Volume Ii Part 83 (1/2)
O Sole, in whom my Thoughts find all Repose, My Glory, my Perfection! glad I see Thy Face, and Morn return'd----
I cannot but take notice that Milton, in the Conferences between Adam and Eve, had his Eye very frequently upon the Book of Canticles, in which there is a n.o.ble Spirit of Eastern Poetry; and very often not unlike what we meet with in Homer, who is generally placed near the Age of Solomon. I think there is no question but the Poet in the preceding Speech remember'd those two Pa.s.sages which are spoken on the like occasion, and fill'd with the same pleasing Images of Nature.
My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my Love, my Fair one, and come away; for lo the Winter is past, the Rain is over and gone, the Flowers appear on the Earth, the Time of the singing of Birds is come, and the Voice of the Turtle is heard in our Land. The Fig-tree putteth forth her green Figs, and the Vines with the tender Grape give a good Smell. Arise my Love, my Fair-one and come away.
Come, my Beloved, let us go forth into the Field; let us get up early to the Vineyards, let us see if the Vine flourish, whether the tender Grape appear, and the Pomegranates bud forth.
His preferring the Garden of Eden, to that
--Where the Sapient King Held Dalliance with his fair Egyptian Spouse,
shews that the Poet had this delightful Scene in his mind.
Eves Dream is full of those high Conceits engendring Pride, which, we are told, the Devil endeavour'd to instill into her. Of this kind is that Part of it where she fancies herself awaken'd by Adam in the following beautiful Lines.
Why sleepst thou Eve? now is the pleasant Time, The cool, the silent, save where Silence yields To the night-warbling Bird, that now awake Tunes sweetest his love-labour'd Song; now reigns Full orb'd the Moon, and with more [pleasing [1]] Light Shadowy sets off the Face of things: In vain, If none regard. Heavn wakes with all his Eyes, Whom to behold but thee, Natures Desire, In whose sight all things joy, with Ravishment, Attracted by thy Beauty still to gaze!
An injudicious Poet would have made Adam talk thro the whole Work in such Sentiments as these: But Flattery and Falshood are not the Courts.h.i.+p of Milton's Adam, and could not be heard by Eve in her State of Innocence, excepting only in a Dream produc'd on purpose to taint her Imagination. Other vain Sentiments of the same kind in this Relation of her Dream, will be obvious to every Reader. Tho the Catastrophe of the Poem is finely presag'd on this Occasion, the Particulars of it are so artfully shadow'd, that they do not antic.i.p.ate the Story which follows in the ninth Book. I shall only add, that tho the Vision it self is founded upon Truth, the Circ.u.mstances of it are full of that Wildness and Inconsistency which are natural to a Dream. Adam, conformable to his superior Character for Wisdom, instructs and comforts Eve upon this occasion.
So chear'd he his fair Spouse, and she was chear'd, But silently a gentle Tear let fall From either Eye, and wiped them with her hair; Two other precious Drops, that ready stood Each in their chrystal Sluice, he ere they fell Kiss'd, as the gracious Sign of sweet Remorse And pious Awe, that fear'd to have offended.
The Morning Hymn is written in Imitation of one of those Psalms, where, in the overflowings of Grat.i.tude and Praise, the Psalmist calls not only upon the Angels, but upon the most conspicuous Parts of the inanimate Creation, to join with him in extolling their common Maker. Invocations of this nature fill the Mind with glorious Ideas of G.o.ds Works, and awaken that Divine Enthusiasm, which is so natural to Devotion. But if this calling upon the dead Parts of Nature, is at all times a proper kind of Wors.h.i.+p, it was in a particular manner suitable to our first Parents, who had the Creation fresh upon their Minds, and had not seen the various Dispensations of Providence, nor consequently could be acquainted with those many Topicks of Praise which might afford Matter to the Devotions of their Posterity. I need not remark the beautiful Spirit of Poetry, which runs through this whole Hymn, nor the Holiness of that Resolution with which it concludes.
Having already mentioned those Speeches which are a.s.signed to the Persons in this Poem, I proceed to the Description which the Poet [gives [2]] of Raphael. His Departure from before the Throne, and the Flight through the Choirs of Angels, is finely imaged. As Milton every where fills his Poem with Circ.u.mstances that are marvellous and astonis.h.i.+ng, he describes the Gate of Heaven as framed after such a manner, that it opened of it self upon the Approach of the Angel who was to pa.s.s through it.
Till at the Gate Of Heavn arriv'd, the Gate self-open'd wide, On golden Hinges turning, as by Work Divine, the Sovereign Architect had framed.
The Poet here seems to have regarded two or three Pa.s.sages in the 18th Iliad, as that in particular, where speaking of Vulcan, Homer says, that he had made twenty Tripodes running on Golden Wheels; which, upon occasion, might go of themselves to the a.s.sembly of the G.o.ds, and, when there was no more Use for them, return again after the same manner.
Scaliger has rallied Homer very severely upon this Point, as M. Dacier has endeavoured to defend it. I will not pretend to determine, whether in this particular of Homer the Marvellous does not lose sight of the Probable. As the miraculous Workmans.h.i.+p of Milton's Gates is not so extraordinary as this of the Tripodes, so I am persuaded he would not have mentioned it, had not he been supported in it by a Pa.s.sage in the Scripture, which speaks of Wheels in Heaven that had Life in them, and moved of themselves, or stood still, in conformity with the Cherubims, whom they accompanied.
There is no question but Milton had this Circ.u.mstance in his Thoughts, because in the following Book he describes the Chariot of the Messiah with living Wheels, according to the Plan in Ezekiel's Vision.
--Forth rush'd with Whirlwind sound The Chariot of paternal Deity Flas.h.i.+ng thick flames?, Wheel within Wheel undrawn, Itself instinct with Spirit--
I question not but Bossu, and the two Daciers, who are for vindicating every thing that is censured in Homer, by something parallel in Holy Writ, would have been very well pleased had they thought of confronting Vulcan's Tripodes with Ezekiel's Wheels.
Raphael's Descent to the Earth, with the Figure of his Person, is represented in very lively Colours. Several of the French, Italian and English Poets have given a Loose to their Imaginations in the Description of Angels: But I do not remember to have met with any so finely drawn, and so conformable to the Notions which are given of them in Scripture, as this in Milton. After having set him forth in all his Heavenly Plumage, and represented him as alighting upon the Earth, the Poet concludes his Description with a Circ.u.mstance, which is altogether new, and imagined with the greatest Strength of Fancy.
--Like Maia's Son he stood, And shook his Plumes, that Heavnly Fragrance fill'd The Circuit wide.--
Raphael's Reception by the Guardian Angels; his pa.s.sing through the Wilderness of Sweets; his distant Appearance to Adam, have all the Graces that Poetry is capable of bestowing. The Author afterwards gives us a particular Description of Eve in her Domestick Employments