685.

rounding, i. e. going their rounds about us. Guards

were placed around Paradise.

687.-- harmonic number. The meaning is, that the instruments were so numerous as to produce what musicians call full harmony.

688. Divide the night, i. e. the music was played at certain intervals during the night.

691. Chose, obsolete form for chosen.

694. and what higher grew, i. e. the roof was formed of laurel and myrtle, and of such other shrubs with firm and fra grant leaves as grew higher than shrubs usually do. Of course only shrubs that grew higher than most do could form the roof of the bower.

696. Acanthus, the herb bear's breech, noted for the beauty of its leaves, which are used as ornaments on the capitals of Corinthian columns.

698. Iris, the fleur-de-luce, is found of various colours; hence Milton calls it Iris (of) all hues.

699.- between, i. e. between the scented shrubs that grew on the sides of the bower.

700. Mosaic is formed by cementing small pieces of coloured glass, marbles, precious stones, &c. on a ground of stucco, so as to imitate the colours of painting. The meaning here is that the various colours of the flowers formed something resembling mosaic.

701. - inlay. To inlay is to form a pattern or design by inserting pieces of one substance into another. By inlay in the passage Milton means that the violets, crocuses, and hyacinths, grew here and there on the floor, so as to bear resemblance to an inlaid floor.

702.

stone. used in inlaying.

703.

Stones of various colours were frequently

emblem comes from a Greek word which means

inlaying, and signifies a tessellated or inlaid floor.

720.

stood. Milton here represents our first parents as standing when presenting their prayers to God. In other parts of his poem he represents them as sometimes kneeling, sometimes lying prostrate on their faces in prayer. This variation in the attitude is not accidental, but resulted from Milton's opinions on the subject; in fact, an extensive acquaintance with

his prose and poetical works will convince us that he never uses words at random, or merely to eke out the numbers of his line.

721. open sky. Milton, it may be observed, uniformly represents our first parents as worshipping in the open air, never under cover.

724. starry pole. Supply the ; "the starry pole," that is, the heaven shining with stars.

728. the crown, &c. i. e. their mutual help and love had been ordained by God as the crown, the consummation of all their bliss.

730. 735.

cxxvii. 2.

wants partakers, needs some to share it.

thy gift of sleep, - alluding possibly to Psalms

Line 1.

BOOK V.

rosy, referring to the ruddy colour of the sky in

the morning at sunrise.

2.-- sow'd the earth with orient pearl. The poet refers to the dewdrops which are seen in the morning lying everywhere, as if they had been sown. These drops resemble pearls; hence the point of the expression used by Milton.

4.- bred, &c. The meaning is not that the sleep proceeded from pure digestion, but that its lightness was caused by the pure digestion and temperate vapours.

5. th' only sound, the sound alone. No other sound was required to awaken Adam save the rustling of the leaves and the flowing of the rills.

6. fuming, smoking, a term descriptive of the steam or mist which rises from water in the morning. Aurora was the goddess of the morning. By her fan is meant clearly the shaking of the leaves.

7.

- matin, morning; song is the nominative to dispersed. 8. the more, his wonder was the greater because he and Eve were accustomed to awake at dawn, and as he himself was awake, he was much astonished to find that Eve was still asleep. -Zephyrus. The west wind, was, according to the my

16.

thology of the ancients, the husband of Flora, the goddess of flowers.

17. Addison has noticed the strong general resemblance between the conferences of our first parents and the descriptions given in the Song of Solomon. The reader may compare Song of Solomon ii. 10; vii. 11.

21. - prime, the dawn, the first part, sometimes also the best part of the day.

23. What drops the myrrh, i. e. what is dropping from the myrrh. Myrrh is a bitter resin which issues from the bark of a certain tree in Arabia. The same explanation applies to balmy reed, i. e. reed producing balm. Balm is the dried juice of a tree growing in Syria.

26. with startled eye, supply fixed: her eye was startled owing to her being suddenly awaked, and to the unpleasant dream she had had during the night, which she proceeds to narrate to Adam.

32. If dream'd, i. e. If it be really a dream, and not a reality. 41. his love-labour'd song. See the note on Book IV. line 648. Milton, it will be observed, is in this passage accurate in his references to the nightingale.

42. more pleasing, i. e. the shadowy light which the moon sheds on the face of things is more pleasing than the glare of sunlight.

52. Of interdicted knowledge, of knowledge forbidden to us, i. e. the tree of knowledge of which they were forbidden to eat. 56.- · distill'd Ambrosia. Ambrosia was the supposed food of the gods among the ancients, and had a delightful odour. By distilling Ambrosia is meant that they diffused an odour like that of Ambrosia.

58.

surcharg'd, i. e. overcharged, overloaded.

61. Or envy, &c. Is it either envy, or any reserve that forbids to taste?

62. Forbid who will, i. e. let whoever chooses forbid.

63.

66.

why else, i. e. for what other purpose than eating. vouch'd, witnessed; the boldness of the action proved

the boldness of the words.

71. since good, i. e. since good, the more that it is communicated or disseminated, grows the more abundant, the au

thor of the good not being impaired by its dissemination, but more honoured.

80. by merit thine, i. e. which Eve's beauty entitled her to. Observe how beautifully this dream foreshadows the flattery by which the tempter at last succeeded in seducing her from her obedience to God.

89.

93. 99.

wond'ring, i. e. while I was wondering.

her night, her dreams, how she had spent the night. evil whence, i. e. Adam could not understand where the evil could come from, for Eve was pure and could entertain no evil. 101. lesser, an irregular word; in fact, a double comparative, formed by adding the comparative termination to less. Similarly, a double comparative, worser, is formed from worse. 102. next, next in authority to Reason; Fancy, phantasy, imagination.

104. watchful, ever on the alert, taking notice of every phenomenon that happens within the sphere of their operation. 105. imaginations, in the sense of images, mental representations.

106. The arrangement is: "Which (images formed by the fancy) our reason, joining or disjoining, frames all that we affirm or deny, all that we call our knowledge or opinion;" in other words, our knowledge is obtained by our reason uniting or separating the various images of external things which fancy forms from the impressions made on the senses.

109. - her private cell. Milton here uses the language of the older philosophers, who distributed the human mind into various faculties, each of which, according to their favourite mode of expression, had a certain "private cell" in which it carried on its own peculiar operations.

110. ·her absence, i. e. in the absence of Reason, when, as during sleep, the control of Reason over the other faculties is suspended. Mimic, i. e. imitating, so called because Fancy imitates Reason, by endeavouring to perform the same operations. Milton now proceeds to account on philosophical grounds for the strange vagaries of dreams.

111. · misjoining, joining wrong or improperly-joining shapes which ought to be kept separate.

113. Ill-matching, &c., improperly uniting words and deeds, some long past, and some recent.

115.

last ev'ning's talk. They had been talking of the tree of knowledge of which they were forbidden to eat.

117. The assertion made in this line by Milton has been much blamed. He asserts that evil may come into the mind of God or man, and pass from it, and leave no spot or blame behind, provided it be unapproved. In vindication of Milton it has been said, that by God we are here to understand (as frequently in Paradise Lost) angel. Perhaps also the poet had in his view the temptations of Jesus Christ, when "evil came into the mind of God," and passed away without leaving any blame behind. The assertion is somewhat rash, but it does not seem to imply anything heterodox. As to the other part of the assertion, that the mere existence of evil thoughts in the minds of men does not necessarily involve any moral blame, this point is admitted on all hands.

127.

133.

bosom'd, concealed, treasured up.

crystal sluice, the eye.

136. all was clear'd, i. e. Eve's distress of mind on account of her dream and Adam's uneasiness, were cleared away. 137. - from under, &c. This clause must be taken in after the next line, thus "As soon as they were come forth from under their shady arborous roo," &c.; for they could not be in open sight of the sun if they prayed from under their shady roof. Arborous, formed of trees.

140. wheels, in allusion to the ancient fables, that the god of the sun dispensed light to the world by driving in a chariot from east to west; the ocean brim, the surface of the ocean, which is here spoken of as if it were a huge vessel filled with water.

141. -parallel. As the sun was just on the horizon, of course his rays would come parallel to the earth. Dewy, from the abundance of dew usually visible at dawn.

144.

145.

bow'd. See note on Book IV. 720.

orisons, prayers.

146. In various style, i. e. different prayers were offered up on each different occasion. Milton was a great opponent of set forms of prayer and indeed of all forms of public worship, and he therefore represents our first parents as offering up their petitions extemporaneously, without guide and without premeditation. The passage which succeeds is a digression