Her former trespass feared, the more to soothe As with new wine intoxicated both, They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel Divinity within them breeding wings Wherewith to scorn the Earth. But that false fruit Carnal desire inflaming. He on Eve Began to cast lascivious eyes; she him As wantonly repaid; in lust they burn, Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move :— So said he, and forbore not glance or toy Of amorous intent, well understood ΠΟΙΟ 1020 1030 Of Eve, whose eye darted contagious fire. Her hand he seized, and to a shady bank, Thick overhead with verdant roof embowered, He led her, nothing loth; flowers were the couch, Pansies, and violets, and asphodel, 1040 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 Oppressed them, wearied with their amorous play. About their spirits had played, and inmost powers 1050 How darkened. Innocence, that as a veil Had shadowed them from knowing ill, was gone; 1060 Shorn of his strength; they destitute and bare Confounded, long they sat, as strucken mute; Till Adam, though not less than Eve abashed, At length gave utterance to these words constrained:- Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained, Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store, 1070 1080 Henceforth of God or Angel, erst with joy And rapture so oft beheld? Those Heavenly Shapes In solitude live savage, in some glade Obscured, where highest woods, impenetrable To star or sunlight, spread their umbrage broad, Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves, together sewed, Those middle parts, that this new comer, Shame, 1090 1100 But such as, at this day, to Indians known, At loop-holes cut through thickest shade. Those leaves They gathered, broad as Amazonian targe, And with what skill they had together sewed, With feathered cincture, naked else and wild, Among the trees on isles and woody shores. Thus fenced, and, as they thought, their shame in part Covered, but not at rest or ease of mind, 1120 They sat them down to weep. Nor only tears Rained at their eyes, but high winds worse within Began to rise, high passions-anger, hate, Speech intermitted thus to Eve renewed: "Would thou hadst hearkened to my words, and stayed With me, as I besought thee, when that strange Desire of wandering, this unhappy morn, I know not whence possessed thee! We had then Remained still happy-not, as now, despoiled 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." 1130 1140 : To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus Eve :— "What words have passed thy lips, Adam severe? Imput'st thou that to my default, or will Of wandering, as thou call'st it, which who knows Or here the attempt, thou couldst not have discerned Fraud in the Serpent, speaking as he spake ; 1150 1160 It seems, in thy restraint! What could I more? 1170 I warned thee, I admonished thee, foretold That lay in wait; beyond this had been force, What seemed in thee so perfect that I thought 1180 That error now, which is become my crime, Him who, to worth in women overtrusting, Lets her will rule: restraint she will not brook; THE END OF THE NINTH BOOK. PARADISE LOST. BOOK X. THE ARGUMENT. Man's transgression known, the guardian Angels forsake Paradise, and return up to Heaven to approve their vigilance, and are approved: God declaring that the entrance of Satan could not be by them prevented. He sends his Son to judge the transgressors; who descends, and gives sentence accordingly; then, in pity, clothes them both, and reascends. Sin and Death, sitting till then at the gates of Hell, by wondrous sympathy feeling the success of Satan in this new World, and the sin by Man there committed, resolve to sit no longer confined in Hell, but to follow Satan, their sire, up to the place of Man: to make the way easier from Hell to this World to and fro, they pave a broad highway or bridge over Chaos, according to the track that Satan first made; then, preparing for Earth, they meet him, proud of his success, returning to Hell; their mutual gratulation. Satan arrives at Pandemonium; in full assembly relates, with boasting, his success against Man; instead of applause is entertained with a general hiss by all his audience, transformed, with himself also, suddenly into Serpents, according to his doom given in Paradise; then, deluded with a show of the Forbidden Tree springing up before them, they, greedily reaching to take of the fruit, chew dust and bitter ashes. The proceedings of Sin and Death: God foretells the final victory of his Son over them, and the renewing of all things; but, for the present, commands his Angels to make several alterations in the Heavens and Elements. Adam, more and more perceiving his fallen condition, heavily bewails, rejects the condolement of Eve; she persists, and at length appeases him: then, to evade the curse likely to fall on their offspring, proposes to Adam violent ways; which he approves not, but, conceiving better hope, puts her in mind of the late promise made them, that her seed should be revenged on the Serpent, and exhorts her, with him, to seek peace of the offended Deity by repentance and supplication. MEANWHILE the heinous and despiteful act Of Satan done in Paradise, and how He, in the Serpent, had perverted Eve, Was known in Heaven; for what can scape the eye Omniscient? who, in all things wise and just, Hindered not Satan to attempt the mind Of Man, with strength entire and free will armed Whatever wiles of foe or seeming friend. For still they knew, and ought to have still remembered, ΙΟ |