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

890

895

Mankind? This mischief had not then befall'n,
And more that shall befall, innumerable
Disturbances on earth through female snares,
And straight 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, withheld

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 heaven

900

905

911

914 Forsake me not] So in the Adamus Exsul of Grotius, p. 64,

Eve says,

'Per sancta thalami sacra, per jus nominis

Quodcunque nostri, sive me natam vocas,

Ex te creatam, sive communi Patre

What love sincere and reverence in my heart
I bear thee, and unweeting have offended,
Unhappily deceiv'd; thy suppliant

I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not
Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid,
Thy counsel in this 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 join'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 befallen,
On me already lost, me than thy self

More miserable; both have sinn'd, but thou
Against God only, I against God and thee;
And to the place of judgment will return,

Ortam, sororem, sive potius conjugem,

Ne me relinquas. Nunc tuo auxilio est opus,
Cum versa sors est. Unicum lapsæ mihi
Firmamen; unam spem gravi adflictæ malo.'

921 forlorn] Ov. Met. i. 358.

'Quid tibi, si sine me fatis erepta fuisses,

Nunc animi, miseranda, foret? quo sola timorem

Ferre modo posses? quo consolante doleres?

Namque ego, crede mihi, si te modo pontus haberet

Te sequerer, conjux.'

915

920

925

930

925 one enmity] Bentley reads in enmity,' which reading Newton thinks not improbable.

931 I against] So Grotii Adamus Exsul. p. 65.

Ego duplex feci nefas,

Cum fallor et cum fallo.'

There with my cries importune heaven, that all
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
Towards her, his life so late and sole delight,
Now at his feet submissive in distress,
Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking,
His counsel, whom she had displeas'd, his aid;
As one disarm'd, his anger all he lost,
And thus with peaceful words uprais'd her soon.
Unwary and too desirous as before,

So now of what thou know'st not, who desir'st
The punishment all on thy self; alas,

Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain

935

940

945

950

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;

955

Thy frailty and infirmer sex forgiv'n,

To me committed, and by me expos'd.

But rise, let us no more contend, nor blame
Each other, blam'd enough elsewhere, but strive
In offices of love how we may lighten

Each other's burden in our share of woe;

Since this day's death denounc'd, if aught I see,

960

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, and of easier choice.
If care of our descent perplex us most,

965

970

975

Which must be born to certain woe, devour'd
By Death at last, (and miserable it is

980

To be to others cause of misery,

Our own begotten, and of our loins to bring
Into this cursed world a woful race,

That after wretched life must be at last
Food for so foul a monster,) in thy power
It lies, yet ere conception to prevent

985

981 it is] Todd remarks, that a parenthesis commences at the words and miserable it is,' and comes down to 'so foul a monster,' ver. 986.

987 conception] Why not conception already, since he has mentioned copulation twice?" Bentl. MS.

The race unblest, to being yet unbegot.
Childless thou art, childless remain: so Death
Shall be deceiv'd his glut, and with us two
Be forc'd to satisfy his rav'nous 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

990

995

From what we fear for both, let us make short, 1000 Let us seek Death, or, he not found, supply

With our own hands his office on ourselves:

Why stand we longer shivering under fears,

That show no end but death, and have the power, Of many ways to die the shortest choosing, Destruction with destruction to destroy?

1005

989 In Milton's own editions, and in others, this and the following line are thus printed

Childless thou art, childless remain,

So death shall be deceived his glut, and with us two, &c.

This error went through both Milton's editions; and it was one that, when the poem was read to him, his ear alone could not detect; but the continuance of it does not speak much in favour of the knowledge or attention of those who read to him.

1001 supply] So in the Adamus Exsul of Grotius, p. 61.

Quid mihi exsequias nego?

Quid pereo vivus? quid meos manes moror?

Tu manus! potius veni

Ministra pœnæ, quæ fuisti criminum.'