Opened we find indeed, and find we know Both good and evil, good lost and evil got: Bad Fruit of Knowledge, if this be to know, Which leaves us naked thus, of honour void, Of innocence, of faith, of purity,
Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained, And in our faces evident the signs
Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store, Even shame, the last of evils; of the first Be sure then. How shall I behold the face Henceforth of God or Angel, erst with joy
And rapture so oft beheld? Those Heavenly Shapes Will dazzle now this earthly with their blaze Insufferably bright. Oh, 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 me, where I may never see them more!
But let us now, as in bad plight, devise
What best may, for the present, serve to hide
The parts of each other that seem most
To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen
Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves, together sewed, And girded on our loins, may cover round
Those middle parts, that this new comer, Shame, There sit not, and reproach us as unclean."
So counselled he, and both together went Into the thickest wood. There soon they choose The fig tree-not that kind for fruit renowned, But such as, at this day, to Indians known, In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms Braunching 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 loop-holes cut through thickest shade. Those leaves
They gathered, broad as Amazonian targe, And with what skill they had together sewed, To gird their waist-vain covering, if to hide Their guilt and dreaded shame! O how unlike To that first naked glory! Such of late Columbus found the American, so girt
With feathered cincture, naked else and wild, Among the trees on isles and woody shores.
Thus fenced, and, as they thought, their shame in part Covered, but not at rest or ease of mind,
They sat them down to weep. Nor only tears
Rained at their eyes, but high winds worse within Began to rise, high passions-anger, hate, Mistrust, suspicion, discord-and shook sore Their inward state of mind, calm region once And full of peace, now tost and turbulent: For Understanding ruled not, and the Will Heard not her lore, both in subjection now To sensual Appetite, who, from beneath Usurping over sovran Reason, claimed 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 wandering, this unhappy morn,
I know not whence possessed thee! We had then Remained still happy-not, as now, despoiled
Of all our good, shamed, naked, miserable!
Let none henceforth seek needless cause to approve The faith they owe; when earnestly they seek
Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail."
To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus Eve:
"What words have passed thy lips, Adam severe ? Imput'st thou that to my default, or will
Of wandering, 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 the attempt, thou couldst not have discerned
Fraud in the Serpent, speaking as he spake; No ground of enmity between us known Why he should mean me ill or seek to harm. Was I to have never parted from thy side? As good have grown there still, a lifeless rib. Being as I am, why didst not thou, the Head, Command me absolutely not to go,
Going into such danger, as thou saidst?
Too facile then, thou didst not much gainsay, Nay, didst permit, approve, and fair dismiss. Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent, Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me." To whom, then first incensed, Adam replied:- "Is this the love, is this the 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 seems, in thy restraint! What could I more? I warned thee, I admonished thee, foretold The danger, and the lurking Enemy
That lay in wait; beyond this had been force, And force upon free will hath here no place. But confidence then bore thee on, secure Either to meet no danger, or to find Matter of glorious trial; and perhaps I also erred in overmuch admiring What seemed in thee so perfet that I thought No evil durst attempt thee. But I rue That error now, which is become my crime, And thou the accuser. Thus it shall befall Him who, to worth in women overtrusting, Lets her will rule: restraint she will not brook; And, left to herself, if evil thence ensue, She first his weak indulgence will accuse."
Thus they in mutual accusation spent
The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning; And of their vain contest' appeared no end.
THE ARGUMENT.-Man's transgression known, the guardian Angels forsake Paradise, and return up to Heaven to approve their vigilance, and are approved; God declaring that the entrance of Satan could not be by them prevented. He sends his Son to judge the Transgressors; who descends, and gives sentence accordingly; then, in pity, clothes them both, and reascends. Sin and Death, sitting till then at the gates of Hell, by wondrous sympathy feeling the success of Satan in this new World, and the sin by Man there committed, resolve to sit no longer confined in Hell, but to follow Satan, their sire, up to the place of Man: to make the way easier from Hell to this World to and fro, they pave a broad highway or bridge over Chaos, according to the track that Satan first made; then, preparing for Earth, they meet him, proud of his success, returning to Hell; their mutual gratulation. Satan arrives at Pandemonium; in full assembly relates, with boasting, his success against Man; instead of applause is entertained with a general hiss by all his audience, transformed, with himself also, suddenly into Serpents, according to his doom given in Paradise; then, deluded with a shew of the Forbidden Tree springing up before them, they, greedily reaching to take of the Fruit, chew dust and bitter ashes. The proceedings of Sin and Death: God foretells the final victory of his Son over them, and the renewing of all things; but, for the present, commands his Angels to make several alterations in the Heavens and Elements. Adam, more and more perceiving his fallen condition, heavily bewails, rejects the condolement of Eve; she persists, and at length appeases him: then, to evade the curse likely to fall on their offspring, proposes to Adam violent ways; which he approves not, but, conceiving better hope, puts her in mind of the late promise made them, that her seed should be revenged on the Serpent, and exhorts her, with him, to seek peace of the offended Deity by repentance and supplication.
MEANWHILE the hainous and despiteful act
Of Satan done in Paradise, and how
He, in the Serpent, had perverted Eve,
Her husband she, to taste the fatal Fruit,
Was known in Heaven; for what can scape the eye
Of God all-seeing, or deceive his heart
Omniscient? who, in all things wise and just, Hindered not Satan to attempt the mind
Of Man, with strength entire and free will armed Complete to have discovered and repulsed Whatever wiles of foe or seeming friend.
For still they knew, and ought to have still remembered, The high injunction not to taste that Fruit, Whoever tempted; which they not obeying Incurred (what could they less?) the penalty, And, manifold in sin, deserved to fall. Up into Heaven from Paradise in haste The Angelic Guards ascended, mute and sad For Man; for of his state by this they knew, Much wondering how the subtle Fiend had stolen Entrance unseen. Soon as the unwelcome news From Earth arrived at Heaven-gate, displeased All were who heard; dim sadness did not spare That time celestial visages, yet, mixed With pity, violated not their bliss. About the new-arrived in multitudes,
The Ethereal People ran, to hear and know How all befell. They towards the Throne supreme, Accountable, made haste, to make appear, With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance, And easily approved; when the Most High, Eternal Father, from his secret Cloud Amidst, in thunder uttered thus his voice:-
Assembled Angels, and ye Powers returned From unsuccessful charge, be not dismayed Nor troubled at these tidings from the Earth, Which your sincerest care could not prevent, Foretold so lately what would come to pass, When first this Tempter crossed the gulf from Hell. I told ye then he should prevail, and speed
On his bad errand-Man should be seduced, And flattered out of all, believing lies Against his Maker; no decree of mine, Concurring to necessitate his fall,
Or touch with lightest moment of impulse His free will, to her own inclining left In even scale. But fallen he is; and now What rests, but that the mortal sentence pass On his transgression, Death denounced that day? Which he presumes already vain and void, Because not yet inflicted, as he feared,
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