Such ambush hid among sweet flowers and shades Waited with hellish rancor imminent
To intercept thy way, or send thee back
Despoil'd of innocence, of faith, of bliss.
For now, and since first break of dawn the fiend,
Mere serpent in appearance, forth was come,
And on his quest, where likeliest he might find
The only two of mankind, but in them
The whole included race, his purpos'd prey.
In bow'r and field he sought, where any tuft
Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay,
Their tendance or plantation for delight;
By fountain or by shady rivulet
He sought them both, but wish'd his hap might find
Eve separate; he wish'd, but not with hope
Of what so seldom chanc'd, when to his wish,
Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies,
Veil'd in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood, 425
Half spy'd, so thick the roses bushing round
About her glow'd, oft stooping to support
Each flow'r of slender stalk, whose head, though gay,
Carnation, purple, azure, or speck'd with gold,
Hung drooping unsustain'd; them she upstays
408 hid] In Tonson's ed. 1711, it is printed 'Such ambush laid,'
which reading has been followed by Tickell, Fenton, and Bentley. Newton restored the genuine reading 'hid.' Todd. 424 separate] See Beaumont's Psyche, c. vi. st. 215, and A. Ramsæi Poem. Sacr. p. 26.
'Incomitata viro, forte uxor sola, per hortum,
Regali incedit gressu.'
Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while,
Herself, though fairest unsupported flower,
From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh.
Nearer he drew, and many a walk travers'd
Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm,
Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen
Among thick-woven arborets and flowers
Imborder'd on each bank, the hand of Eve:
Spot more delicious than those gardens feign'd
Or of reviv'd Adonis, or renown'd
Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son,
Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king
Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse.
Much he the place admir'd, the person more.
As one who long in populous city pent
Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air,
Forth issuing on a summer's morn to breathe
Among the pleasant villages and farms
Adjoin'd, from each thing met conceives delight,
The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine,
Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound;
If chance with nymph-like step fair virgin pass,
What pleasing seem'd, for her now pleases more,
She most, and in her look sums all delight:
486 and bold] Voluble in folds. Bentl. MS.
488 Imborder'd] 'Imborder' is one of those Miltonic words of which Johnson takes no notice in his dictionary. Todd. 445 populous] See Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 40.
454 She most] So Petrarch. de Remed. Ut. Fortunæ. ii. 96. 'Non videbis amodo frondosas valles, aereos montes, flo
Such pleasure took the serpent to behold
This flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve
Thus early, thus alone: her heavenly form
Angelic, but more soft and feminine,
Her graceful innocence, her every air
Of gesture or least action, over-aw'd
His malice, and with rapine sweet bereav'd
His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought.
That
space the evil one abstracted stood
From his own evil, and for the time remain'd
Stupidly good, of enmity disarm'd,
Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge;
But the hot hell that always in him burns, Though in mid heaven, soon ended his delight, And tortures him now more, the more he sees Of pleasure not for him ordain'd: then soon Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts Of mischief, gratulating, thus excites.
Thoughts, whither have ye led me! with what Compulsion thus transported to forget
What hither brought us! hate, not love; nor hope
Of Paradise for hell, hope here to taste
Of pleasure; but all pleasure to destroy,
Save what is in destroying; other joy
To me is lost. Then let me not let pass
Occasion which now smiles; behold alone
The woman opportune to all attempts,
reos cespites, umbrosos specus, lucidos fontes, vaga flumina, prata virentia, quodque pulcherrimum visu dicunt, humani oris effigiem.'
Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh,
Whose higher intellectual more I shun,
And strength, of courage haughty, and of limb
Heroic built, though of terrestrial mould;
Foe not informidable, exempt from wound,
I not so much hath hell debas'd, and pain
Infeebled me, to what I was in heaven.
She fair, divinely fair, fit love for gods,
Not terrible, though terror be in love,
And beauty, not approach'd by stronger hate,
Hate stronger under show of love well feign'd;
The way which to her ruin now I tend.
So spake the enemy of mankind, enclos'd
In serpent, inmate bad, and toward Eve
Address'd his way, not with indented wave,
Prone on the ground, as since, but on his rear,
Circular base of rising folds, that tower'd
496 intended] v. Dionys. Perig. ver. 123.
Ὡς δὲ δράκων βλοσυρωπὸς ἐλίσσεται ἀγκύλος ἔρπων.
406 wave] So Arati Phænomena. 45.
Τὰς δὲ δι' ἀμφοτέρας, οἵη ποταμοῖο ἀποῤῥὼς,
Εἰλεῖται, μέγα θαῦμα, δράκων.
497 on his rear] See Ovidii Metam. lib. xv. ver. 673. 'Pectoribusque tenus media sublimis in æde
Constitit; atque oculos circumtulit igne micantes!' 498 tower'd] Very similar is the description of the Serpent in the Adamus Exsul of Grotius. p. 88.
Adrecta cervix surgit, et maculis nitet
Pectus superbis. Cærulis picti notis
Sinuantur orbes, tortiles spiræ micant
Fold above fold a surging maze, his head
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes;
With burnish'd neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape,
And lovely, never since of serpent kind
Lovelier, not those that in Illyria chang'd
Hermione and Cadmus, or the god
In Epidaurus; nor to which transform'd
Ammonian Jove or Capitoline was seen,
He with Olympias, this with her who bore
Scipio the height of Rome. With tract oblique
At first, as one who sought access, but fear'd
To interrupt, side-long he works his way.
As when a ship by skilful steersman wrought
Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind
Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail; 515
So vary'd he, and of his tortuous train
Curl'd many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve,
To lure her eye; she busied heard the sound
Of rustling leaves, but minded not, as us'd
To such disport before her through the field,
From every beast, more duteous at her call,
Than at Circean call the herd disguis'd.
Auri colore, lubricum longos sinus
Tendit volumen, terga se in gyros plicant.' 502 circling] Coiling. Curling. 517. Bentl. MS.
522 herd] See Ov. Met. xiv. 45.
-perque ferarum
Agmen adulantûm media procedit ab aulâ.' Todd.
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