What I have done, what suffer'd, with what || With complicated monsters head and tail,
Voyag'd th' unreal, vast, unbounded deep Of horrible confusion, over which By Sin and Death a broad way now is pav'd To expedite your glorious march; but I Toil'd out my uncouth passage, forc'd to ride Th' untractable abyss, plung'd in the womb Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild,
That jealous of their secrets fiercely oppos'd My journey strange, with clamorous uproar Protesting Fate supreme; thence how I found The new-created world, which fame in Heaven Long had foretold, a fabric wonderful Of absolute perfection, therein Man Plac'd in a Paradise, by our exile Made happy: Him by fraud I have seduc'd From his Creator, and the more to increase Your wonder, with an apple, he thereat Offended, worth your laughter, hath giv'n up Both his beloved Man and all his world, To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us, Without our hazard, labour, or alarm, To range in, and to dwell, and over man To rule, as over all he should have rul'd. True is, me also he hath judg'd, or rather Me not, but the brute serpent in whose shape Man I deceiv'd: that which to me belongs, Is enmity which he will put between Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel; His seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head:
A world who would not purchase with a bruise, Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th' ac-
Of my performance: What remains, ye Gods, But up and enter now into full bliss?
So having said, a while he stood, expecting Their universal shout and high applause To fill bis ear, when contrary he hears On all sides, from innumerable tongues A dismal universal hiss, the sound
Of public scorn; he wonder'd, but not long Had leisure, wond'ring at himself now more; His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare, His arms clung to his ribs, his legs intwining Each other, till supplanted down he fell A monstrous serpent on his belly prone, Reluctant, but in vain, a greater power Now rul'd him, punish'd in the shape he
According to his doom: he would have spoke But hiss for hiss return'd with forked tongue To forked tongue, for now were all trans- form'd
Alike, to serpents all as accessories To his bold riot: dreadful was the din Ofhissing through the hall, thick swarming now
Scorpion, and Asp, and Amphisbæna dire, Cerastes horn'd, Hydrus, and Elops drear, And Dipsas (not so thick swarm'd once the
Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the isle Ophiusa) but still greatest he the midst, Now Dragon grown, larger than whom the
Engender'd in the Pythian vale on slime, Huge Python, and his pow'r no less he seem'd Above the rest still to retain; they all Him follow'd issuing forth to th' open field, Where all yet left of that revolted rout Heav'n-fall'n, in station stood or just array, Sublime with expectation when to see In triumph issuing forth their glorious chief; They saw, but other sight instead, a crowd Of ugly serpents; horror on them fell, And borrid sympathy; for what they saw, They felt themselves now changing; down [fast
Down fell both spear and shield, down they as And the dire hiss renew'd, and the dire form Catch'd by contagion, like in punishment, As in their crime. Thus was th' applause they
Turn'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame Cast on themselves from their own mouths. There stood [change, A grove hard by, sprung up with this their His will who reigns above, to aggravate Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve Us'd by the Tempter: on that prospect strange Their earnest eyes they fix'd, imagining For one forbidden tree a multitude
Now ris'n, to work them further woe or shame; Yet parch'd with scalding thirst and hunger fierce,
Though to delude them sent, could not abstain, But on they roll'd in heaps, and up the trees Climbing, sat thicker than the snaky locks That curl'd Megæra: greedily they pluck'd The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew
Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam'd; This more delusive, not the touch, but taste Deceiv'd; they fondly thinking to allay Their appetites with gust, instead of fruit Chew'd bitter ashes, which th' offended taste With spattering noise rejected: oft they as- say'd,
Hunger and thirst constraining, drugg'd as oft, With hatefullest disrelish writh'd their jaws With soot and cinders fill'd; so oft they fell Into the same illusion, not as Man,
Whom they triumph'd ouce laps'd. Thus were they plagu'd
And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss, Till their lost shape, permitted, they resum'd, Yearly enjoin'd, some say, to undergo This annual humbling certain number'd days, To dash their pride, and joy for man seduc'd. However some tradition they dispers'd Among the Heathen of their purchase got, And fabled how the serpent, whom they cali'd Ophion with Eurynome, the wide Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven And Ops, ere yet Dictæan Jove was born.
Mean while in Paradise the hellish pair Too soon arriv'd, Sin there in power before, Once actual, now in body, and to dwell Habitual habitant; behind her Death Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet On his pale horse: to whom thus Sin began:
Second of Satan sprung, all conqu'ring Death, What think'st thou of our empire now, though
Feed first, on each beast next, and fish and fowl, No homely morsels; and whatever thing The sithe of Time mows down, devour unspar'd Till I in man residing through the race,
His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect,
And sweeten him thy last and swectest prey. This said, they both betook them several ways,
Both to destroy, or unimmortal make All kinds, and for destruction to mature Sooner or later; which th' Almighty seeing, From his trascendent seat the saints among, To those bright orders uttered thus his voice. See with what heat these dogs of Hell ad-
To waste and havoc yonder world, which I So fair and good created, and had still Kept in that state, had not the folly of man Let in these wasteful furies, who impute Folly to me, so doth the Prince of Hell No. VII.-N. 8.
And lis adherents, that with so much ease I suffer them to enter and possess A place so heav'nly, and conniving seem To gratify my scornful enemies, That laugh, as if transported with some fit Of passion, I to them had quitted all, At random yielded up to their misrule; And know not that I called and drew them thither
My hell hounds, to lick up the draff and filth Which man's polluting sin with taint had shed On what was pure, till craman'd and gorg'd, nigh burst
With suck'd and glutted offal, at one sling, Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son, Both Sin and Death, and yawning Grave at last, Through Chaos hurld, obstruct the mouth of
For ever, and seal up his ravenous jaws. Then Heav'n and Earth renew'd shall be made pure
To sanctity that shall receive no stain : Till then the curse pronoun'd on both precedes. He ended, and the heav'nly audience loud Sung halleluiah, as the sound of seas, Through multitude that sung: Just are thy
Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works; Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son, Destin'd Restorer of mankind, by whom New Heav'n and Earth shall to the ages rise, Or down from Heav'n descend, Such was their
While the Creator calling forth by name His mighty angels, gave them several charge As sorted best with present things. The sun Had first his precept so to move, so shine, As might effect the earth with cold and heat Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call Decrepit winter, from the south to bring Solstitial summer's heat. To the blank moon Her office they prescrib'd, to th' other five Their planetary motions and aspects In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite Of noxious efficacy, and when to join In synod unbenign; and taught the fix'd Their influence malignant when to shower, Which of them rising with the sun, or falling, Should prove tempestuous: to the winds they
Their corners, when with bluster to confound Sea, air, and shore, the thunder when to roll With terror through the dark aereal hall. Some say he bid his angels turn ascanse The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more From the sun's axle, they with labour push'd Oblique the centric globe; some say the sun Was bid turn reins from th' equinoctial road Like distant breadth to Taurus with the seven
Atlantic Sisters, and the Spartan Twins Up to the Tropic Crab; thence down amain By Leo and the Virgin and the Scales, As deep as Capricorn, to bring in change Of seasons to each clime; else had the spring Perpetual smil'd on earth, with verdant flowers, Equal in days and nights, except to those Beyond the polar circles; to them day Had unbenighted shone, while the low suu To recompense his distance, in their sight Had rounded still the horizon, and not known Or cast or west, which had forbid the snow From cold Estoitland, and south as far Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit The sun, as from Thyestean banquet turn'd His course intended; else how had the world Juhabited, though sinless more than now, Avoid pinching cold and scorching heat? These changes in the Heav'ns, though slow, produc'd
Like change on sea and land, sideral blast, Vapor, and mist, and exhalation hot, Corrupt and pestilent: now from the north Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore, Bursting their brazen dungeon, arm'd with ice And snow and hail and stormy gust and flaw, Boreas and Cæcias and Argestes loud
And Thrascias rend the woods and seas upturn; With adverse blast upturns them from the south
Notus and Afer black with tbundrons clouds From Serraliona; thwart of these as fierce Forth rush the Levant and Ponent winds Eurus and Zephyr with their lateral noise, Sirocco, and Libecchio. Thus began Outrage from lifeless things; but Discord first Daughter of Sin among th' irrational, Death introduc'd through fierce antipathy: Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl, [ing, And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leav. Devour'd each other; nor stood much in ave Of man but fied him, or with count'nance grim Glar'd on him passing. These were from
The growing miseries which Adam saw Already in part, though hid in gloomiest shade, To sorrow abandon'd, but worse felt within, And in a troubled sea of passion tost, Thus to disburden sought with sad complaint.
O miserable of happy! is this the end Of this new glorious world, and me so late The glory of that g'ory, who now become Accurs'd of blessed, bid me from the face Of God, whom to behold was then my height Of happiness! yet well, if here would end The misery; I deserv'd it, and would bear My own deservings; but this will not serve; "Ail that I eat or drink, or shall beget,
Is propagated curse. O voice once heard Delightfully, Increase and Multiply, Now death to bear! for what can I increase Or multiply, but curses on my head? Who of all ages to succeed, but feeling The evil on him brought by me, will curse My head? Ill fare our ancestor impure, For this we may thank Adam; but his thanks Shall be the execration; so besides Mine own that bide upon me, all from me Shall with a fierce reflux on me redound, On me as on their natural center light Heavy, though in their place. Oflecting joys Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes! Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me man, did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me, or here place In this delicious garden? As my will Concurr'd not to my being, it were but right And equal to reduce me to my dust, Desirous to resign and render back All I receiv'd, unable to perform Thy terms so hard, by which I was to hold The good I sought not. To the loss of that, Sufficient penalty, why hast thou added The sense of endless woes? inexplicable Thy justice seenis; yet to say truth, too late I thus contest; then should have been refus'd [pos'd: Those terms whatever, when they were proThou did'st accept them: wilt thou enjoy the good,
Then cavil the conditions? and though God Made thee without thy leave, what if thy son Prove disobedient, and reprov'd, retort, Wherefore did'st thou beget me? I sought it
Would thou admit for his contempt of thee That proud excuse? yet him not thy election, But natural necessity begot.
God made thee of choice his own, and of his
To serve him; thy reward was of his grace, Thy punishment then justly is at his will, Be it so, for I submit; his doom is fair, That dust I am, and shall to dust return: O welcome hour whenever! why delays His hand to execute what his decree Fix'd on this day? why do I overlive Why am I mock'd with death, and lengthen'd
To deathless pain? how gladly would I meet Mortality my sentence, and be earth Insensible, how glad would lay me down As in my mother's lap? there I should rest And sleep secure; bis dreadful voice no more Would thunder in my ears, no fear of worse To me and to my offspring would torment me With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt
Pursues ine still, lest all I cannot die, Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of man Which God inspir'd, cannot together perish With this corporeal clod; then in the grave, Or in some other dismal place, who knows But I shall die a living death? O thought Horrid, if true! yet why? it was but breath Ot life that sinn'd; what dies but what had life And sin? the body properly hath neither. All of me then shalt die : let this appease
The doubt, since human reach no further knows.
For though the Lord of all be infinite, Is his wrath also? be it, man is not so, But mortal doom'd. How can he exercise Wrath without end on man whom death must end? [make Can he make deathless death? that were to Strange contradiction, which to God himself Impossible is held, as argument
Of weakness, not of power. Will he draw out, For anger's sake, finite to infinite
In punish'd man, to satisfy his rigor Satisfy'd never? that were to extend His sentence beyond dust and Nature's law, By which all causes else according still To the reception of their matter act, Not to the extent of their own sphere. But say That death be not one stroke, as I suppos'd Bereaving sense, but endless misery
With that bad woman? thus what thou desir'st And what thou fear'st, alike destroys all hope Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable Beyond all past example and future. To Satan only like both crime and doom. O Couscience, into what abyss of fears And horrors hast thou driv'u me; out of which I find no way, from deep to deeper plung'd! Thus Adam to himself lamented loud Through the still night, not now, as ere inan [air Wholesome and cool, and mild, but with black Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom, Which to his evil conscience represented All things with double terror: on the ground Outstretch'd he lay, on the cold ground, and oft Curst his creation, Death as oft accus'd Of tardy execution, since denounc'd The day of his offence. Why comes not Death, Said he, with one thrice acceptable stroke To end me? shall Truth fail to keep her word, Justice divine not hasten to be just? But Death cones not at all, Justice divine Mends not her slowest pace for pray'rs or cries. O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales and bowers, With other echo late I taught your shades To answer, and resound far other song. Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve beheld, Desolate where she sat, approaching nigh, Soft words to his fierce passion she assay'd: But her with stern regard he thus address'd.
Out of my sight thou serpent; that name best
Befits thee with him leagu'd, thyself as false And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape,
Comes thund'ring back, with dreadful revo- On my defenceless head, both death and I Am found eternal, and incorporate both, Nor I in my part single, in me all
Posterity stands curs'd: fair patrimony That I must leave ye, Sons; O were I able To waste it all anyself, and leave ye none! So disinterested how would you bless Me now your curse! Ah, why should all man- kind [demu'd,
For one man's fault thus guiltless be con- If guiltless? but from me what can proceed, But all corrupt, both mind and will deprav'd, Not to do only, but to do the same With me? how can they then acquitted stand In sight of God? him after all disputes Forc'd I absolve: all my evasious vain, (still And reasonings, though through mazes, lead But to my own conviction: first and last On me, me only, as the source and spring Of all corruption, all the blame lights due; So might the wrath. Fond wish! couldst thou support
That burden heavier than the earth to bear, Than all the world much heavier, though divided
Like his, and colour serpentine may show Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from [tended Henceforth; lest that too heav'nly form, pre- To hellish falsehood snare them. But for thee I had persisted happy, had not thy pride And wand'ring vanity, when least was safe, Rejected my forwarning, and disdain'd Not to be trusted, longing to be seen Though by the Devil himself, him overweening To over-reach, but with the serpent meeting Fool'd and beguil'd, by him thou, and I by thee To trust thee from my side, imagin'd wise, Constant, mature, proof against all assaults, And understood not all was but a show Rather thau solid virtue, all but a rib Crooked by Nature, bent as now appears, More to the part sinister, from we drawn, Well if thrown out, as supernumerary To my just number found. O why did God, Creator wise, that peopled highest Heav'n With spirits masculine, create at last This novelty on earth, this fair defect
Of nature, and not fill the world at once With men as angels without feminine, Or find some other way to generate Mankind? this mischief had not then befall'u And more that shall befal, innumerable Disturbances on earth through female snares, And strait conjunction with this sex: for either He never shall find out fit mate, but such As some misfortune brings him, or mistake; Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain Through her perverseness, but shall see her gain'd
By a far worse, or if she love, withhe'd By parents; or his happiest choice too late Shall meet already link'd and wedlock-bound To a fell adversary, his hate or shame: Which infinite calamity shall cause
To human life, and household peace confound
He added not, and from her turn'd; but Eve Not so repuls'd, with tears that ceas'd not flowing,
And tresses all disorder'd, at his feet Fell humble, and embracing them besought His peace and thus proceeded in her plaint:
Forsake me not thus, Adam; witness Heav'n What love sincere, and rev'rence in my heart I bear thee, and unweeting have offended, Unhappily deceiv'd; thy suppliant 1 beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not, Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid, Thy counsel in the uttermost distress, My only strength and stay: forlorn of thee, Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?
While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps,
Between us two let there be peace, both joining,
As joia'd in injuries, one enmity Against a foe by doom express assign'd us, That cruel serpent: on me exercise not Thy hatred for this misery befall'n, On me already lost, me than thyself More miserable; both have sina'd, but thou Against God only, I against God and thee, And to the place of judgment will return, There with my cries importune Heav'n, that
The sentence from thy head remov'd may light On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe, Me, me only, just object of his ire.
She ended weeping, and her lowly plight, Immoveable till peace obtain'd from fault Acknowledg'd and deplor'd, in Adam wrought Commiseration; soon his heart relented Tow'rds her, his life so late and sole delight, Now at his feet submissive in distress,
Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking,
As one disarm'd, his anger all he lost,
And thus with peaceful words uprais'd her
Unwary, and too desirous, as before, So now of what thou know'st not, who desir'st The punishment all on thyself; alas, Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain
His full wrath, whose thou feel'st as yet least part, And my displeasure bear'st so ill. If prayers Could alter high decrees, I to that place Would speed before thee, and be louder heard, That on my head all might be visited, Thy frailty and infirmer sex forgiven, To me committed and by me expos'd. But rise, let us no more conteud, nor blame Each other, blam'denough elsewhere, but strive In offices of love, how we may lighten Each other's burden in our share of woe; Since thus day's death denounc'd, if ought I see, Will prove no sudden, but a slow pac'd evil A long day's dying to augment our pain, And to our seed (O hapless seed!) deriv'd.
To whom thus Eve, recovering heart, reply'd. Adam, by sad experiment I know How little weight my words with thee can find, Found so erroneous, thence by just event Found so unfortunate; nevertheless Restor'd by thee, vile as I am, to place Of new acceptance, hopeful to regain Thy love, the sole contentment of my heart Living or dying, from thee I will not hide What thoughts in my unquiet breast are risen, Tending to some relief of our extremes Or end, though sharp and sad, yet tolerable, As in our evils, aud of easier choice. If care of our descent perplex us most Which must be borne to certain woe, devour'd By Death at last; and miserable it is To be to others cause of misery, Our own begotten, and of our loins to bring Into this cursed world a woeful race, That after wretebed life must be at last Food for so foul a monster; in thy power It lies, yet ere conception to prevent The race uublest, to being yet unbegot. Childless thou art, childless remain: so Death Shall be deceiv'd his glut, and with us two Be fore'd to satisfy his ravenous maw. But if thou judge it hard and difficult, Conversing, looking, loving, to abstain From Love's due rites, nuptial embraces sweet, And with desire to languish without hope, Before the present object languishing
With like desire, which would be misery And torment less than none of what we dread; Then both ourselves and seed at once to free
From what we fear for both, let us make short,
With our own hands his office on ourselves;
His counsel, whom she had displeas'd, his aid; Let us seck Death, or he not found, supply
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