Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (58 page)

His wish and best advantage, us asunder,

Hopeless to circumvent us joined, where each

To other speedy aid might lend at need;

Whether his first design be to withdraw

Our fealty from God, or to disturb

Conjugal love, than which perhaps no bliss

Enjoyed by us excites his envy more;

Or
²⁶⁵
this, or worse, leave not the faithful side

That gave thee being, still shades thee and protects.

The wife, where danger or dishonor lurks,

Safest and seemliest by her husband stays,

Who guards her, or with her the worst endures.”

   To whom the virgin majesty
²⁷⁰
of Eve,

As one who loves, and some unkindness meets,

With sweet austere composure
²⁷²
thus replied.

   “Offspring of Heav’n and Earth, and all Earth’s lord,

That such an enemy we have, who seeks

Our ruin, both by thee informed I learn,

And from the parting angel overheard
²⁷⁶

As in a shady nook I stood behind,

Just then returned at shut of evening flow’rs.

But that thou shouldst my firmness therefore doubt

To God or thee, because we have a foe

May tempt it, I expected not to hear.

His violence thou fear’st not, being such,

As we, not capable of death or pain,

Can either not receive, or can repel.

His fraud is then thy fear, which plain infers

Thy equal fear that my firm faith and love

Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced;

Thoughts, which how found they harbor in thy breast

Adam, misthought of her to thee so dear?”

   To whom with healing words Adam replied.

“Daughter of God and man, immortal Eve,

For such thou art, from sin and blame entire
²⁹²
:

Not diffident
²⁹³
of thee do I dissuade

Thy absence from my sight, but to avoid

Th’ attempt itself, intended by our foe.

For he
²⁹⁶
who tempts, though in vain, at least asperses

The tempted with dishonor foul, supposed

Not incorruptible of faith, not proof

Against temptation: thou thyself with scorn

And anger wouldst resent the offered wrong,

Though ineffectual found: misdeem not then,

If such affront I labor to avert

From thee alone, which on us both at once

The enemy, though bold, will hardly dare,

Or daring, first on me th’ assault shall light.

Nor thou his malice and false guile contemn;

Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce

Angels, nor think superfluous others’ aid.

I from the influence of thy looks receive

Access
³¹⁰
in every virtue, in thy sight

More wise, more watchful, stronger, if need were

Of outward strength; while shame, thou looking on,

Shame to be overcome or overreached

Would utmost vigor raise, and raised unite
³¹⁴
.

Why shouldst not thou like sense within thee feel

When I am present, and thy trial choose

With me, best witness of thy virtue tried.”

   So spake domestic Adam in his care

And matrimonial love; but Eve, who thought

Less
³²⁰
attributed to her faith sincere,

Thus her reply with accent sweet renewed.

   “If this be our condition, thus to dwell

In narrow circuit straitened by a foe,

Subtle or violent, we not endued

Single with like defense, wherever met,

How are we happy, still
³²⁶
in fear of harm?

But harm precedes not sin: only our Foe

Tempting affronts us with his foul esteem

Of our integrity: his foul esteem

Sticks no dishonor on our front, but turns

Foul on himself; then wherefore shunned or feared

By us? Who rather double honor gain

From his surmise proved false, find peace within,

Favor from Heav’n, our witness from th’ event.

And what is faith, love, virtue unassayed
³³⁵

Alone, without exterior help sustained?

Let us not then suspect our happy state

Left so imperfect by the Maker wise,

As not secure to single or combined.

Frail is our happiness, if this be so,

And Eden were no Eden
³⁴¹
thus exposed.”

   To whom thus Adam fervently replied.

“O woman, best are all things as the will

Of God ordained them, his creating hand

Nothing imperfect or deficient left

Of all that he created, much less man,

Or aught that might his happy state secure,

Secure from outward force; within himself

The danger lies, yet lies within his power:

Against his will he can receive no harm.

But God left free the will, for what obeys

Reason, is free, and reason he made right,

But bid her well beware, and still
³⁵³
erect,

Least by some fair appearing good surprised

She dictate false, and misinform the will

To do what God expressly hath forbid.

Not then mistrust, but tender love enjoins,

That I should mind thee oft, and mind thou me.

Firm we subsist, yet possible to swerve,

Since reason not impossibly may meet

Some specious object by the foe suborned,

And fall into deception unaware,

Not keeping strictest watch, as she
³⁶³
was warned.

Seek not temptation then, which to avoid

Were better, and most likely if from me

Thou sever not: trial will come unsought.

Wouldst thou approve
³⁶⁷
thy constancy, approve

First thy obedience; th’ other who can know,

Not seeing thee attempted, who attest?

But if thou think, trial unsought may find

Us both securer
³⁷¹
than thus warned thou seem’st,

Go; for thy stay
³⁷²
, not free, absents thee more;

Go in thy native innocence, rely

On what thou hast of virtue, summon all,

For God towards thee hath done his part, do thine.”

So spake the patriarch of mankind, but Eve

Persisted, yet submiss, though last, replied.

   “With thy permission then, and thus forewarned

Chiefly by what thy own last reasoning words

Touched only, that our trial, when least sought,

May find us both perhaps far less prepared,

The willinger I go, nor much expect

A foe so proud will first the weaker seek;

So bent, the more shall shame him his repulse.”

Thus saying, from her husband’s hand her hand

Soft she withdrew, and like a wood-nymph light
³⁸⁶

Oread
³⁸⁷
or Dryad, or of Delia’s train,

Betook her to the groves, but Delia’s self

In gait surpassed and goddesslike deport,

Though not as she with bow and quiver armed,

But with such gard’ning tools as art yet rude,

Guiltless of fire had formed, or angels brought.

To Pales
³⁹³
, or Pomona thus adorned,

Likeliest she seemed, Pomona when she fled

Vertumnus
³⁹⁵
, or to Ceres in her prime,

Yet virgin of Proserpina
³⁹⁶
from Jove.

Her long with ardent look his eye pursued

Delighted, but desiring more her stay.

Oft he to her his charge of quick return

Repeated, she to him as oft engaged

To be returned by noon amid the bow’r,

And all things in best order to invite

Noontide repast, or afternoon’s repose.

O much deceived
⁴⁰⁴
, much failing, hapless Eve,

Of thy presumed return! Event perverse
⁴⁰⁵
!

Thou never from that hour in Paradise

Found’st either sweet repast, or sound repose;

Such ambush hid among sweet flow’rs and shades

Waited with hellish rancor imminent

To intercept thy way, or send thee back

Despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss.

For now, and since first break of dawn the fiend,

Mere
⁴¹³
serpent in appearance, forth was come,

And on his quest, where likeliest he might find

The only two of mankind, but in them

The whole included race, his purposed prey.

In bow’r and field he sought, where any tuft

Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay,

Their tendance or plantation for delight,

By fountain or by shady rivulet

He sought them both, but wished his hap might find

Eve separate; he wished, but not with hope

Of what so seldom chanced, when to his wish,

Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies,

Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood,

Half spied, so thick the roses bushing round

About her glowed, oft stooping to support

Each flow’r of slender stalk, whose head though gay

Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold,

Hung drooping unsustained; them she upstays

Gently with myrtle band, mindless
⁴³¹
the while,

Herself, though fairest unsupported flow’r,
⁴³²

From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh.

Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed

Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm,

Then voluble
⁴³⁶
and bold, now hid, now seen

Among thick-woven arborets and flow’rs

Imbordered
⁴³⁸
on each bank, the hand of Eve:

Spot more
⁴³⁹
delicious than those gardens feigned

Or of revived Adonis, or renowned

Alcinous, host of old Laertes’ son,

Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king

Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse.

Much he the place admired, the person more.

As one who long in populous city pent,

Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air
⁴⁴⁶
,

Forth issuing on a summer’s morn to breathe

Among the pleasant villages and farms

Adjoined, from each thing met conceives delight,

The smell of grain, or tedded
⁴⁵⁰
grass, or kine,

Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound;

If chance with nymphlike step fair virgin pass,

What pleasing seemed, for
⁴⁵³
her now pleases more,

She most, and in her look sums all delight.

Such pleasure took the serpent to behold

This flow’ry plat
⁴⁵⁶
, the sweet recess of Eve

Thus early, thus alone; her Heav’nly form

Angelic, but more soft
⁴⁵⁸
, and feminine,

Her graceful innocence, her every air

Of gesture or least action overawed

His malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved

His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought:

That space
⁴⁶³
the evil one abstracted stood

From his own evil, and for the time remained

Stupidly good, of enmity disarmed,

Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge;

But the
⁴⁶⁷
hot Hell that always in him burns,

Though in mid-Heav’n, soon ended his delight,

And tortures him now more, the more he sees

Of pleasure not for him ordained: then soon

Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts

Of mischief, gratulating
⁴⁷²
, thus excites.

   “Thoughts, whither have ye led me, with what sweet

Compulsion thus transported to forget

What hither brought us, hate, not love, nor hope

Of Paradise for Hell, hope here to taste

Of pleasure, but all pleasure to destroy,

Save what is in destroying; other joy

To me is lost. Then let me not let pass

Occasion
⁴⁸⁰
which now smiles; behold alone

The woman, opportune to all attempts,

Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh,

Whose higher intellectual more I shun,

And strength, of courage haughty, and of limb

Heroic built, though of terrestrial mold
⁴⁸⁵
,

Foe not informidable, exempt from wound,

I not; so much hath Hell debased, and pain

Enfeebled me, to what I was in Heav’n.

She fair, divinely fair, fit love for gods,

Not terrible,
⁴⁹⁰
though terror be in love

And beauty, not approached by stronger hate,

Hate stronger, under show of love well feigned,

The way which to her ruin now I tend.”

   So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed

In serpent, inmate bad, and toward Eve

Addressed his way, not with indented
⁴⁹⁶
wave,

Prone on the ground, as since, but on his rear,

Circular base of rising folds, that tow’red

Fold above fold a surging maze, his head

Crested aloft, and carbuncle
⁵⁰⁰
his eyes;

With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect

Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass

Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape,

And lovely, never since of serpent kind

Lovelier, not those that in Illyria changed
⁵⁰⁵

Hermione and Cadmus, or the god

In Epidaurus; nor to which transformed

Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline was seen,

He with Olympias, this with her who bore

Scipio the
⁵¹⁰
highth of Rome. With tract oblique

At first, as one who sought access, but feared

To interrupt, sidelong he works his way.

As when a ship by skillful steersman wrought