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Us to abolish, lest the Adversa Triumph and say, 'Fickle thei Most favors; who can please h He ruined, now mankind; wh Matter of scorn, not to be given However, I with thee have fixe Certain to undergo like doom; Consort with thee, death is to m So forcible within my heart I fe The bond of nature draw me to My own in thee, for what thou Our state cannot be severed, we One flesh; to lose thee were to

So Adam, and thus Eve to hi "O glorious trial of exceeding lo Illustrious evidence, example hig Engaging me to emulate ! but, sl Of thy perfection, how shall I at Adam? from whose dear side I And gladly of our union hear the One heart, one soul in both; whe This day affords, declaring thee r Rather than death or aught than Shall separate us linked in love s To undergo with me one guilt, on If any be, of tasting this fair fruit, Whose virtue (for of good still go Direct, or by occasion) hath preser This happy trial of thy love, which So eminently never had been know Were it I thought death menaced This my attempt, I would sustaina The worst and not persuade thee,

953. Certain, resolved. 954. Consort, be joined 959. were, would be.

964. att

974. by

977. ens

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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

980

985

Hath touched my sense flat seems to this, and harsh.
On my experience, Adam, freely taste,

And fear of death deliver to the winds."

990

995

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
and Nature gave a second groan;
pangs,
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,

980. oblige. This word is here
used in one of the senses of the
Latin verb "obligo," which
sometimes means to make guilty,
and so bound to the punishment
of guilt. fact, deed.

981. chiefly assured, more es-
pecially now that I have been
assured.

984. the event, the consequence.
985. See lines 875, 876.

987. to, compared with.
991. won, charmed.

996. See Genesis iii. 6.

1000

1005

1000. Earth trembled. See lines 780-784.

1003. mortal, deadly; bringing death. See I. 2, 3.

1004. Original, first; beginning of all others.

1005. iterate, repeat.
1007. that, so that.

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As with new wine intoxicated They swim in mirth, and fanc Divinity within them breeding Wherewith to scorn the earth Far other operation first displa Carnal desire inflaming; he of Began to cast lascivious eyes; As wantonly repaid; in lust th Till Adam thus gan Eve to da

"Eve, now I see thou art ex And elegant, of sapience no sm Since to each meaning savor w And palate call judicious; I th Yield thee, so well this day tho Much pleasure we have lost, w From this delightful fruit, nor True relish, tasting; if such pl In things to us forbidden, it mi For this one tree had been forb But come, so well refreshed, no As meet is after such delicious For never did thy beauty, since I saw thee first and wedded the With all perfections, so inflame With ardor to enjoy thee, fairer Than ever, bounty of this virtuo

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Her hand he seized, and to a shady bank,
Thick over head with verdant roof imbowered,
He led her nothing loath; 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 vapor bland

1040

1046

1050

About their spirits had played and inmost powers
Made err, was now exhaled, and grosser sleep,
Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams
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 honor, 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 Philistéan Dalilah, and waked

1056

1060

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 constrained :

"O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear

1049. Made err, had made to

err.

1050. conscious, conscious of guilt.

1065

1057. from about them, were gone from about them.

1059. more, more than he covered. the Danite. See Judges xiii. and xvi. 4-21.

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To that false worm, of whoms To counterfeit man's voice, tr False in our promised rising; Opened we find indeed, and 1 Both good and evil, good lost, Bad fruit of knowledge, if this Which leaves us naked thus, o Of innocence, of faith, of purit Our wonted ornaments now soi And in our faces evident the s Of foul concupiscence; whence Even shame, the last of evils; Be sure then. How shall I be Henceforth of God or angel, er And rapture so oft beheld? tho Will dazzle now this earthly wi Insufferably bright. O might I In solitude live savage, in some Obscured, where highest woods, To star or sun light, spread thei And brown as evening! Cover Ye cedars, with innumerable bou Hide me, where I may never see But let us now, as in bad plight, What best may for the present s The parts of each from other, tha To shame obnoxious, and unseem Some tree, whose broad smooth le And girded on our loins, may cov Those middle parts, that this new There sit not, and reproach us as

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