BOOK THE NINTH

THE ARGUMENT.

Satan, having compassed the earth, with meditated guile returns, as a mist, by night into paradise; and enters into the serpent sleeping. Adam and Eve in the morning go forth to their labours, which Eve proposes to divide in several places, each labouring apart: Adam consents not, alleging the danger, lest that enemy, of whom they were forewarned, should attempt her found alone. Eve, loath to be thought not circumspect or firm enough, urges her going apart, the rather desirous to make trial of her strength; Adam at last yields. The serpent finds her alone; his subtle approach, first gazing, then speaking, with much flattery extolling Eve above all other creatures. Eve, wondering to hear the serpent speak, asks how he attained to human speech, and such understanding, not till now; the serpent answers, that by tasting of a certain tree in the garden he attained both to speech and reason, till then void of both. Eve requires him to bring her to that tree, and finds it to be the tree of knowledge forbidden. The serpent, now grown bolder, with many wiles and arguments, induces her at length to eat: she, pleased with the taste, deliberates awhile whether to impart thereof to Adam or not; at last brings him of the fruit, relates what persuaded her to eat thereof: Adam, at first amazed, but perceiving her lost, resolves, through vehemence of love, to perish with her; and, extenuating the trespass, eats also the fruit: the effects thereof in them both; they seek to cover their nakedness; then fall to variance and accusation of one another.

No more of talk where God or angel guest

With man, as with his friend, familiar us'd

LIBRO NONO

ARGOMENTO.

Satano, percorsa la terra, torna con meditato inganno di notte nel paradiso in forma di nebbia, ed entra nel serpe che dorme. Adamo ed Eva sul mattino escono ai loro lavori, che Eya propone di dividere fra loro lavorando ognuno da se a parte. Adamo ricusa, allegando il pericolo che il nemico di cui erano stali avvertiti non la tenti trovandola sola. Eva crucciata di non esser creduta cauta nè salda abbastanza, persiste in volersi appartare, bramosa piuttosto di provare la sua virtù; Adamo alfine cede. Il serpe trova Eva sola; l' appressa con arte, la fissa stupito, quindi parla, lodandola con molte lusinghe sn tutte le creature. Eva maravigliata in udire parlare il serpente, chiede come abbia acquistata favella umana e tal intelletto non avuto finora. Il serpe risponde, che col gustare di un cotal albero del giardino egli acquistò e favella e ragione fino allora mancategli. Eva' lo prega di condurla a quell'albero, e trova che è il vietato albero della scienza. Il serpente già fatto ardito con molti inganni e ragioni la induce alla fine a mangiarne: essa piacendosi nel gustarne, delibera per alcun tempo se debba o no farne parte ad Adame; finalmente gli reça del frutto e narra come ella fu persuasa a mangiarne. Adamo in sulle prime stupi, ma conoscendo che ella era perduta risolve per eccesso di amore di perire con esso lei; ed estenuando la gravità della colpa mangia egli pure del frutto: effetti del peccato in ambedue. Essi cercano coprire la loro nudità; quindi si abbandonano a mutue accuse e vicendevoli rimproveri.

Non canto io più ove Dio scendeva, od angelo

Ospe dell' uom qual caro amico usava

To sit indulgent, and with him partake
Rural repast; permitting him the while
Venial discourse unblam'd. I now must change

Those notes to tragic; foul distrust, and breach
Disloyal on the part of man, revolt,

And disobedience: on the part of Heaven
Now alienated, distance and distaste,

Anger and just rebuke, and judgment given,
That brought into this world a world of woe,
Sin and her shadow death, and misery,
Death's harbinger: sad task, yet argument
Not less but more heroic than the wrath
Of stern Achilles on his foe pursued
Thrice fugitive about Troy-wall; or rage
Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous'd;
Of Neptune's ire, or Juno's, that so long
Perplex'd the Greek, and Cytherea's son;
If answerable style I can obtain

Of my celestial patroness, who deigns
Her nightly visitation unimplor'd,

And dictates to me slumbering; or inspires

Easy my unpremeditated verse:

Since first this subject for heroic song

Pleas'd me long choosing, and beginning late;

Not sedulous by nature to indite

Wars, hitherto the only argument

Heroic deem' d; chief mastery to dissect

With long and tedious havoc fabled knights
In battles feign'd; the better fortitude
Of patience and heroic martyrdom
Unsung; or to describe races and games,
Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields,

Seder henigno e pur con lui rurali
Cibi partir, degnando intanto insieme
Mescer parlari onesti. Or io tai note
Debbo in tristi mutar; sospetto folle
E rotta fè dell' uom, oprar ribelle
E inobbedire; quindi pur del cielo
Omai già offeso nimistade e cruccio,
Ira e giusto rigore e il gran decreto
Che a questo mondo immensi mali addusse,
E colpa e sua seguace morte, e affanno
Forier di morte. Opra dolente, tema
Pur più sublime che il furor del forte
Achille urgente sopra Ettór che intorno
Di Troia i muri si fuggia tre volte;
O ira di Turno per Lavinia tolta;
O di Giuno o Nettun rancor che tanto
Travagliò il Greco e il figlio di Ciprigna;
Se ottenere io potrò dicente stile
Dalla mia diva celestial che degna

Non implorata inviser me notturna,
E dettami nel sonno, o pronta inspira
Facile il mio non meditato carme:

Che tal subbietto primo a canto eroico
Mi piacque, a lungo il scelsi e tardi impresi,
Naturato a sdegnar guerriere geste

Finor creduto il tema sol da eroi;
Arte primaia di cercar con lunga
Noiosa strage cavalier sognati
In finte pugne, la miglior tacendo
Fortezza di pazienza e di martiro
Eroico, o disegnar carriere e giuochi
O ricchi arnesi, effigïati scudi,

Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds,
Bases and tinsel trappings, georgeous knights
At joust and tournament; then marshall'd feast
Serv'd up in hall with sewers and seneschals;
The skill of artifice or office mean,

Not that which justly gives heroic name
To person, or to poem. Me, of these
Nor skill'd nor studious, higher argument
Remains; sufficient of itself to raise

That name, unless an age too late, or cold
Climate, or years, damp my intended wing
Depress'd; and much they may, if all be mine,
Not hers, who brings it nightly to my ear.
The sun was sunk, and after him the star
Of Hesperus, whose office is to bring
Twilight upon the earth, short arbiter

Twixt day and night, and now from end to end
Night's hemisphere had veil'd the horizon round:
When Satan, who late fled before the threats
Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd

In meditated fraud and malice, bent

On man's destruction, maugre what might hap
Of heavier on himself, fearless return'd
By night he fled, and at midnight return'd
From compassing the earth; cautious of day,
Since Uriel, regent of the sun, descried

His entrance, and forewara'd the cherubim

That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driven,
The space of seven continued nights he rode

With darkness: thrice the equinoctial line
He circled; four times cross'd the car of night
From pole to pole, traversing each colure;