Note 40 — CABINET CYCLOPÆDIA. (continued 3)
Reading edition
Milton, in the context, has manifestly imitated both Tasso and Fairfax;—Tasso in the description of the angel's descent, and Fairfax in the lively circumstance here quoted, and which is not in the original:—
"On Libanon at first his foot he set, And shook his wings, with rory May dews wet."
The "fragrance" is Milton's own; and here we have the process of one thought, carried onward by three poets, to consummate beauty and perfection in the last.