Consort with thee, death is to me as life:
So forcible within my heart I feel
The bond of nature draw me to my own,
My own in thee! for what thou art is mine
Our state cannot be severed; we are one,
One flesh. To lose thee were to lose myself.
So Adam; and thus Eve to him reply'd:
O glorious trial of exceeding love!
Illustrious evidence! example high!
Engaging me to emulate, but short

Of thy perfection, how shall I attain,

955

060

Adam? from whose dear side I boast me sprung, 965

And gladly of our union hear thee speak,

One heart, one soul in both; whereof good proof

This day affords, declaring thee resolved,

Rather than death or aught than death more dread

Shall separate us, link'd in love so dear,

970

To undergo with me one guilt, one crime,

If any be, of tasting this fair fruit,

Whose virtue (for of good still good proceeds,

The worst, and not persuade thee: rather die

980

Deserted, than oblige thee with a fact
Pernicious to thy peace, chiefly assured
Remarkably so late of thy so true,

So faithful love, unequal'd; but I feel

Far otherwise th' event; not death, but life

Augmented, open'd eyes, new hopes, new joys, 985

Taste so divine, that what of sweet before

Hath touch'd my sense, flat seems to this, and harsh. On my experience, Adam, freely taste;

And fear of death deliver to the winds.

So saying, she embraced him, and for joy

990

990. There is great beauty and the truest passion in this picture of Eve. It well prepares the mind for the fall of Adam, who is represented as sinning more through the intoxication of love and fondness than any ignorance of his danger. What a magnificent scene has the poet for the first act of the fearful tragedy! The great theatre of the universe filled with darkness and horror, and the earth and elements suffering with a mysterious conscious ness of ruin.

Tenderly wept; much won that he his love
Had so ennobled, as of choice t' 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 trembled from her entrails, as again
In

995

1000

pangs; and Nature gave a second groan; Sky lour'd, 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

1005

Her former trespass fear'd, the more to sooth

Him with her loved society, that now,

As with new wine intoxicated both,

They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel

Divinity within them breeding wings

1010

Wherewith to scorn the earth: but that false fruit

Far other operation first display'd;

Carnal desire inflaming: he on Eve

Began to cast lascivious eyes; she him

As wantonly repaid. In lust they burn:

1015

Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move:

Eve, now I see thou art exact of taste,
And elegant, of sapience no small part,
Since to each meaning savour we apply,
And palate call judicious. I the praise
Yield thee, so well this day thou hast purvey'd.
Much pleasure we have lost while we abstain'd
From this delightful fruit, nor known till now
True relish, tasting. If such pleasure be
In things to us forbidd'n, it might be wish'd,
For this one tree had been forbidden ten.

1020

1025

1000. A commentator has expressed his wonder that Adam shewed no astonishment at these convulsions.-Had he been ignorant of his guilt he would have done so, but he was aware of the crime he was committing, and the same fascination which made him break the known command of his Creator, prevented his re garding these signs of his wrath. It may also be conjectured that, awful as they were, the confusion of thought and passion with which he was agitated might hinder his giving them their proper and terrible interpretation.

છુ

But come, so well refresh'd, now let us play,
As meet is, after such delicious fare;
For never did thy beauty since the day
I saw thee first and wedded thee, adorn'd
With all perfections, so inflame my sense
With ardour to enjoy thee; fairer now
Than ever, bounty of this virtuous tree.

1030

So said he; and forbore not glance or toy Of amorous intent: well understood

1035

Of Eve, whose eye darted contagious fire.

Her hand he seized, and to a shady bank,

Thick overhead with verdant roof imbower'd,

He led her, nothing loth. Flow'rs were the couch, Pansies, and violets, and asphodel,

And hyacinth, earth's freshest softest lap.

There they their fill of love and love's disport
Took largely, of their mutual guilt the seal,
The solace of their sin, till dewy sleep

1040

Oppress'd them, wearied with their amorous play.
Soon as the force of that fallacious fruit,
That with exhilarating vapour bland

1046

About their spirits had play'd, and inmost pow'rs
Made err, was now exhaled, and grosser sleep
Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams 1050
Incumber'd, now had left them, up they rose
As from unrest, and each the other viewing,
Soon found their eyes how open'd, and their minds
How darken'd. Innocence, that as a veil

Had shadow'd them from knowing ill, was gone;

Just confidence, and native righteousness,

1056

And honour from about them, naked left

To guilty shame; he cover'd, but his robe
Uncover'd more. So rose the Danite strong
Herculean Samson from the harlot-lap
Of Philistéan Dalilah, and waked

Shorn of his strength. They destitute and bare
Of all their virtue: silent, and in face
Confounded long they sat, as strucken mute,

1060

1029. The passage following is principally copied from Homer. and would be exceptionable did it not form part of the moral of the poem: what a contrast, it has been weil observed, is the love scene here described to that in the eighth book.

1058. He, refers to shame, which is personified.
1059. Samson was of the tribe of Dan.

1065

Till Adam, though not less than Eve abash'd,
At length gave utt'rance to these words, constrain'd:

O Eve in evil hour thou didst give ear

To that false worm, of whomsoever taught
To counterfeit Man's voice, true in our fall,

False in our promised rising! Since our eyes 1070
Open'd 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,

1075

Our wonted ornaments now soil'd and stain'd,
And in our faces evident the signs

1080

1085

Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store;
E'en 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 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 sun-light, spread their umbrage broad,
And brown as ev'ning! Cover me, ye Pines ;
Ye Cedars, with innumerable boughs
Hide me, where I may never see them more.
But let us now, as in bad plight, devise
What best may for the present serve to hide
The parts of each from other, that seem most
To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen;
Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves together sew'd,
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 counsel'd he; and both together went

1090

1096

Into the thickest wood; there soon they chose 1100
The fig tree; not that kind for fruit renown'd,
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 1105 About the mother-tree, a pillar'd shade

1103. Malabar, a part of the East Indies, in which is the king dom of Deccan."

1111

High over-arch'd, 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 gather'd, broad as Amazonian targe,
And with what skill they had together sew'd,
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 feather'd cincture, naked else and wild
Among the trees on isles and woody shores.

1115

Thus fenced, and as they thought, their shame in part Cover'd, but not at rest or ease of mind,

1120

They sat them down to weep; nor only tears

Rain'd 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 1125
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 sov'reign reason, claim'd
Superior sway. From thus distemper'd breast,
Adam, estranged in look and alter'd style,
Speech intermitted thus to Eve renew'd:

1130

[stay'd

Would thou hadst hearken'd to my words, and

With me, as I besought thee, when that strange 1135
Desire of wand'ring this unhappy morn,

I know not whence, possess'd thee; we had then
Remain'd still happy, not, as now, despoil'd
Of all our good, shamed, naked, miserable.
Let none henceforth seek needless cause to' approve
The faith they owe: when earnestly they seek 1141
Such proof, conclude, they then begin to fail. [Eve:

1145

To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus What words have pass'd 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 happen'd thou being by, Or to thyself perhaps? Hadst thou been there,

1112. Together sew'd; this, which is taken from our translation of the passage in Genesis, means in the original, wove or plaited.