Hath touch'd 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 embrac'd 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 recompence (for such compliance bad Such recompence 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; nor deceiv'd, But fondly overcome with female charm. Earth trembled from her entrails, as again pangs; and Nature gave a second groan;
Sky lour'd; 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 fear'd, the more to sooth
Him with her lov'd 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: But that false fruit ·
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 daliance 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 purvey❜d. Much pleasure we have lost, while we abstain'd From this delightful fruit, nor known till now True relish, tasting; if such pleasure be In things to us forbidd'n, it might be wish'd, For this one tree had been forbidden ten. But come, so well refresh'd, now let us play, As meet is, after such delicious fare; 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 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 seis'd; and to a shady bank, Thick over-head with verdant roof imbower'd, 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
Oppress'd them, wearied with their amourous 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 Incumber'd, now had left them; up they rose As from unrest; and, each the other viewing, 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 Philistéan Dalilah, and wak'd
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 abash'd, At length gave utterance to these words constrain’d. O Eve, in evil hour thon 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
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 foil'd and stain'd, 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 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. 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! 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 umseemliest seen; Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves together sew'd,
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 counsell'd he, and both together went Into the thickest wood; there soon they chose The fig-tree; not that kind for fruit renown'd, 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 pillar'd shade
High over-arch'd, 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 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 the 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,
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