My fairest, my espous'd, my latest found,
Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight!
Awake! the morning shines, and the fresh field 20
Calls us; we lose the prime, to mark how spring
Our tended plants, how blows the citron grove,
What drops the myrrh, and what the balmy reed,
How nature paints her colours, how the bee
Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet.
Such whisp'ring wak'd her, but with startled eye On Adam, whom embracing, thus she spake.
O sole in whom my thoughts find all repose, My glory, my perfection, glad I see Thy face, and morn return'd; for I this night, 30 Such night till this I never pass'd, have dream'd, If dream'd, not, as I oft am wont, of thee, Works of day pass'd, or morrow's next design, But of offence and trouble, which my mind Knew never till this irksome night: methought 35 Close at mine ear one call'd me forth to walk With gentle voice; I thought it thine it said, Why sleep'st thou Eve? now is the pleasant time, The cool, the silent, save where silence yields To the night-warbling bird, that now awake Tunes sweetest his love-labour'd song; now reigns Full orb'd the moon, and with more pleasing light
28 balmy reed] εvódμov kaháμolo. v Dionysii Geog.
41 his] In the other passages, where the song of the nightingale is described, the bird is of the feminine gender; v. iii. 40. iv. 602. vii. 436. Newton.
Shadowy sets off the face of things; in vain,
If none regard: heaven wakes with all his eyes,
Whom to behold but thee, nature's desire?
In whose sight all things joy, with ravishment
Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze.
I rose as at thy call, but found thee not:
To find thee I directed then my walk;
And on, methought, alone I pass'd through ways 50
That brought me on a sudden to the tree
Of interdicted knowledge: fair it seem'd,
Much fairer to my fancy than by day:
And as I wond'ring look'd, beside it stood
One shap❜d and wing'd like one of those from heaven
By us oft seen; his dewy locks distill'd
Ambrosia; on that tree he also gaz'd;
And O fair plant, said he, with fruit surcharg'd,
Deigns none to ease thy load and taste thy sweet,
Nor god nor man? Is knowledge so despis'd? 60
Or envy, or what reserve forbids to taste?
Forbid who will, none shall from me withhold
Longer thy offer'd good; why else set here?
This said, he paus'd not, but with vent'rous arm
He pluck'd, he tasted; me damp horror chill'd 65
At such bold words vouch'd with a deed so bold.
But he thus overjoy'd: O fruit divine,
44 wakes] G. Fletcher's Christ's Victorie, p. 1. st. 78. 'Heaven awakened all his eyes.' Todd.
57 Ambrosia Virg. Æn. i. 403.
'Ambrosiæque comæ divinum vertice odorem
Spiravere.'
Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus
Forbidden here, it seems, as only fit
For gods, yet able to make gods of men:
And why not gods of men, since good, the more
Communicated, more abundant grows,
The author not impair'd, but honour'd more?
Here, happy creature, fair angelic Eve,
Partake thou also; happy though thou art,
Happier thou may'st be, worthier canst not be:
Taste this, and be henceforth among the gods
Thyself a goddess, not to earth confin'd,
But sometimes in the air, as we, sometimes
Ascend to heaven, by merit thine, and see
What life the gods live there, and such live thou.
So saying, he drew nigh, and to me held,
Even to my mouth of that same fruit held part
Which he had pluck'd; the pleasant savoury smell
So quicken'd appetite, that I, methought,
Could not but taste. Forthwith up to the clouds
With him I flew, and underneath beheld
The earth outstretch'd immense, a prospect wide
And various wond'ring at my flight and change
To this high exaltation, suddenly
My guide was gone, and I, methought, sunk down, And fell asleep but O how glad I wak'd
Communicari gaudet, et multis suo
Prodesse fructu. Nemo participi carens
Vivit beatus.'
Grotii Adamus Exsul. p. 23.
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