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By parents; or his happiest choice too late
Shall meet, already link'd and wedlock-bound 90;
To a fell adverfary', his hate or fhame:
Which infinite calamity fhall caufe

To human life, and houfhold

peace confound.

He added not, and from her turn'd; but Eve Not fo repuls'd, with tears that ceas'd not flowing, And treffes all diforder'd, at his feet

Fell humble, and embracing them, befought
His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint.

911

Forfake me not thus, Adam, witness Heaven What love fincere, and reverence in my heart 915 I bear thee, and unweeting have offended, Unhappily deceiv'd; thy fuppliant

I beg, and clafp thy knees; bereave me not,

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920

Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid,
Thy counsel in this uttermoft diftress,
My only strength and stay: forlorn of thee,
Whither fhall I betake me, where fubfift?
While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps,
Between us two let there be peace, both joining,
As join'd in injuries, one enmity

Against a foe by doom exprefs affign'd us,
That cruel Serpent: On me exercise not
Thy hatred for this mifery befall'n,

925

On me already loft, me than thyself

More miferable; both have finn'd, but thou
Against God only', I against God and thee,
And to the place of judgment will return,
There with my cries importune Heav'n, that all

930

The

oppofition to both; both joining one here again his eye upon Grotius,

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Adamus Exul. A& V.

Tu namque foli numini contrarius,
Minus es nocivus; aft ego nocentior,
(Adeoque mifera magis―)
Deumque læfi fcelere, teque, vir,
fimul.

As Milton read all good authors, fo
he improv'd by all, the modern as
well as the ancient: and as an Effay
has been written upon his imitations
of the Ancients, there might be ano-
ther upon his imitations of the Mo-
derns.
936. Me,

The sentence from thy head remov'd may light
On me, fole caufe to thee of all this woe,
Me, me only, just object of his ire.

She ended weeping, and her lowly plight,
Immoveable till peace obtain'd from fault
Acknowledg'd and deplor'd, in Adam wrought
Commiferation; foon his heart relented
Tow'ards her, his life fo late and fole delight,
Now at his feet fubmiffive in diftress,
Creature fo fair his reconcilement seeking,
His counsel, whom the had difpleas'd, his aid;

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and like Abigail's fpeech to David, 1 Sam. XXV. 24. Upon me, my Lord, upon me let this iniquity be. Dr. Bentley would read,

Me, only me, juft object of his ire: but as the repetition is highly pathetic, Mr. Upton thinks the trochaic following the fpondee makes the pathos more perceptible.

940.-foon his heart relented] This feems to have been drawn from a domestic scene. Milton's wife foon after marriage went to vifit her friends in Oxfordshire, and refufed, to return at the time appointed; He often folicited her, but in vain; fhe

933

940

As

declar'd her refolution not to cobabit with him any more. Upon this he wrote his Doctrin and Difciphaf Divorce, and to fhow that he was in earnest was actually treating about a fecond marriage, when the wife contrived to meet him at a friend':

is

whom he often vifited, and there fell proftrate before him, imploring forgiveness and reconciliation. It not to be doubted (fays Mr. Fentor but an interview of that nature, little expected, muft wonderfully f fect him: and perhaps the impre fions it made on his imagination contributed much to the painting of that pathethic scene in Paradife Loft, in which Eve addreffeth herself to Adam for pardon and peace. the interceffion of his friends who were prefent, after a fhort reluctance he generously facrific'd all his refentment to her tears:

-food

945

As one difarm'd, his anger all he loft,

And thus with peaceful words uprais'd her foon.
Unwary', and too defirous, as before,

So now of what thou know'st not, who defirst
The punishment all on thyself; alas,

Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain

950

His full wrath, whose thou feel'st as yet leaft part, And my displeasure bear'ft fo ill. If

prayers

Could alter high decrees, I to that place
Would speed before thee, and be louder heard,

That on my

head all might be visited,

foon his heart relented Towards her, his life fo late and fole delight,

Now at his feet fubmiffive in distress.

Mr. Thyer thus farther inlarges upon the fame fubject. "This picture "of Eve's diftrefs, her fubmiffive "tender addrefs to her husband, and "his generous reconcilement to her " are extremely beautiful, I had "almost faid, beyond any thing in "the whole poem; and that reader "must have a very four and un"friendly turn of mind, whose heart "does not relent with Adam's, and "melt into a fympathizing commi"feration towards the mother of "mankind; fo well has our author here follow'd Horace's advice,

-Si vis me flere, dolendum eft Primùm ipfi tibi

-

Art. Poet. 102.

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955 Thy

"Milton with great depth of judg"ment obferves in his Apology for Smedymnuus, that he who would "not be fruftrate of his hope to write "well in laudable things, ought himpofition of the best and honorableft Self to be a true poem, that is, a comthings, and have in himself the "experience and practice of all that truth of which obfervation he him"which is praife worthy: of the "felf is, I think, a fhining inftance "in this charming fcene now be"fore us, fince there is little room

66

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to doubt but that the particular « interview of the fame nature which "beauties of it are owing to an that he is only here defcribing "he had with his own wife, and "those tender and generous fentiments, which he then felt and "experienc'd."

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976. Tending

Thy frailty and infirmer fex forgiven,

To me committed and by me expos'd.
But rife, let us no more contend, nor blame
Each other, blam'd enough elsewhere, but ftrive
In offices of love, how we may lighten

Each other's burden, in our share of woe;
Since this day's death denounc'd, if ought I fee,
Will prove no fudden, but a flow-pac'd evil,
A long day's dying to augment our pain,
And to our feed (O hapless feed!) deriv'd.

960

965

To whom thus Eve, recovering heart, reply'd.

Adam, by fad experiment I know

How little weight my words with thee can find,
Found fo erroneous, thence by just event

Found fo unfortunate; nevertheless,

Reftor'd by thee, vile as I am, to place
Of new acceptance, hopeful to regain

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970

Thy

that they should refolve to remain childless; or if they found it difficult to do fo, that then, to prevent a long day's dying to themfelves and feed at once, they fhould make fhort and destroy themselves. The former method the confiders as fe relief of their extremes, the latter as the end.

978. As

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