Love was not in their looks, either to God
Or to each other; but apparent guilt,
And shame, and perturbation, and despair,
Anger, and obstinacy, and hate, and guile.
Whence Adam, faltering long, thus answer'd brief:
I heard thee in the garden; and of thy voice
Afraid, being naked, hid myself. To whom
The gracious Judge without revile replied:

My voice thou oft hast heard, and hast not fear'd,
But still rejoiced; how is it now become

So dreadful to thee? That thou art naked, who
Hath told thee? Hast thou eaten of the tree,
Whereof I gave thee charge thou shouldst not eat?

To whom thus Adam sore beset replied:

O heaven! in evil strait this day I stand

Before my Judge; either to undergo
Myself the total crime, or to accuse
My other self, the partner of my life;

Whose failing, while her faith to me remains,

I should conceal, and not expose to blame

By my complaint; but strict necessity

115

120

125

130

Subdues me, and calamitous constraint;

Lest on my head both sin and punishment,

However insupportable, be all

Devolved; though, should I hold my peace, yet thou

135

Wouldst easily detect what I conceal.

This woman, whom thou mad'st to be my help,

And gav'st me as thy perfect gift, so good,

So fit, so acceptable, so divine,

That from her hand I could suspect no ill;
And what she did, whatever in itself,
Her doing seem'd to justify the deed;
She gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

To whom the Sovran Presence thus replied:
Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey
Before his voice? or was she made thy guide,
Superiour, or but equal, that to her

Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place
Wherein God set thee above her made of thee,
And for thee, whose perfection far excell'd
Hers in all real dignity? Adorn'd
She was indeed, and lovely, to attract
Thy love, not thy subjection; and her gifts
Were such, as under government well seem'd;
Unseemly to bear rule; which was thy part
And person, hadst thou known thyself aright.
So having said, he thus to Eve in few:
Say, woman, what is this which thou hast done?
To whom sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelm'd,
Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge

157. In few: That is, in few words.

140

145

150

155

100

Bold or loquacious, thus abash'd replied:.

The serpent me beguiled, and I did eat.

Which when the Lord God heard, without delay

To judgment he proceeded on the accused
Serpent, though brute; unable to transfer

The guilt on him who made him instrument
Of mischief, and polluted from the end
Of his creation: justly then accursed,
As vitiated in nature: more to know

165

Concern'd not man, (since he no further knew,)
Nor alter'd his offence; yet God at last
To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied;

170

Though in mysterious terms, judged as then best:
And on the serpent thus his curse let fall:

Because thou hast done this, thou art accursed

Above all cattle, each beast of the field:
Upon thy belly grovelling thou shalt go,
And dust shalt eat all the days of thy life.

175

Between thee and the woman I will put

Enmity; and between thine and her seed:

180

Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.
So spake this oracle, then verified,

When Jesus, son of Mary, second Eve,

Saw Satan fall, like lightning, down from heaven,

185

Prince of the air; then, rising from his grave,
Spoil'd principalities and powers, triumph'd
In open show; and, with ascension bright,
Captivity led captive through the air,
The realm itself of Satan, long usurp'd;
Whom he shall tread at last under our feet;
Ev'n he, who now foretold his fatal bruise:
And to the woman thus his sentence turn'd:
Thy sorrow I will greatly multiply
By thy conception; children thou shalt bring
In sorrow forth; and to thy husband's will
Thine shall submit; he over thee shall rule.

190

195

On Adam last thus judgment he pronounced:
Because thou hast hearken'd to the voice of thy wife,
And eaten of the tree, concerning which

2.0

I charged thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat thereof;
Curs'd is the ground for thy sake: thou in sorrow
Shalt eat thereof all the days of thy life;
Thorns also and thistles it shall bring thee forth
Unbid; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field:
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
Till thou return unto the ground; for thou
Out of the ground wast taken; know thy birth;
For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return.

So judged he man, both Judge and Saviour sent;

169. More to know, &c. That is, it did not concern man to know that the ser

205

pent was but the instrument of the Devil.

And the instant stroke of death, denounced that day, 210
Removed far off: then, pitying how they stood
Before him naked to the air, that now
Must suffer change, disdain'd not to begin
Thenceforth the form of servant to assume,
As when he wash'd his servants' feet; so now,
As father of his family, he clad

Their nakedness with skins of beasts, or slain,
Or as the snake with youthful coat repaid;
And thought not much to clothe his enemies:
Nor he their outward only with the skins
Of beasts, but inward nakedness, much more
Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness
Arraying, cover'd from his Father's sight.
To him with swift ascent he up return'd,
Into his blissful bosom reassumed,

In glory, as of old: to him appeased,

215

220

225

All, though all-knowing, what had pass'd with man
Recounted, mixing intercession sweet.

Meanwhile, ere thus was sinn'd and judged on earth,
Within the gates of hell sat Sin and Death,
In counterview within the gates, that now
Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame
Far into Chaos, since the fiend pass'd through,
Sin opening; who thus now to Death began:

O son, why sit we here each other viewing
Idly, while Satan, our great authour, thrives
In other worlds, and happier seat provides
For us, his offspring dear? It cannot be
But that success attends him; if mishap,
Ere this he had return'd, with fury driven
By his avengers; since no place like this
Can fit his punishment, or their revenge.
Methinks I feel new strength within me rise,
Wings growing, and dominion given me large,
Beyond this deep; whatever draws me on,
Or sympathy, or some connatural force,
Powerful at greatest distance to unite
With secret amity things of like kind,
By secretest conveyance. Thou, my shade
Inseparable, must with me along;

For Death from Sin no power can separate.
But, lest the difficulty of passing back
Stay his return perhaps over this gulf
Impassable, impervious, let us try

214. See Phil. ii. 7, and John xiii. 5.

217. Or slain: That is, either slain for sacrifice, or they shed their coats, like snakes, and were repaid with new ones:

A notion," says Newton, "which we may presume he borrowed from some commentator, rather than advanced of himself."

230

235

240

245

250

222. Robe of righteousness. Isa. lxi 10.

229. Ere thus was sinn'd. Two impersonals: before man had thus sinned, and God had thus judged him, Sin and Death sat in counterview within the gates of Hell:-Sin thus began.

Adventurous work, yet to thy power and mine
Not unagreeable, to found a path

Over this main from hell to that new world,
Where Satan now prevails; a monument
Of merit high to all the infernal host,
Easing their passage hence, for intercourse,
Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead.
Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn
By this new-felt attraction and instinct.

Whom thus the meagre shadow answer'd soon:

255

260

Go, whither fate, and inclination strong,

265

Leads thee; I shall not lag behind, nor err

The way, thou leading; such a scent I draw

Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste

The savour of death from all things there that live;
Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest
Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.

270

So saying, with delight he snuff'd the smell
Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock
Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote,
Against the day of battel, to a field,

Where armies lie encamp'd, come flying, lured
With scent of living carcases design'd

For death, the following day, in bloody fight:
So scented the grim feature, and upturn'd
His nostril wide into the murky air;

Sagacious of his quarry from so far.

275

280

Then both from out hell gates, into the waste

Wide anarchy of Chaos, damp and dark,

Flew diverse; and with power (their power was great)

Hovering upon the waters, what they met

285

Solid or slimy, as in raging sea

Tost up and down, together crowded drove,

From each side shoaling towards the mouth of hell:

As when two polar winds, blowing adverse

Upon the Cronian sea, together drive

290

Mountains of ice, that stop the imagined way

Beyond Petsora eastward, to the rich
Cathaian coast. The aggregated soil
Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry,
As with a trident, smote, and fix'd as firm
As Delos, floating once; the rest his look

260. Intercourse: Passing frequently backward and forward. Transmigration: Quitting Hell once for all, to inhabit the new creation: they were uncertain which their lot should be.-RICHARDSON.

289. As when, &c. Sin and Death, flying into different parts of Chaos, and driving all the matter they meet there in shoals toward the mouth of hell, are compared to two polar winds, north and south, blowing adverse upon the Oronian Sea. the northern frozen sea, and driving together mountains of ice, that stop the

295

imagined way, the north-east passage, as it is called, beyond Petsora eastward, the most north-eastern province of Muscovy, to the rich Cathaian coast. Cathay, or Catay, a country of Asia, and the northern part of China.-NEWTON.

296. The rest: That is, the slimy parts, as distinguished from the solid or soil. Gorgonian rigour; or rigour such as the Gorgons, who turned all persons on whom they looked into stone. Beach, shore.

Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move;
And with asphaltic slime, broad as the gate,
Deep to the roots of hell the gather'd beach
They fasten'd, and the mole immense wrought on,
Over the foaming deep high-arch'd, a bridge
Of length prodigious, joining to the wall
Immoveable of this now fenceless world,
Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad,
Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to hell.
So, if great things to small may be compared,
Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke,
From Susa, his Memnonian palace high,

300

305

Came to the sea; and, over Hellespont

Bridging his way, Europe with Asia join'd,

310

And scourged with many a stroke the indignant waves.

Now had they brought the work by wondrous art

Pontifical, a ridge of pendent rock,

Over the vex'd abyss, following the track
Of Satan to the self-same place where he
First lighted from his wing, and landed safe
From out of Chaos, to the outside bare

315

Of this round world: with pins of adamant

And chains they made all fast; too fast they made
And durable! And now in little space

320

The confines met of empyréan heaven,

And of this world; and, on the left hand, hell

With long reach interposed; three several ways
In sight, to each of these three places led.
And now their way to earth they had descried,
To Paradise first tending; when, behold!
Satan, in likeness of an angel bright,
Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering
His zenith, while the sun in Aries rose:
Disguised he came; but those his children dear
Their parent soon discern'd, though in disguise.
He, after Eve seduced, unminded slunk
Into the wood fast by; and, changing shape,
To observe the sequel, saw his guileful act
By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded

Upon her husband; saw their shame that sought
Vain covertures; but when he saw descend
The Son of God to judge them, terrified
He fled; not hoping to escape, but shun

325

330

335

308. Memnonian. Susa is called Memnonia by Herodotus.

313. Pontifical: "Bridge-making," from pons, a bridge; and facio, to make. The word may also be interpreted popish; and Dr. Johnson thinks that Milton here intended an equivocal satire on popery, implying that the Roman priesthood were as ready to make the way easy to Hell, as Sin and Death did.

328. Betwixt the Centaur. Satan, to avoid being discovered (as he had been before, iv. 509) by Uriel, regent of the sun, takes care to keep at as great dis tance as possible, and therefore, while the sun rose in Aries, he steers his course directly upward betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion, two constellations in the opposite part of the heavens."-NEW

TON.