Eve Adam? from whose dear side I boast me sprung, gives And gladly of our union hear thee speak, him of 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, linked 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 unequalled. But I feel Far otherwise the event-not death, but life Augmented, opened eyes, new hopes, new joys, Taste so divine that what of sweet before Hath touched 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 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 1000 In pangs, and Nature gave a second groan; Sky loured, 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 feared, the more to soothe 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 Wherewith to scorn the Earth.
Far other operation first displayed, 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 :-- 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 purveyed. Much pleasure we have lost, while we abstained From this delightful fruit, nor known till now True relish, tasting. If such pleasure be In things to us forbidden, it might be wished For this one tree had been forbidden ten. But come; so well refreshed, now let us play, As meet is, after such delicious fare; For never did thy beauty, since the day
Innocence I saw thee first and wedded thee, adorned 1030 was gone 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 overhead with verdant roof embowered, 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 Oppressed them, wearied with their amorous play. Soon as the force of that fallacious fruit, That with exhilarating vapour bland About their spirits had played, and inmost powers Made err, was now exhaled, and grosser sleep, Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams 1050 Encumbered, now had left them, up they rose As from unrest, and each the other viewing, Soon found their eyes how opened, and their minds
How darkened. Innocence, that as a veil Had shadowed them from knowing ill, was gone; Just confidence, and native righteousness, And honour, from about them, naked left To guilty Shame: he covered, but his robe Uncovered more. So rose the Danite strong, Herculean Samson, from the harlot-lap Of Philistean 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; Till Adam, though not less than Eve abashed, At length gave utterance to these words con- strained :-
'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 Opened 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 soiled and stained, And in our faces evident the signs
Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store, 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 Heavenly Shapes
Will dazzle now this earthly with their blaze Insufferably bright. Oh, might I here In solitude live savage, in some glade Obscured, where highest woods, impenetrable To star or sunlight, 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—
They Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves, together make a sewed,
covering 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 counselled he, and both together went Into the thickest wood. There soon they
The fig-tree-not that kind for fruit renowned, But such as, at this day, to Indians known, 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 pillared shade High overarched, 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 gathered, broad as Amazonian targe, And with what skill they had together sewed, 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 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, 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, Mistrust, suspicion, discord-and shook sore
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