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 disturb'd Submitting to what seem'd remediless,
Thus in calm mood his words to Eve he turn'd: Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous Eve, And peril great provok'd, who thus hast dared, Had it been only coveting to eye
That sacred fruit, sacred to abstinence; Much more to taste it, under ban to touch. But past who can recall, or done undo? Not God omnipotent, nor fate: yet so
Perhaps thou shalt not die; perhaps the fact Is not so heinous now, foretasted fruit, Profaned first by the serpent, by him first Made common, and unhallow'd, ere our taste; Nor yet on him found deadly; he yet lives; Lives, as thou said'st, 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, demigods. Nor can I think that God, Creator wise,
Though threatening, will in earnest so destroy Us his prime creatures, dignified so high, Set over all his works; which in our fall, For us created, needs with us must fail, 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 loth Us to abolish, lest the adversary
Triumph, and say,-Fickle their state, whom God Most favours; who can please him long? Me first He ruin'd, now mankind; whom will he next?— Matter of scorn, not to be given the foe. However, I with thee have fix'd 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;
928. Perhaps thou shalt not die. How | mind, and its aptness to be warped into just a picture does Milton here give us of the natural imbecility of the human
false judgments and reasonings by passion and inclination!-THYER.
Our state cannot be sever'd; we are one, One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself. So Adam; and thus Eve to him replied: O glorious trial of exceeding love, Illustrious evidence, example high! Engaging me to emulate; but, short Of thy perfection, how shall I attain,
Adam, from whose dear side I boast me sprung,
And gladly of our union hear thee speak,
One heart, one soul in both; whereof good proof
This day affords, declaring thee resolved,
Rather than death, or aught than death more dread,
Shall separate us, link'd in love so dear,
To undergo with me one guilt, one crime, If any be, of tasting this fair fruit;
Whose virtue (for of good still good proceeds, Direct, or by occasion) hath presented This happy trial of thy love, which else So eminently never had been known?
Were it I thought death menaced would ensue This my attempt, I would sustain alone
The worst, and not persuade thee; rather die Deserted than oblige thee with a fact Pernicious to thy peace; chiefly, assured Remarkably so late of thy so true,
So faithful, love unequall'd: but I feel
Far otherwise the event; not death, but life
Augmented, open'd eyes, new hopes, new joys,
Taste so divine, that what of sweet before
Hath touch'd my sense, flat seems to this, and harsh.
So saying, she embraced him, and for joy
Tenderly wept; much won, that he his love Had so ennobled, as of choice to incur Divine displeasure for her sake, or death. In 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 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
Her former trespass fear'd, the more to soothe
980. Oblige is here used in the sense of the Latin obligo, "to render obnoxious to guilt and punishment."
They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel
Divinity within them breeding wings,
Wherewith to scorn the earth: but that false fruit
Began to cast lascivious eyes; she him As wantonly repaid; in lust they burn: Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move: Eve, now I see thou art exact of taste, And elegant, of sapience no small part; Since to each meaning savour we apply, And palate call judicious: I the praise Yield thee, so well this day thou hast 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 forbidden, it might be wish'd, For this one tree had been forbidden ten. 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!
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 over-head with verdant roof embower'd,
He led her nothing loth; flowers were the couch, Pansies, and violets, and asphodel,
And hyacinth; earth's freshest, softest lap.
There they their fill of love and love's disport
Took largely, of their mutual guilt the seal, The solace of their sin; till dewy sleep Oppress'd them, wearied with their amorous play. Soon as the force of that fallacious fruit, That with exhilarating vapour bland About their spirits had play'd, and inmost powers Made err, was now exhaled, and grosser sleep, Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams Encumber'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
1034. What a fine contrast does this description of the amorous follies of our first parents after the Fall make, to that
lovely picture of the samne passion in its state of innocence, described at line 510 of the preceding book!-THYER.
Had shadow'd them from knowing ill, was gone; Just confidence, and native righteousness, 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 stricken mute:
Till Adam, though not less than Eve abash'd,
At length gave utterance 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 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,
Our wonted ornaments now soil'd and stain'd, And in our faces evident the signs
Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store,
Ev'n shame, the last of evils; of the first
Be sure then. How shall I behold the face
Henceforth of God or angels, erst with joy
And rapture so oft beheld? Those heavenly shapes
Will dazzle now this earthly, with their blaze Insufferably bright. O, might I here In solitude live savage, in some glade
Obscured; where highest woods, impenetrable To star or sun-light, spread their umbrage broad And brown as evening! cover me, ye pines! Ye cedars, with innumerable boughs Hide me, where I may never see them more! But let us now, as in bad plight, devise What best may for the present serve to hide The parts of each from other, that seem most To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen;
Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves together sew'd, 1095 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 counsell'd he, and both together went Into the thickest wood; there soon they chose The fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renown'd; But such as at this day, to Indians known,
1058. He cover'd: That is, Shame perBonified. The meaning is, this Shame covered Adam and Eve with his robe,
but this robe of his uncovered them more.-NEWTON.-1059. The Danite, Sam. son, who was of the tribe of Dan. 1102. Such, the banyan tree.
In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms Branching so broad and long, that in the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About the mother-tree, a pillar'd shade 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 1110 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 the American, so girt With feather'd cincture; naked else, and wild Among the trees on isles and woody shores.
Thus fenced, and, as they thought, their shame in part Cover'd, but not at rest or ease of mind,
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 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 claim'd
Superiour sway: from thus distemper'd breast,
Adam, estranged in look and alter'd style,
Speech intermitted thus to Eve renew'd:
Would thou hadst hearken'd to my words, and stay'd
With me, as I besought thee, when that strange Desire of wandering, 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 Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail.
To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus Eve: What words have pass'd thy lips, Adam, severe? Imputest thou that to my default, or will
Of wandering, 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,
Or here the attempt, thou couldst not have discern'd 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.
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