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 ardor to enjoy thee, fairer now
Than ever, bounty of this virtuous trec.
So said he, and forbore not glance or toy
Of amorous intent, well understood
Of Eve, whose eye darted contagious fire.
Her hand he seiz'd, and to a shady bank,
Thick overhead with verdant roof imbower'd,
He led her nothing loath; 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
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 exhal'd, and grosser sleep
Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams 1050
Encumber'd, now had left them, up they rose
As from unrest, and, each the other viewing,
1044 dewy sleep] Il Penseroso, 146. Invite the dewy feather'd sleep.' and Val. Flac. iv. 16, ‘Liquidique potentia somni.' Lucret. iv. 905, Somnus quietem inriget.' Auctor Epit. Iliados, 120,
Corpus inundatum leni prostratus habebat.'
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,
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 Philistean Dalilah, and wak'd
Shorn of his strength; they destitute and bare
Of all their virtue: silent, and in face
Confounded, long they sate, as strucken mute,
Till Adam, though not less than Eve abash'd, 1065
At length gave utterance to these words constrain❜d.
O Eve, in evil nour thou didst give ear
To that false worm, of whomsoever taught
To counterfeit man's voice, true in our fall,
False in our promis'd 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,
Our wonted ornaments now soil'd and stain'd,
And in our faces evident the signs
Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store,
1058 shame] After 'shame' there is no stop even in Milton's own editions, and there should have been a semicolon at least • Shame covered Adam and Eve with his robe; but this robe of his uncovered them more.' v. S. Agon. 841. Newton. v. Psalm cix. 28. Bowle.
Even shame, the last of evils; of the first
Be sure then. How shall I behold the face 1080
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
Obscur'd, 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. 1090
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
And girded on our loins, may cover round [sew'd,
Those middle parts, that this new comer, shame,
There sit not, and reproach us as unclean.
So counsel'd he, and both together went
Into the thickest wood; there soon they chose 1100
The figtree, not that kind for fruit renown'd,
But such as at this day to Indians known
1032 for] These lines misprinted in the second edition:
What best may from the present serve to hide
The parts of each for other.'
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 overarch'd, and echoing walks between ;
There oft the Indian herdsman shunning heat
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds
At loopholes cut thro' 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.
Thus fenc'd, and as they thought, their shame in
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 1125 And full of peace, now tost and turbulent :
1103 Decan] The most celebrated specimen of this tree in India, is one that entirely covers an island in the Nerbudda, about twelve miles above Broach. It is called Kuveer-Bur. See Heber's Travels in India, iii. 67, and Forbes' Orient. Mem. i. 274, iii. 246, 543. It is two thousand feet round, and has thirteen hundred and fifty trunks. See plate, i. 37.
For understanding rul'd 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, estrang'd in look and alter'd style,
Speech intermitted thus to Eve renew'd. [stay'd
Would thou hadst hearken'd to my words, and
With me, as I besought thee, when that strange
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, sham'd, 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 mov'd 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,
Or here th' attempt, thou couldst not have discern'd
Fraud in the serpent, speaking as he spake; 1150
No ground of enmity between us known,
Why he should mean me ill, or seek to harm.
1128 both] Fenton reads but in subjection.'
114 words] Compare Hom. II. xiv. 83.
Ατρέιδη, ποϊόν σε ἔπος φύγεν ἕρκος οδόντων. Thger.
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