus Adam gratefully replied. This would have been too abrupt a beginning for a new book. Newton. 5 What thanks] See Beaumont's Psyche, c. xii. st. 171. 'My soule's sweet friend, what thanks can I repay For all this honey which thy tongue hath shed.' The thirst I had of knowledge, and vouchsaf'd Things else by me unsearchable, now heard For aught appears, and on their orbs impose 8 The thirst] See Dante Il Purgator. c. xviii. ver. 4. Di fuor taceva, e dentro dicea.' 9 condescension] Conversation, ver. 649. Bentl. MS 14 solution] Decision. Bentl. MS. 15 goodly] Hamlet, act ii. scene ii. 'This goodly frame the Earth.' 10 15 20 25 80 Repeated, while the sedentary earth, That better might with far less compass move, 35 So spake our sire, and by his count'nance seem'd Entering on studious thoughts abstruse; which Eve Perceiving where she sat retir'd in sight, 41 45 And grace that won who saw to wish her stay, Of what was high: such pleasure she reserv'd, 50 Her husband the relater she preferr'd Before the angel, and of him to ask Chose rather; he, she knew, would intermix 46 sprurig] So Marino Adon. c. iii. st. 65, and c. vi. st. 146. 'Tutto al venir d'Adon par che ridenti Rivesta il bel giardin novi colori.' Thyer. 53 to ask] In accordance with St. Paul, 1. Corinth. xiv. 35. 'And if they (women) will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home.' Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute 55 Not words alone pleas'd her. O when meet now And from about her shot darts of desire To ask or search I blame thee not, for heaven 60 65 70 75 55 solve] Sic ait, ac mediis interserit oscula verbis. Ovid. Met. x. 559. and Epist. xiii. ver. 119, ed. Burm. vol. i. p. 180. 'Quæ mihi dum referes, quamvis audire juvabit; 62 shot] See Greene's Never too late, P. act 2. (1616.) He shot amongst them sweet desire.' Conjecture, he his fabric of the heavens Already by thy reasoning this I guess, 80 85 Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest, 90 That bodies bright and greater should not serve 95 79 when] Manilii Astr. iv. 158. 'Inveniunt et in astra vias, numerisque modisque 88 eccentric] See Dekker's If this be not a good Play the Devil is in it, p. 43. In gibberish no man understands of quartiles, aspects, centricall, eccentrical, cosmial, acronicall,' &c.; and Lisle's Du Bartas, 174. 'Concentrike, excen tricke, epicycle, apogee.' Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 140 142. |