BOOK IV

O for that warning voice, which he who saw

Th’ Apocalypse, heard cry in Heav’n aloud,

Then when the Dragon, put to second rout,

Came furious down to be revenged on men,

‘Woe to the inhabitants on earth!’ that now,

While time was, our first parents had been warned

The coming of their secret foe, and ’scaped

Haply so ’scaped his mortal snare; for now,

Satan, now first inflamed with rage, came down,

The Tempter 10ere th’ Accuser of mankind,

To wreck on innocent frail man his loss

Of that first battle, and his flight to Hell:

Yet not rejoicing in his speed, though bold,

Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast,

Begins his dire attempt, which nigh the birth

Now rolling, boils in his tumultuous breast,

And like a devilish engine back recoils

Upon himself; horror and doubt distract

His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir

The Hell 20within him, for within him Hell

He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell

One step no more than from himself can fly

By change of place: now conscience wakes despair

That slumbered, wakes the bitter memory

Of what he was, what is, and what must be

Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue.

Sometimes towards Eden which now in his view

Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad,

Sometimes towards heav’n and the full-blazing sun,

Which 30now sat high in his meridian tower:

Then much revolving, thus in sighs began.

‘O thou that with surpassing glory crowned,

Look’st from thy sole dominion like the god

Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars

Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call,

But with no friendly voice, and add thy name

O sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams

That bring to my remembrance from what state

I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;

Till 40pride and worse ambition threw me down

Warring in Heav’n against Heav’n’s matchless King:

Ah wherefore! He deserved no such return

From me, whom he created what I was

In that bright eminence, and with his good

Upbraided none; nor was his service hard.

What could be less than to afford him praise,

The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks,

How due! Yet all his good proved ill in me,

And wrought but malice; lifted up so high

I ’sdained 50subjection, and thought one step higher

Would set me highest, and in a moment quit

The debt immense of endless gratitude,

So burdensome, still paying, still to owe;

Forgetful what from him I still received,

And understood not that a grateful mind

By owing owes not, but still pays, at once

Indebted and discharged; what burden then?

O had his powerful destiny ordained

Me some inferior angel, I had stood

Then 60happy; no unbounded hope had raised

Ambition. Yet why not? Some other Power

As great might have aspired, and me though mean

Drawn to his part; but other Powers as great

Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within

Or from without, to all temptations armed.

Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand?

Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse,

But Heav’n’s free love dealt equally to all?

Be then his love accursed, since love or hate,

To 70me alike, it deals eternal woe.

Nay cursed be thou; since against his thy will

Chose freely what it now so justly rues.

Me miserable! Which way shall I fly

Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?

Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell;

And in the lowest deep a lower deep

Still threat’ning to devour me opens wide,

To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav’n.

O then at last relent: is there no place

Left 80for repentance, none for pardon left?

None left but by submission; and that word

Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame

Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduced

With other promises and other vaunts

Than to submit, boasting I could subdue

Th’ Omnipotent. Ay me, they little know

How dearly I abide that boast so vain,

Under what torments inwardly I groan;

While they adore me on the throne of Hell,

With 90diadem and sceptre high advanced

The lower still I fall, only supreme

In misery; such joy ambition finds.

But say I could repent and could obtain

By act of grace my former state; how soon

Would heighth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay

What feigned submission swore: ease would recant

Vows made in pain, as violent and void.

For never can true reconcilement grow

Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep:

Which 100would but lead me to a worse relapse

And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear

Short intermission bought with double smart.

This knows my punisher; therefore as far

From granting he, as I from begging peace:

All hope excluded thus, behold instead

Of us outcást, exíled, his new delight,

Mankind created, and for him this world.

So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear,

Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost;

Evil 110be thou my good; by thee at least

Divided empire with Heav’n’s King I hold

By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;

As man ere long, and this new world shall know.’

Thus while he spake, each passion dimmed his face

Thrice changed with pale, ire, envy and despair,

Which marred his borrowed visage, and betrayed

Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld.

For Heav’nly minds from such distempers foul

Are ever clear. Whereof he soon aware,

Each 120perturbation smoothed with outward calm,

Artificer of fraud; and was the first

That practised falsehood under saintly show,

Deep malice to conceal, couched with revenge:

Yet not enough had practised to deceive

Uriel once warned; whose eye pursued him down

The way he went, and on th’ Assyrian mount

Saw him disfigured, more than could befall

Spirit of happy sort: his gestures fierce

He marked and mad demeanour, then alone,

As he 130supposed, all unobserved, unseen.

So on he fares, and to the border comes

Of Eden, where delicious Paradise,

Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green,

As with a rural mound the champaign head

Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides

With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,

Access denied; and overhead up grew

Insuperable heighth of loftiest shade,

Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,

A sylvan 140scene, and as the ranks ascend

Shade above shade, a woody theatre

Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops

The verdurous wall of Paradise up sprung:

Which to our general sire gave prospect large

Into his nether empire neighbouring round.

And higher than that wall a circling row

Of goodliest trees loaden with fairest fruit,

Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue

Appeared, with gay enamelled colours mixed:

On which 150the sun more glad impressed his beams

Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,

When God hath show’red the earth; so lovely seemed

That landscape: and of pure now purer air

Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires

Vernal delight and joy, able to drive

All sadness but despair: now gentle gales

Fanning their odoriferous wings dispense

Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole

Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail

Beyond 160the Cape of Hope, and now are past

Mozámbique, off at sea north-east winds blow

Sabéan odours from the spicy shore

Of Araby the Blest, with such delay

Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league

Cheered with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles.

So entertained those odorous sweets the Fiend

Who came their bane, though with them better pleased

Than Asmodéus with the fishy fume,

That drove him, though enamoured, from the spouse

Of Tobit’s 170son, and with a vengeance sent

From Media post to Egypt, there fast bound.

Now to th’ ascent of that steep savage hill

Satan had journeyed on, pensive and slow;

But further way found none, so thick entwined,

As one continued brake, the undergrowth

Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplexed

All path of man or beast that passed that way:

One gate there only was, and that looked east

On th’ other side: which when th’ Arch-felon saw

Due 180entrance he disdained, and in contempt,

At one slight bound high overleaped all bound

Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within

Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf,

Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey,

Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve

In hurdled cotes amid the field secure,

Leaps o’er the fence with ease into the fold:

Or as a thief bent to unhoard the cash

Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors,

Cross-barred 190and bolted fast, fear no assault,

In at the window climbs, or o’er the tiles;

So clomb this first grand thief into God’s fold:

So since into his Church lewd hirelings climb.

Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life,

The middle tree and highest there that grew,

Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life

Thereby regained, but sat devising death

To them who lived; nor on the virtue thought

Of that life-giving plant, but only used

For 200prospect, what well used had been the pledge

Of immortality. So little knows

Any, but God alone, to value right

The good before him, but perverts best things

To worst abuse, or to their meanest use.

Beneath him with new wonder now he views

To all delight of human sense exposed

In narrow room Nature’s whole wealth, yea more,

A Heav’n on earth: for blissful Paradise

Of God the garden was, by him in the east

Of 210Eden planted; Eden stretched her line

From Auran eastward to the royal towers

Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings,

Or where the sons of Eden long before

Dwelt in Telassar: in this pleasant soil

His far more pleasant garden God ordained;

Out of this fertile ground he caused to grow

All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste;

And all amid them stood the Tree of Life,

High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit

Of 220vegetable gold; and next to life

Our death the Tree of Knowledge grew fast by,

Knowledge of Good bought dear by knowing ill.

Southward through Eden went a river large,

Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy hill

Passed underneath ingulfed, for God had thrown

That mountain as his garden mould high raised

Upon the rapid current, which through veins

Of porous earth with kindly thirst up drawn,

Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill

Watered 230the garden; thence united fell

Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood,

Which from his darksome passage now appears,

And now divided into four main streams,

Runs diverse, wand’ring many a famous realm

And country whereof here needs no account,

But rather to tell how, if art could tell,

How from that sapphire fount the crispèd brooks,

Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold,

With mazy error under pendent shades

Ran 240nectar, visiting each plant, and fed

Flow’rs worthy of Paradise which not nice art

In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon

Poured forth profuse on hill and dale and plain,

Both where the morning sun first warmly smote

The open field, and where the unpierced shade

Embrowned the noontide bow’rs: thus was this place,

A happy rural seat of various view;

Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm,

Others whose fruit burnished with golden rind

Hung 250amiable, Hesperian fables true,

If true, here only, and of delicious taste:

Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks

Grazing the tender herb, were interposed,

Or palmy hillock, or the flow’ry lap

Of some irriguous valley spread her store,

Flow’rs of all hue, and without thorn the rose:

Another side, umbrageous grots and caves

Of cool recess, o’er which the mantling vine

Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps

Luxuriant; 260meanwhile murmuring waters fall

Down the slope hills, dispersed, or in a lake,

That to the fringèd bank with myrtle crowned,

Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams.

The birds their choir apply; airs, vernal airs,

Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune

The trembling leaves, while universal Pan

Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance

Led on th’ eternal spring. Not that fair field

Of Enna, where Prosérpine gath’ring flow’rs

Herself 270a fairer flow’r by gloomy Dis

Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain

To seek her through the world; nor that sweet grove

Of Daphne by Orontes, and th’ inspired

Castalian spring, might with this Paradise

Of Eden strive; nor that Nyseian isle

Girt with the river Triton, where old Cham,

Whom Gentiles Ammon call and Libyan Jove,

Hid Amalthea and her florid son

Young Bacchus from his stepdame Rhea’s eye;

Nor 280where Abássin kings their issue guard,

Mount Amara, though this by some supposed

True Paradise under the Ethiop line

By Nilus’ head, enclosed with shining rock,

A whole day’s journey high, but wide remote

From this Assyrian garden, where the Fiend

Saw undelighted all delight, all kind

Of living creatures new to sight and strange:

Two of far nobler shape erect and tall,

Godlike erect, with native honour clad

In 290naked majesty seemed lords of all,

And worthy seemed, for in their looks divine

The image of their glorious Maker shone,

Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure,

Severe, but in true filial freedom placed;

Whence true authority in men; though both

Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed;

For contemplation he and valour formed,

For softness she and sweet attractive grace,

He for God only, she for God in him:

His 300fair large front and eye sublime declared

Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks

Round from his parted forelock manly hung

Clust’ring, but not beneath his shoulders broad:

She as a veil down to the slender waist

Her unadornèd golden tresses wore

Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved

As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied

Subjection, but required with gentle sway,

And by her yielded, by him best received,

Yielded 310with coy submission, modest pride,

And sweet reluctant amorous delay.

Nor those mysterious parts were then concealed;

Then was not guilty shame, dishonest shame

Of nature’s works, honour dishonourable,

Sin-bred, how have ye troubled all mankind

With shows instead, mere shows of seeming pure,

And banished from man’s life his happiest life,

Simplicity and spotless innocence.

So passed they naked on, nor shunned the sight

Of God 320or angel, for they thought no ill:

So hand in hand they passed, the loveliest pair

That ever since in love’s embraces met,

Adam the goodliest man of men since born

His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve.

Under a tuft of shade that on a green

Stood whispering soft, by a fresh fountain side

They sat them down, and after no more toil

Of their sweet gard’ning labour than sufficed

To recommend cool Zephyr, and made ease

More 330easy, wholesome thirst and appetite

More grateful, to their supper fruits they fell,

Nectarine fruits which the compliant boughs

Yielded them, sidelong as they sat recline

On the soft downy bank damasked with flow’rs:

The savoury pulp they chew, and in the rind

Still as they thirsted scoop the brimming stream;

Nor gentle purpose, nor endearing smiles

Wanted, nor youthful dalliance as beseems

Fair couple, linked in happy nuptial league,

Alone 340as they. About them frisking played

All beasts of th’ earth, since wild, and of all chase

In wood or wilderness, forest or den;

Sporting the lion ramped, and in his paw

Dandled the kid; bears, tigers, ounces, pards

Gambolled before them, th’ unwieldy elephant

To make them mirth used all his might, and wreathed

His lithe proboscis; close the serpent sly

Insinuating, wove with Gordian twine

His braided train, and of his fatal guile

Gave 350proof unheeded; others on the grass

Couched, and now filled with pasture gazing sat,

Or bedward ruminating: for the sun

Declined was hasting now with prone career

To th’ Ocean Isles, and in th’ ascending Scale

Of heav’n the stars that usher evening rose:

When Satan still in gaze, as first he stood,

Scarce thus at length failed speech recovered sad.

‘O Hell! What do mine eyes with grief behold,

Into our room of bliss thus high advanced

Creatures 360of other mould, earth-born perhaps,

Not Spirits, yet to Heav’nly Spirits bright

Little inferior; whom my thoughts pursue

With wonder, and could love, so lively shines

In them divine resemblance, and such grace

The hand that formed them on their shape hath poured.

Ah gentle pair, ye little think how nigh

Your change approaches, when all these delights

Will vanish and deliver ye to woe,

More woe, the more your taste is now of joy;

Happy, 370but for so happy ill secured

Long to continue, and this high seat your Heav’n

Ill fenced for Heav’n to keep out such a foe

As now is entered; yet no purposed foe

To you whom I could pity thus forlorn

Though I unpitied: league with you I seek,

And mutual amity so strait, so close,

That I with you must dwell, or you with me

Henceforth; my dwelling haply may not please

Like this fair Paradise, your sense, yet such

Accept 380your Maker’s work; he gave it me,

Which I as freely give; Hell shall unfold,

To entertain you two, her widest gates,

And send forth all her kings; there will be room,

Not like these narrow limits, to receive

Your numerous offspring; if no better place,

Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge

On you who wrong me not for him who wronged.

And should I at your harmless innocence

Melt, as I do, yet public reason just,

Honour 390and empire with revenge enlarged,

By conquering this new world, compels me now

To do what else though damned I should abhor.’

So spake the Fiend, and with necessity,

The tyrant’s plea, excused his devilish deeds.

Then from his lofty stand on that high tree

Down he alights among the sportful herd

Of those four-footed kinds, himself now one,

Now other, as their shape served best his end

Nearer to view his prey, and unespied

To mark 400what of their state he more might learn

By word or action marked: about them round

A lion now he stalks with fiery glare,

Then as a tiger, who by chance hath spied

In some purlieu two gentle fawns at play,

Straight couches close, then rising changes oft

His couchant watch, as one who chose his ground

Whence rushing he might surest seize them both

Gripped in each paw: when Adam first of men

To first of women Eve thus moving speech,

Turned 410him all ear to hear new utterance flow.

‘Sole partner and sole part of all these joys,

Dearer thyself than all; needs must the power

That made us, and for us this ample world

Be infinitely good, and of his good

As liberal and free as infinite,

That raised us from the dust and placed us here

In all this happiness, who at his hand

Have nothing merited, nor can perform

Aught whereof he hath need, he who requires

From 420us no other service than to keep

This one, this easy charge, of all the trees

In Paradise that bear delicious fruit

So various, not to taste that only Tree

Of Knowledge, planted by the Tree of Life,

So near grows death to life, whate’er death is,

Some dreadful thing no doubt; for well thou know’st

God hath pronounced it death to taste that Tree,

The only sign of our obedience left

Among so many signs of power and rule

Conferred 430upon us, and dominion giv’n

Over all other creatures that possess

Earth, air, and sea. Then let us not think hard

One easy prohibition, who enjoy

Free leave so large to all things else, and choice

Unlimited of manifold delights:

But let us ever praise him, and extol

His bounty, following our delightful task

To prune these growing plants, and tend these flow’rs,

Which were it toilsome, yet with thee were sweet.’

To 440whom thus Eve replied. ‘O thou for whom

And from whom I was formed flesh of thy flesh,

And without whom am to no end, my guide

And head, what thou hast said is just and right.

For we to him indeed all praises owe,

And daily thanks, I chiefly who enjoy

So far the happier lot, enjoying thee

Pre-eminent by so much odds, while thou

Like consort to thyself canst nowhere find.

That day I oft remember, when from sleep

I first 450awaked, and found myself reposed

Under a shade of flow’rs, much wond’ring where

And what I was, whence thither brought, and how.

Not distant far from thence a murmuring sound

Of waters issued from a cave and spread

Into a liquid plain, then stood unmoved

Pure as th’ expanse of heav’n; I thither went

With unexperienced thought, and laid me down

On the green bank, to look into the clear

Smooth lake, that to me seemed another sky.

460As I bent down to look, just opposite,

A shape within the wat’ry gleam appeared

Bending to look on me: I started back,

It started back, but pleased I soon returned,

Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks

Of sympathy and love; there I had fixed

Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire,

Had not a voice thus warned me, “What thou seest,

What there thou seest fair creature is thyself,

With thee it came and goes; but follow me,

And I 470will bring thee where no shadow stays

Thy coming, and thy soft embraces, he

Whose image thou art, him thou shall enjoy

Inseparably thine, to him shalt bear

Multitudes like thyself, and thence be called

Mother of human race”: what could I do,

But follow straight, invisibly thus led?

Till I espied thee, fair indeed and tall,

Under a platan, yet methought less fair,

Less winning soft, less amiably mild,

Than 480that smooth wat’ry image; back I turned,

Thou following cried’st aloud, “Return, fair Eve;

Whom fli’st thou? Whom thou fli’st, of him thou art,

His flesh, his bone; to give thee being I lent

Out of my side to thee, nearest my heart

Substantial life, to have thee by my side

Henceforth an individual solace dear;

Part of my soul I seek thee, and thee claim

My other half”: with that thy gentle hand

Seized mine, I yielded, and from that time see

How 490beauty is excelled by manly grace

And wisdom, which alone is truly fair.’

So spake our general mother, and with eyes

Of conjugal attraction unreproved,

And meek surrender, half embracing leaned

On our first father; half her swelling breast

Naked met his under the flowing gold

Of her loose tresses hid: he in delight

Both of her beauty and submissive charms

Smiled with superior love, as Jupiter

On 500Juno smiles, when he impregns the clouds

That shed May flowers; and pressed her matron lip

With kisses pure: aside the Devil turned

For envy, yet with jealous leer malign

Eyed them askance, and to himself thus plained.

‘Sight hateful, sight tormenting! Thus these two

Imparadised in one another’s arms

The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill

Of bliss on bliss, while I to Hell am thrust,

Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,

Among 510our other torments not the least,

Still unfulfilled with pain of longing pines;

Yet let me not forget what I have gained

From their own mouths; all is not theirs it seems:

One fatal Tree there stands of Knowledge called,

Forbidden them to taste: knowledge forbidd’n?

Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord

Envy them that? Can it be sin to know,

Can it be death? And do they only stand

By ignorance, is that their happy state,

The 520proof of their obedience and their faith?

O fair foundation laid whereon to build

Their ruin! Hence I will excite their minds

With more desire to know, and to reject

Envious commands, invented with design

To keep them low whom knowledge might exalt

Equal with gods; aspiring to be such,

They taste and die: what likelier can ensue?

But first with narrow search I must walk round

This garden, and no corner leave unspied;

A 530chance but chance may lead where I may meet

Some wand’ring Spirit of Heav’n, by fountain side,

Or in thick shade retired, from him to draw

What further would be learnt. Live while ye may,

Yet happy pair; enjoy, till I return,

Short pleasures, for long woes are to succeed.’

So saying, his proud step he scornful turned,

But with sly circumspection, and began

Through wood, through waste, o’er hill, o’er dale his roam.

Meanwhile in utmost longitude, where heav’n

With 540earth and ocean meets, the setting sun

Slowly descended, and with right aspéct

Against the eastern gate of Paradise

Levelled his evening rays: it was a rock

Of alabaster, piled up to the clouds,

Conspicuous far, winding with one ascent

Accessible from earth, one entrance high;

The rest was craggy cliff, that overhung

Still as it rose, impossible to climb.

Betwixt these rocky pillars Gabriel sat

Chief 550of th’ angelic guards, awaiting night;

About him exercised heroic games

Th’ unarmèd youth of Heav’n, but nigh at hand

Celestial armoury, shields, helms, and spears,

Hung high with diamond flaming, and with gold.

Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even

On a sunbeam, swift as a shooting star

In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fired

Impress the air, and shows the mariner

From what point of his compass to beware

Impetuous 560winds: he thus began in haste.

‘Gabriel, to thee thy course by lot hath giv’n

Charge and strict watch that to this happy place

No evil thing approach or enter in;

This day at heighth of noon came to my sphere

A Spirit, zealous, as he seemed, to know

More of th’ Almighty’s works, and chiefly man

God’s latest image: I described his way

Bent all on speed, and marked his airy gait;

But in the mount that lies from Eden north,

Where 570he first lighted, soon discerned his looks

Alien from Heav’n, with passions foul obscured:

Mine eye pursued him still, but under shade

Lost sight of him; one of the banished crew

I fear, hath ventured from the deep, to raise

New troubles; him thy care must be to find.’

To whom the wingèd warrior thus returned:

‘Uriel, no wonder if thy perfect sight,

Amid the sun’s bright circle where thou sitt’st,

See far and wide: in at this gate none pass

The 580vigilance here placed, but such as come

Well known from Heav’n; and since meridian hour

No creature thence: if Spirit of other sort,

So minded, have o’erleaped these earthy bounds

On purpose, hard thou know’st it to exclude

Spiritual substance with corporeal bar.

But if within the circuit of these walks,

In whatsoever shape he lurk, of whom

Thou tell’st, by morrow dawning I shall know.’

So promised he, and Uriel to his charge

Returned 590on that bright beam, whose point now raised

Bore him slope downward to the sun now fall’n

Beneath the Azores; whether the prime orb,

Incredible how swift, had thither rolled

Diurnal, or this less volúble earth

By shorter flight to th’ east, had left him there

Arraying with reflected purple and gold

The clouds that on his western throne attend:

Now came still ev’ning on, and twilight grey

Had in her sober livery all things clad;

Silence 600accompanied, for beast and bird,

They to their grassy couch, these to their nests

Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale;

She all night long her amorous descant sung;

Silence was pleased: now glowed the firmament

With living sapphires: Hesperus that led

The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon

Rising in clouded majesty, at length

Apparent queen unveiled her peerless light,

And o’er the dark her silver mantle threw.

When 610Adam thus to Eve: ‘Fair consort, th’ hour

Of night, and all things now retired to rest

Mind us of like repose, since God hath set

Labour and rest, as day and night to men

Successive, and the timely dew of sleep

Now falling with soft slumb’rous weight inclines

Our eyelids; other creatures all day long

Rove idle unemployed, and less need rest;

Man hath his daily work of body or mind

Appointed, which declares his dignity,

And 620the regard of Heav’n on all his ways;

While other animals unactive range,

And of their doings God takes no account.

Tomorrow ere fresh morning streak the east

With first approach of light, we must be ris’n,

And at our pleasant labour, to reform

Yon flow’ry arbours, yonder alleys green,

Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown,

That mock our scant manuring, and require

More hands than ours to lop their wanton growth:

Those 630blossoms also, and those dropping gums,

That lie bestrewn unsightly and unsmooth,

Ask riddance, if we mean to tread with ease;

Meanwhile, as nature wills, night bids us rest.’

To whom thus Eve with perfect beauty adorned.

‘My author and disposer, what thou bidd’st

Unargued I obey; so God ordains,

God is thy law, thou mine: to know no more

Is woman’s happiest knowledge and her praise.

With thee conversing I forget all time,

All 640seasons and their change, all please alike.

Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet,

With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun

When first on this delightful land he spreads

His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flow’r,

Glist’ring with dew; fragrant the fertile earth

After soft showers; and sweet the coming on

Of grateful ev’ning mild, then silent night

With this her solemn bird and this fair moon,

And these the gems of heav’n, her starry train:

But 650neither breath of morn when she ascends

With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun

On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flow’r,

Glist’ring with dew, nor fragrance after showers,

Nor grateful ev’ning mild, nor silent night

With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon,

Or glittering starlight without thee is sweet.

But wherefore all night long shine these, for whom

This glorious sight, when sleep hath shut all eyes?’

To whom our general ancestor replied.

‘Daughter 660of God and man, accomplished Eve,

Those have their course to finish, round the earth,

By morrow ev’ning, and from land to land

In order, though to nations yet unborn,

Minist’ring light prepared, they set and rise;

Lest total darkness should by night regain

Her old possession, and extinguish life

In nature and all things, which these soft fires

Not only enlighten, but with kindly heat

Of various influence foment and warm,

Temper 670or nourish, or in part shed down

Their stellar virtue on all kinds that grow

On earth, made hereby apter to receive

Perfection from the sun’s more potent ray.

These then, though unbeheld in deep of night,

Shine not in vain, nor think, though men were none,

That heav’n would want spectators, God want praise;

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth

Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep:

All these with ceaseless praise his works behold

Both 680day and night: how often from the steep

Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard

Celestial voices to the midnight air,

Sole, or responsive each to other’s note

Singing their great Creator: oft in bands

While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk

With Heav’nly touch of instrumental sounds

In full harmonic number joined, their songs

Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to Heaven.’

Thus talking hand in hand alone they passed

On 690to their blissful bower; it was a place

Chos’n by the sov’reign Planter, when he framed

All things to man’s delightful use; the roof

Of thickest covert was inwoven shade

Laurel and myrtle, and what higher grew

Of firm and fragrant leaf; on either side

Acanthus, and each odorous bushy shrub

Fenced up the verdant wall; each beauteous flow’r,

Iris all hues, roses, and jessamine

Reared high their flourished heads between, and wrought

Mosaic; 700underfoot the violet,

Crocus, and hyacinth with rich inlay

Broidered the ground, more coloured than with stone

Of costliest emblem: other creature here

Beast, bird, insect, or worm durst enter none;

Such was their awe of man. In shadier bower

More sacred and sequestered, though but feigned,

Pan or Silvanus never slept, nor nymph,

Nor Faunus haunted. Here in close recess

With flowers, garlands, and sweet-smelling herbs

Espousèd 710Eve decked first her nuptial bed,

And Heav’nly choirs the hymenean sung,

What day the genial angel to our sire

Brought her in naked beauty more adorned,

More lovely than Pandora, whom the gods

Endowed with all their gifts, and O too like

In sad event, when to th’ unwiser son

Of Japhet brought by Hermes, she ensnared

Mankind with her fair looks, to be avenged

On him who had stole Jove’s authentic fire.

Thus 720at their shady lodge arrived, both stood,

Both turned, and under open sky adored

The God that made both sky, air, earth and heav’n

Which they beheld, the moon’s resplendent globe

And starry pole: ‘Thou also mad’st the night,

Maker omnipotent, and thou the day,

Which we in our appointed work employed

Have finished happy in our mutual help

And mutual love, the crown of all our bliss

Ordained by thee, and this delicious place

For 730us too large, where thy abundance wants

Partakers, and uncropped falls to the ground.

But thou hast promised from us two a race

To fill the earth, who shall with us extol

Thy goodness infinite, both when we wake,

And when we seek, as now, thy gift of sleep.’

This said unanimous, and other rites

Observing none, but adoration pure

Which God likes best, into their inmost bower

Handed they went; and eased the putting off

These 740troublesome disguises which we wear,

Straight side by side were laid, nor turned I ween

Adam from his fair spouse, nor Eve the rites

Mysterious of connubial love refused:

Whatever hypocrites austerely talk

Of purity and place and innocence,

Defaming as impure what God declares

Pure, and commands to some, leaves free to all.

Our Maker bids increase, who bids abstain

But our destroyer, foe to God and man?

Hail 750wedded love, mysterious law, true source

Of human offspring, sole propriety,

In Paradise of all things common else.

By thee adulterous lust was driv’n from men

Among the bestial herds to range, by thee

Founded in reason, loyal, just, and pure,

Relations dear, and all the charities

Of father, son, and brother first were known.

Far be it, that I should write thee sin or blame,

Or think thee unbefitting holiest place,

Perpetual 760fountain of domestic sweets,

Whose bed is undefiled and chaste pronounced,

Present, or past, as saints and patriarchs used.

Here Love his golden shafts employs, here lights

His constant lamp, and waves his purple wings,

Reigns here and revels; not in the bought smile

Of harlots, loveless, joyless, unendeared,

Casual fruition, nor in court amours

Mixed dance, or wanton masque, or midnight ball,

Or serenade, which the starved lover sings

To 770his proud fair, best quitted with disdain.

These lulled by nightingales embracing slept,

And on their naked limbs the flow’ry roof

Show’red roses, which the morn repaired. Sleep on,

Blest pair; and O yet happiest if ye seek

No happier state, and know to know no more.

Now had night measured with her shadowy cone

Half way up hill this vast sublunar vault,

And from their ivory port the Cherubim

Forth issuing at th’ accustomed hour stood armed

To 780their night watches in warlike parade,

When Gabriel to his next in power thus spake.

‘Uzziel, half these draw off, and coast the south

With strictest watch; these other wheel the north,

Our circuit meets full west.’ As flame they part

Half wheeling to the shield, half to the spear.

From these, two strong and subtle Spirits he called

That near him stood, and gave them thus in charge.

‘Ithuriel and Zephon, with winged speed

Search through this garden, leave unsearched no nook,

But 790chiefly where those two fair creatures lodge,

Now laid perhaps asleep secure of harm.

This ev’ning from the sun’s decline arrived

Who tells of some infernal Spirit seen

Hitherward bent (who could have thought?) escaped

The bars of Hell, on errand bad no doubt:

Such where ye find, seize fast, and hither bring.’

So saying, on he led his radiant files,

Dazzling the moon; these to the bower direct

In search of whom they sought: him there they found

Squat 800like a toad, close at the ear of Eve;

Assaying by his devilish art to reach

The organs of her Fancy, and with them forge

Illusions as he list, phantasms and dreams,

Or if, inspiring venom, he might taint

Th’ animal spirits that from pure blood arise

Like gentle breaths from rivers pure, thence raise

At least distempered, discontented thoughts,

Vain hopes, vain aims, inordinate desires

Blown up with high conceits engend’ring pride.

Him 810thus intent Ithuriel with his spear

Touched lightly; for no falsehood can endure

Touch of celestial temper, but returns

Of force to its own likeness: up he starts

Discovered and surprised. As when a spark

Lights on a heap of nitrous powder, laid

Fit for the tun some magazine to store

Against a rumoured war, the smutty grain

With sudden blaze diffused, inflames the air:

So started up in his own shape the Fiend.

Back 820stepped those two fair angels half amazed

So sudden to behold the grisly King;

Yet thus, unmoved with fear, accost him soon.

‘Which of those rebel Spirits adjudged to Hell

Com’st thou, escaped thy prison, and transformed,

Why sat’st thou like an enemy in wait

Here watching at the head of these that sleep?’

‘Know ye not then,’ said Satan, filled with scorn,

‘Know ye not me? Ye knew me once no mate

For you, there sitting where ye durst not soar;

Not 830to know me argues yourselves unknown,

The lowest of your throng; or if ye know,

Why ask ye, and superfluous begin

Your message, like to end as much in vain?’

To whom thus Zephon, answering scorn with scorn.

‘Think not, revolted Spirit, thy shape the same,

Or undiminished brightness, to be known

As when thou stood’st in Heav’n upright and pure;

That glory then, when thou no more wast good,

Departed from thee, and thou resemblest now

Thy 840sin and place of doom obscure and foul.

But come, for thou, be sure, shalt give account

To him who sent us, whose charge is to keep

This place inviolable, and these from harm.’

So spake the Cherub, and his grave rebuke

Severe in youthful beauty, added grace

Invincible: abashed the Devil stood,

And felt how awful goodness is, and saw

Virtue in her shape how lovely, saw, and pined

His loss; but chiefly to find here observed

His 850lustre visibly impaired; yet seemed

Undaunted. ‘If I must contend,’ said he,

‘Best with the best, the sender not the sent,

Or all at once; more glory will be won,

Or less be lost.’ ‘Thy fear,’ said Zephon bold,

‘Will save us trial what the least can do

Single against thee wicked, and thence weak.’

The Fiend replied not, overcome with rage;

But like a proud steed reined, went haughty on,

Champing his iron curb: to strive or fly

He 860held it vain; awe from above had quelled

His heart, not else dismayed. Now drew they nigh

The western point, where those half-rounding guards

Just met, and closing stood in squadron joined

Awaiting next command. To whom their chief

Gabriel from the front thus called aloud.

‘O friends, I hear the tread of nimble feet

Hasting this way, and now by glimpse discern

Ithuriel and Zephon through the shade,

And with them comes a third of regal port,

But 870faded splendour wan; who by his gait

And fierce demeanour seems the Prince of Hell,

Not likely to part hence without contést;

Stand firm, for in his look defiance lours.’

He scarce had ended, when those two approached

And brief related whom they brought, where found,

How busied, in what form and posture couched.

To whom with stern regard thus Gabriel spake.

‘Why hast thou, Satan, broke the bounds prescribed

To thy transgressions, and disturbed the charge

Of 880others, who approve not to transgress

By thy example, but have power and right

To question thy bold entrance on this place;

Employed it seems to violate sleep, and those

Whose dwelling God hath planted here in bliss?’

To whom thus Satan, with contemptuous brow.

‘Gabriel, thou hadst in Heav’n th’ esteem of wise,

And such I held thee; but this question asked

Puts me in doubt. Lives there who loves his pain?

Who would not, finding way, break loose from Hell,

Though 890thither doomed? Thou wouldst thyself, no doubt,

And boldly venture to whatever place

Farthest from pain, where thou might’st hope to change

Torment with ease, and soonest recompense

Dole with delight, which in this place I sought;

To thee no reason; who know’st only good,

But evil hast not tried: and wilt object

His will who bound us? Let him surer bar

His iron gates, if he intends our stay

In that dark durance: thus much what was asked.

The rest 900is true, they found me where they say;

But that implies not violence or harm.’

Thus he in scorn. The warlike angel moved,

Disdainfully half smiling thus replied.

‘O loss of one in Heav’n to judge of wise,

Since Satan fell, whom folly overthrew,

And now returns him from his prison ’scaped,

Gravely in doubt whether to hold them wise

Or not, who ask what boldness brought him hither

Unlicensed from his bounds in Hell prescribed;

So 910wise he judges it to fly from pain

However, and to ’scape his punishment.

So judge thou still, presumptuous, till the wrath,

Which thou incurr’st by flying, meet thy flight

Sevenfold, and scourge that wisdom back to Hell,

Which taught thee yet no better, that no pain

Can equal anger infinite provoked.

But wherefore thou alone? Wherefore with thee

Came not all Hell broke loose? Is pain to them

Less pain, less to be fled, or thou than they

Less 920hardy to endure? Courageous chief,

The first in flight from pain, hadst thou alleged

To thy deserted host this cause of flight,

Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive.’

To which the Fiend thus answered frowning stern.

‘Not that I less endure, or shrink from pain,

Insulting angel, well thou know’st I stood

Thy fiercest, when in battle to thy aid

The blasting volleyed thunder made all speed

And seconded thy else not dreaded spear.

But 930still thy words at random, as before,

Argue thy inexperience what behoves

From hard assays and ill successes past

A faithful leader, not to hazard all

Through ways of danger by himself untried.

I therefore, I alone first undertook

To wing the desolate abyss, and spy

This new-created world, whereof in Hell

Fame is not silent, here in hope to find

Better abode, and my afflicted powers

To 940settle here on earth, or in mid air;

Though for possession put to try once more

What thou and thy gay legions dare against;

Whose easier business were to serve their Lord

High up in Heav’n, with songs to hymn his throne,

And practised distances to cringe, not fight.’

To whom the warrior angel soon replied.

‘To say and straight unsay, pretending first

Wise to fly pain, professing next the spy,

Argues no leader, but a liar traced,

Satan, 950and couldst thou “faithful” add? O name,

O sacred name of faithfulness profaned!

Faithful to whom? To thy rebellious crew?

Army of fiends, fit body to fit head;

Was this your discipline and faith engaged,

Your military obedience, to dissolve

Allegiance to th’ acknowledged Power Supreme?

And thou sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem

Patron of liberty, who more than thou

Once fawned, and cringed, and servilely adored

Heav’n’s 960awful Monarch? Wherefore but in hope

To dispossess him, and thyself to reign?

But mark what I aread thee now, avaunt;

Fly thither whence thou fledd’st: if from this hour

Within these hallowed limits thou appear,

Back to th’ infernal pit I drag thee chained,

And seal thee so, as henceforth not to scorn

The facile gates of Hell too slightly barred.’

So threatened he, but Satan to no threats

Gave heed, but waxing more in rage replied.

‘Then 970when I am thy captive talk of chains,

Proud limitary Cherub, but ere then

Far heavier load thyself expect to feel

From my prevailing arm, though Heaven’s King

Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers,

Used to the yoke, draw’st his triumphant wheels

In progress through the road of Heav’n star-paved.’

While thus he spake, th’ angelic squadron bright

Turned fiery red, sharp’ning in moonèd horns

Their phalanx, and began to hem him round

With 980ported spears, as thick as when a field

Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends

Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind

Sways them; the careful ploughman doubting stands

Lest on the threshing floor his hopeful sheaves

Prove chaff. On th’ other side Satan alarmed

Collecting all his might dilated stood,

Like Teneriffe or Atlas unremoved:

His stature reached the sky, and on his crest

Sat Horror plumed; nor wanted in his grasp

What 990seemed both spear and shield: now dreadful deeds

Might have ensued, nor only Paradise

In this commotion, but the starry cope

Of heav’n perhaps, or all the elements

At least had gone to wrack, disturbed and torn

With violence of this conflict, had not soon

Th’ Eternal to prevent such horrid fray

Hung forth in heav’n his golden Scales, yet seen

Betwixt Astraea and the Scorpion sign,

Wherein all things created first he weighed,

The 1000pendulous round earth with balanced air

In counterpoise, now ponders all events,

Battles and realms: in these he put two weights

The sequel each of parting and of fight;

The latter quick up flew, and kicked the beam;

Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the Fiend.

‘Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know’st mine,

Neither our own but giv’n; what folly then

To boast what arms can do, since thine no more

Than Heav’n permits, nor mine, though doubled now

To 1010trample thee as mire: for proof look up,

And read thy lot in yon celestial sign

Where thou art weighed, and shown how light, how weak,

If thou resist.’ The Fiend looked up and knew

His mounted scale aloft: nor more; but fled

Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night.

BOOK IX

No more of talk where God or angel guest

With man, as with his friend, familiar used

To sit indulgent, and with him partake

Rural repast, permitting him the while

Venial discourse unblamed: I now must change

Those notes to tragic; foul distrust, and breach

Disloyal on the part of man, revolt,

And disobedience: on the part of Heav’n

Now alienated, distance and distaste,

Anger 10and just rebuke, and judgement giv’n,

That brought into this world a world of woe,

Sin and her shadow Death, and misery

Death’s harbinger: sad task, yet argument

Not less but more heroic than the wrath

Of stern Achilles on his foe pursued

Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage

Of Turnus for Lavinia disespoused,

Or Neptune’s ire or Juno’s, that so long

Perplexed the Greek and Cytherea’s son;

If 20answerable style I can obtain

Of my celestial patroness, who deigns

Her nightly visitation unimplored,

And díctates to me slumb’ring, or inspires

Easy my unpremeditated verse:

Since first this subject for heroic song

Pleased me long choosing, and beginning late;

Not sedulous by nature to indite

Wars, hitherto the only argument

Heroic deemed, chief mast’ry to dissect

With 30long and tedious havoc fabled knights

In battles feigned; the better fortitude

Of patience and heroic martyrdom

Unsung; or to describe races and games,

Or tilting furniture, emblazoned shields,

Impreses quaint, caparisons and steeds;

Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights

At joust and tournament; then marshalled feast

Served up in hall with sewers, and seneschals;

The skill of artifice or office mean,

Not 40that which justly gives heroic name

To person or to poem. Me of these

Nor skilled 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

Depressed, 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 50upon the earth, short arbiter

’Twixt day and night, and now from end to end

Night’s hemisphere had veiled the horizon round:

When Satan who late fled before the threats

Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improved

In meditated fraud and malice, bent

On man’s destruction, maugre what might hap

Of heavier on himself, fearless returned.

By night he fled, and at midnight returned

From compassing the earth, cautious of day,

Since 60Uriel regent of the sun descried

His entrance, and forewarned the Cherubim

That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driv’n,

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 Cherubic watch, by stealth

Found unsuspected way. There was a place,

Now 70not, 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 Antarctic; and in length

West 80from 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 90enter, 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 diabolic pow’r

Active within beyond the sense of brute.

Thus he resolved, but first from inward grief

His bursting passion into plaints thus poured:

‘O earth, how like to Heav’n, if not preferred

More 100justly, seat worthier of gods, as built

With second thoughts, reforming what was old!

For what god after better worse would build?

Terrestrial Heav’n, danced round by other heav’ns

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 Heav’n

Is centre, yet extends to all, so thou

Centring receiv’st from all those orbs; in thee,

Not 110in 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 120about me, so much more I feel

Torment within me, as from the hateful siege

Of contraries; all good to me becomes

Bane, and in Heav’n much worse would be my state.

But neither here seek I, no nor in Heav’n

To dwell, unless by mast’ring Heav’n’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 130my 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 140longer than since I in one night freed

From servitude inglorious well-nigh half

Th’ angelic 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 150from so base original,

With Heav’nly 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 earthy charge: of these the vigilance

I dread, and to elude, thus wrapped in mist

Of midnight vapour glide obscure, and pry

In 160every 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 heighth of Deity aspired;

But what will not ambition and revenge

Descend to? Who aspires must down as low

As high 170he 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 Heav’n, 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 180a 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 subtle wiles:

Not yet in horrid shade or dismal den,

Not 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 190act intelligential; but his sleep

Disturbed not, waiting close th’ approach of morn.

Now whenas sacred light began to dawn

In Eden on the humid flow’rs, that breathed

Their morning incense, when all things that breathe,

From th’ 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 choir

Of creatures wanting voice; that done, partake

The 200season, prime for sweetest scents and airs:

Then cómmune how that day they best may ply

Their growing work: for much their work outgrew

The hands’ dispatch of two gard’ning 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 flow’r,

Our pleasant task enjoined, but till more hands

Aid us, the work under our labour grows,

Luxurious by restraint; what we by day

Lop 210overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind,

One night or two with wanton growth derides

Tending to wild. Thou therefore now advise

Or hear 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 220while 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 th’ 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 230we 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 household 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 240brute 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 convérse perhaps

Thee satiate, to short absence I could yield.

For solitude sometimes is best society,

And 250short retirement urges sweet return.

But other doubt possesses me, lest harm

Befall thee severed from me; for thou know’st

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 260other 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 270whom the virgin majesty of Eve,

As one who loves, and some unkindness meets,

With sweet austere composure thus replied.

‘Offspring of Heav’n 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 overheard

As in a shady nook I stood behind,

Just then returned at shut of evening flow’rs.

But that thou shouldst my firmness therefore doubt

To 280God or thee, because we have a foe

May tempt it, I expected not to hear.

His violence thou fear’st 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, misthought of her to thee so dear?’

To 290whom 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

Th’ 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 300anger 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 th’ assault shall light.

Nor thou his malice and false guile contemn;

Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce

Angels, nor think superfluous others’ aid.

I from the influence of thy looks receive

Access 310in 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 overreached

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 domestic Adam in his care

And matrimonial love; but Eve, who thought

Less 320attribúted 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 330no 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 Heav’n, our witness from th’ event.

And what is faith, love, virtue unassayed

Alone, without exterior 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 340is 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 350his 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 beware, and still erect,

Lest by some fair appearing good surprised

She díctate false, and misinform 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 360reason 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; th’ other who can know,

Not seeing thee attempted, who attest?

But 370if thou think trial unsought may find

Us both securer than thus warned thou seem’st,

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 380only, 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 390not as she with bow and quiver armed,

But with such gard’ning tools as art yet rude,

Guiltless of fire had formed, or angels brought.

To Pales, or Pomona thus adorned,

Likeliest 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, 400she to him as oft engaged

To be returned by noon amid the bow’r,

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

Found’st either sweet repast, or sound repose;

Such ambush hid among sweet flow’rs and shades

Waited with Hellish rancour imminent

To 410intercept 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 bow’r and field he sought, where any tuft

Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay,

Their tendance or plantation for delight;

By 420fountain 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 bushing round

About her glowed, oft stooping to support

Each flow’r of slender stalk, whose head though gay

Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold,

Hung 430drooping unsustained; them she upstays

Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while,

Herself, though fairest unsupported flow’r,

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 flow’rs

Embordered on each bank, the hand of Eve:

Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned

Or 440of revived Adonis, or renowned

Alcinous, host of old Laertes’ son,

Or that, not mystic, 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 450smell 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 flow’ry plat, the sweet recess of Eve

Thus early, thus alone; her Heav’nly form

Angelic, but more soft, and feminine,

Her graceful innocence, her every air

Of 460gesture 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-Heav’n, soon ended his delight,

And tortures him now more, the more he sees

Of 470pleasure 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 480which 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

Heroic 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 Heav’n.

She fair, divinely fair, fit love for gods,

Not 490terrible, though terror 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 tow’red

Fold above fold a surging maze, his head

Crested 500aloft, 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 510the heighth of Rome. With tract oblique

At first, as one who sought accéss, but feared

To interrupt, sidelong he works his way.

As when a ship by skilful steersman 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 rustling leaves, but minded not, as used

To 520such 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

Organic, 530or impúlse of vocal air,

His fraudulent temptation thus began.

‘Wonder not, sov’reign mistress, if perhaps

Thou canst, who art sole wonder, much less arm

Thy looks, the Heav’n 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 540gift, 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 shouldst be seen

A goddess among gods, adored and served

By angels numberless, thy daily train.’

So glozed the Tempter, and his proem tuned;

Into 550the 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, 560serpent, subtlest beast of all the field

I knew, but not with human voice endued;

Redouble then this miracle, and say,

How cam’st 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 570thou command’st, 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 580to appetite, more pleased my sense

Than smell of sweetest fennel, or the teats

Of ewe or goat dropping with milk at ev’n,

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 590high 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 600reason 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 heav’n,

Or earth, or middle, all things fair and good;

But all that fair and good in thy divine

Semblance, and in thy beauty’s Heav’nly ray

United I beheld; no fair to thine

Equivalent or second, which compelled

Me 610thus, though importune perhaps, to come

And gaze, and worship thee of right declared

Sov’reign 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 620us, 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 bearth.’

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 630conduct, 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 wand’ring 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 640th’ 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,

Wondrous 650indeed, 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 660each 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 670when 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 heighth began, as no delay

Of preface brooking through his zeal of right.

So standing, moving, or to heighth upgrown

The Tempter all impassioned thus began.

‘O sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving plant,

Mother 680of 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 ye? By the fruit? It gives you life

To knowledge. By the Threat’ner? Look on me,

Me who have touched and tasted, yet both live,

And life more perfect have attained than Fate

Meant 690me, by vent’ring 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 700therefore 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 710ye should 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 godlike food?

The gods are first, and that advantage use

On our belief, that all from them proceeds;

I 720question 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

Th’ 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 730Heav’nly 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;

Meanwhile the hour of noon drew on, and waked

An 740eager 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 forborne, at first assay

Gave elocution to the mute, and taught

The tongue not made for speech to speak thy praise:

Thy 750praise 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 760prohibitions 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 eat’n 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 770tasted, envies not, but brings with joy

The good befall’n 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 780saying, her rash hand in evil hour

Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate:

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, naught else

Regarded, such delight till then, as seemed,

In fruit she never tasted, whether true

Or fancied so, through expectation high

Of 790knowledge, nor was Godhead from her thought.

Greedily she engorged without restraint,

And knew not eating death: satiate at length,

And heightened as with wine, jocund and boon,

Thus to herself she pleasingly began.

‘O sov’reign, 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 800without 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 open’st wisdom’s way,

And 810giv’st accéss, though secret she retire.

And I perhaps am secret; Heav’n 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 820keep 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

Superior; for inferior 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 830death 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 840choicest flow’rs 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 falt’ring 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 850from 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 to 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 860I 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

Op’ning 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 870dead, 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

Th’ 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, 880unshared 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 count’nance blithe her story told;

But in her cheek distemper flushing glowed.

On th’ other side, Adam, soon as he heard

The fatal trespass done by Eve, amazed,

Astonied 890stood and blank, while horror chill

Ran through his veins, and all his joints relaxed;

From his slack hand the garland wreathed for Eve

Down dropped, 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 900art thou lost, how on a sudden lost,

Defaced, deflow’red, and now to death devote?

Rather how hast thou yielded to transgress

The strict forbiddance, how to violate

The sacred fruit forbidd’n! Some cursèd 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 forgo

Thy sweet convérse and love so dearly joined,

To 910live 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 remédiless,

Thus 920in calm mood his words to Eve he turned.

‘Bold deed thou hast presumed, advent’rous Eve,

And peril great provoked, who thus hath 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 930first by the serpent, by him first

Made common and unhallowed ere our taste;

Nor yet on him found deadly; he yet 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 threat’ning, will in earnest so destroy

Us 940his prime creatures, dignified so high,

Set over all his works, which in our Fall,

For us created, needs with us must fail,

Dependent 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 loath

Us to abolish, lest the Adversary

Triúmph and say; “Fickle their state whom God

Most favours, who can please him long? Me first

He 950ruined, 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.’

960So 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 970separate 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

980Deserted, 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 th’ 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.’

990So 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 recompense (for such compliance bad

Such recompense 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 1000trembled 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 soothe

Him with her loved society, that now

As with new wine intoxicated both

They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel

Divinity 1010within 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 1020palate 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 1030saw 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 seized, and to a shady bank,

Thick overhead with verdant roof embow’red

He led her nothing loath; flow’rs were the couch,

1040Pansies, 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 1050of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams

Encumbered, 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

1060Hercúlean Samson from the harlot-lap

Of Phílistéan Dálila, 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 1070in 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 1080sure then. How shall I behold the face

Henceforth of God or angel, erst with joy

And rapture so oft beheld? Those Heav’nly 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 sunlight, spread their umbrage broad

And brown as evening: cover me ye pines,

Ye cedars, with innumerable boughs

Hide 1090me, 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 newcomer, Shame,

There sit not, and reproach us as unclean.’

So counselled he, and both together went

Into 1100the 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 Deccan 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 overarched, and echoing walks between;

There oft the Indian herdsman shunning heat

Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds

At 1110loopholes 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 th’ 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

1120Covered, 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 tossed and turbulent:

For understanding ruled not, and the will

Heard not her lore, both in subjection now

To sensual appetite, who from beneath

Usurping 1130over sov’reign reason claimed

Superior 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 stayed

With me, as I besought thee, when that strange

Desire of wand’ring 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 1140none 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,

Imput’st thou that to my default, or will

Of wand’ring, as thou call’st it, which who knows

But might as ill have happened thou being by,

Or to thyself perhaps: hadst thou been there,

Or here th’ attempt, thou couldst not have discerned

Fraud 1150in 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 1160thou 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 recompense

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 1170seems, 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 1180evil durst attempt thee, but I rue

That error now, which is become my crime,

And thou th’ 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 contést appeared no end.