Our inward freedom? in the day we eat
Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die.
How dies the serpent? he hath eaten and lives,
And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,
Irrational till then. For us alone
Was death invented? or to us deny'd
This intellectual food, for beasts reserv'd?
For beasts it seems: yet that one beast which first
Hath tasted envies not, but brings with joy
The good befall'n him, author unsuspect,
Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile.
What fear I then? rather what know to fear
Under this ignorance of good and evil,
Of God or death, of law or penalty?
Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine,
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,
Of virtue to make wise: what hinders then
To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit, she pluck'd, she eat:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat
782 wound] See Beaumont's Psyche, c. vi. st. 254.
'Up went her desperate hand, and reach'd away
All the world's blesse; whilst she the apple took;
When, loe, the earth did move; the heav'ns did stay,
Beasts and birds shiver'd; absent Adam shook.'
782 Nature] v. the Sarcotis of Masenius on the same subject, lib. ii. "Natura nefas horrescere visa,
Pondere tam gravium cœpit titubare malorum.'
Tota anceps Natura stetit.'
Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe,
That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk
The guilty serpent, and well might, for Eve
Intent now wholly on her taste naught else
Regarded; such delight till then, as seem'd,
In fruit she never tasted, whether true
Or fancy'd so, through expectation high
Of knowledge; nor was Godhead from her thought.
Greedily she ingorg'd without restraint,
And knew not eating death: satiate at length,
And highten'd as with wine, jocond and boon,
Thus to herself she pleasingly began.
O sov'reign, virtuous, precious of all trees
In paradise! of operation blest
To sapience, hitherto obscur'd, infam'd,
And thy fair fruit let hang, as to no end
Created but henceforth my early care,
Not without song, each morning, and due praise
Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease
Of thy full branches offer'd free to all;
Till dieted by thee I grow mature
In knowledge, as the gods who all things know;
784 slunk] So in the Adamus Exsul of Grotius, p. 47, after the success of the temptation, Sathan says,
'Ego ad latebras tacitus abrepam meas.'
792 knew not] A Greek phrase used by the Latins. v. Opp. Halieut. ii. 106.
ουδ' ἐνοήσαν ἐὰν σπένδοντες ὄλεθρον. Richardson.
795 precious] The positive for the superlative. As Virgil, Æn. iv. 576.
'Sequimur te, sancte Deorum.' Richardson.
Though others envy what they cannot give ;
For had the gift been theirs, it had not here
Thus grown. Experience, next to thee I owe,
Best guide; not following thee, I had remain'd
In ignorance; thou open'st wisdom's way,
And giv'st access, though secret she retire.
And I perhaps am secret; heaven is high,
High and remote to see from thence distinct
Each thing on earth; and other care perhaps
May have diverted from continual watch
Our great Forbidder, safe with all his spies
About him. But to Adam in what sort
Shall I appear? shall I to him make known
As yet my change, and give him to partake
Full happiness with me, or rather not,
But keep the odds of knowledge in my power
Without copartner? so to add what wants
In female sex, the more to draw his love,
And render me more equal, and perhaps,
807 Experience] 'Thee Serpent.' Bentl. MS.
818 give] Newton has observed the beauty of this expression, and traced it through the Greek and Latin. See Hom. Il. i. 18. Virg. Æn. i. 65. 79. 522; and before in P. L. i. 736.
A thing not undesirable, sometime
/ Superior; for inferior who is free?
This may be well: but what if GOD have seen,
And death ensue? then I shall be no more,
And Adam wedded to another Eve
Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct;
A death to think. Confirm'd then I resolve,
Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe:
So dear I love him, that with him all deaths
I could endure; without him live no life.
So saying, from the tree her step she turn'd,
But first low reverence done, as to the power
That dwelt within, whose presence had infus'd
Into the plant sciential sap, deriv'd
From nectar, drink of gods. Adam the while,
Waiting desirous her return, had wove
Of choicest flowers a garland to adorn
Her tresses, and her rural labours crown,
As reapers oft are wont their harvest queen.
Great joy he promis'd to his thoughts, and new
Solace in her return, so long delay'd;
Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill,
Misgave him; he the faltering measure felt;
845 divine] See Hor. Od. iii. xxvii. 10.
'Imbrium divina avis imminentum.'
and P. L. x. 357. Newton.
846 faltering measure felt] "I consider these words as obscure. They must, I presume, be interpreted as meaning, 'That Adam secretly felt some symptoms of the great change impressed on Nature by Eve's transgression.'" MS. Diary of Thomas Green, Esq. But the clearer explanation, I consider, is, 'Adam felt the faltering (or
And forth to meet her went, the way she took
That morn when first they parted. By the Tree
Of Knowledge he must pass, there he her met,
Scarce from the tree returning; in her hand
A bough of fairest fruit that downy smil'd,
New gather'd, and ambrosial smell diffus'd.
To him she hasted; in her face excuse
Came prologue, and apology too prompt;
Which with bland words at will she thus address'd.
Hast thou not wonder'd, Adam, at my stay?
Thee I have miss'd, and thought it long, depriv'd
Thy presence, agony of love till now
Not felt, nor shall be twice, for never more
Mean I to try, what rash untry'd I sought,
The pain of absence from thy sight. But strange
Hath been the cause, and wonderful to hear:
This tree is not, as we are told, a tree
Of danger tasted, nor to evil unknown
Op'ning the way, but of divine effect
To open eyes, and make them gods who taste;
And hath been tasted such. The serpent wise,
Or not restrain❜d as we, or not obeying,
Hath eaten of the fruit, and is become
Not dead, as we are threaten'd, but thenceforth 870 Endu'd with human voice and human sense,
imperfect) measure of that 'great joy he promis'd,' and 'solace in her return.' Doubts mingling with his hope made the measure of joy falter, or be deficient.
854 too] This is Fenton's emendation; before, in all the editions it was 'to prompt,' which Newton considers to be an error of the press, and Todd thinks might have been the genuine text.
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