woman take his birth Why was this sin of nature made on earth This fair defect this helpless ayd call'd wife The bending crutch of a decrepit life Posterity no pairs from you shall find But such as by mistake of love are joyn'd The worthiest men their wishes ne'r shall gain But see the slaves they scorn their loves obtain Blind appetite shall your wild fancies rule False to desert and faithful to a fool Turns in anger from her and is going off Eve kneeling Unkind wilt thou forsake me in distress For that which now is past me to redress I have misdone and I endure the smart Loath to acknowledge but more loath to part The blame be mine you warn'd and I refus'd What would you more I have my self accus'd Was plighted faith so weakly seal'd above That for one error I must lose your love Had you so err'd I should have been more kind Than to add pain to an afflicted mind Adam Y' are grown much humbler than you were before I pardon you but see my face no more Eve Vain pardon which includes a greater ill Be still displeas'd but let me see you still Without your much-lov'd sight I cannot live You more than kill me if you so forgive The Beasts since we are faln their Lords despise And passing look at me with glaring eyes Must I then wander helpless and alone You 'll pity me too late when I am gone Adam Your penitence does my compassion move As you deserve it I may give my love Eve On me alone let Heav'n's displeasure fall You merit none and I deserve it all Adam You all Heav'n's wrath how could you bear a part Who bore not mine but with a bleeding heart I was too stubborn thus to make you sue Forgive me I am more in fault than you Return to me and to my love return And both offending for each other mourn Enter Raphael Raphael Of sin to warn thee I before was sent For sin I now pronounce thy punishment Yet that much lighter than thy crimes require Th'all-good does not his creatures death desire Justice must punish the rebellious deed Yet punish so as pity shall exceed Adam I neither can dispute his will nor dare Death will dismiss me from my future care And lay me softly in my native dust To pay the forfeit of ill-manag'd trust Eve Why seek you death consider ere you speak The laws were hard the pow'r to keep 'em weak Did we solicite Heav'n to mould our clay From darkness to produce us to the day Did we sollicite Heav'n to mould our clay From darkness to produce us to the day Did we concur to life or chuse to be Was it our will which form'd or was it he Since 't was his choice not ours which plac'd us here The laws we did not chuse why should we bear Adam Seek not in vain our maker to accuse Terms were propos'd pow'r left us to refuse The good we have enjoy'd from Heav'n's free will And shall we murmur to endure the ill Should we a rebel-son's excuse receive Because he was begot without his leave Heav'n's right in us is more first form'd to serve The good we merit not the ill deserve Raphael Death is defer'd and penitence has room To mitigate if not reverse the doom But for your crime th' Eternal does ordain In Eden you no longer shall remain Hence to the lower world you are exil'd This place with crimes shall be no more defil'd Eve Must we this blissful Paradise forego Raphael Your lot must be where Thorns and Thistles grow Unbid as Balme and Spices did at first For man the earth of which he was is curst To Adam By thy own toil procur'd thou food shalt eat And know no plenty but from painful sweat She by a curse of future wives abhorr'd Shall pay obedience to her lawful Lord And he shall rule and she in thraldome live Defiring more of love than man can give Adam Heav'n is all mercy labor I would chuse And could sustain this Paradise to lose The bliss but not the place here could I say Heav'n's winged messenger did pass the day Under this Pine the glorious Angel stay'd Then show my wondring progeny the shade In woods and lawnes where er'e thou dist appear Each place some Monument of thee should bear I with green turfs would grateful Altars raise And Heav'n with Gums and offer'd Incense praise Raphael Where er'e thou art he is th' Eternal mind Acts through all places is to none confin'd Fills Ocean Earth and Ayr and all above And through the Universal Mass does move Thou canst be no where distant yet this place Had been thy Kingly seat and here thy race From all the ends of peopled-Earth had come To rev'rence thee and see their native home Immortal then now sickness care and age And war and luxury 's more direful rage Thy crimes have brought to shorten mortal breath With all the num'rous family of Death Eve My spirits faint while I these ills foreknow And find my self the sad occasion too But what is death Raphael In vision thou shalt see his griesly face The King of Terrors raging in thy race That while in future fate thou shar'st thy part A kind remorse for sin may seize thy heart The Scene shifts and discovers deaths of several sorts Abattle at land and a Naval fight Adam O wretched off-spring O unhappy state Of all mankind by me betray'd to fate Born through my crime to be offenders first And for those sins they could not shun accurst Eve Why is life forc'd on man who might he choose Would not accept what he with pain must lose Unknowing he receives it and when known He thinks it his and values it 't is gone Raphael Behold of ev'ry age ripe manhood see Decrepit years and helpless infancy Those who by lingring sickness lose their breath And those who by despair suborn their death See yon'mad fools who for some trivial Right F ' or love or for mistaken honour â—â—ght See those more mad who throw their lives away In needless wars the Stakes which Monarchs lay When for each others Provinces they play Then as if earth too narrow were for fate On open Seas their quarrels they debate In hollow wood they floating Armies bear And force imprison'd winds to bring 'em near Eve Who would the miseries of man foreknow Not knowing we but share our part of woe Now we the fate of future Ages bear And ere their birth behold our dead appear Adam The deaths thou show'st are forc'd and full of strife Cast headlong from the precipice of life Is there no smooth descent no painless way Of kindly mixing with our native clay Raphael There is but rarely shall that path be trod Which without horror leads to deaths abode Some few by temp'rance taught approaching slow To distant fate by easy journeys go Gently they lay 'em down as ev'ning sheep On their own woolly fleeces softly sleep Adam So noiseless would I live such death to find Like timely fruit not shaken by the wind But ripely dropping from the sapless bough And dying nothing to my self would owe. Eve Thus daily changing with a duller tast Of less'ning joyes I by degrees would wast Still quitting ground by unperceiv'd decay And steal my felf from life and melt away Raphael Death you have seen now see your race revive How happy they in deathless pleasures live Far more than I can show or you can see Shall crown the blest with immortality Here a Heaven descends full of Angels and blessed Spirits with soft Music a Song and Chorus Adam O goodness infinite whose Heav'nly will Can so much good produce from so much ill Happy their state Pure and unchang'd and needing no defence From sins as did my frailer Innocence Their joy sincere and with no sorrow mixt Eternity stands permanent and fixt And wheels no longer on the Poles of time Secure from fate and more secure from crime Eve Ravish'd with Joy I can but half repent The sin which Heav'n makes happy in th' event Raphael Thus arm'd meet firmly your approaching ill For see the guards from yon' far eastern hill Already move nor longer stay afford High in the Ayr they wave the flaming sword Your signal to depart Now down amain They drive and glide like meteors through the plain Adam Then farewel all I will indulgent be To my own ease and not look back to see When what we love we ne'r must meet again To lose the thought is to remove the pain Eve Farewell you happy shades Where Angels first should practice Hymns and string Their tuneful Harps when they to Heav'n wou'd sing Farewell you flow'rs whose buds with early care I watch'd and to the chearful sun did rear Who now shall bind your stems or when you fall With fountain streams your fainting souls recall A long farewell to thee my nuptial bow'r Adorn'd with ev'ry fair and flagrant flow'r And last farewell farewell my place of birth I go to wander in the lower earth As distant as I can for disposest Farthest from what I once enjoy'd is best Raphael The rising winds urge the tempestuous Ayr And on their wings deformed Winter bear The beasts already feel the change and hence They fly to deeper coverts for defence The feebler herd before the stronger run For now the war of nature is begun But part you hence in peace and having mourn'd your sin For outward Eden lost find Paradise within Exeunt FINIS
more perfect all I wish to be Were I but sure Alass of pleasing thee Adam Y'have shown how much you my content design Yet ah would Heav'n's displeasure pass like mine Must I without you then in wild woods dwell Think and but think of what I lov'd so well Condemn'd to live with subjects ever mute A salvage Prince unpleas'd though absolute Eve Please then your self with me and freely tast Lest I without you should to Godhead hast Lest diff'ring in degree you claim too late Unequal love when 't is deny'd by fate Adam Cheat not your self with dreams of Deity Too well but yet too late your crime I see Nor think the fruit your knowledge does improve But you have beauty still and I have love Not cozen'd I with choice my life resign Imprudence was your sault but love is mine Takes the Fruit and eats it Eve embracing him O wond'rous pow'r of matchless love exprest Why was this trial thine of loving best I envy thee that lot and could it be Would venture something more than death for thee Not that I fear that death th' event can prove W' are both immortal while so well we love Adam What e're shall be the event the lot is cast Where appetites are giv'n what sin to tast Or if a sin 't is but by precept such Th' offence so small the punishment's too much To seek so soon his new made world's decay Nor we nor that were fashion'd for a day Eve Give to the winds thy fear of death or ill And think us made but for each others will Adam I will at least defer that anxious thought And death by fear shall not be nigher brought If he will come let us to joyes make hast Then let him seize us when our pleasure 's past We 'll take up all before and death shall find We have drain'd life and lefta void behind Exeunt Enter Lucifer Lucifer 'T is done Sick nature at that instant trembled round And Mother Earth sigh'd as she felt the wound Of how short durance was this new-made state How far more mighty than Heav'ns love Hells hate His project ruin'd and his King of clay He form'd an Empire for his foe to sway Heav'n let him rule which by his arms he got I 'm pleas'd to have obtain'd the second lot This Earth is mine whose Lord I made my thrall Annexing to my Crown his conquer'd Ball Loos'd from the lakes my Legions I will lead And o're the darkned Ayr black Banners spread Contagious damps from hence shall mount above And force him to his inmost Heav'n's remove A Clap of thunder is heard He hears already and I boast too soon I dread that Engine which secur'd his Throne I 'll dive below his wrath into the deep And waste that Empire which I cannot keep Sinkes down Raphael and Gabriel descend Raphael As much of grief as happiness admits In Heav'n on each Celestial forehead sits Kindness for man and pity for his fate May mixt with bliss and yet not violate Their Heav'nly harps a lower strain began And in soft Music mourn'd the fall of man Gabriel I saw th'Angelic guards from earth ascend Griev'd they must now no longer man attend The beams about their Temples dimly shone One would have thought the crime had been their own Th'Etherial people flock'd for news in hast Whom they with down cast lookes and scarce saluting past While each did in his pensive brest prepare A sad accompt of their successess care Raphael Th' Eternal yet in Majesty severe And strictest justice did mild pity bear Their deaths deferr'd and banishment their doom In penitence forseen leaves mercy room Gabriel That message is thy charge mine leads me hence Plac'd at the garden's gate for its defence Lest man returning the blest place pollute And scape from death by life's immortal fruit Another Clap of Thunder Exeunt severally Enter Adam and Eve affrighted Adam In what dark cavern shall I hide my head Where seek retreat now innocence is fled Safe in that guard I durst ev'n Hell defy Without it tremble now when Heav'n is nigh Eve What shall we do or where direct our flight Eastward as far as I could cast my sight From op'ning Heavens I saw descending light It s glitt'ring through the Trees I still behold The Cedar tops seem all to burn with gold Adam Some shape divine whose beams I cannot bear Would I were hid where light could not appear Deep into some thick covert would I run Impenetrable to the Stars or Sun And fenc'd from day by night's eternal skreen Unknown to Heav'n and to my self unseen Eve In vain what hope to shun his piercing sight Who from dark Chaos stroke the sparks of light Adam These should have been your thoughts when parting hence You trusted to your guideless innocence See now th' effects of your own wilful mind Guilt walks before us Death pursues behind So fatal 't was to seek temptations out Most confidence has still most cause to doubt Eve Such might have been thy hap alone assail'd And so together might we both have fail'd Curs'd vassallage of all my future kind First Idolis'd till loves hot fire be o're Then slaves to those who courted us before Adam I counsel'd you to stay your pride refus'd By your own lawless will you stand accus'd Eve Have you that priviledge of only wise And would you yield to her you so despise You should have shown th' Authority you boast And Soveraign-like my headlong will have crost Counsel was not enough to sway my heart An absolute restraint had been your part Adam Ev'n such returns do they deserve to find When force is lawful who are fondly kind Unlike my love for when thy guilt I knew I shar'd the curse which did that crime pursue Hard fate of love which rigor did forbear And now 't is tax'd because 't was not severe Eve You have your self your kindness overpay'd He ceases to oblige who can upbraid Adam On womens virtue who too much rely To boundless will give boundless liberty Restraint you will not brook but think it hard Your prudence is not trusted as your guard And to your selves so left if ill ensues You first our weak indulgence will accuse Curst be that hour When sated with my single happiness I chose a partner to controle my bliss Who wants that reason which her will should sway And knowes but just enough to disobey Eve Better with Brutes my humble lot had gone Of reason void accountable for none Th' unhappiest of creation is a wife Made lowest in the highest rank of life Her fellow's slave to know and not to chuse Curst with that reason she must never use Adam Add that she 's proud fantastick apt to change Restless at home and ever prone to range With shows delighted and so vain is she She 'll meet the Devil rather than not see Our wise Creator for his Quires divine Peopled his Heavn with Souls all masculine Ah why must man from
do When I begin to speak the lips it moves Streams drown the voice or it would say it loves Yet when I would embrace it will not stay Stoops down to embrace Lost e'r 't is held when nearest far away Ah fair yet false ah Being form'd to cheat By seeming kindness mixt with deep deceipt Enter Adam Adam O Virgin Heav'n begot and born of Man Thou fairest of thy great Creator's Works Thee Goddess thee th' Eternal did ordain His softer Substitute on Earth to Reign And wheresoe'r thy happy footsteps tread Nature in triumph after thee is led Angels with pleasure view thy matchless Grace And love their Maker's Image in thy Face Eve O only like my self for nothing here So graceful so majestick does appear Art thou the Form my longing eyes did see Loos'd from thy Fountain and come out to me Yet sure thou art not nor thy Face the same Nor thy Limbs moulded in so soft a frame Thou look'st more sternly dost more strongly move And more of awe thou bear'st and less of love Yet pleas'd I hear thee and above the rest I next my self admire and love thee best Adam Made to command thus freely I obey And at thy feet the whole Creation lay Pity that love thy beauty does beget What more I shall desire I know not yet First let us lock'd in close embraces be Thence I perhaps may teach my self and thee Eve Somewhat forbids me which I cannot name For ignorant of guilt I fear not shame But some restraining thought I know not why Tells me you long should beg I long deny Adam In vain my right to thee is seal'd above Look round and see where thou canst place thy Love All creatures else are much unworthy thee They match'd and thou alone art left for me If not to love we both were made in vain I my new Empire would resign again And change with my dumb slaves my nobler mind Who void of reason more of pleasure find Methinks for me they beg each silently Demands thy Grace and seems to watch thy Eye Eve I well fore-see when e'r thy suit I grant That I my much-lov'd Soveraignty shall want Or like my self some other may be made And her-new Beauty may thy heart invade Adam Could Heav'n some greater Master-piece devise Set out with all the glories of the Skies That beauty yet in vain he should decree Unless he made another heart for me Eve With how much ease I whom I love believe Giving my self my want of worth I grieve Here my inviolable Faith I plight So thou be my defence I thy delight Exeunt he leading her Act III. Scene 1. Paradise Lucifer FAir place yet what is this to Heav'n where I Sate next so almost equall'd the most high I doubted measuring both who was more strong Then willing to forget time since so long Scarce thought I was created vain desire Of Empire in my thoughts still shot me higher To mount above his sacred Head ah why When he so kind was so ungrateful I He bounteously bestow'd unenvy'd good On me in arbitrary Grace I stood T' acknowledge this was all he did exact Small Tribute where the Will to pay was act I mourn it now unable to repent As he who knows my hatred to relent Jealous of pow'r once question'd hope farewel And with hope fear no depth below my Hell Can be prepar'd then ill be thou my good And vast destruction be my envy's food Thus I with Heav'n divided Empire gain Seducing Man I make his project vain And in one hour destroy his six days pain They come again I must retire Enter Adam and Eve Adam Thus shall we live in perfect bliss and see Deathless our selves our num'rous progeny Thou young and beauteous my desires to bless I still desiring what I still possess Eve Heav'n from whence Love our greatest Blessing came Can give no more but still to be the same Thou more of pleasure may'st with me partake I more of pride because thy bliss I make Adam When to my Arms thou broughtst thy Virgin Love Fair Angels sung our Bridal Hymn above Th' Eternal nodding shook the Firmament And conscious Nature gave her glad consent Roses unbid and ev'ry fragrant Flow'r Flew from their stalks to strow thy Nuptial Bower The furr'd and feather'd kind the triumph did pursue And Fishes leapt above the streams the passing Pomp to view Eve When your kind Eyes look'd languishing on mine And wreathing Arms did soft embraces joyn A doubtful trembling seiz'd me first all o'r Then wishes and a warmth unknown before What follow'd was all extasie and trance Immortal pleasures round my swimming eyes did dance And speechless joys in whose sweet tumult tost I thought my Breath and my new Being lost Lucif O Death to hear and a worse Hell on Earth Aside What mad profufion on this clod-born Birth Abyss of joyes as if Heav'n meant to shew What in base matters such a hand could do Or was his Virtue spent and he no more With Angels could supyly th' exhausted store Of which I swept the Sky And wanting Subjects to his haughty Will On this mean Work employ'd his trifling skill Eve Blest in our selves all pleasures else abound Without our care behold th' unlabour'd Ground Bounteous of Fruit above our shady Bowers The creeping Jess'min thrusts her fragrant Flowers Thy Myrtle Orange and the blushing Rose With bending heaps so nigh their blooms disclose Each seems to smell the flavor which the other blows By these the Peach the Guava and the Pine And creeping 'twixt 'em all the mant'ling Vine Does round their trunks her purple clusters twine Adam All these are ours all nature's excellence Whose tast or smell can bless the feasted sence One only fruit in the mid garden plac'd The tree of knowledge is denys our tast Our proof of duty to our Maker's will Of disobedience death 's the threatned ill Eve Death is some harm which though we know not yet Since threatned we must needs imagine great And sure he merits it who disobeys That one command and one of so much ease Lucifer Must they then dye if they attempt to know He sees they would rebel and keeps them low On this foundation I their ruine lay Hope to know more shall tempt to disobey I fell by this and since their strength is less Why should not equal means give like success Adam Come my fair love our mornings task we lose Some labor ev'n the easiest life would choose Ours is not great the dangling boughs to crop Whose too luxuriant growth our Alleys stop And choak the paths this our delight requires And Heav'n no more of daily work desires Eve With thee to live is Paradise alone Without the pleasure of thy sight is none I fear small progress will be made this day So much our kisses will our task delay Exeunt Lucifer Why have not I like these a body too Form'd for the same delights which they pursue I could so variously my passions