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Book IX
No more of talk where God or Angel guest
With
Man, as with his friend, familiar us'd,
To sit
indulgent, and with him partake
Rural repast;
permitting him the while
Venial discourse unblam'd.
I now must change
Those notes to tragick; foul
distrust, and breach
Disloyal on the part of Man,
revolt,
And disobedience: on the part of Heaven
Now alienated, distance and distaste,
Anger and just
rebuke, and judgement given,
That brought into this
world a world of woe,
Sin and her shadow Death, and
Misery
Death's harbinger: Sad talk!yet argument
Not less but more heroick than the wrath
Of stern
Achilles on his foe pursued
Thrice fugitive about
Troy wall; or rage
Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous'd;
Or Neptune's ire, or Juno's, that so long
Perplexed the Greek, and Cytherea's son:
If
answerable style I can obtain
Of my celestial
patroness, who deigns
Her nightly visitation
unimplor'd,
And dictates to me slumbering; or
inspires
Easy my unpremeditated verse:
Since
first this subject for heroick song
Pleas'd me long
choosing, and beginning late;
Not sedulous by nature
to indite
Wars, hitherto the only argument
Heroick deem'd chief mastery to dissect
With long
and tedious havock fabled knights
In battles feign'd;
the better fortitude
Of patience and heroick
martyrdom
Unsung; or to describe races and games,
Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields,
Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds,
Bases and
tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights
At joust and
tournament; then marshall'd feast
Serv'd up in hall
with sewers and seneshals;
The skill of artifice or
office mean,
Not that which justly gives heroick
name
To person, or to poem. Me, of these
Nor
skill'd nor studious, higher argument
Remains;
sufficient of itself to raise
That name, unless an
age too late, or cold
Climate, or years, damp my
intended wing
Depress'd; and much they may, if all
be mine,
Not hers, who brings it nightly to my ear.
The sun was sunk, and after him the star
Of
Hesperus, whose office is to bring
Twilight upon the
earth, short arbiter
"twixt day and night, and now
from end to end
Night's hemisphere had veil'd the
horizon round:
When satan, who late fled before the
threats
Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd
In
meditated fraud and malice, bent
On Man's
destruction, maugre what might hap
Of heavier on
himself, fearless returned
From compassing the
earth; cautious of day,
Since Uriel, regent of the
sun, descried
His entrance, and foreworned the
Cherubim
That kept their watch; thence full of
anguish driven,
The space of seven continued nights
he rode
With darkness; thrice the equinoctial line
He circled; four times crossed the car of night
From pole to pole, traversing each colure;
On the
eighth returned; and, on the coast averse
From
entrance or Cherubick watch, by stealth
Found
unsuspected way. There was a place,
Now not, though
sin, not time, first wrought the change,
Where
Tigris, at the foot of Paradise,
Into a gulf shot
under ground, till part
Rose up a fountain by the
tree of life:
In with the river sunk, and with it
rose
Satan, involved in rising mist; then sought
Where to lie hid; sea he had searched, and land,
From Eden over Pontus and the pool
Maeotis, up
beyond the river Ob;
Downward as far antarctick; and
in length,
West from Orontes to the ocean barred
At Darien ; thence to the land where flows
Ganges
and Indus: Thus the orb he roamed
With narrow
search; and with inspection deep
Considered every
creature, which of all
Most opportune might serve
his wiles; and found
The Serpent subtlest beast of
all the field.
Him after long debate, irresolute
Of thoughts revolved, his final sentence chose
Fit
vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom
To enter, and
his dark suggestions hide
From sharpest sight: for,
in the wily snake
Whatever sleights, none would
suspicious mark,
As from his wit and native subtlety
Proceeding; which, in other beasts observed,
Doubt might beget of diabolick power
Active within,
beyond the sense of brute.
Thus he resolved, but
first from inward grief
His bursting passion into
plaints thus poured.
More justly, seat worthier of
Gods, as built
With second thoughts, reforming what
was old!
O Earth, how like to Heaven, if not
preferred
For what God, after better, worse would
build?
Terrestrial Heaven, danced round by other
Heavens
That shine, yet bear their bright officious
lamps,
Light above light, for thee alone, as seems,
In thee concentring all their precious beams
Of
sacred influence! As God in Heaven
Is center, yet
extends to all; so thou,
Centring, receivest from
all those orbs: in thee,
Not in themselves, all
their known virtue appears
Productive in herb,
plant, and nobler birth
Of creatures animate with
gradual life
Of growth, sense, reason, all summed up
in Man.
With what delight could I have walked thee
round,
If I could joy in aught, sweet interchange
Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods, and plains,
Now land, now sea and shores with forest crowned,
Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these
Find
place or refuge; and the more I see
Pleasures about
me, so much more I feel
Torment within me, as from
the hateful siege
Of contraries: all good to me
becomes
Bane, and in Heaven much worse would be my
state.
But neither here seek I, no nor in Heaven
To dwell, unless by mastering Heaven's Supreme;
Nor
hope to be myself less miserable
By what I seek, but
others to make such
As I, though thereby worse to me
redound:
For only in destroying I find ease
To
my relentless thoughts; and, him destroyed,
Or won
to what may work his utter loss,
For whom all this
was made, all this will soon
Follow, as to him
linked in weal or woe;
In woe then; that destruction
wide may range:
To me shall be the glory sole among
The infernal Powers, in one day to have marred
What he, Almighty styled, six nights and days
Continued making; and who knows how long
Before had
been contriving? though perhaps
Not longer than
since I, in one night, freed
From servitude
inglorious well nigh half
The angelick name, and
thinner left the throng
Of his adorers: He, to be
avenged,
And to repair his numbers thus impaired,
Whether such virtue spent of old now failed
More
Angels to create, if they at least
Are his created,
or, to spite us more,
Determined to advance into our
room
A creature formed of earth, and him endow,
Exalted from so base original,
With heavenly spoils,
our spoils: What he decreed,
He effected; Man he
made, and for him built
Magnificent this world, and
earth his seat,
Him lord pronounced; and, O
indignity!
Subjected to his service angel-wings,
And flaming ministers to watch and tend
Their
earthly charge: Of these the vigilance
I dread; and,
to elude, thus wrapt in mist
Of midnight vapour
glide obscure, and pry
In every bush and brake,
where hap may find
The serpent sleeping; in whose
mazy folds
To hide me, and the dark intent I bring.
O foul descent! that I, who erst contended
With
Gods to sit the highest, am now constrained
Into a
beast; and, mixed with bestial slime,
This essence
to incarnate and imbrute,
That to the highth of
Deity aspired!
But what will not ambition and
revenge
Descend to? Who aspires, must down as low
As high he soared; obnoxious, first or last,
To
basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet,
Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils:
Let it; I
reck not, so it light well aimed,
Since higher I
fall short, on him who next
Provokes my envy, this
new favourite
Of Heaven, this man of clay, son of
despite,
Whom, us the more to spite, his Maker
raised
From dust: Spite then with spite is best
repaid.
So saying, through each thicket dank or dry,
Like a black mist low-creeping, he held on
His
midnight-search, where soonest he might find
The
serpent; him fast-sleeping soon he found
In
labyrinth of many a round self-rolled,
His head the
midst, well stored with subtile wiles:
Not yet in
horrid shade or dismal den,
Nor nocent yet; but, on
the grassy herb,
Fearless unfeared he slept: in at
his mouth
The Devil entered; and his brutal sense,
In heart or head, possessing, soon inspired
With
act intelligential; but his sleep
Disturbed not,
waiting close the approach of morn.
Now, when as
sacred light began to dawn
In Eden on the humid
flowers, that breathed
Their morning incense, when
all things, that breathe,
From the Earth's great
altar send up silent praise
To the Creator, and his
nostrils fill
With grateful smell, forth came the
human pair,
And joined their vocal worship to the
quire
Of creatures wanting voice; that done, partake
The season prime for sweetest scents and airs:
Then commune, how that day they best may ply
Their
growing work: for much their work out-grew
The
hands' dispatch of two gardening so wide,
And Eve
first to her husband thus began.
Adam, well may we
labour still to dress
This garden, still to tend
plant, herb, and flower,
Our pleasant task enjoined;
but, till more hands
Aid us, the work under our
labour grows,
Luxurious by restraint; what we by day
Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind,
One
night or two with wanton growth derides
Tending to
wild. Thou therefore now advise,
Or bear what to my
mind first thoughts present:
Let us divide our
labours; thou, where choice
Leads thee, or where
most needs, whether to wind
The woodbine round this
arbour, or direct
The clasping ivy where to climb;
while I,
In yonder spring of roses intermixed
With myrtle, find what to redress till noon:
For,
while so near each other thus all day
Our task we
choose, what wonder if so near
Looks intervene and
smiles, or object new
Casual discourse draw on;
which intermits
Our day's work, brought to little,
though begun
Early, and the hour of supper comes
unearned?
To whom mild answer Adam thus returned.
Sole Eve, associate sole, to me beyond
Compare
above all living creatures dear!
Well hast thou
motioned, well thy thoughts employed,
How we might
best fulfil the work which here
God hath assigned
us; nor of me shalt pass
Unpraised: for nothing
lovelier can be found
In woman, than to study
houshold good,
And good works in her husband to
promote.
Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed
Labour, as to debar us when we need
Refreshment,
whether food, or talk between,
Food of the mind, or
this sweet intercourse
Of looks and smiles; for
smiles from reason flow,
To brute denied, and are of
love the food;
Love, not the lowest end of human
life.
For not to irksome toil, but to delight,
He made us, and delight to reason joined.
These
paths and bowers doubt not but our joint hands
Will
keep from wilderness with ease, as wide
As we need
walk, till younger hands ere long
Assist us; But, if
much converse perhaps
Thee satiate, to short absence
I could yield:
For solitude sometimes is best
society,
And short retirement urges sweet return.
But other doubt possesses me, lest harm
Befall
thee severed from me; for thou knowest
What hath
been warned us, what malicious foe
Envying our
happiness, and of his own
Despairing, seeks to work
us woe and shame
By sly assault; and somewhere nigh
at hand
Watches, no doubt, with greedy hope to find
His wish and best advantage, us asunder;
Hopeless to circumvent us joined, where each
To
other speedy aid might lend at need:
Whether his
first design be to withdraw
Our fealty from God, or
to disturb
Conjugal love, than which perhaps no
bliss
Enjoyed by us excites his envy more;
Or
this, or worse, leave not the faithful side
That
gave thee being, still shades thee, and protects.
The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks,
Safest
and seemliest by her husband stays,
Who guards her,
or with her the worst endures.
To whom the virgin
majesty of Eve,
As one who loves, and some
unkindness meets,
With sweet austere composure thus
replied.
Offspring of Heaven and Earth, and all
Earth's Lord!
That such an enemy we have, who seeks
Our ruin, both by thee informed I learn,
And
from the parting Angel over-heard,
As in a shady
nook I stood behind,
Just then returned at shut of
evening flowers.
But, that thou shouldst my firmness
therefore doubt
To God or thee, because we have a
foe
May tempt it, I expected not to hear.
His
violence thou fearest not, being such
As we, not
capable of death or pain,
Can either not receive, or
can repel.
His fraud is then thy fear; which plain
infers
Thy equal fear, that my firm faith and love
Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced;
Thoughts,
which how found they harbour in thy breast,
Adam,
mis-thought of her to thee so dear?
To whom with
healing words Adam replied.
Daughter of God and Man,
immortal Eve!
For such thou art; from sin and blame
entire:
Not diffident of thee do I dissuade
Thy
absence from my sight, but to avoid
The attempt
itself, intended by our foe.
For he who tempts,
though in vain, at least asperses
The tempted with
dishonour foul; supposed
Not incorruptible of faith,
not proof
Against temptation: Thou thyself with
scorn
And anger wouldst resent the offered wrong,
Though ineffectual found: misdeem not then,
If
such affront I labour to avert
From thee alone,
which on us both at once
The enemy, though bold,
will hardly dare;
Or daring, first on me the assault
shall light.
Nor thou his malice and false guile
contemn;
Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce
Angels; nor think superfluous other's aid.
I,
from the influence of thy looks, receive
Access in
every virtue; in thy sight
More wise, more watchful,
stronger, if need were
Of outward strength; while
shame, thou looking on,
Shame to be overcome or
over-reached,
Would utmost vigour raise, and raised
unite.
Why shouldst not thou like sense within thee
feel
When I am present, and thy trial choose
With me, best witness of thy virtue tried?
So spake
domestick Adam in his care
And matrimonial love; but
Eve, who thought
Less attributed to her faith
sincere,
Thus her reply with accent sweet renewed.
If this be our condition, thus to dwell
In
narrow circuit straitened by a foe,
Subtle or
violent, we not endued
Single with like defence,
wherever met;
How are we happy, still in fear of
harm?
But harm precedes not sin: only our foe,
Tempting, affronts us with his foul esteem
Of our
integrity: his foul esteem
Sticks no dishonour on
our front, but turns
Foul on himself; then wherefore
shunned or feared
By us? who rather double honour
gain
From his surmise proved false; find peace
within,
Favour from Heaven, our witness, from the
event.
And what is faith, love, virtue, unassayed
Alone, without exteriour help sustained?
Let us
not then suspect our happy state
Left so imperfect
by the Maker wise,
As not secure to single or
combined.
Frail is our happiness, if this be so,
And Eden were no Eden, thus exposed.
To whom thus
Adam fervently replied.
O Woman, best are all things
as the will
Of God ordained them: His creating hand
Nothing imperfect or deficient left
Of all that
he created, much less Man,
Or aught that might his
happy state secure,
Secure from outward force;
within himself
The danger lies, yet lies within his
power:
Against his will he can receive no harm.
But God left free the will; for what obeys
Reason,
is free; and Reason he made right,
But bid her well
be ware, and still erect;
Lest, by some
fair-appearing good surprised,
She dictate false;
and mis-inform the will
To do what God expressly
hath forbid.
Not then mistrust, but tender love,
enjoins,
That I should mind thee oft; and mind thou
me.
Firm we subsist, yet possible to swerve;
Since Reason not impossibly may meet
Some specious
object by the foe suborned,
And fall into deception
unaware,
Not keeping strictest watch, as she was
warned.
Seek not temptation then, which to avoid
Were better, and most likely if from me
Thou sever
not: Trial will come unsought.
Wouldst thou approve
thy constancy, approve
First thy obedience; the
other who can know,
Not seeing thee attempted, who
attest?
But, if thou think, trial unsought may find
Us both securer than thus warned thou seemest,
Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more;
Go in
thy native innocence, rely
On what thou hast of
virtue; summon all!
For God towards thee hath done
his part, do thine.
So spake the patriarch of
mankind; but Eve
Persisted; yet submiss, though
last, replied.
With thy permission then, and thus
forewarned
Chiefly by what thy own last reasoning
words
Touched only; that our trial, when least
sought,
May find us both perhaps far less prepared,
The willinger I go, nor much expect
A foe so
proud will first the weaker seek;
So bent, the more
shall shame him his repulse.
Thus saying, from her
husband's hand her hand
Soft she withdrew; and, like
a Wood-Nymph light,
Oread or Dryad, or of Delia's
train,
Betook her to the groves; but Delia's self
In gait surpassed, and Goddess-like deport,
Though not as she with bow and quiver armed,
But
with such gardening tools as Art yet rude,
Guiltless
of fire, had formed, or Angels brought.
To Pales, or
Pomona, thus adorned,
Likest she seemed, Pomona when
she fled
Vertumnus, or to Ceres in her prime,
Yet virgin of Proserpina from Jove.
Her long with
ardent look his eye pursued
Delighted, but desiring
more her stay.
Oft he to her his charge of quick
return
Repeated; she to him as oft engaged
To be
returned by noon amid the bower,
And all things in
best order to invite
Noontide repast, or afternoon's
repose.
O much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve,
Of thy presumed return! event perverse!
Thou
never from that hour in Paradise
Foundst either
sweet repast, or sound repose;
Such ambush, hid
among sweet flowers and shades,
Waited with hellish
rancour imminent
To intercept thy way, or send thee
back
Despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss!
For now, and since first break of dawn, the Fiend,
Mere serpent in appearance, forth was come;
And on
his quest, where likeliest he might find
The only
two of mankind, but in them
The whole included race,
his purposed prey.
In bower and field he sought,
where any tuft
Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant
lay,
Their tendance, or plantation for delight;
By fountain or by shady rivulet
He sought them both,
but wished his hap might find
Eve separate; he
wished, but not with hope
Of what so seldom chanced;
when to his wish,
Beyond his hope, Eve separate he
spies,
Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she
stood,
Half spied, so thick the roses blushing round
About her glowed, oft stooping to support
Each
flower of slender stalk, whose head, though gay
Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold,
Hung
drooping unsustained; them she upstays
Gently with
myrtle band, mindless the while
Herself, though
fairest unsupported flower,
From her best prop so
far, and storm so nigh.
Nearer he drew, and many a
walk traversed
Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or
palm;
Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen,
Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers
Imbordered
on each bank, the hand of Eve:
Spot more delicious
than those gardens feigned
Or of revived Adonis, or
renowned
Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son;
Or
that, not mystick, where the sapient king
Held
dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse.
Much he the
place admired, the person more.
As one who long in
populous city pent,
Where houses thick and sewers
annoy the air,
Forth issuing on a summer's morn, to
breathe
Among the pleasant villages and farms
Adjoined, from each thing met conceives delight;
The
smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine,
Or dairy,
each rural sight, each rural sound;
If chance, with
nymph-like step, fair virgin pass,
What pleasing
seemed, for her now pleases more;
She most, and in
her look sums all delight:
Such pleasure took the
Serpent to behold
This flowery plat, the sweet
recess of Eve
Thus early, thus alone: Her heavenly
form
Angelick, but more soft, and feminine,
Her
graceful innocence, her every air
Of gesture, or
least action, overawed
His malice, and with rapine
sweet bereaved
His fierceness of the fierce intent
it brought:
That space the Evil-one abstracted stood
From his own evil, and for the time remained
Stupidly good; of enmity disarmed,
Of guile, of
hate, of envy, of revenge:
But the hot Hell that
always in him burns,
Though in mid Heaven, soon
ended his delight,
And tortures him now more, the
more he sees
Of pleasure, not for him ordained: then
soon
Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts
Of mischief, gratulating, thus excites.
Thoughts, whither have ye led me! with what sweet
Compulsion thus transported, to forget
What hither
brought us! hate, not love;nor hope
Of Paradise for
Hell, hope here to taste
Of pleasure; but all
pleasure to destroy,
Save what is in destroying;
other joy
To me is lost. Then, let me not let pass
Occasion which now smiles; behold alone
The
woman, opportune to all attempts,
Her husband, for I
view far round, not nigh,
Whose higher intellectual
more I shun,
And strength, of courage haughty, and
of limb
Heroick built, though of terrestrial mould;
Foe not informidable! exempt from wound,
I not;
so much hath Hell debased, and pain
Enfeebled me, to
what I was in Heaven.
She fair, divinely fair, fit
love for Gods!
Not terrible, though terrour be in
love
And beauty, not approached by stronger hate,
Hate stronger, under show of love well feigned;
The way which to her ruin now I tend.
So spake the
enemy of mankind, enclosed
In serpent, inmate bad!
and toward Eve
Addressed his way: not with indented
wave,
Prone on the ground, as since; but on his
rear,
Circular base of rising folds, that towered
Fold above fold, a surging maze! his head
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes;
With
burnished neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidst his
circling spires, that on the grass
Floated
redundant: pleasing was his shape
And lovely; never
since of serpent-kind
Lovelier, not those that in
Illyria changed,
Hermione and Cadmus, or the god
In Epidaurus; nor to which transformed
Ammonian
Jove, or Capitoline, was seen;
He with Olympias;
this with her who bore
Scipio, the highth of Rome.
With tract oblique
At first, as one who sought
access, but feared
To interrupt, side-long he works
his way.
As when a ship, by skilful steersmen
wrought
Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the
wind
Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her
sail:
So varied he, and of his tortuous train
Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve,
To lure
her eye; she, busied, heard the sound
Of rusling
leaves, but minded not, as used
To such disport
before her through the field,
From every beast; more
duteous at her call,
Than at Circean call the herd
disguised.
He, bolder now, uncalled before her
stood,
But as in gaze admiring: oft he bowed
His
turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck,
Fawning; and
licked the ground whereon she trod.
His gentle dumb
expression turned at length
The eye of Eve to mark
his play; he, glad
Of her attention gained, with
serpent-tongue
Organick, or impulse of vocal air,
His fraudulent temptation thus began.
Wonder
not, sovran Mistress, if perhaps
Thou canst, who art
sole wonder! much less arm
Thy looks, the Heaven of
mildness, with disdain,
Displeased that I approach
thee thus, and gaze
Insatiate; I thus single;nor
have feared
Thy awful brow, more awful thus retired.
Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair,
Thee all
things living gaze on, all things thine
By gift, and
thy celestial beauty adore
With ravishment beheld!
there best beheld,
Where universally admired; but
here
In this enclosure wild, these beasts among,
Beholders rude, and shallow to discern
Half what in
thee is fair, one man except,
Who sees thee? and
what is one? who should be seen
A Goddess among
Gods, adored and served
By Angels numberless, thy
daily train.
So glozed the Tempter, and his proem
tuned:
Into the heart of Eve his words made way,
Though at the voice much marvelling; at length,
Not
unamazed, she thus in answer spake.
What may this
mean? language of man pronounced
By tongue of brute,
and human sense expressed?
The first, at least, of
these I thought denied
To beasts; whom God, on their
creation-day,
Created mute to all articulate sound:
The latter I demur; for in their looks
Much
reason, and in their actions, oft appears.
Thee,
Serpent, subtlest beast of all the field
I knew, but
not with human voice endued;
Redouble then this
miracle, and say,
How camest thou speakable of mute,
and how
To me so friendly grown above the rest
Of brutal kind, that daily are in sight?
Say, for
such wonder claims attention due.
To whom the
guileful Tempter thus replied.
Empress of this fair
world, resplendent Eve!
Easy to me it is to tell
thee all
What thou commandest; and right thou
shouldst be obeyed:
I was at first as other beasts
that graze
The trodden herb, of abject thoughts and
low,
As was my food; nor aught but food discerned
Or sex, and apprehended nothing high:
Till, on a
day roving the field, I chanced
A goodly tree far
distant to behold
Loaden with fruit of fairest
colours mixed,
Ruddy and gold: I nearer drew to
gaze;
When from the boughs a savoury odour blown,
Grateful to appetite, more pleased my sense
Than
smell of sweetest fennel, or the teats
Of ewe or
goat dropping with milk at even,
Unsucked of lamb or
kid, that tend their play.
To satisfy the sharp
desire I had
Of tasting those fair apples, I
resolved
Not to defer; hunger and thirst at once,
Powerful persuaders, quickened at the scent
Of
that alluring fruit, urged me so keen.
About the
mossy trunk I wound me soon;
For, high from ground,
the branches would require
Thy utmost reach or
Adam's: Round the tree
All other beasts that saw,
with like desire
Longing and envying stood, but
could not reach.
Amid the tree now got, where plenty
hung
Tempting so nigh, to pluck and eat my fill
I spared not; for, such pleasure till that hour,
At
feed or fountain, never had I found.
Sated at
length, ere long I might perceive
Strange alteration
in me, to degree
Of reason in my inward powers; and
speech
Wanted not long; though to this shape
retained.
Thenceforth to speculations high or deep
I turned my thoughts, and with capacious mind
Considered all things visible in Heaven,
Or Earth,
or Middle; all things fair and good:
But all that
fair and good in thy divine
Semblance, and in thy
beauty's heavenly ray,
United I beheld; no fair to
thine
Equivalent or second! which compelled
Me
thus, though importune perhaps, to come
And gaze,
and worship thee of right declared
Sovran of
creatures, universal Dame!
So talked the spirited
sly Snake; and Eve,
Yet more amazed, unwary thus
replied.
Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt
The virtue of that fruit, in thee first proved:
But say, where grows the tree? from hence how far?
For many are the trees of God that grow
In Paradise,
and various, yet unknown
To us; in such abundance
lies our choice,
As leaves a greater store of fruit
untouched,
Still hanging incorruptible, till men
Grow up to their provision, and more hands
Help to
disburden Nature of her birth.
To whom the wily
Adder, blithe and glad.
Empress, the way is ready,
and not long;
Beyond a row of myrtles, on a flat,
Fast by a fountain, one small thicket past
Of
blowing myrrh and balm: if thou accept
My conduct, I
can bring thee thither soon
Lead then, said Eve. He,
leading, swiftly rolled
In tangles, and made
intricate seem straight,
To mischief swift. Hope
elevates, and joy
Brightens his crest; as when a
wandering fire,
Compact of unctuous vapour, which
the night
Condenses, and the cold environs round,
Kindled through agitation to a flame,
Which oft,
they say, some evil Spirit attends,
Hovering and
blazing with delusive light,
Misleads the amazed
night-wanderer from his way
To bogs and mires, and
oft through pond or pool;
There swallowed up and
lost, from succour far.
So glistered the dire Snake,
and into fraud
Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the
tree
Of prohibition, root of all our woe;
Which
when she saw, thus to her guide she spake.
Serpent,
we might have spared our coming hither,
Fruitless to
me, though fruit be here to excess,
The credit of
whose virtue rest with thee;
Wonderous indeed, if
cause of such effects.
But of this tree we may not
taste nor touch;
God so commanded, and left that
command
Sole daughter of his voice; the rest, we
live
Law to ourselves; our reason is our law.
To
whom the Tempter guilefully replied.
Indeed! hath
God then said that of the fruit
Of all these
garden-trees ye shall not eat,
Yet Lords declared of
all in earth or air?
To whom thus Eve, yet sinless.
Of the fruit
Of each tree in the garden we may eat;
But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst
The
garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat
Thereof, nor
shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
She scarce had said,
though brief, when now more bold
The Tempter, but
with show of zeal and love
To Man, and indignation
at his wrong,
New part puts on; and, as to passion
moved,
Fluctuates disturbed, yet comely and in act
Raised, as of some great matter to begin.
As
when of old some orator renowned,
In Athens or free
Rome, where eloquence
Flourished, since mute! to
some great cause addressed,
Stood in himself
collected; while each part,
Motion, each act, won
audience ere the tongue;
Sometimes in highth began,
as no delay
Of preface brooking, through his zeal of
right:
So standing, moving, or to highth up grown,
The Tempter, all impassioned, thus began.
O
sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving Plant,
Mother of
science! now I feel thy power
Within me clear; not
only to discern
Things in their causes, but to trace
the ways
Of highest agents, deemed however wise.
Queen of this universe! do not believe
Those rigid
threats of death: ye shall not die:
How should you?
by the fruit? it gives you life
To knowledge; by the
threatener? look on me,
Me, who have touched and
tasted; yet both live,
And life more perfect have
attained than Fate
Meant me, by venturing higher
than my lot.
Shall that be shut to Man, which to the
Beast
Is open? or will God incense his ire
For
such a petty trespass? and not praise
Rather your
dauntless virtue, whom the pain
Of death denounced,
whatever thing death be,
Deterred not from achieving
what might lead
To happier life, knowledge of good
and evil;
Of good, how just? of evil, if what is
evil
Be real, why not known, since easier shunned?
God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just;
Not
just, not God; not feared then, nor obeyed:
Your
fear itself of death removes the fear.
Why then was
this forbid? Why, but to awe;
Why, but to keep ye
low and ignorant,
His worshippers? He knows that in
the day
Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so
clear,
Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then
Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as Gods,
Knowing
both good and evil, as they know.
That ye shall be
as Gods, since I as Man,
Internal Man, is but
proportion meet;
I, of brute, human; ye, of human,
Gods.
So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off
Human, to put on Gods; death to be wished,
Though
threatened, which no worse than this can bring.
And
what are Gods, that Man may not become
As they,
participating God-like food?
The Gods are first, and
that advantage use
On our belief, that all from them
proceeds:
I question it; for this fair earth I see,
Warmed by the sun, producing every kind;
Them,
nothing: if they all things, who enclosed
Knowledge
of good and evil in this tree,
That whoso eats
thereof, forthwith attains
Wisdom without their
leave? and wherein lies
The offence, that Man should
thus attain to know?
What can your knowledge hurt
him, or this tree
Impart against his will, if all be
his?
Or is it envy? and can envy dwell
In
heavenly breasts? These, these, and many more
Causes
import your need of this fair fruit.
Goddess humane,
reach then, and freely taste!
He ended; and his
words, replete with guile,
Into her heart too easy
entrance won:
Fixed on the fruit she gazed, which to
behold
Might tempt alone; and in her ears the sound
Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregned
With
reason, to her seeming, and with truth:
Mean while
the hour of noon drew on, and waked
An eager
appetite, raised by the smell
So savoury of that
fruit, which with desire,
Inclinable now grown to
touch or taste,
Solicited her longing eye; yet first
Pausing a while, thus to herself she mused.
Great are thy virtues, doubtless, best of fruits,
Though kept from man, and worthy to be admired;
Whose taste, too long forborn, at first assay
Gave
elocution to the mute, and taught
The tongue not
made for speech to speak thy praise:
Thy praise he
also, who forbids thy use,
Conceals not from us,
naming thee the tree
Of knowledge, knowledge both of
good and evil;
Forbids us then to taste! but his
forbidding
Commends thee more, while it infers the
good
By thee communicated, and our want:
For
good unknown sure is not had; or, had
And yet
unknown, is as not had at all.
In plain then, what
forbids he but to know,
Forbids us good, forbids us
to be wise?
Such prohibitions bind not. But, if
death
Bind us with after-bands, what profits then
Our inward freedom? In the day we eat
Of this
fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die!
How dies the
Serpent? he hath eaten and lives,
And knows, and
speaks, and reasons, and discerns,
Irrational till
then. For us alone
Was death invented? or to us
denied
This intellectual food, for beasts reserved?
For beasts it seems: yet that one beast which first
Hath tasted envies not, but brings with joy
The
good befallen him, author unsuspect,
Friendly to
man, far from deceit or guile.
What fear I then?
rather, what know to fear
Under this ignorance of
good and evil,
Of God or death, of law or penalty?
Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine,
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,
Of virtue to
make wise: What hinders then
To reach, and feed at
once both body and mind?
So saying, her rash hand in
evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked,
she eat!
Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her
seat,
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of
woe,
That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk
The guilty Serpent; and well might;for Eve,
Intent now wholly on her taste, nought else
Regarded; such delight till then, as seemed,
In
fruit she never tasted, whether true
Or fancied so,
through expectation high
Of knowledge; not was
Godhead from her thought.
Greedily she ingorged
without restraint,
And knew not eating death:
Satiate at length,
And hightened as with wine,
jocund and boon,
Thus to herself she pleasingly
began.
O sovran, virtuous, precious of all trees
In Paradise! of operation blest
To sapience,
hitherto obscured, infamed.
And thy fair fruit let
hang, as to no end
Created; but henceforth my early
care,
Not without song, each morning, and due
praise,
Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease
Of thy full branches offered free to all;
Till,
dieted by thee, I grow mature
In knowledge, as the
Gods, who all things know;
Though others envy what
they cannot give:
For, had the gift been theirs, it
had not here
Thus grown. Experience, next, to thee I
owe,
Best guide; not following thee, I had remained
In ignorance; thou openest wisdom's way,
And
givest access, though secret she retire.
And I
perhaps am secret: Heaven is high,
High, and remote
to see from thence distinct
Each thing on Earth; and
other care perhaps
May have diverted from continual
watch
Our great Forbidder, safe with all his spies
About him. But to Adam in what sort
Shall I
appear? shall I to him make known
As yet my change,
and give him to partake
Full happiness with me, or
rather not,
But keeps the odds of knowledge in my
power
Without copartner? so to add what wants
In
female sex, the more to draw his love,
And render me
more equal; and perhaps,
A thing not undesirable,
sometime
Superiour; for, inferiour, who is free
This may be well: But what if God have seen,
And
death ensue? then I shall be no more!
And Adam,
wedded to another Eve,
Shall live with her enjoying,
I extinct;
A death to think! Confirmed then I
resolve,
Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe:
So dear I love him, that with him all deaths
I
could endure, without him live no life.
So saying,
from the tree her step she turned;
But first low
reverence done, as to the Power
That dwelt within,
whose presence had infused
Into the plant sciential
sap, derived
From nectar, drink of Gods. Adam the
while,
Waiting desirous her return, had wove
Of
choicest flowers a garland, to adorn
Her tresses,
and her rural labours crown;
As reapers oft are wont
their harvest-queen.
Great joy he promised to his
thoughts, and new
Solace in her return, so long
delayed:
Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill,
Misgave him; he the faltering measure felt;
And
forth to meet her went, the way she took
That morn
when first they parted: by the tree
Of knowledge he
must pass; there he her met,
Scarce from the tree
returning; in her hand
A bough of fairest fruit,
that downy smiled,
New gathered, and ambrosial smell
diffused.
To him she hasted; in her face excuse
Came prologue, and apology too prompt;
Which, with
bland words at will, she thus addressed.
Hast thou
not wondered, Adam, at my stay?
Thee I have missed,
and thought it long, deprived
Thy presence; agony of
love till now
Not felt, nor shall be twice; for
never more
Mean I to try, what rash untried I
sought,
The pain of absence from thy sight. But
strange
Hath been the cause, and wonderful to hear:
This tree is not, as we are told, a tree
Of
danger tasted, nor to evil unknown
Opening the way,
but of divine effect
To open eyes, and make them
Gods who taste;
And hath been tasted such: The
serpent wise,
Or not restrained as we, or not
obeying,
Hath eaten of the fruit; and is become,
Not dead, as we are threatened, but thenceforth
Endued with human voice and human sense,
Reasoning
to admiration; and with me
Persuasively hath so
prevailed, that I
Have also tasted, and have also
found
The effects to correspond; opener mine eyes,
Dim erst, dilated spirits, ampler heart,
And
growing up to Godhead; which for thee
Chiefly I
sought, without thee can despise.
For bliss, as thou
hast part, to me is bliss;
Tedious, unshared with
thee, and odious soon.
Thou therefore also taste,
that equal lot
May join us, equal joy, as equal
love;
Lest, thou not tasting, different degree
Disjoin us, and I then too late renounce
Deity for
thee, when Fate will not permit.
Thus Eve with
countenance blithe her story told;
But in her cheek
distemper flushing glowed.
On the other side Adam,
soon as he heard
The fatal trespass done by Eve,
amazed,
Astonied stood and blank, while horrour
chill
Ran through his veins, and all his joints
relaxed;
From his slack hand the garland wreathed
for Eve
Down dropt, and all the faded roses shed:
Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length
First to himself he inward silence broke.
O
fairest of Creation, last and best
Of all God's
works, Creature in whom excelled
Whatever can to
sight or thought be formed,
Holy, divine, good,
amiable, or sweet!
How art thou lost! how on a
sudden lost,
Defaced, deflowered, and now to death
devote!
Rather, how hast thou yielded to transgress
The strict forbiddance, how to violate
The
sacred fruit forbidden! Some cursed fraud
Of enemy
hath beguiled thee, yet unknown,
And me with thee
hath ruined; for with thee
Certain my resolution is
to die:
How can I live without thee! how forego
Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly joined,
To
live again in these wild woods forlorn!
Should God
create another Eve, and I
Another rib afford, yet
loss of thee
Would never from my heart: no, no!I
feel
The link of Nature draw me: flesh of flesh,
Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state
Mine
never shall be parted, bliss or woe.
So having said,
as one from sad dismay
Recomforted, and after
thoughts disturbed
Submitting to what seemed
remediless,
Thus in calm mood his words to Eve he
turned.
Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous
Eve,
And peril great provoked, who thus hast dared,
Had it been only coveting to eye
That sacred
fruit, sacred to abstinence,
Much more to taste it
under ban to touch.
But past who can recall, or done
undo?
Not God Omnipotent, nor Fate; yet so
Perhaps thou shalt not die, perhaps the fact
Is not
so heinous now, foretasted fruit,
Profaned first by
the serpent, by him first
Made common, and
unhallowed, ere our taste;
Nor yet on him found
deadly; yet he lives;
Lives, as thou saidst, and
gains to live, as Man,
Higher degree of life;
inducement strong
To us, as likely tasting to attain
Proportional ascent; which cannot be
But to be
Gods, or Angels, demi-Gods.
Nor can I think that
God, Creator wise,
Though threatening, will in
earnest so destroy
Us his prime creatures, dignified
so high,
Set over all his works; which in our fall,
For us created, needs with us must fail,
Dependant made; so God shall uncreate,
Be frustrate,
do, undo, and labour lose;
Not well conceived of
God, who, though his power
Creation could repeat,
yet would be loth
Us to abolish, lest the Adversary
Triumph, and say; "Fickle their state whom God
"Most favours; who can please him long? Me first
"He
ruined, now Mankind; whom will he next?"
Matter of
scorn, not to be given the Foe.
However I with thee
have fixed my lot,
Certain to undergo like doom: If
death
Consort with thee, death is to me as life;
So forcible within my heart I feel
The bond of
Nature draw me to my own;
My own in thee, for what
thou art is mine;
Our state cannot be severed; we
are one,
One flesh; to lose thee were to lose
myself.
So Adam; and thus Eve to him replied.
O
glorious trial of exceeding love,
Illustrious
evidence, example high!
Engaging me to emulate; but,
short
Of thy perfection, how shall I attain,
Adam, from whose dear side I boast me sprung,
And
gladly of our union hear thee speak,
One heart, one
soul in both; whereof good proof
This day affords,
declaring thee resolved,
Rather than death, or aught
than death more dread,
Shall separate us, linked in
love so dear,
To undergo with me one guilt, one
crime,
If any be, of tasting this fair fruit;
Whose virtue for of good still good proceeds,
Direct, or by occasion, hath presented
This happy
trial of thy love, which else
So eminently never had
been known?
Were it I thought death menaced would
ensue
This my attempt, I would sustain alone
The
worst, and not persuade thee, rather die
Deserted,
than oblige thee with a fact
Pernicious to thy
peace; chiefly assured
Remarkably so late of thy so
true,
So faithful, love unequalled: but I feel
Far otherwise the event; not death, but life
Augmented, opened eyes, new hopes, new joys,
Taste
so divine, that what of sweet before
Hath touched my
sense, flat seems to this, and harsh.
On my
experience, Adam, freely taste,
And fear of death
deliver to the winds.
So saying, she embraced him,
and for joy
Tenderly wept; much won, that he his
love
Had so ennobled, as of choice to incur
Divine displeasure for her sake, or death.
In
recompence for such compliance bad
Such recompence
best merits from the bough
She gave him of that fair
enticing fruit
With liberal hand: he scrupled not to
eat,
Against his better knowledge; not deceived,
But fondly overcome with female charm.
Earth
trembled from her entrails, as again
In pangs; and
Nature gave a second groan;
Sky loured; and,
muttering thunder, some sad drops
Wept at completing
of the mortal sin
Original: while Adam took no
thought,
Eating his fill; nor Eve to iterate
Her
former trespass feared, the more to sooth
Him with
her loved society; that now,
As with new wine
intoxicated both,
They swim in mirth, and fancy that
they feel
Divinity within them breeding wings,
Wherewith to scorn the earth: But that false fruit
Far other operation first displayed,
Carnal desire
inflaming; he on Eve
Began to cast lascivious eyes;
she him
As wantonly repaid; in lust they burn:
Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move.
Eve, now
I see thou art exact of taste,
And elegant, of
sapience no small part;
Since to each meaning savour
we apply,
And palate call judicious; I the praise
Yield thee, so well this day thou hast purveyed.
Much pleasure we have lost, while we abstained
From
this delightful fruit, nor known till now
True
relish, tasting; if such pleasure be
In things to us
forbidden, it might be wished,
For this one tree had
been forbidden ten.
But come, so well refreshed, now
let us play,
As meet is, after such delicious fare;
For never did thy beauty, since the day
I saw
thee first and wedded thee, adorned
With all
perfections, so inflame my sense
With ardour to
enjoy thee, fairer now
Than ever; bounty of this
virtuous tree!
So said he, and forbore not glance or
toy
Of amorous intent; well understood
Of Eve,
whose eye darted contagious fire.
Her hand he seised;
and to a shady bank,
Thick over-head with verdant
roof imbowered,
He led her nothing loth; flowers
were the couch,
Pansies, and violets, and asphodel,
And hyacinth; Earth's freshest softest lap.
There they their fill of love and love's disport
Took largely, of their mutual guilt the seal,
The
solace of their sin; till dewy sleep
Oppressed them,
wearied with their amorous play,
Soon as the force
of that fallacious fruit,
That with exhilarating
vapour bland
About their spirits had played, and
inmost powers
Made err, was now exhaled; and grosser
sleep,
Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams
Incumbered, now had left them; up they rose
As
from unrest; and, each the other viewing,
Soon found
their eyes how opened, and their minds
How darkened;
innocence, that as a veil
Had shadowed them from
knowing ill, was gone;
Just confidence, and native
righteousness,
And honour, from about them, naked
left
To guilty Shame; he covered, but his robe
Uncovered more. So rose the Danite strong,
Herculean
Samson, from the harlot-lap
Of Philistean Dalilah,
and waked
Shorn of his strength. They destitute and
bare
Of all their virtue: Silent, and in face
Confounded, long they sat, as strucken mute:
Till
Adam, though not less than Eve abashed,
At length
gave utterance to these words constrained.
O Eve, in
evil hour thou didst give ear
To that false worm, of
whomsoever taught
To counterfeit Man's voice; true
in our fall,
False in our promised rising; since our
eyes
Opened we find indeed, and find we know
Both good and evil; good lost, and evil got;
Bad
fruit of knowledge, if this be to know;
Which leaves
us naked thus, of honour void,
Of innocence, of
faith, of purity,
Our wonted ornaments now soiled
and stained,
And in our faces evident the signs
Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store;
Even
shame, the last of evils; of the first
Be sure
then.--How shall I behold the face
Henceforth of God
or Angel, erst with joy
And rapture so oft beheld?
Those heavenly shapes
Will dazzle now this earthly
with their blaze
Insufferably bright. O! might I
here
In solitude live savage; in some glade
Obscured, where highest woods, impenetrable
To star
or sun-light, spread their umbrage broad
And brown
as evening: Cover me, ye Pines!
Ye Cedars, with
innumerable boughs
Hide me, where I may never see
them more!--
But let us now, as in bad plight,
devise
What best may for the present serve to hide
The parts of each from other, that seem most
To
shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen;
Some tree,
whose broad smooth leaves together sewed,
And girded
on our loins, may cover round
Those middle parts;
that this new comer, Shame,
There sit not, and
reproach us as unclean.
So counselled he, and both
together went
Into the thickest wood; there soon
they chose
The fig-tree; not that kind for fruit
renowned,
But such as at this day, to Indians known,
In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms
Branching
so broad and long, that in the ground
The bended
twigs take root, and daughters grow
About the mother
tree, a pillared shade
High over-arched, and echoing
walks between:
There oft the Indian herdsman,
shunning heat,
Shelters in cool, and tends his
pasturing herds
At loop-holes cut through thickest
shade: Those leaves
They gathered, broad as
Amazonian targe;
And, with what skill they had,
together sewed,
To gird their waist; vain covering,
if to hide
Their guilt and dreaded shame! O, how
unlike
To that first naked glory! Such of late
Columbus found the American, so girt
With feathered
cincture; naked else, and wild
Among the trees on
isles and woody shores.
Thus fenced, and, as they
thought, their shame in part
Covered, but not at
rest or ease of mind,
They sat them down to weep;
nor only tears
Rained at their eyes, but high winds
worse within
Began to rise, high passions, anger,
hate,
Mistrust, suspicion, discord; and shook sore
Their inward state of mind, calm region once
And
full of peace, now tost and turbulent:
For
Understanding ruled not, and the Will
Heard not her
lore; both in subjection now
To sensual Appetite,
who from beneath
Usurping over sovran Reason claimed
Superiour sway: From thus distempered breast,
Adam, estranged in look and altered style,
Speech
intermitted thus to Eve renewed.
Would thou hadst
hearkened to my words, and staid
With me, as I
besought thee, when that strange
Desire of
wandering, this unhappy morn,
I know not whence
possessed thee; we had then
Remained still happy;
not, as now, despoiled
Of all our good; shamed,
naked, miserable!
Let none henceforth seek needless
cause to approve
The faith they owe; when earnestly
they seek
Such proof, conclude, they then begin to
fail.
To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus
Eve.
What words have passed thy lips, Adam severe!
Imputest thou that to my default, or will
Of
wandering, as thou callest it, which who knows
But
might as ill have happened thou being by,
Or to
thyself perhaps? Hadst thou been there,
Or here the
attempt, thou couldst not have discerned
Fraud in
the Serpent, speaking as he spake;
No ground of
enmity between us known,
Why he should mean me ill,
or seek to harm.
Was I to have never parted from thy
side?
As good have grown there still a lifeless rib.
Being as I am, why didst not thou, the head,
Command me absolutely not to go,
Going into such
danger, as thou saidst?
Too facile then, thou didst
not much gainsay;
Nay, didst permit, approve, and
fair dismiss.
Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy
dissent,
Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with
me.
To whom, then first incensed, Adam replied.
Is this the love, is this the recompence
Of mine to
thee, ingrateful Eve! expressed
Immutable, when thou
wert lost, not I;
Who might have lived, and joyed
immortal bliss,
Yet willingly chose rather death
with thee?
And am I now upbraided as the cause
Of thy transgressing? Not enough severe,
It seems,
in thy restraint: What could I more
I warned thee, I
admonished thee, foretold
The danger, and the
lurking enemy
That lay in wait; beyond this, had
been force;
And force upon free will hath here no
place.
But confidence then bore thee on; secure
Either to meet no danger, or to find
Matter of
glorious trial; and perhaps
I also erred, in
overmuch admiring
What seemed in thee so perfect,
that I thought
No evil durst attempt thee; but I rue
The errour now, which is become my crime,
And
thou the accuser. Thus it shall befall
Him, who, to
worth in women overtrusting,
Lets her will rule:
restraint she will not brook;
And, left to herself,
if evil thence ensue,
She first his weak indulgence
will accuse.
Thus they in mutual accusation spent
The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning;
And of their vain contest appeared no end.
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