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Sed cum desit hyems, nec torrida ferveat æstus,
Fructibus autumnus, ver floribus occupat annum.
Hic
quæ donari mentitur fama Sabæis

Cinnama nascuntur, vivax quæ colligit ales,
Natali cum fine perit, nidoque perusta
Succedens sibimet quæsita morte resurgit :
Nec contenta suo semel ales ordine nasci
Longa veternosi renovatur corporis ætas,
Incensamque levant exordia crebra senectam.
Illic desudans fragrantia balsama ramus
Perpetuum proruit pingui de stipite fluxum.
Tum si forte levis movit spiramina ventus,
Flatibus exiguis, lenique impulsa susurro,
Dives sylva tremit foliis, ac flore salubri,
Qui sparsas late suaves dispensat odores.
Hic fons perspicuo resplendens gurgite surgit.
Talis in argento non fulget gratia, tantam
Nec crystalla trahunt nitido de frigore lucem.
Margine riparum virides micuere lapilli,
Et quas miratur mundi jactantia gemmas,
Illic saxa jacent: varios dant arva colores
Et naturali campos diademate pingunt '.

MILTON :

Southward through Eden went a river large,
Nor chang'd his course, but through the shaggy hill
Pass'd underneath ingulf'd; for God had thrown
That mountain as his garden mound high rais'd
Upon the rapid current, which, through veins
Of porous earth with kindly thirst up drawn,
Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill
Water'd the garden; thence united fell
Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood,
Which from his darksome passage now appears,
And now, divided into four main streams,

ALCM AVITI de Initio mundi, lib. 1, v. 211-257, édit. de Sicmond.

Runs diverse, wand'ring many a famous realm
And country, whereof here needs no account;
But rather to tell how, if Art could tell,
How from that sapphire fount the crisped brooks,
Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold,
With mazy error under pendant shades
Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed
Flow'rs worthy of Paradise, which not nice Art
In beds and curious knots, but nature boon
Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain,
Both where the morning sun first warmly smote
The open field, and where the unpierc'd shade
Imbrown'd the noontide bow'rs; thus was this place
A happy rural seat of various view;

Groves, whose rich trees wept od'rous gums and balm ;
Others, whose fruit, burnish'd with golden rind,
Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true,

If true, here only, and of delicious taste:
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
Grazing the tender herb, were interpos'd,
Or palmy hillock; or the flow'ry lap

Of some irriguous valley spread her store,
Flow'rs of all hue, and without thorn the rose:
Another side, umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant; meanwhile murm'ring waters fall
Down the slope hills, dispers'd, or in a lake,
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown'd
Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams.
The birds their choir apply: airs, vernal airs,
Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune
The trembling leaves, while universal Pan,
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,
Led on th' eternal Spring. Not that fair field
Of Enna, where Proserpine, gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flow'r, by gloomy Dis
Was gather'd, which cost Ceres all that pain

To seek her through the world; nor that sweet grove
Of Daphne by Orontes, and th' inspir'd
Castalian spring, might with this Paradise
Of Eden strive; nor that Nyseian isle

Girt with the river Triton, where old Cham,
Whom gentiles Ammon call and Lybian Jove,
Hid Amalthea and her florid son

Young Bacchus, from his stepdame Rhea's eye;
Nor where Abassin kings their issue guard,
Mount Amara, though this by some suppos'd
True Paradise under the Ethiop line

By Nilus' head, inclos'd with shining rock,
A whole day's journey high, but wide remote
From this Assyrian garden, where the fiend
Saw undelighted all delight, all kind

Of living creatures, new to sight and strange '.

Satan, à l'aspect du bonheur de l'homme, s'indigne et jure de l'entraîner dans sa chute :

Vidit ut iste novos homines in sede quieta
Ducere felicem nullo discrimine vitam,
Lege sub accepta Domini famularier orbis,
Subjectisque frui placida inter gaudia rebus,
Commovit subitum zeli scintilla vaporem
Excrevitque calens in sæva incendia livor;
Vicinus tunc forte fuit, quo concidit alto,
Lapsus, et innexam traxit per prona catervam.

Hoc recolens, casumque premens in corde recentem ;

Plus doluit periisse sibi quod possidet alter.

Tum mixtus cum felle pudor sic pectore questus

Explicat, et tali suspiria voce relaxat :

Proh dolor, hoc nobis subitum consurgere plasma,
Invisumque genus nostra crevisse ruina!

Me celsum virtus habuit, nunc ecce rejectus
Pellor, et angelico limus succedit honori.

1 Paradise lost, liv. 4, v. 223-287.

Cœlum terra tenet, vili compage levata

Regnat humus, nobisque perit translata potestas.
Non tamen in totum periit: pars magna retentat
Vim propriam, summaque cluit virtute nocendi.
Nec differre juvat. Jam nunc certamine blando
Congrediar, dum prima salus, experta nec ullos
Simplicitas ignara dolos, ad tela patebit.
Et melius soli capientur fraude, priusquam
Fœcundam mittant æterna in sæcula prolem.
Immortale nihil terra prodire sinendum est;
Fons generis pereat, capitis dejectio victi
Semen erit mortis. Pariat discrimina lethi
Vitæ principium : cuncti feriantur in uno :
Non faciet vivum radix occisa cacumen.

Hæc mihi dejecto tandem solatia restant.

Si

nequeo clausos iterum conscendere cœlos,

His quoque claudentur. Levius cecidisse putandum est
Si nova perdatur simili substantia casu,

Si comes excidii subeat consortia pœnæ,

Et quos prævideo nobiscum dividat ignes '.

MILTON :

O hell! what do mine eyes with grief behold!
Into our room of bliss thus high advanc'd
Creatures of other mould, earth-born perhaps,
Not spirits, yet to heav'nly spirits bright
Little inferior; whom my thoughts pursue
With wonder, and could love, so lively shines

In them divine resemblance, and such grace

The hand that form'd them on their shape hath pour'd.

Ah! gentle pair, ye little think how nigh

Your change approaches, when all these delights

Will vanish, and deliver ye to woe;

More woe, the more your taste is now of joy :

Happy, but for so happy ill secur'd

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Long to continue, and this high seat your heav'ır
Ill fenc'd for heav'n, to keep out such a foe
As now is enter'd; yet no purpos'd foe
To you, whom I could pity thus forlorn,
Though I unpitied : league with you I seek,
And mutual amity so strait, so close,
That I with you must dwell, or you with me
Henceforth; my dwelling haply may not please,
Like this fair Paradise, your sense; yet such
he gave it me
Accep, your Maker's work;

Which I as freely give; hell shall unfold,

To entertain you two, her widest gates,

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And send forth all her kings; there will be room,

Not like these narrow limits, to receive

Your numerous offspring: if no better place,
Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge

On you, who wrong me not, for him who wrong'd.
And should I at your harmless innocence

Melt, as I do, yet public reason just,

Honor and empire with revenge inlarg'd,

By conq'ring this new world, compels me now

To do what else, though damn'd, I should abhor '.

Reproches d'Adam à Eve:

Ille ubi convictum claro se lumine vidit,
Prodidit et totum discussio justa reatum,
Non prece sammissa veniam pro crimine poscit,
Non votis lacrymisve rogat, nec vindice fletu
Præcurrit meritam supplex confessio pœnam ;
Jamque miser factus, nondum miserabilis ille est.
Erigitur sensu, tumidisque accensa querelis
Fertur in insanas laxata superbia voces :
Heu male perdendo mulier conjuncta marito !
Quam sociam misero prima sub lege dedisti,
Hæc me consiliis vicit devicta sinistris,

Paradise lost, liv. 4, v. 358-392.

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