Not then mistrust but tender love enjoins,
That I should mind thee oft; and mind thou me.
Firm we subsist, yet possible to swerve,
Since reason not impossibly may meet
Some specious object by the foe suborn'd,
And fall into deception unaware,
Not keeping strictest watch, as she was warn'd.
Seek not temptation then; which to avoid
Were better, and most likely if from me
Thou sever not: trial will come unsought.
Would'st thou approve thy constancy, approve
First thy obedience; th' other who can know,
Not seeing thee attempted, who attest?
But if thou think, trial ursought may find
Us both securer than thus warn'd 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 tow'rds thee hath done his part; do thine.
So spake the patriarch of mankind: but Eve
Persisted, yet submiss, though last, reply'd:
With thy permission then, and thus forewarn'd Chiefly by what thy own last reas'ning words Touch'd only, that our trial, when least sought, 380 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. 384 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 surpass'd, and Goddess-like deport,
Though not as she with bow and quiver arm'd, 390
But with such gard'ning tools as art yet rude,
Guiltless of fire, had form'd, or Angels brought.
To Pales, or Pomona, thus adorn'd,
Likest she seem'd; 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.
396. Virgin of Proserpina, a Grecism.-Theocritus, Idyl ii. 136
Oft he to her his charge of quick return
Repeated; she to him as oft engaged
To be return'd 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 intercept thy way, or send thee back
Despoil'd 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 tendence or plantation for delight:
By fountain, or by shady rivulet
Of what so seldom chanced, when to his wish,
He sought them both; but wish'd his hap might find Eve separate; he wish'd, but not with hope
Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies,
Veil'd in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood, 425
Half spy'd, so thick the roses blushing round
About her glow'd, oft stooping to support
Each flow'r of slender stalk, whose head, though gay
Carnation, purple', azure, or speck'd with gold,
Hung drooping unsustain'd: 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
Imborder'd on each bank, the hand of Eve:
Spot more delicious than those gardens feign'd
438. Imborder'd, from the old word to imborder, since made imbroider.
Or of revived Adonis, or renown'd
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
Adjoin'd, from each thing met conceives delight;
The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine,
Or dairy', each rural sight, each rural sound:
If chance with nymph-like step fair virgin pass,
What pleasing seem'd, 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 ev'ry air
Of gesture or least action, overawed
His malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved
His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought.
That space the Evil One abstracted stood
From his own evil, and for the time remain'd
Stupidly good; of enmity disarm d,
Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge;
But the hot Hell that always in him burns,
Though in mid Heaven, soon ended his delight,
And tortures him now more, the more he sees
Of pleasure not for him ordain'd. 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
440. It was supposed that Adonis was restored to life at the request of Venus. The gardens of Alcinous were celebrated universally among the ancients; those not mystic were the gardens Solomon made for Pharaoh's daughter.
457. The interview between Aladin and Sophronia in the 2 Can. of Tasso is described in similar terins. 438. That is, it would be so were he in heaven. Or there is an alusion perhaps to Job i. 6. ii. 1.
Of pleasure, but all pleasure to destroy,
Save what is in destroying other joy
To me is lost. Then let me not let pass
Occasion which now smiles. Behold alone
The woman, opportuue 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 terrible, though terror be in love
And beauty; not approach'd by stronger hate,
Hate stronger, under show of love well feign'd,
The way which to her ruin now I tend.
So spake th' enemy' of mankind, inclosed In serpent, inmate bad, and toward Eve
Address'd his way, not with indented wave,
Prone on the ground, as since, but on his rear,
Circular base of rising folds, that tower'd
Fold above fold a surging maze, his head
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes;
With burnish'd 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 transform'd
Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline was seen;
He with Olympias, this with her who bore
Scipio the highth of Rome. With tract oblique 510
At first, as one who sought access, but fear'd
To interrupt, sidelong he works his way.
As when a ship by skilful steersman wrought,
Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind
505. Cadmus and his wife being obliged to leave Thebes on going into Illyria were changed into serpents by the way; if the word those be considered as referring to serpents generally, or the nature of serpents, the construction will be easy.-The god in Epidaurus, Esculapius, who was worshipped in that place. 508. Ammonian, Lybian; Capitoline, Roman.
Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail,
So varied he, and of his tortuous train
Curl'd many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve,
To lure her eye: she busy'd, heard the sound
Of rustling leaves, but minded not, as used
To such disport before her through the field
From ev'ry beast; more duteous at her call
Than at Circean call the herd disguised.
He bolder now, uncall'd, before her stood,
But as in gaze admiring, oft he bow'd
His turret crest and sleek enamel'd neck,
Fawning, and lick'd the ground whereon she trod.
His gentle dumb expression turn'd at length
The eye of Eve to mark his play. He, glad
Of her attention gain'd, with serpent-tongue
Organic, or impulse 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 535
Insatiate, I thus single, nor have fear'd
Thy awful brow, more awful thus retired.
Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair!
Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine
By gift, and thy celestial beauty' adore
With ravishment beheld! there best beheld
Where universally admired: but here
In this inclosure wild, these beasts among,
Beholders rude, and shallow to discern
Half what in thee is fair, one man except,
Who sees thee'? (and what is one?) who should'st be A Goddess among Gods, adored and served [seen By Angels numberless, thy daily train.
So glozed the Tempter, and his proem tuned; Into the heart of Eve his words made way, Though at the voice much marvelling. At length, Not unamazed, she thus in answer spake: [nounced What may this mean? Language of man proBy tongue of brute, and human sense express'd! The first at least of these I thought deny'd To beasts, whom God on their creation-day Created mute to all articulate sound:
|